To Live by Faith and Not by Sight

Author:Cheryl Tan
I was born in a Buddhist household, and my first exposure to Christ was when I was enrolled in a Presbyterian Primary School, a stone throw’s away from my house. I enjoyed the daily learnings and singspirations, but I never felt the need to further explore the religion. When I was young, on special occasions, my family would prepare offerings to both the Bodhisattva statue and the ancestral tablets placed in my house. My parents would instruct me to hold joss sticks towards the statue and tablets and pray (bai bai) to them. Thereafter, I would follow them out of our house and they would burn the papers in a red metal tin.

I met my fiancé in the university and some years after, he brought me to New Creation Church. We attended the sessions together with some friends. While this increased the exposure towards Christ, looking back, it did not strengthen my faith and conviction as much as I thought it would.

I first came to attend Tree of Life Christian Church (TOLCC) early in 2023 because my fiancé and I were recommended by his father to attend a few of Pastor Andrew’s marriage counselling sessions as we embarked on our marriage journey. Even though we were not yet members of his church, Pastor Andrew provided personalised marriage counselling sessions and Bible study classes. This class stressed how we, as a couple, must start our lives together on the right foot and advocated how important reading and studying the Bible are to all Christians, old and young alike.

I am a sinner and need the Lord’s forgiveness. On Easter Sunday, under Pastor’s guidance, I repeated after him as he recited the Sinner’s Prayer and received Jesus as my personal Saviour. As I started attending church weekly and coupled with the many sessions of Bible study and marriage counselling, some of the lessons learnt really stuck with me and made a lot of sense. For example, I have always known the fact that money can cause a lot of friction in relationships. Growing up, my mother had always emphasised to me the importance of having my own money even after being married in case of any emergency. There was a particular session with Pastor that shed a lot of light to me as he mentioned to both me and my fiancé that the godly way of handling finances was to share everything as we would be one body at marriage in the eyes of the Lord. As the details of why it should be done the godly manner, it suddenly made sense to me that by doing so we can remove many potential conflicts that is so evidently shown in many “worldly marriages” today.

Another habit Pastor Andrew encouraged both me and my fiancé to start was our daily Quiet Time. At first, it seemed a feat to clock in at least five sessions weekly. However, as time progressed and as I consciously made an effort to stick to it, I personally felt a change in my own life as well. Besides being now a very sacred time of the day for me, where I can put aside stress from my daily life and wholly focus on the word of God, I feel a lot more grounded after my readings as I feel that I am not alone anymore—He will be there every step of the way, through all walks of my life.

I have made the decision to join TOLCC and be baptised because I feel that not only will it help me to put my focus on God, I also believe it is a vital step to take as my fiancé and I embark on our journey in marriage together.