JESUS OUR TRANSFORMER

Testimonies of students from the Life of Christ class at FEBC, July-November 2014

Active and Passive Obedience

“I can see and learn so clearly the active and passive obedience of Christ in this course. Every law of God was perfectly obeyed by Him. He fulfilled all righteousness for me. In His passive obedience, He went down to the lowest level to suffer for me. As I examine my heart, I see struggles in wanting to obey God’s will for my life. How I need to surrender my all to Jesus and my will be His and His alone. Obedience is not easy when there is a price to pay and sacrifices to be made. My prayer is that in my life on earth I would do God’s will and purpose only.” JL

Never Too Late

“The account of the two malefactors crucified beside Jesus is so amazing. Both were sinners their whole life. But at the end, one confessed Jesus and was saved. This is a great demonstration that there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation except simply and only to believe in Jesus Christ. Salvation is by faith and not by works and it is never too late to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour.” BTH

Cannot Study Without Keeping God’s Commandments

“I cannot study the Word of God without keeping God’s commandments. If I study God’s Word without keeping it, I cannot serve God in the ministry. I am like a branch which needs to absorb the spiritual nutrients from the true Vine (the Lord). May God help me to bear the spiritual fruits.” LN

Wrong Teachings Corrected

“This course has corrected wrong teachings I have imbibed all these years and also wrong conjectures because of my own ignorance. Contrary to what I was taught in the past, Jesus never denied being the Son of God or the Christ; not even when He was tried by the Sanhedrin or Pilate. In fact, it was because He admitted He was the Christ sitting at the right hand of God that the Sanhedrin accused Him of blasphemy worthy of death. Jesus is indeed the Christ, the Son of God and the Saviour of the world.” TSS

Chief Example of Servanthood

“My family was on the brink of atheism having been disappointed by the ‘ministry’ within New Creation Church. In New Creation, we were never taught from Scripture on the life of Christ. When my parents approached the leaders for assistance in ministering to my dying grandfather, we were dismissed on the basis that they had ‘no time’ to help. Essentially, we were left with the impression that Christianity was a ‘rich man’s’ belief as it seemed that only those of some standing in society (given the many celebrities in the congregation) were given special attention by the church leadership. After quitting New Creation, I went to commit numerous blunders of youth, indulging in clubbing and drinking which left me feeling empty and lost. When I was convicted of my sins and went on to get baptised, I felt like Zaccheus whose heart was bursting with the need to see and hear the Lord. When the ‘Life of Christ’ came up as a course in FEBC, it was like an answered prayer. What a blessing it has been! How wonderful it was to learn about Jesus Himself who is the chief example of servanthood and greatness.” DL

Beauty and Harmony of the Gospels

“Prior to attending this course, I could not understand why the parables, miracles and events recorded, say in Luke’s Gospel are not exactly the same as in the other Gospels. This course has helped me see the different perspectives of the four Gospels. They complement one another perfectly well. Now I have a better understanding of these writings and a crystal clear picture of the life of Christ, His humanity and His deity. It is truly a blessing to be able to see the beauty and the harmony of the four Gospels which I failed to appreciate for so many years.” CSS

To Be a Better Teacher

“There are people who join us in church who share that they have not been fed God’s Word for years as the church would only talk about the ministry that they are supporting and doing. The lack of God’s Word left them hungering for it. It makes me so thankful that we have the FEBC to turn to if we want to learn more of God’s Word. How we ought not to take these for granted. As a Sunday School teacher, I am reminded that it is important for me to teach the truth at all times. I cannot take it lightly. Due to this, I am challenged to take up FEBC classes to grow as a Christian so that I can be a better teacher.” KL

Ever Ready to Serve

“I told myself that I must ever be ready to serve God and others. But along the way I failed. The issue was time. As proctor I was called always for this or that. I felt a little worried about my studies. So I did not go down ahead of time to help in the kitchen or supervise in some areas. When I heard the teaching of Christ, the words of God spoke to me. I wrote on the margin of my textbook: Follow Jesus’ example to serve others. I asked the Lord to forgive me for my self-centred thinking and actions. When I put God and the things of others before me, I was full of joy and the Lord also blessed me more in my studies. Thank God for this lesson.” LYH

Rid of Selfish Desires

“The lecture on the selfish ambition of James and John (Matt 20:20-28, Mark 10:35-45) caused me to look into my own heart. I realised that I have often been leaning towards these desires as well; the desire to be great, to be recognised, to be looked up to by others, to be praised by man. Thank God for these verses which remind me that I must rid my heart of all these sinful desires and learn humility from my Master, to be lowly and serving, to serve for His glory.” CYJ

Better Child of God

“I thank God for the lecture on Martha and Mary. I was like Martha before. At my church I was helping my dad in various areas so that I was busy doing this and that. I thought helping in many parts at church was doing a right thing and this even led me to think myself better than others because I thought I was doing more work than others and doing good. I was gradually forgetting what was more important. In fact, I was doing everything with my own strength which made me physically tired and I did not have much of a joyful heart. Somehow, God led me to FEBC and He taught me a great lesson. Since I came, I could only focus on studying God’s Word. God opened my eyes to see that there is nothing more important than this. God has given me the time to get closer to Him and to His Word. I realised God wanted me not to be more like Martha but to be more like Mary who has ‘chosen that good part’ (Luke 10:38). As I learn more of God’s Word, I was not only growing in knowledge but also growing spiritually. I thank God for the spiritual and precious lessons He has taught me to be a better child of God.” AYW

Tempted and Tested

“In His life, Jesus was tempted and tested to the uttermost so that He might be our sympathetic High Priest. Living in this world, we face a lot of temptations—worldly language, worldly lifestyles etc. I can see a lot of my colleagues holding two jobs, one part-time, and one full-time, and also studying at night. As such they get a lot of income. I hold a part-time job. If I work full-time, I will have very little time for God. In my workplace some of my colleagues make up stories to convince their customers to buy their products. I am tempted to do the same thing. But it is not the will of God for us to be dishonest.” NLS

Deceitfulness of Riches

“I am fearful that the deceitfulness of riches will entrap me in the future. I have been observing and interacting with my seniors and other lawyers who are in private practice. One of their chief concerns in working is money and more money. I am fearful that their worldly perspectives will impact me when I go to work in the future. I am fearful that the riches of the world will eventually choke the seed. Although I have purposed in my heart not to defile myself by the riches of this world, I can only pray that I will continue to seek true riches. Therefore I hope to build up my convictions in the faith now while I am studying. By doing so, I will be able to put on the whole armour of Christ so as to ward off the wiles of the devil.” JQ

To Shut My Mouth

“Sometimes I find others to be really unreasonable, ridiculous and terribly irritating. Oftentimes my first instinct and natural tendency is to retaliate because I get so angry. But thanks be to the Holy Spirit and His Word which kept reminding me of Christ’s meekness and I try to control and shut my mouth and pray for God to help me. It really is a struggle. I really thank God that He has helped me to grow and to be better able to control my temper and be slower to anger and slower to speak.” EP

Too Quick to Judge

“The lesson about the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) had humbled me and taught me to judge righteously. Many a time, I have been too quick to judge, unable to contemplate why there are Christians who are unable to differentiate right from wrong and why they believe in certain false doctrines. It is only due to God’s grace and mercy that He opened my spiritual eyes and bestowed me with such amazing salvation grace. Thus I should not condemn those who are still short of salvation grace. Instead I should pray for them and be their messenger of truth.” NLY

Clean Hands and Pure Hearts

“The second cleansing of the temple by Jesus questioned me on how I am spiritually. We are aware that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19). If we in our hearts and minds are filled with worldly ideas and pursuits instead of thoughts that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, etc, God will surely not be pleased. Jesus only taught in the temple after the cleansing. This was because a temple that is dirty, noisy and busy isn’t a good place for people to hear Jesus. Indeed how important it is to make sure that we come to worship God with clean hands and pure hearts.” LHS