What was your first encounter with the Bible like?

I was never a church kid.

I envied kids who talked about Sunday School as if it was the most exciting place to be on a Sunday. Bible stories, games, prayers, crafts, what have you....

But I had also always prayed to a God I didn't know - the God who could stop the rain from pouring when we wanted to go swimming on Saturday afternoons; the God who could bring my parents back together again after a quarrel; and the God who helped me through my school exams. I was a child then - so full of faith and so awe-struck whenever God graciously granted me my earnest pleas. This God, my mom said one day, had so loved the world that He gave us His only begotten Son - Jesus Christ - the reason for Christmas. He had died on the cross for the sins of the world. I certainly do not know where she had gleaned such information from - considering that she wasn't exactly a professing Christian to begin with. Anyway, I was intrigued. I had always wanted to know God.

Even more mysteriously, my dad happened to give me a Bible while I was in secondary school. An old, yellow-paged, brown leather-covered NASB Bible, which smelled as ancient as could be. Its front pages had been autographed sometime in 1979 by members of the Christian Fellowship that my dad used to participate in during his England days. I was thrilled with such a relic!

I had no idea how to read it - so I began with the Book of Genesis. I remember reading in bed until my eyelids grew heavy and sleep beckoned. The amazing stories of the Creation, Noah's Ark, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph and such. Subsequently, I came to the Book of Exodus - and stopped at where it got a little complicated - regulations of the Mosaic covenant, Ark of covenant, etc. That was basically my first encounter with the Bible, and my first encounter with God's inspired Word.

Thankfully, the school Christian Fellowship that I attended brought in youth workers, pastors and speakers who taught us the Bible with much passion - and I learned much more. One day, Lionel (a schoolmate and the CF president at that time) shared the Gospel of Christ with me - and being so moved by it, I signed up for a Bible study course at a local Christian bookstore. It was a foundational course - a simple one which introduced me to the Bible (all over again) and emphasised the fundamentals of what it meant to be a Christian. The classes were held on Friday - two hours before I headed off for physics tuition. I remember looking forward to those classes. I am glad that my parents were so supportive of me attending Bible studies on Friday evenings - even with my SPM exams approaching fast. In fact, I was filled with so much peace that I did even better at school. (I'm not kidding.)

At the end of the course, on the 14th day of September, 2001, I gave my life to Jesus.

Today, 12 years later, I am about to graduate from a Bible seminary with my theological degree - blur and uncertain (still) of God's "what's next" for me. Don't think that I know the Bible by heart - because I certainly do not. But my prayer today is that the Bible - God's Word - would always be alive, exciting, mysterious and intriguing to me... because it is ultimately how God has made Himself known to a believing community that extends through space and time. The Bible itself is complete, canonical-wise. However, Christians continue living the story of the Bible - as they look forward to the culmination of linear time, when Christ's Kingdom will be powerfully consummated in the eschaton.

Lord, let me delight in Your Word. And live a story of faith.

P/S: This blog post was produced while I was in a state of emotional-drain. Feeling so much better now.