Gospel Message (Testimony)

Testimony of Pastor James

How I became a Christian.

At that time, I worked in the Western Australian government for a period of time, and my life and financial situation were relatively well off. I travelled everywhere every weekend, and I was happy and carefree. However, many nights, I felt empty, lonely and sleepless. But I continued to work the next day.

Slowly, I started to think how I can have real happiness and contentment. And I remembered a saying, helping others is the foundation of happiness. I happened to come across a project to accompany job seekers, so I signed up. After a few activities, I felt really satisfied and happy inside. Later, I met a couple of job seekers, and in the process of accompanying them, they became good friends of mine. One day they told me they were Christians and asked me if I was interested in going to church with them. I know that going to church is not a bad thing, and because they are my good friends, I went.

I didn't quite understand the pastor's sermon, but I felt the lyrics of the hymn deep in my heart. Before I hearing Amazing Grace, I was moved by the hymn "How Can This Be". My lord my God died for me, and I burst into tears every time I think about it, even today. After a few months I made up my mind to believe in Jesus and become a Christian.

How I became a preacher.

Four or five years later, through God's miraculous plan I was able to return to Hong Kong and find a good job. At the same time, I also participated in many church ministries on weekends. The two days of evangelism, training, fellowship, and communication with brothers and sisters every weekend make me extremely excited. For five days of work and personnel problems and I am full of worries. I thought how can I live the full seven days of the week as wonderful as the weekend.

So I brought this question to a fellow missionary and he told me to go to seminary to train for full-time ministry. Without thinking, I quit the highest paying job of my life and enrolled in seminary for four years. For some reason, I'm also pretty sure there's no turning back. To this day, I have never regretted it, in fact, I have not seriously thought about regretting it.

What is happening now.

Since then, I have been serving full-time, and I have never thought about the job, money, status, achievement, etc. that everyone wants, but I have become more and more aware of the meaning of being grateful for everything. Looking back, I can see that God is constantly leading me, step by step, by His beautiful will. All I can do is silently pray, God, I thank you for loving me.

Testimony of Pastor Charlotte Chen

How do I experience this invisible God?

Good question. Yes, we do not see God, but God knew us before all eternity, He knows each of us, because He is the one who created the heavens and the earth and all things, the almighty, omniscient and great God.

1. Simple Faith

In September 2000, I was working in a local five-star hotel, and one day the foreign teacher at the hotel asked me if I wanted to go to a place on Sunday, where there were a few foreign friends, I agreed to go thinking it was an opportunity to make some friends. And he took me to a church. This was the first time in my life that I had heard about Christianity. I didn’t think too much, (unlike the reaction of some friends that foreign religions are not to be trusted, or these things could be deceptive) but I found the friends in the church friendly and enthusiastic. When a local elderly sister (college English teacher) told me about Jesus and the gospel, I didn't understand much at the time, but I thought about it when I got home and thought it was not a bad thing to believe in. I prayed with this sister and committed my life to Jesus.

I think back now after I prayed, I really didn’t understand anything, but I’m not a person who thinks too much, so I simply believed in Jesus. But thanks to the Lord, because of my simplicity, I really got to know the Lord later, it should be said that the Lord allowed me to know him. Brothers and sisters, friends who seek to know, if we want to know the God who created the heavens and the earth, we must first believe in him, open our hearts, and be willing to know and understand him. He must show us that he is real. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6, "Without faith it is impossible to please God; for he who comes to God must believe that there is God, and that he rewards those who seek him."

2. Reading and praying

I got to know about this invisible God by experiencing him and knowing him through my life of reading and praying. After I was willing to believe in Jesus and accept Jesus as the Lord of my life, I didn’t go to church every Sunday to worship God, because I worked in a hotel, and I couldn’t have a holiday every Sunday. I only go to church and join small groups when I have time.

But I am a simple and straightforward person. After the elderly sister shared the gospel with me, she gave me a bible, a devotional bible. She told me to read the bible and pray every day, so I tried my best to read it every day, and prayer for a while, because there are some questions and answers below the devotional version of the Bible, so I don’t find the Bible difficult to understand. Of course, at first I read the Bible as if I were reading a normal story, but it wasn’t until later that I experienced Him, after I got to know God did I know the power of the Bible and the truth of God.

In 2004, I had to make a very difficult decision, because at the time my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) was going to another city, he was sent there to do training work. Later, his boss said that a new kindergarten was going to open in the nearby suburb. The owner of the kindergarten was a Christian. She wanted to recruit Christian teachers and asked my husband if he knew such people. And my husband I thought of me, because I had already left the hotel at that time, passed the primary school English teacher qualification certificate, and taught weekend English classes in a private foreign language school. At first we were very excited when we heard the news, thinking that it was a way out for us so that we would not have to be so far apart. But then I heard that the salary was not high, and I began to hesitate, the kindergarten was near the countryside, in a rural area. The place where I will live in is a nearby company building, food and boarding included.

I prayed a lot, wanting to go and not wanting to go, because the salary was not much, it was not attractive, and my husband had already decided to go to that city, so I struggled to the point where my head hurt, I agreed and I called them over. After I made the decision not to go, my head didn't struggle as much, I felt better, and seemed to be at peace for a few days. But one night I had a nightmare and dreamed of many unhappy things. After I woke up, I thought didn't I believe in Jesus now? Why am I still having these nightmares? Didn't God give me peace? Why am I not at all at peace? Is it because my decision was wrong and not in line with God’s will, then I immediately prayed in bed, asking God to have mercy. If I offended God, ask God to forgive my sin, and I also told God that if my decision was wrong, and He wanted me to work in that kindergarten, then I would go. After I finished praying, God gave me a clear scripture in a dream, and I still remember it to this day. The scripture is, "Seek first my kingdom and my righteousness, and I will add to you whatever you want." (Matthew 6:33). When I woke up, I said to God, "God, I am willing to go." I immediately told my husband about this dream and said that I am willing to go now, is it too late? He said there should be no problem. Later, he helped me to call the director of the kindergarten and said that I had changed my mind. Brothers and sisters, it was because of God’s words that changed my mind. I also experienced the wonderful guidance of God’s words. Later, God gave me what I wanted, not money, but things I couldn’t even think of. God made it happen. Thanks to God, because of God’s leading, I have a new understanding of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word, it is powerful and amazing. Since then, I will read and study the Bible more seriously.

3. The work of the Holy Spirit

Also in 2006, I had an experience that made me even more convinced that God is real. When I first started believing in the Lord, I kept praying for my grandma, because I thought she was getting older, around 80 years old, and might leave us when we didn't expect it, and my grandma and I were very close, she lived in our hometown, when I was studying, I often went back to see my grandma by myself. I have been praying for my grandma's salvation. I once shared the gospel of Jesus with her, but she couldn't understand what I was saying in Mandarin, and I didn't know how to speak the whole gospel to her in our hometown dialect, so I didn't know what to do, but God had mercy on my grandma and heard my prayers. In 2006, we were back living in our hometown. One day at noon, God made me have a dream. I dreamed that my grandmother fell in front of me. She didn’t respond no matter what I called her. I even shared the gospel with her in the dream. In three sentences, I said to her, "Grandma, believe in Jesus. Jesus is the greatest God. If you believe in Him, He will keep you safe." But Grandma didn't respond. It should be said that I saw her pass away in a dream.

After I woke up from the dream, I immediately told my husband about the dream. I said that maybe something happened to my grandma. I wanted to go back to her house to see her (it was a 1 hour bus trip to her house). Praying for her soul to be saved, I asked earnestly for the Holy Spirit to work on her, I kept asking God to save her soul, I even cried because I knew this was the last chance. When I got back to my hometown, I saw my grandmother, everything was fine, I asked her if she felt any discomfort, she said no, but she fell down some time ago and her leg got injured and inflamed, and now she is almost healed. Later, I pulled her into a room, and I told my grandma that I had something to tell her, and she said yes. I told her that I had a dream about her, but I didn't say anything about the dream. I took her hand and talked to my grandma in my dream. I said to my grandma, "Jesus is the greatest God. As long as you believe in Him, He will give you peace." Are you willing to believe in Jesus? She said she would, wow! When she said she was willing to believe, I kept praising God in my heart. I knew that this was the work of the Holy Spirit and that God answered my prayers, because she was an elderly living in rural area who had never gone to the school. How could I tell her about Jesus? In the past she couldn't understand what I was talking about, and now it's entirely God's work. I immediately asked her if I would pray with her, I said one sentence, you followed me, and she said yes, but I took her hand and repeated the prayer several times, and I was also asked God in my heart whether I wanted to tell her more about the salvation of Jesus on the cross, because I was afraid that she would not understand, and later I did not say any more as I was not moved to do so. After this, I chatted with my grandma for a while and went home, and she happily sent me away.

Thank the Lord, thank the Holy Spirit for the miraculous work, I fully believe that this is God’s own work of salvation, and I am only a vessel used by God. Later, within half a year, I dreamed that my grandma fell in front of me again and didn't wake up. I knew that my grandma might be leaving us soon. Except for my husband, I didn't tell the rest of my family about my grandma, and they wouldn't believe it, because no one in my family believed in the Lord Jesus. My grandma was the second one in my family to believe in Jesus, and I said to my family to try to be nice to grandma, and give her whatever she asked for. Later, my grandmother died of illness in 2008. At the time, my husband and I had moved to live in another city to work, and we didn't see my grandma for the last time, but I heard from my family that my grandma was very peaceful, and she didn't experience any pain. She passed away peacefully after having breakfast in the morning. I have no regrets, because before we moved away, I was able to go back to see my grandma, she was already ill at the time and her condition was not very good. I don’t know why but at the time I felt I would not see her again, and it was so. But thanks to the Lord, I believe my grandma has believed in Jesus and is in the arms of Jesus, giving thanks for her.

Brothers and sisters, friends who is seeking God, God is a spirit, and we cannot see Him with our eyes. But the Bible says that to worship God, we must worship Him with spirit and truth (John 4:24). The original text here refers to the Holy Spirit and the truth. The truth is Jesus. God will let us know who he is. Jesus Christ is real, God the Father is real, God the Father has given his Son Jesus Christ to us all to be crucified for every one of our sins, and after three days the power of God raised Jesus Christ back to life, proving that He is the Son of God. As long as we are willing to believe and accept Jesus as the Lord of our lives, we are willing to say sorry to God the Father and the Lord Jesus, confess our sins and repent, because we didn’t know him before, and we don’t even know when we have sinned against God. In this way, God will allow us to see and experience the reality of God. May God bless you all, and may everyone here receive the glorious salvation of God in our Lord Jesus.