HOW I BECAME A CHRISTIAN
By Peter Chang
There are a lot of people who want to know why I want to be a Christian and how I became a Christian. I will tell you now what had happened to me in my life. It is the Lord who led me to His throne.
Sometimes, I think “why has the Lord given me such a long life?” It must be his will that I should be a witness and to preach the gospel and lead other people to believe in Him and be saved.
When I was young, I used to go to Mukden (Liao-ning) YMCA to play tennis where I met a lot of Christians. Sometimes I went there to listen to the lectures of some well known people such as Mr. Chang Po-ling, the President of the Nankai University and Mr. Yu Ri-chang who was the general secretary of National Assiciation of YMCA. and Mr. Platt, an American who was the general secretary of Mukden YMCA. He was very kind to me. He even wanted me to go to US to study. All of them gave me very deep impressions. It was only natural that I leaned toward Christianity.
After I entered the Mukden Military School and worked in the army, I seldom had any chance to get in touch with Christians.
After I left Zhe-jiang,
I did not believe in any religion when I came to Taiwan; I felt that I should have faith in some religion. The man who was sent by the Intelligence Bureau was in charge of the place where I stayed; he was a Buddhist. He told me about Buddhism and arranged for me to meet some of the well known monks. I went to see some of them and bought a lot of books about Buddhism and read about it until I moved to Fort Kaosiung.
One day, Madam Chiang came to visit me. She asked me what I had been reading. I told her that I had been studying Buddhism. She said, “Han-Ching, you are on the wrong track again. “ You might think I am stupid to believe in Christianity but there are a lot of well known and prominent men in the world. They believe in God. Do you think they are stupid too?” and she said, “I hope you will study Christianity.” I told her, “ I would like to study English”, so she asked Mr. Hollington Tong to come and teach me English.
After the Tongs came to Kaohsiung, they came to see me quite often. Mrs. Tong was a devoted Christian. She came with Mr. Tong and preached the gospel. They brough a book, “They Met at Calvary” I was very impressed after I read that book.
Mr. Tong and I used the book thast Madam Chiang had sent through her, (They Met at Calvary) as a text book and translated that book into Chinese.
Soon after we moved back to Taipei, Mr.& Mrs. Tong left for the United States. Madam Chiang sent a man to accompany me to Shihlin President’s Chapel to worship on Sundays where I met Pastor Chow Lien-hwa. He came to help me read the Bible as well as study theology., However the Chinese thelogical books were not suitable so Pastor Chow suggested that I should apply for the Extension Course, The Center of the Southern Baptist Seminaries.
Since then I began to study theology and receive my diploma after 19 years. Because I knew very little English, Pastor Chow had to translate all the text into Chinese and recorded them on tape. After I listened to the tape, I answered the questions in Chinese and he had to translate them into English before he mailed them back to the Seminary. At one time Pastor Chow went abroad so I had to study with the help of the dictionary. This is the reason why it took me such a long time to complete the requirements of the Seminary in order to receive diploma.
Thanks to the Lord. Now when I read the Bible, His light shines into my heart so that I may know His will and understand the Word in the Bible. His power changed me. His love let me know how much He loves me. He gave up His life for me and made me believe in Jesus Christ and now I am saved. I was baptized on July 4, 1964.
What the Lord prepared for me is extremely wonderful. At first he
arranged for me to meet Christians; then he sent me a male servant and maid
servant to lead me: he gave me the circumstances and sufficient times to study
theology and finally, He led me to
I never thought I could come to
Peter H. L. Chang (know as Chang Hsiao Liang) although I am 94 years old. I still can witness what the Lord had done for me. It is a pleasure to see all of you.
When I was young I was in the army. I did whatever a soldier would do; I had participated in many campaigns during the civil war in China. Only the grace of God can make a man like me become a Christian.
It is not difficult to be a Christian if you believe in God; repent and confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior.
Now no matter what happens to me I pray to the Lord. I ask the Lord to lead me to what I should do to stop me for the things I should not do. I used to do what I wanted to do but now I submit myself to Jesus Christ so that I would do the things He wanted me to do in order to glorify God.
People talk a lot about me. Actually I am not as good as they say and I am not as bad as they say either. God knows. It is by God’s grace that I became a Christian.
I thank the Lord who delivered me from sin. I am free now. I am not afraid of anything I sincerely hope the people here today will believe in God and Jesus. But to be a Christian you have to admit from the bottom of your heart, not by what you say or by your apprearance,. You must admit Jesus Christ is your Redeemer who died on the cross to save you from sin,
I am truly grateful to my Lord and Jesus Christ. Through all my life, He has lead me; chastened me, taught me and delived me from sin so that I could be one of His servants to work for Him.
Peace and joy and whatever I have now are given by God. So in the days to come I will witness and preach the gospel with a thankful heart. “But by the grace of God I am what I am, yet not, but the grace of God was with me.” 1 Corinthians 15:10
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” Ephesians 2:8
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