Author: Alvin Cheng

Hope Eternal

Alvin Cheng D-Groups , ,

Billy Graham once said, “Perhaps the greatest psychological, spiritual, and medical need that all people have is the need for hope. And this hope is found in the person of Jesus Christ who died for our sins, rose from the grave and is alive now.”


Amy Carmichael was unfit to be a missionary. She suffered from neuralgia that caused much pain and eventually would render her bedridden. But undeterred, she pursued God until she ended up serving Him in India for 58 years. Her most notable work was the rescue of the Hindu temple prostitutes. These were young girls who were slaves in the Hindu temples, abused and exploited sexually. One day, one of them escaped and ran to the orphanage that Amy had started. This began a lifetime of work for Amy to rescue hundreds of these girls. Her work raised so much awareness to this horrendous practice that it was
eventually banned by the Indian government. Amy provided hope in Jesus Christ for these girls. Quite an opposite from the life of a temple prostitute.


In Luke 7:37-50, we find Jesus providing an eternal hope for a prostitute. A woman who was desperate for a change. One who did not see a way out for her life. Religiously, she was discarded due to her uncleanness. Socially, she was used, abused, and detested. She could not see a bright future for herself. There was no hope in her existence. But she heard of this Jesus. She found hope in this Jesus! Not just for this life, but she was given hope eternal when Jesus forgave her sins also!


Life throws us some curve balls. We may find ourselves in situations that we never expected. There are times in life where we see our hopes dashed, our dreams unrealized, and goals unreached. In desperation, we seek out anything and everything that can satisfy us. Some of these become even more detrimental to our cause. But Jesus provides us with hope eternal! His call is to leave this world behind and seek for the one beyond. This Jesus transcends time and space, life and death, man-made rules and tradition, as well as personal history. He blows past all of those to provide us the forgiveness of sins so that we may have an eternal, abundant life in Him!


As you are reading this, the prayer and plea is that you seek and find the hope in Jesus Christ for all your needs. He was the one who paid the price on the cross to make us righteous and thus pave the way for us to be with God again. Blessings

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Sharing Your Grace Story

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As part of the MyCircle Training we experienced on Sunday, we were encouraged to do three things related to unbelievers in our lives: pray daily, engage weekly, and share monthly. One of the tools provided to help us share monthly was to write out our grace story. This consists of two parts: sharing our salvation story and sharing our ongoing story. 

Our salvation story is usually known as our personal testimony. However, when we share our personal testimony, we often only talk about our salvation story, and we forget to include God’s ongoing work in our life. When this was taught to us on Sunday, it was so evident to me that most unbelievers that I’ve engaged with aren’t always interested in how I came to Christ but instead interested in how Christ is working in my life today. Yet, it is the part that I often leave out! 

Scripture lays it out for us in 1 Peter 2:11-12: “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Peter urged the exiled Christians to pattern their lives according to the salvation that they have received and for God to receive the glory. This was in the hopes that when they were questioned about their conduct, they could reflect it back to their salvation in Christ, the One who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light! And now, we are asked to do the same, to share our Christ-transformed life with unbelievers.

Elliot Clark in his book Evangelism as Exiles puts it this way:

We know the gospel has many powerful effects on our lives: deliverance from sin, communion with the saints, an eternal inheritance. But another critical and sometimes forgotten outcome of our conversion – and part of the message we proclaim – is that we’ve been transferred out of darkness and into God’s glorious light. As such, an integral part of our evangelism is the visible demonstration of our new nature as those walking in the light. Gospel declaration is linked to life transformation (emphasis mine).

So, Church, as we begin to write out our grace story, remember to include the ongoing work that Christ is doing in our lives. The MyCircle Training workbook provided some questions to help us with this part: Why do you follow Jesus today? How is He continuing to refine your life? How does the hope of eternal life bring you rest? How does Christ and His Word impact your worldview? How have you seen God move in your life these last few months? Why is being a part of Christ-centered community important to you?

A Christ-transformed life helps declare a Christ-centered gospel!  Happy writing!

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What’s the Difference?

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John G. Paton was called to reach the land of the New Hebrides (now the country of Vanuatu). It’s an archipelago of islands to the east of Australia. However, the inhabitants at the time were a little bit less than welcoming. He wasn’t the first one to encounter these people, which is what led to this interaction between Mr. Paton and a church member. He tells the story like this:

Among many who sought to deter me, was one dear old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, “The cannibals! You will be eaten by cannibals!” At last, I replied, “Mr. Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you, that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms.”

What difference does it make to our bodies after we are called home to be with the Lord? Missions and evangelism are two things that we cannot do in heaven. John Paton has the proper view of our temporary shell and finite time. Oftentimes, we seem to view our earthly lives as the ultimate time to enjoy all that this world has to offer. The New Testament however provides us with a new perspective and a new calling. God’s desire is for us to look beyond this earthly life into eternity, evaluating all that we have been given here and its purposes. When we understand this, we will make provisions to do in this life what we cannot do in the next: missions and evangelism.

The apostle Paul also understood this manner of living when he wrote to the church in Galatia, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).  He lived a life obedient to the command that is to be obeyed; under God’s authority, go and make disciples. He didn’t delay. He wasn’t concerned of what people think of him. He left his social status, his riches, his family, and his home to reach those who have not yet heard the name of Christ. He counted the cost and considered it worth it for Christ.

As the GO Team was preparing for the conference this weekend, we certainly had this purpose in mind. We prayed that the Lord may impress upon our hearts to live with such a mindset, and “heart-set”. Not just for one or two of us, but for our church as a whole, and then particularly that the Lord may call and separate out one or two, to be sent obediently to the unreached peoples of this world.

On behalf of the team, I certainly thank all of you for attending and participating in the conference. We trust and hope that you were blessed, challenged, and refreshed by our visiting speaker and missionaries. Now, we pray that we obediently live with the eternal perspective in mind.

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Can You Hear Me Now?

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“So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” – Romans 10:17 

Adoniram Judson has long been regarded as the first American missionary. In the early 1800s he brought the gospel to the country of Burma (now Myanmar). His most lasting work, however, was the Bible translation into Burmese that he gave to the Burmese people. His life’s work was so blessed by God that there are now more than half a million Christians in the once unreached population. 

A hundred years or so later, on the other side of the mountains in China, James Fraser began to do gospel work with the Lisu people in Yunnan Province of western China. Similarly, he translated the Bible into the Lisu language and gave the Lisu people God’s Word in their own language. His life’s work also bore much fruit by God’s grace. The Lisu church in China is estimated to be more than 100,000 people strong today while living under strict government surveillance. 

I often wondered how much Judson and Fraser’s work would have been hampered if they hadn’t taken the time to produce God’s Word in the language of the people. The work was certainly not easy. And surely, there have been many revisions since the first edition. But ultimately, having God’s very Word in their own language must have made the ministry more effective and the maturing of Christians more evident when they had the ability to read God’s Word for themselves. 

Having the Bible in our own language is something we often take for granted. We probably have multiple copies at home, in the car, in our office, and on our phones. However, easy access doesn’t always translate to a deeper love for God’s Word. The encouragement we can take away from Bethany Ingram’s presentation on Sunday is to rejoice! We rejoice that we have God’s Word so easily and freely available. 

Bethany also shared that only 717 of the over 7000 languages have a completed Bible. The challenge to us then is to pray for more laborers, more funding, and more awareness of the need for this work. Most of this work is done in closed and hostile countries. We can also pray for the health and safety of the workers. 

If we believe that God’s Word is important, then this task of praying for the work of Bible translation would be important to us as well. I leave you with this quote from James Fraser: “We are, as it were, God’s agents – used by Him to do His work, not ours. We do our part, and then can only look to Him, with others, for His blessing. If this is so, then Christians at home can do as much for foreign missions as those actually on the field. I believe it will only be known on the last day how much has been accomplished in missionary work by the prayers of earnest believers at home. And this, surely is the heart of the problem.”

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Pray, Send, Go

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This past Sunday, we heard an encouraging presentation from Pastor Wes, Christina, and the eight youth members who went on a mission trip to Nashville, TN. As Christians, we are called to be “on mission” but not all of us are called to be “missionaries”. Matthew 28:19-20 makes it plainly clear that we have been commissioned to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere. So, how to do we take that commission seriously if we haven’t been called to be a “missionary”? There are three ways to do so. We can pray, send, and go.

Firstly, we can PRAY for the missionary families. Get to know missionaries that we support at Faith Baptist and many others. Pray for their mission. Pray for their work to be fruitful. Pray for the people they encounter in their work. Pray for the people to have open hearts to receive the gospel. Pray for closed doors to be opened for missionaries in difficult countries. Pray that God is glorified in all their work on the field.

Secondly, we can SEND. Missionaries have to raise a substantial monthly financial support before they can get on the field to work; both for their living expenses as well as ministry expenses. We can participate in helping pave the way for them to get on the field and to provide resources when they are there. Be willing to partner with them financially on a continuous basis so that their work would not be interrupted or distracted due to financial strains. It will be one less burden that they have to worry about. It is important however to ensure the mission is one of spiritual value and that it aligns with proper biblical doctrine.

Thirdly, we can GO. Much like the youth mission trip, there are opportunities to go on a short-term mission trip for adults. Many ministries provide these. Faith Baptist hope to offer some in the near future not just for the youth but also for adults. Short-term mission trips have such a value in opening our eyes to the rest of the world and its need for the gospel. We begin to live differently and view people differently. It pushes to see people in their deepest spiritual need. Often, God uses short-term mission trips to call someone to be a life-long missionary; to give their very life for the mission of reaching people with the gospel.

As we contemplate these three ways we can be “on mission”, I am reminded of Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. We have been commissioned to go to the end of the earth. I pray that we seek ways to live this out daily to engage in PRAYING, SENDING, or GOING.

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But who do you say that I am?

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In Mark 8:29, Jesus asked His disciples this exact question; “But who do you say that I am?” Peter very quickly and correctly answered, “You are the Christ!”

This week, we find that Zechariah, in chapters three and four, previews this Messiah who is both a priest and a king. While Joshua and Zerubbabel have particular roles; priest and king respectively, neither of them can fulfill both at the same time. This is only found in Jesus.

Hebrews 1:3-4 provides us with a most excellent picture of how Jesus fulfills both of these at once; “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of His nature, and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much superior to the angels as the name He has inherited is more excellent than theirs.” 

The encouragement from the sermon this week is that we have a priest-king who can sympathize with our sufferings as human beings but yet is so powerful that He reigns over this world. So, we can come to His throne with even the most minute of human requests while knowing that He is supremely able to take care of it in His will because of His grace.

The challenge this week is to answer the same question that Jesus posed to his disciples; who do you say that I am? If our confession is that He is THE Christ, our priest-king as outlined in Hebrews, then we can have confidence that we have already been given His righteousness and thus also submit to His Sovereignty. Will we do both?

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Blessed Assurance

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Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood

The lyrics of this much familiar hymn reflect what we read in 1 John 2:23-25: No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also. Let what you heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that he made to us —eternal life.

At certain times in life, we find ourselves doubting our assurance of faith. Are we really a member of God’s family? Do I have the Holy Spirit? Has the spirit of Christ set me free from the snares of sin? How do we know that we are surely part of His fold?

Well, we return to Scripture to find the answer. 1 John 5:11-12 says that God gave us eternal life and this life would be in His Son, Jesus Christ. So, the assurance of our faith comes from God’s very act of paying for our sins through the blood of Christ. Romans 8:37-39 reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But instead, we are more than conquerors through Christ!

So, as we ponder if we are in the family, cling to the knowledge that Christ has paid the price and gave us an abundant life here on earth and surely for eternity in heaven. If it was up to us, surely, we would have lost our salvation by now. But thanks be to God that our salvation is assured by Him and not us!  We have the “foretaste of glory divine” because we have been purchased by God, born of His spirit and washed in His blood! Oh, what blessed assurance that is!

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Tunnel Vision

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The world we currently live in is full of distractions. We are bombarded by screens constantly; be it our phone, our computer, or the television. The things that flood our lives sometimes make our vision a little bit blurry and makes us forget our true purpose as Christians.

Paul gave Timothy the charge to keep the commandment unstained, and to guard the deposit that has been entrusted to him in 1 Timothy chapter 6. In verses 20 and 21, Paul also warned about the irreverent babble of the culture. This is still true today. The difficulty of sifting out what is true to God’s Word and what is constantly being thrown in our face (portrayed as “knowledge”), is the struggle of today. Sometimes, this “knowledge” can be masked as good things and of positive value. However, the testing against God’s Word must still happen.

Before this warning by Paul, he provided a pathway for Timothy to keep his life unadulterated from the world. Paul wrote in verse 11, “Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” These are attributes of God and thus of Christ. Having a tunnel-vision pursuit of Christ will allow us to block out the irreverent babble of this world. However, make no mistake that our efforts are only done under the power of Christ our Lord. And He not only provides the power to do such things, He even rewards us with Himself at the end! What glory!

The summary of Sunday’s sermon is as such, “In the PURSUIT of Christ, we have the POWER of Christ, because of the PRICE Christ paid, that we obtain the PRIZE of Christ eternally.”

Church, let’s have this single-minded, single-hearted, tunnel-vision pursuit of Christ daily.

Because HE IS WORTHY!

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At Peace or At War?

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If we look around, in our country and around the world, it wouldn’t take us long to realize that there is much war around us. The division in America, the war in Ukraine, the tension in the Middle East, all make for not so much peace. This is the reality of a broken, sinful world.

This can be taken down to a smaller scale. Tensions in the church. Difficulties in the home. Problems in marriage. Parenting struggles. There is a certain war happening.

But the biggest war among them is the spiritual battle. The struggle for souls. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” We often forget that this world was not meant for us as believers. Our hope does not lie in world peace. Our hope lies in eternal life.

This can become a constant struggle in our own self. Our sins fight for the attention of our soul. Our earthly desires compete against the Lord’s will for our life. Our pleasure-seeking self competes against the marching orders that we have received. We desire to make pleasure instead of making disciples.

It is clear in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that our commission is to be ambassadors of Christ who live out Matthew 28:19; to make disciples as you go. This war within us takes us away from the task at hand. Our spotlight seems to want to shine on ourselves instead of on Jesus. We seek out our own interest instead of the interest of the King!

This week, as you prepare for your d-groups, consider your life purpose. Does it align with the role of an ambassador who represents the King? Are your life’s activities at war with your commission? Do you intentionally organize your life so that you can interact with unbelievers? Spend some time evaluating your life as you ask the Lord to shine the light upon every aspect of it. I trust that He will lead you in the process. Blessings.

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