*Malaysia Pastor, Tony Siew* (Translation from Chinese to English excerpt taken from Dr Tan Kim Sai's book "Gospelogy" Dec. 2006 pp.168-170). Many thanks to a friend in Singapore who did the translation for me.
This is a true story. Dr Tony Siew is a pastor from Malaysia, Sabah. He serves in the English (not English but Malay-speaking) Congregation at Sidang Injil Church in Borneo. He shared with me, his testimony regarding his personal encounter with the Living God.
“On 23 April 1982 at around 11:30pm, I was doing my studies in my room. I felt that there was someone in the room with me. Then I started to knee down and wept profusely . I saw a vision of Jesus- in human form, from face to shoulder, half of a human body. I felt in my spirit that the person is Jesus Christ. Jesus told me “I am alive. “ and He continued “I died for your sins.” I heard His words Loud and clear. By then, I was crying loudly like a baby!
I felt sinful, unworthy and unclean. However, after hearing those assuring words from the Lord, my tears of sorrow turned into tears of joy. God’s immense Love consumed me, cleansed me and encouraged me. That lasted for a minute or two. About 1-2 hours later, I fell asleep.
By around 4am, I was awakened. I had never slept so well in my life. I felt the power of His resurrection and renewal in my spirit man. I felt the closeness of my Lord Jesus Christ by my side. I started to sing and pray. Being a Roman Catholic, I went to church since young. Yet, I had never sung and prayed like that before! In the next 2 months, every morning about 4am, I would be awakened and started my praise, worship and prayers for 4 straight hours! Thereafter, the passion did subside for a while. But for the next 1 year, I continued to spend 3-4 hours in Scripture reading. I felt the closeness of God as I read His Word.
Between 25-26 April of 1982, I bought a bible for myself. From that time onwards, I started to fall in love with the Word of God. From my personal experience, I am convinced of 2 things:-
1) One must first be reborn before entering into God’s kingdom.
2) The Bible is the word of God.
24 years on, I continue to be deeply convicted.
That experience has become my calling to reach out to the world to share the resurrection power of Christ and the Word of God as a Foundation of Christian Faith.
Dr Tony Siew met with the Lord face to face when he was only 17 years old. He shared with me that during that time, he was not interested with religion or spiritual matters. He did well in his studies, and his only focus back then was to become a young, successful and famous lawyer. Yet the encounter with our Lord came too fast too furious for Tony. At that time, he just arrived Christchurch for 55 days. He was then a first year law student in Canterbury.
“The key reason why I served the Lord full-time is because God has called me to preach that Jesus has indeed resurrected! He still lives today! At the same time, I want to preach the full counsel of God, calling the body of Christ to be prepared for Christ’s 2nd coming. Amen.”
Since conversion to Christian faith, Dr Tony continues to be a faithful servant of the Lord. He practised law for a few years before giving up his legal career to focus on bible study in Bible school. Thereafter, he became a church worker. Finally, Dr Tony continued to further his studies in Christchurch (Dunedin for my PhD) and obtained his PhD in research on the New Testament.
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