Nehemiah Chong shares how he came to know the love and grace of Jesus Christ and how God called him out of himself to serve God and His people.

Nehemiah with his wife, Sze-Ern.

My name is Nehemiah Chong, husband to Sze-Ern and son of Chee Leong and Miauw Suang. I have been attending Grace Baptist Church since I was 10 years old, and am 28 years old this year. I currently lead the Young Adults (YA) Ministry and also serve with the Communications Team. My wife serves with me in the YA Ministry and teaches in the Children’s Ministry. 

Having read the Bible passages about the qualifications and responsibilities of an elder, I was admittedly unsure that such a call from God through our elders was for me. Yet over the course of 2019, God continually called me out of myself and worked in my heart through His people, and I have come to see that the office of an elder is indeed a noble task to desire. 

I received the Gospel 8 years ago while in the army, despite growing up in a Christian family and attending church since I was a child. All my life I’d seen Christianity as a set of rules to live by, as a moral compass at best. I knew the Bible stories, the Sunday School lessons, and all the things to say to be seen as a good Christian boy. I thought myself better than everyone else because I was in church and “serving” every other week – yet my heart was hard and cold, and I had no walk with God and no understanding of the gospel. 

In 2012, some of the leaders of the YA ministry reached out to me and actively discipled me. For the first time in 20 years, I read the Bible for myself and understood the Gospel – that I was a sinner in need of a Saviour. I understood that Christianity was not about rules and being good, but about sin and salvation; that the Bible was not a collection of stories and morals, but a single story of God bringing His people back to Him, and that the focus of the Bible is Jesus Christ. For the first time in my life, I knew the depth of love and grace through Jesus Christ, because I knew the depth of my sinfulness and brokenness. I placed my faith in Jesus Christ, and was born again. 

I was baptised in 2013 and have been actively participating in church life since. I have also been leading the YA Ministry alongside 15 other leaders since 2018, and we thank God that we have seen fruit borne in the lives of so many young adults over the past few years – lives changed, hearts softened and convictions formed. 

Galatians 2:20 has been a constant refrain for me – “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is my prayer that as we serve, we continue to model for others what it means to die to self, turn from sin and cling to Jesus Christ, everyday.