Phu’s baptism testimony - April 5, 2026 (Easter 2026)

Dear Almighty God,

You created the heavens and the earth, and me and others, out of nothingness. Instead of worshiping Your glory and power, we have sinned by ignoring, disobeying, and rejecting You. Yet, You sent Your Son Jesus to die for us and rise again so we can rejoin the kingdom of God if we repent and believe. WOW, I just realized what amazing grace the Gospel is! Indeed, “I…was blind, but now I see.”

Lord, help me to have faith like my 9- and 10-year old sons’. I started to attend church at the late age of 40 after I met my future wife Henna. Moreover, being a software developer and molecular microbiologist for 40 years, I am used to working with empirical evidence, not faith and spirituality. God, I have sought You and Your Scriptures with an open mind, yet my habit of over-analyzing still holds me back. Help me move past my need for certainty and find my rest in more dependence on You.

Lord, thank you for the timeless crystallized intelligence in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Like the Preacher, I have been intrigued and troubled by the meaning and purpose of life. When I was young and naive, my purpose in life was to make the world a better place because it was the most enduring thing I could do with my life. Now that I am much older, that goal too is “vanity of vanities,” among other reasons. Lord, without You, any purpose and meaning that we create ourselves is ultimately fleeting, “a striving after wind.”

I’m also finding that human understanding, while vast and deep, is ultimately limited. In particular, the human endeavor of natural science, as powerful as it is for understanding our world and cosmos, cannot currently explain what preceded the Big Bang, and it may never be able to. Indeed, Ecclesiastes 3:11 (ESV) states, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” Since scientific hypotheses for what triggered the Big Bang are speculative and likely untestable, it is reasonable to believe that God created the heavens and the earth.

Help me fathom the other books in the Bible, especially Romans. Before I began reading the Bible twelve years ago, I thought I was a pretty good person. However, I soon realized I was a sinner, just like everyone else. As written in Romans 3:23 (ESV), “All have sinned...” Humanity’s sinful nature runs deep in our DNA. After a few years, I also learned that there was nothing I could do to atone for my sin—neither through my own efforts nor good works. In fact, sin is so deep and grave that Jesus Himself had to die on the cross to redeem me and others. Lord, may I appreciate Your amazing grace more and more throughout my own pilgrim’s progress. May the Holy Spirit continue to sanctify me to produce spiritual fruit and make me more Christ-like.

In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.