Guest Minister David Lin @ Unified …
Dear Unified … family,
Today’s Bible Reading: Proverbs 7, Psalm 7
Tomorrow we will be having a guest minister. His name is David Lin. Pastor David is a revivalist originally from Taiwan. I have included his testimony for you to read. Enjoy!
Pastor Dean
Pastor David Lin’s Testimony
I was born in a family that did not believe in Jesus. When I was 10, I began to go to meetings at a Presbyterian church in Taipei, Taiwan, with my uncle who is an elder in the church. I joined the youth fellowship and the church choir. I enjoyed listening to Pastor Chen’s strong preaching more than the children’s Sunday school. I was baptized on Christmas Eve when I was 12 years old. Before my water baptism, I kept weeping uncontrollably with deep conviction that I was such a sinner that I could only be saved if I cry out to Jesus. When Pastor Ko laid his hand on my head to baptize me, I felt a surge of power and numbness all over my body.Next few years following my new-birth were full of joy and peace. There were many “rich and prominent” people in the church, but I rarely saw those “lower-class” people there. John 3:16 told me that God loves the world so much. Who is going to tell those people the “good news”? At 14, I dedicated myself to God and made a vow that I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I began to make contact with some young people outside the church. Because of ignorance and immaturity of my spiritual life, I was not able to bring them to church. Ironically, I became one of them. I began to smoke, drink, gamble, party, and game fight, etc. Eventually I grew further and further away from God and the church.
When I was 16, I passed the examination and was admitted to Jian-Chung High School, the number-one high school in Taiwan. Nevertheless, I became one of the few rebellious youngsters on campus. I acquired a bad temper and I was treating my home like a hotel. In two separate occasions, just before the gangs started fighting, by the mercy of God, He used total strangers to pull me off the scene, so I could avoid being charged and thrown into jail. Yet later I caused some trouble and was about to be expelled from the school. Then I suddenly realized that I was at the edge of a bottomless pit, yet I could not help myself. I was full of rebellion and would not listen to anyone. One night, when I was alone and helpless, I remembered Lord Jesus whom I believed since youth. So I prayed to God to change my heart. The God who keeps covenants of love, heard my cry and changed my heart. Although wanting to do good, I failed time after time because I was depending on my own strength. I would still do some of those bad things even though I did not like doing them. I began to study hard and really wanted to make up all the foolishness in the past. I was deeply disappointed because I was not able to pass the exam to enter college. That was when I was 18 years old. So I began to help out with my family’s retail business. After working over 10 hours everyday, I would go to the pubs and have many drinks with some friends well past midnight. I was totally lost with no goals. Finally I asked my dad to allow me to study and prepare to retake the exam in the next three months. The night before the exam I was suddenly awakened and realized that I have not reviewed a few course materials. In a rush, I read them over roughly. Because of that studying, I was able to be qualified for the college admission. It was again the mercy of God, because otherwise I would have been drafted into the army without another chance for entering college.
When I was 20 years old, I was admitted to Tan-Jian University as a computer science major, to the department with the highest dropout rates in the country. I made a decision to study diligently to redeem my wasted years. I was able to do really good in schoolwork and graduated as the number-one student in the class. I began to feel that nothing is impossible for me if I work hard enough for it. Before I knew it, I became very proud and arrogant. There were some bad habits of mine that never changed. Again God’s hand of discipline came upon me. I worked my way to pass the test for an officer position yet ended up being drawn into the Marines. I realized that my life is not in my own hands but in God’s hand. I have not been reading my Bible for a long time. I took it out and then finished reading the Book of Romans that night. I was injured in a motorcycle accident and almost died. Again it was God’s mercy to spare my life from total destruction.
Leaving the familiar environment and to the US, while looking back over my entire life and many crises and hard lessons, I knew it was time for me, the prodigal son, to come back home. I joined the Bible study fellowship at Penn State University. At every Friday night, I was comforted from my pressure of schoolwork and daily life by studying the Word of God. Yet I still set my goals as getting straight A and a Ph.D. degree to become a professor in Taiwan. God was still not the number-one in my priorities. After I graduated, God led me to California and I found a high-paying job as a computer software engineer. My parents were able to come to live in the US. It looked like everything was fine and I should be satisfied, yet I felt so empty. I, being a Christian attending church regularly, was not different from people in the world, as I was chasing after worldly desires, weak with no testimony, and still serving the Lord in my own flesh in the church.
Although I had a burden for China and admired what Dr. Sun Yet-San has done for China. I remembered what I said even when I was total drunk in my young age: “We are the lost generation of China”. I knew that God had led me to the US for the sake of China’s future. When I was 30, I was deeply disappointed with the church and also with myself. Just I was feeling that there’s no point in life and about to commit suicide, God did not forget His child. He has been molding me since birth. When I was so frustrated and about to join the Over-sea Chinese Revolution Political Organization to fulfill my vision by another way, God sent his servant Rev. Edward Miller to speak on the revival fire at San Jose Chinese Alliance Church. After some thoughts, I decided to give God one last chance and see if He can rekindle the spiritual fire in me. To my surprise that at this meeting, I met this man of God who walks so close to the Lord. After all these years of drought, it was like light shining into my darkness. It made me want to meet God and know Him in a higher degree. I finally admitted my sinfulness and uselessness. My life in the past has been ruined because I was letting myself be the lord of my life. The hardest part for me was to change the sinfulness of my heart. At the end I surrendered and gave up the lordship to Jesus. Although the battle raged in my heart and the devil would not give up on me, as I truly said to God in my heart: “I give you all of my life and everything I have”, the Spirit of God fell upon me. He washed away every sin and broke every fetter in me. I had been set completely free. I received the baptism of Holy Spirit and personal revival. I, the prodigal son, finally came home to wander no more.Finally I indeed repented and my old-self died with Christ, now He is the Lord of my whole life.
I began making mission trips to China since 1992. I received the vision of the revival fire being spread over entire China. God also promised that the Cross and the Blood of Jesus Christ would save China. In 1996, I began serving full time and founded Tabernacle of David Ministries International. I started to preach gospel in prisons and leading prisoners to Christ in Taiwan. In 1997, I began to travel to other nations of the world and spoke at various meetings and churches. Miracles followed to confirm the words that had been preached. In 1998, our daily short-wave radio program – “Revival Sound”, began to broadcast to China and Asia. God continue to lead me to build up the body of Christ and to reach the lost for His glory.