I would not consider myself to be a bad fellow before I became a Christian. I was just your average professional trying to make a success of my life. My father had taught me very many good Chinese values. Values like honesty, hard work, respect for elders, thrift and integrity. But he also taught me some so-called Chinese business norms.
For example it may be necessary in business entertainment to engage the services of paid ladies. Smoking, drinking and social gambling are all part of the Chinese business culture and indeed should be practised if you want to get ahead in the business world.
I did practise some of these values and had achieved a measure of professional success at a relatively young age. By the time I was thirty I thought I had arrived; travelling round the world in first class, dining on top of the World Trade Centre in New York which I now destroyed in 9/11. But somehow as I got to experience the so-called high life I was not so certain that this was all the success I was looking for.
All the flying, drinking, smoking, entertaining and late nights was not doing my health any good. When I had to struggle though a bad hangover I would vow that I would not drink again. But by evening that vow would b forgotten. When I find myself short of breath with a little exertion I would determine to stop smoking. But to no avail.
But God is good. He provided me with a friend and mentor who after a couple years of searching became a Christian. Soon after that he began to try to convince me to follow him and become a Christian. He persisted for two years. Finally one day when he was sending me off at the Singapore airport he told me he knew my problem. According to him my reluctance to accept Jesus as my personal savior was because I was an accountant.
As an accountant I was trying to figure out if there is any advantage or profit in following after Jesus. I was working out the pro-forma profit and loss account just as I would with any investment proposition.
He asked me three questions. Do you believe that there is a God? That was easy as I had been looking for God for quite sometime. In fact I had been aware of a higher power since my secondary school days. I used to ear a Buddha around my neck and I practised transcendental meditation for two years.
Then he asked what kind of God I had in mind; a fearsome God who would be a real kill joy always watching to catch me out on some sins or a God who loves and cares for you, who is always wanting the best for me? After some serious pondering I answered that I could accept that God would be benevolent, loving and caring towards me.
Finally he asked if my God is all powerful able to do all things, all knowing and can be everywhere at the same time. I replied that God must be like that or he would not be God.He then assured me that since I had the desire to find God I would most certainly find him. But that I had to take the first step to meet God. And God would take two steps to meet me. It could happen that I may not like what I find.
But if I did not like what I find I could just return it without any loss. I would have lost nothing, simply back at square one. To me that amounts to a risk free investment. On that basis when I got to Jakarta I knelt down by the hotel bed and accepted Jesus into my heart as my personal Lord and Savior.
I started to read the Bible by myself and managed to join some fellowship meeting although I had no one to guide or nurture me in my new found spiritual walk.
Then I began to experience God working in my life, quite unobtrusively most gently but very positively. The day I was baptised in the Holy Spirit I was immediately delivered from my smoking habit of 20 years without even a conscious thought from me. My first stick of cigarette was at 12 years old. At nineteen I was a regular smoker.
But the time I became a Christian I was smoking all sorts of tobacco, keretek, cigars, pipes besides regular cigarette. I had tried numerous times to give up but the addiction was simply too strong. So I gave up giving up smoking. One Sunday about four months after my conversion I attended a charismatic fellowship meeting in a Kuala Lumpur hotel. When the invitation was made for the baptism the Holy Spirit I went forward without knowing too much about it. I received the baptism and started praying in an unknown language.
I got home and resumed my smoking the pipe. Took two puffs, put down the pipe and since then had never smoked again, for the last 27 years. There was no struggle, no striving not even the thought that I should give up smoking. It just happened. An addiction of 20 years was broken by the power of God without any effort on my part.
Then there was healing. My two year old boy developed some viral growth on his right chest, those pieces of extra flesh that sometime appear behind the neck or the ear. Being young Christians my wife and I prayed over him when he was asleep. Over a couple of weeks all the pieces dropped off. Today there is not even a scar.
I also experienced His goodness in the provision of jobs and opportunities. Slowly but surely I saw the hand of God upon my life. My life as a Christian was not a bed of roses. I still had my share of trails and tribulations as any human being would from time to time. The big difference was that I now have Jesus to hold my hand and guide my feet as I walk through my troubles. I am no longer alone. As I walk with Jesus day by day my friendship with Him grow stronger and I know He will never leave me or forsake me.
Some of my friends who had known me for years were waiting for me to give Jesus up as I had with my previous experimentation with other religious practices and beliefs. It has now been 27 years. What started off as a risk-free investment has become the most important decision in my life, the best investment I ever made. I found my Savior as He had purposed that I would. My only regret is that it took me 35 years to know Him. I wished I had known Him earlier.
Dr Wong Hong Meng is the National Director for Leadership Development & Training, FGBMF. He and his wife, Irene worship at Calvary Church Kuala Lumpur.
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