I was a new initiate to Christianity when I first heard Ravi Zacharias speak in 2003. He had a tough act to follow, speaking after a stirring testimony by a mission worker who worked healing by the Holy Spirit’s power. The slideshow accompanying the narration of signs and wonders in a faraway village awed the audience.

Then came Ravi’s turn.

He just spoke about God … with intensity, logic and fluency without pause for about 40 minutes.

Perhaps back then, I was more swayed by the preceding slideshow, but I realise today that words matter because Jesus Himself is the Word of God.

Gentle, passionate defender

Ravi’s gift is the words God supplied him through that wonderful mind of his, again a gift of God.

Ravi’s hospitality training never left him even as the Lord appointed him to his vocation as defender of the faith. He was ever willing to share with gentleness, peppered with moments of passion, always abiding by the hospitality of the Gospel.

I got to know Ravi better when he accepted an invitation to speak at an event I organised. I began to read his books, of which there are many as Ravi was such a prolific writer. His conclusions and summations wove through the fabric of my young faith and stitched together an understanding that God must be the centre of our lives.

I am glad to be among many supporters of Ravi’s ministry in Singapore, for his earnestness to sow seeds for the Lord internationally. Two years ago, he graciously spoke at my workplace to my friends and colleagues, blessing the audience, both believers and those who did not know Jesus.

He helped in my endeavour to reach out to my friends in the business world. Always amiable, he would suggest that open and honest enquiry was the medium to ponder the questions of life and God. And he would eliminate all the possibilities through an engaging discourse to lead to the only answer — the Truth of Jesus Christ, the Truth who is Jesus Christ. 

A builder for God

Ravi won hearts and minds for God with words. The images and pictures come later when the words establish the framework.

He was God’s worker in building our faith with the scaffolds of reason.  

Above all, he was a man of God who loved God because God loved him first, a servant of the Most High, a disciple who challenged the minds of intellectuals and enquirers, young and old alike.

Ravi, you have touched my life and the lives of so many others through the words gifted to you by the Lord. You have aided and lifted us in our journey with the Lord. May we honour your friendship and your memory by honouring our God now and forever.

Singapore church leaders pay tribute to Dr Ravi Zacharias

Wisdom in body, embodied: Don’t stop thinking!