Introduction
The following text is my personal testimony which I read in front of the Bethany Baptist Church congregation on 6 December 2015. This is the day of my water baptism, a public declaration of an inward transformation that already happened many years prior to this day. There is nothing mystical about the act itself but it's an act of obedience that points people to Jesus Christ and all glory is to Him - the author of my salvation and the finisher of my faith.
This day is also the day that I become a member of the Bethany Baptist Church family.
My Testimony
I was born in the predominantly Roman Catholic country of the Philippines. Like everyone else there, I was baptized into the Catholic faith as an infant. But as I grew up in the practice of the faith, I realized that it was becoming more about the rules, and the rituals, and all the pretense that came with it. My identity was becoming wrapped up in the institution of the Catholic Church rather than on the person of Jesus Christ.
I am not trying to diminish my Roman Catholic heritage. The truth is it didn’t matter if I grew up a Protestant, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Humanist, or even an atheist. Any religion that makes me, the individual, the main agent of my own success, is still a religion without Christ.
When I was 22 years old, I left the Philippines, and went to America to work as an IT instructor in Chicago. I wasn’t a particularly good speaker, so I had to pretend and be creative with my portfolio to convince my managers and co-workers that I deserved that assignment. Eventually, I transitioned to writing which suited my personality.
In the last two years of that assignment, I began a 13000 km long distance relationship with my future wife who was back home in Manila pursuing her own career. We only saw each other twice a year for two weeks. For the most part of our dating phase we only spoke to each other by long distance calls. Back then, there were no texting and no FaceTime. I thank God there were no social media then, like Facebook, because there were stupid things I did, that are unimpressive.
I can tell you one story. One time, I got really drunk at a party, and I got behind the wheel of my car, drove 8 kilometres through red lights before stopping on the road side. My friend who drove ahead of me saw me stop. After helping me barf all the alcohol and the chicken wings out of my stomach, he told me to find my way back to my apartment.
In retrospect, I am grateful for God’s mercy he didn’t allow me to die that night nor did he allow anyone else to get hurt because of my reckless behaviour.
Lizzette and I were married in the Philippines on April 17, 2000. By summertime, we moved to the US to start our life together. I received a lucrative job offer as a course writer in Silicon Valley. We settled in Cupertino but after two years on the job, I was laid off and my work visa was revoked. I can tell you, that was a real blow to my ego. Any sense of financial security for me and my wife went through the window on that day. I actually broke down in front of my manager before she asked me to pack my things and leave the building.
I idolized my job. When I lost it, my whole being came tumbling down, my dignity stripped away, and I almost lost my self-respect. But God wasn’t finished with me. Because later that year, when all hope seemed to have disappeared interview after interview, my Christian godfather offered me a job in his car detailing business. It was hard labor, nothing I was accustomed to. I basically washed and cleaned someone else’s cars. It wasn’t the job I dreamed about but it was a job that gave me back my dignity. God humbled me and reminded me that everything comes from him.
God also gave me something else that year. Actually, later that same day I was laid off, my wife also told me that she was pregnant. For just a brief moment, I was terrified. But before paralyzing fear took over my mind, I felt God’s presence and his spirit came over me giving me a sense of calm and joy. I’ve never felt God within my very bones before. And so I knew, God intervened at that moment in my life. I was even reassuring my wife that everything was going to be okay. So on October 5th, 2003, my wife delivered a healthy and beautiful little girl with dark hair, chubby cheeks, and big round eyes. And we named her Ysabelle which means God’s Promise.
In 2005, at a non-denominational church service, I received Christ and was born again. I wept heavily that day. But, I can tell you honestly, that my experience was beyond emotional. From the outside I looked like a total mess, with tears overflowing, my heart pounding like a jack hammer, and the surface of my skin, red hot like magma. But inside, I was at peace. I died in that moment and I mourned the loss, but then I also came alive and I rejoiced.
A year after that, we moved to Canada to start fresh, and settled in Richmond BC. I got a new job as a technical writer. Through my wife's cousin, we connected with the Richmond Baptist Church and soon after that we joined a regular bible study group.
Living here in Richmond for seven years was not without challenges though. Despite getting the jobs we liked, I resented the low wages here and the high cost of living in Richmond. In addition, I was personally struggling with a lifestyle of liberal spending. I ran our household with a deficit. So when an opportunity for a high-paying job opened up, I jumped right away at it without doing enough investigation.
I convinced myself it was God’s plan. After all, I did pray for it even though I didn't really consult any of my Christian friends nor did I spend time in God's word. But the good signs were there. All my interviews went very smoothly. I received an offer and I accepted without hesitation. As it turned out, the company missed all their sales projections for that summer in 2013 and as a result, 25% of the company including the new hires were laid off. And so less than five months in my new job, I found myself out of work again. However, the joy of the new job with a big salary made me so grateful towards God.
From an occasional Bible reader and a typical Sunday Christian, I started studying the Bible with a purpose, that is, to know Jesus and the Father’s love more deeply. Together with the Spirit, I began an almost obsessive discipline of studying the Bible. I also watched and listened to countless sermons from different pastors. In that process, I learned how to read the bible properly. So when I received the news of my layoff, that time I was prepared emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Later that year, I felt a revival in my spiritual growth, and I felt compelled to seek out a new local church to connect with. In 2014, I started attending Bethany Baptist Church regularly. I also started an online blog as an outlet for fleshing out my theology. It’s my way of processing my personal beliefs about the triune God and about Jesus Christ and the scandal of His grace.
Honestly, I still have today my ongoing battle with materialism and pride. But I pray that as I follow Jesus in my daily life ever more diligently, that these idols shall start breaking away from my consciousness.
So today in my water baptism as a believer, I confess Jesus is my Lord and Saviour.
I consent to His love and mercy. I submit to Him all my desires and aspirations.
I seek and receive his goodness daily which leads me to continually change my mind towards Him.
And I hold myself accountable to you His saints on earth, so that I may continue to obey the faith that I was given and that I receive freely.
I rest my hope in the second coming of our Lord Jesus and I look forward to that time when His full glory is revealed and all His good creation are restored.
I’d like to end my testimony with a paraphrase of Paul’s letter to the Romans in 7:21 through 8:1 which sums up my own Christian walk. Paul writes,
”So I have learned this rule: When I want to do good, evil is there with me. In my mind I am happy with God’s law. But I see another law working in my body. That law makes war against the law that my mind accepts. That other law working in my body is the law of sin, and that law makes me its prisoner. What a miserable person I am! Who will save me from this body that brings me death? I thank God for his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord! So in my mind I am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful self I am a slave to the law of sin. So now anyone who is in Christ Jesus is not judged guilty.”
Thank you.
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