I have just came back from the SMU Christian Fellowship Camp that spanned Monday to Thursday, and have come out of it a full-fledged Christian, knowing that faith in Christ the Saviour is enough for salvation and better-versed in the knowledge that the Word wanted to share through Colossians. I have made many friends during the camp, and it's amazing how nice the Christian family is. So thank God for Gabe, BJ, Kenji, Jeremy, Joel, Esther, Gwen, and everyone else at CF who made the experience such an amazing and wonderful one. Praise God!
Having learnt that persecution is part and parcel of life as a Christian, it wasn't too long before I was thrown into the deep end of it once I arrived in my Buddhist home after the camp. Below is an e-mail which I sent to my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ last night...
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Hey bros and sis in Christ,
Just like to share with you something from the Gospel which gave me great consolation. After dinner tonight, my parents spoke to me about attending church, and why I chose to attend church. Not wanting to lie to them anymore, I told them that I have been studying the Bible the last 3 months and am convinced that Christ is the saviour.
My parents were naturally very upset, as I have shared with you over the camp, and questioned me saying that if I had studied Buddhism or other religions I would have naturally converted to that as well. So I asked, “what if I studied every religion, and still ended up believing that Christ is my saviour?” They didn’t reply, and instead started to emotionally blackmail me, saying “why do you want to do things that upset us?”, and my sister added fire to fuel by saying “if you really believe, you can also do so after they die”, to which my parents agreed. I didn’t want to fight back to argue with them by asking “why does no one ask how I feel, but only care about how you feel?”
So I retreated to my room, and came online to see if there’s anyone I could talk to. Thankfully, I found Timothy, and we spoke a bit, so that I could get things off my chest, and spoke about Paul’s struggles as well and that I should rejoice in the struggles just as Paul did.
Then I opened my browser and went to BibleGateway.com, and guess what the verse of the day was?
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”- Romans 1:16
Maybe I am reading too much into it, but I went “WOW, isn’t this just what I need?” That I should not be ashamed of the Gospel in front of my family. And I remembered what I read from the Sports Section of The Straits Time today, that a professional soccer player retired from the sport so to answer God’s calling to go into Roman Catholic ministry, quoting a phrase he heard during his studies “Delayed Obedience is Disobedience”. Perhaps, this is the answer to the question my sister posed to me.
I will persevere on, but I thought it may be nice to share with you this experience which I thought was perhaps a sign from God.
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