By Odon bulamba (26th Decemember 2003)
Last week, we had three things to do; to glorify God for all that He has done, praise God for all that He has done and thank Him and when we put all these three things together, it is what we call a Christian testimony.
A testimony without praise is not a testimony, or a testimony without the glory of God is not a testimony and a testimony without thankfulness is not a testimony. That is why many people when they want to testify they will start by saying praise God or Hallelujah so that every body will answer Amen.
We must draw people’s attention first, Hallelujah brother, Hallelujah sister and when you answer Amen the glory is given because hallelujah means praise God. Here it is my brothers and sisters in the Lord, by Jesus Christ’s love I am alive, God did this and this for me and I praise Him for all that He has done may His name be glorified forever, may His power be manifested forever in our group. Really this God is different from all other gods I thank Him for this, this and that. This is a testimony.
For example when Ange got this child I was there and I thought Leah might talk today and say mummy talk, you got me freely you must be proud of me so praise God because of me. Or her father could do it. Or someone else could do it. But when we say we have to testify for God, what did God do for me, and our memories go blank and I can’t think of anything, what could I say? So I say, I praise God because I had something to eat yesterday but I can’t say that because people will think I am greedy. If I say praise God because I got the money, many people will ask me for money and I cannot give, so what will I say? I lack testimonies and I have nothing to say. I will start thinking oh let Michael finish it’s too long, let’s stop here and start to eat and you wait for the food.
This God who gives to you, when He will not give to you anymore, who will force Him to change His mind to give to you what He doesn’t want to give. I don’t think there is anybody.
I visited Michelle’s house a few days ago and I saw Teresa’s fish and when I looked at this fish it was different to all other fish, it is like a lizard with legs. Is your fish beautiful to look at Teresa? Yes. But if I ask Michelle? No. And maybe everybody will have his own point of view. This fish just lives where it is and that is it, it can’t go outside of the tank because its life is controlled in this fish tank and when this fish talks, if Teresa doesn’t want to answer, nobody will answer. It’s up to Teresa to think I have to feed this fish, if Teresa doesn’t give this fish any food, this fish doesn’t have any strength to force Teresa to give him food and it can even die of hunger, even if the food is beside it, because Teresa is the owner of this fish.
Teresa is there to decide about this fish and this is the same thing with our God. We are in a box and our life is very limited on four corners and with our own effort we cannot do anything. And God is there looking at us and if He wants He gives to us and if He doesn’t want, He won’t. But this will never push us to say that God is not good, or God does not give to us. If Ang has not testified for Leah, if Michelle has not testified for Zoe or if I have not testified for anyone, this does not change anything for God but this changes something in our lives because God will look and find out that we are not grateful.
When your child is not grateful what do you do as parents? The parents will force the child to say thank you and it is a teaching, willing or not the child has to do it and if you are not willing it will finish with a punishment and the love the mother or father has for the child will decrease because you lack thankfulness. We have to be really thankful to God.
For these ten minutes that are left we are going to testify for what God has done for us, we’ll testify for what God has done for us yesterday and today only and each one will talk for 3 minutes. And we’ll start with Michael and then Peter and so forth.
Michael, “God gives me strength and peace and joy and helps me to stay faithful. We talked to Benedict for four hours yesterday and one today and she has been a Christian for six years and she has many Christian friends.”
Doesn’t God deserve praise for that? So praise God for that.
Peter, “God gave me joy in the morning and protected us on the road and we could spend time with Ang’s family and praise God because of the three new baby’s in the family (Leah, Callum & Loren) and one of Ang’s cousin’s was suicidal last year and she has been transformed and praise God because I could share this year with Christians and today I could buy some material things and I could find time to pray and read the Word and He’s given us shelter, clothing, food etc. Inwardly we are being renewed each day and tonight we are here together to share the Word.”
Colleen, “God forgives all our sins and He is the God of second chances and I praise God for the efficiency of the cross, He has brought me to the cross and He has humbled me and He is teaching me and I praise God for my husband who lives with me in peace and that God is drawing him. Yesterday I was able to go freely to church to worship.”
Nathanael, “I read the Bible and went to church yesterday and had lunch with nice food and drink, and Chinese for dinner and today we ate and went to the pools and to the warehouse and dinner”
Sylvie, “I praise God for my husband and the way we really help each other. I praise God for what we are going through, him and me and how much we can love each other. Praise God for our meetings here also and for what we go through and He teaches us. We can read our Bible’s freely and speak freely. Praise God for our lives and our health and for everyone here and for all the people who came on Friday. God is rich and He gives freely. Praise God for all the answered prayers and healing for different people. Praise God for the hard times we have and the good times.”
Zoe, “ Today we had fish and chips and for christmas and for my presents and my scooter”
Michelle, “I praise God because we woke up safely and for our family and I got a present from Teresa and Zoe and because I could spend some time with Odon’s children with Zoe and I praise God because I was invited to spend Christmas with Odon’s family at Oscars and I praise God because yesterday I could sleep and for all the nice food and we found a good deal today on scooters at the warehouse for the kids and I saw Pete and Sylvie and Michael and Nathanael.”
Ang, “God is teaching me to obey his commands is not a burden, I praise God because I used to be afraid of doing exhortations but now I’m not and He helps me to prepare. I wasn’t able to have children and so I praise God for Leah and she is healthy with no defects and she is such a joy and I have lots of people who can help me look after her and I praise God for my husband. I asked God for Pete to put a love in him for me and I asked God for Pete to talk to me first and God answered and He is a good husband and father. My cousin was depressed last year and suicidal and I praise God because she has been transformed physically and spiritually and it’s by God’s grace and I praise God for his financial help and He is rich and provides. I praise God for living with Michelle and Hayley and Teresa. And for our house and the amount that we pay for rent. Odon being sent here and our group.”
Teresa, “for all my presents I got yesterday, for the food and I enjoyed my day”.
Odon, “I praise God because He is God and I praise Him because He keeps putting us together and nearly everything that He said has been fulfilled. Maybe materially we haven’t seen the result yet but the answer has already been given and for that I really praise God. I still praise God that He revealed to me this morning something good for our group and this was a joy for me. And I praise Him for this night’s message and our presence here and may glory be given to Him and we are going to walk together hand in hand to show the world that we really love one another and this will be our arm for next years victory. Try with all your strength to love your neighbour and your brother and sister and to cooperate and this will help you to go forward.
Thank you very much I have a lot to praise God and to testify but in all this I say God may your name be praised. Little by little I will thank you maybe. And finally I think of all those who will take a trip, may God be their guide and protector and I praise Him for the plan of travel ahead and for those who stay behind I praise God because we will keep meeting together even if we are two or three, God will be with us and we will keep holding those who will be away and I praise God infinitely for Benedict. God knows what He does, and nobody can contradict Him and I praise God for the Bhandal family too, God is at work and we just need to give Him a little bit of time and while we wait for God to realise we must be together and be one. Like Jesus promised, be one like Me and the Father who are one. Let’s try to be one and we will see God realise His promise.
Every morning and every evening testify something to God. Tell God, God you kept me through the night and it is a miracle I am alive. God is very happy with that, if you want God to keep holding on to you, glorify Him that is all.
Showing posts with label Testimonies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Testimonies. Show all posts
Friday, August 20, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
God needs our testimonies (Part I)
By Odon Bulamba (26 December 2003)
I praise God for the way we meet tonight because it is a grace to meet together and while we are talking together many people are on the road travelling, many people are flying or sailing in boats and others are around the table sharing a drink of beer and others have useless discussions and others play games in the casino. The time of the end of the year is the worst time for the Christian life because this is the time when everyone is excited to do evil.
If you have children at home, these children will be on holiday and you have to know what to do with them and if you don’t know how to control them very well, the children will control the situation better than yourself and this won’t be in the right way. And when you have young people they will tell you that they don’t like staying home and they like to go here and there and where they will go they will drink and smoke and for them they think that this is they way to have fun but this will destroy people’s souls.
As for the adults, when they are on holiday they find a good time to be with their family and friends and they meet together in the night clubs and because everybody needs money to have a good time at Christmas and at the end of the year, that is the time when corruption comes back, the time when thieves rob and it is the time when prostitutes are on the road, all the evils come back at once. All the lost souls, all the demons, they work hard in the month of December because they know that people are free from their usual activities.
Satan knows if Michael goes to work, it won’t be easy to tempt him there because his work will distract him but if he is at home and he has nothing to do, that is the right time to attack him and push him to do something. That is why as Christians we have to pray a lot, especially in the month of December, there are many accidents, many murders, lots of diseases, lots of problems. Sometimes there is also peace but there is only peace for those who look for peace and this peace can only be found in the Lord.
So what do we do normally at the end of the year because it is a dangerous time for the Christian life. That is the time when we must commit our lives into God’s hands and say, God help us, control our lives and our paces so that we might start a new year with joy and blessing. And it is the time when Christians come close to God to thank Him for all that He has done. And when God finds out that you come close to Him to thank Him, it won’t be long before He opens His hand to give you more blessings.
Last Friday we were all here and the servant of God stood up to say this is the time to testify and we were here and we didn’t have testimonies to give God. We couldn’t find anything to tell God about thankfulness. It was as if God had done nothing for us through the whole year and if we are not thankful in the small things, will we hope to have great things. I don’t think so. God was a little bit jealous and He didn’t want that and tonight when I prayed before coming, two verses were given to me and the first one was in I Chronicles 23:30.
We are to stand every morning and every evening to thank and to praise the Lord and when we talk about morning; that is the time when we can see the glory of God or life that is perfect. And when we talk about evening; that is the time when things are starting to get a little bit difficult and sometimes we fall into temptation or sins. God needs praises at that time, God needs to find glory that comes from us but unfortunately we were not ready to glorify God.
What prevented me to glorify God on that day, was is unthankfulness, was it pride, or shame or something else? If I was not thankful for all that God has done for me during the year, what was the source of the lack of thankfulness that I had. If for example I was ashamed, what was the source of this shame? The Bible says that the one who will be ashamed of me in front of people, I will be ashamed of them in front of my Father. Will I be ready to stand in front of Jesus when He will say, Odon I am ashamed of you in front of my Father. I think that will be very difficult for me and what would that have cost us to open our mouth to say God thank you because you kept us this year. Or God thank you because we meet here together, or thank you God because I am alive or thank you God because everything that is around me is going well or thank you God because I have a present or thank you God because this house was full of people that night, there was 1001 things to glorify God about. But unfortunately we were not thankful.
When God blesses, nobody can stop Him. It doesn’t depend on our will, it depends on Him. I’ll give you an example, our sister Ang was barren and with prayer the servants of God prayed for her and Ange was healed and she conceived and today we have the first daughter of Ange. Isn’t it something to praise God for? Last time we were here with Keith and we had prayed to God that Keith would come close to God and little by little God drives him to Himself. It’s like putting a pin on the table and a magnet underneath and when God moves through the system, Keith can feel that he doesn’t want to move but he is already drawn, he can feel the power of the Christian life through our sister and he was here that night and wasn’t it a glory for God. It was a glory!
Sylvie prepared her house, she prepared lots of things for us, we ate, we drank, Michelle and others brought lots of other things; couldn’t we thank God for all these people? If Sylvie hadn’t organised her house for example how could things have worked? And if Michelle couldn’t have taken something or Teresa, what could we have eaten that night?
God was not happy about what happened; so what can we do? It is God who gives birth to the day and the same God gives birth to the evening. When He says here is morning, morning is there. And when it is evening, it is evening. Although human beings find the electric lights, this bulb will never replace daylight. The obscurity in the movie theatre will never replace night. Because what God does is always perfect and what we feel, even if it looks correct it is not correct.
I am going to ask a question, Michael do you pay the power? And if you pay how much do you use per month? About $100. During the day Michael doesn’t turn on the lights because God gives us the sun during the whole day. God gives us a river for the power for the electricity and we don’t pay this river. No body pays for the sun or the power of the sun. Although He gives the light in our house and outside our house, we don’t pay Him and He keeps being good to us, why wouldn’t we be thankful to Him. This was the first thing God needs; our glory, God needs to be glorified by us and He needs us to praise Him every morning.
What does it mean to praise God? What does it mean to glorify God and is there a difference between the both of them? We have to keep studying to remind our hearts and souls what the meaning of praising God and glorifying God is. David said my soul praises God, isn’t the mouth able to praise God? Are my hands unable to praise God but David talked about his soul praising God. And in Psalm 150 it says to praise God with all the instruments. What are these musical instruments, the cymbals, drums and others? What do these things represent, what does this noise mean and why does He want to be praised?
When you praise the king or queen what do you do? You shout. When you make noise and say, long live the king, is it praise or is it glorifying? And when you meet the king or queen and you say majesty and you kneel down what does that mean? Is it praising or glorifying? So we have to know the difference between these two things so we might come forward and glorify God in the right way.
So that day Michael said, ‘who is here to testify’, and everybody would look at one another and some people were there as visitors and these visitors were waiting for others to say something. And other visitors would look around and say the landlord is here maybe he will do something so we have to find this courage to testify for Jesus.
The second verse given to me was in I Timothy 4:4. Do you understand what this means, everything that God created is good and nothing is to be rejected and everything is to be received with gratitude. So how many things has God given to us and we have praised Him and how many things have we rejected? When our situations are difficult, sometimes we reject this difficult situation that God gives us. And when we have lots of joy and are blessed, sometimes we forget to glorify God. Each time, we must receive everything with gratitude. Either a small or big thing, we must say thankyou.
I praise God for the way we meet tonight because it is a grace to meet together and while we are talking together many people are on the road travelling, many people are flying or sailing in boats and others are around the table sharing a drink of beer and others have useless discussions and others play games in the casino. The time of the end of the year is the worst time for the Christian life because this is the time when everyone is excited to do evil.
If you have children at home, these children will be on holiday and you have to know what to do with them and if you don’t know how to control them very well, the children will control the situation better than yourself and this won’t be in the right way. And when you have young people they will tell you that they don’t like staying home and they like to go here and there and where they will go they will drink and smoke and for them they think that this is they way to have fun but this will destroy people’s souls.
As for the adults, when they are on holiday they find a good time to be with their family and friends and they meet together in the night clubs and because everybody needs money to have a good time at Christmas and at the end of the year, that is the time when corruption comes back, the time when thieves rob and it is the time when prostitutes are on the road, all the evils come back at once. All the lost souls, all the demons, they work hard in the month of December because they know that people are free from their usual activities.
Satan knows if Michael goes to work, it won’t be easy to tempt him there because his work will distract him but if he is at home and he has nothing to do, that is the right time to attack him and push him to do something. That is why as Christians we have to pray a lot, especially in the month of December, there are many accidents, many murders, lots of diseases, lots of problems. Sometimes there is also peace but there is only peace for those who look for peace and this peace can only be found in the Lord.
So what do we do normally at the end of the year because it is a dangerous time for the Christian life. That is the time when we must commit our lives into God’s hands and say, God help us, control our lives and our paces so that we might start a new year with joy and blessing. And it is the time when Christians come close to God to thank Him for all that He has done. And when God finds out that you come close to Him to thank Him, it won’t be long before He opens His hand to give you more blessings.
Last Friday we were all here and the servant of God stood up to say this is the time to testify and we were here and we didn’t have testimonies to give God. We couldn’t find anything to tell God about thankfulness. It was as if God had done nothing for us through the whole year and if we are not thankful in the small things, will we hope to have great things. I don’t think so. God was a little bit jealous and He didn’t want that and tonight when I prayed before coming, two verses were given to me and the first one was in I Chronicles 23:30.
We are to stand every morning and every evening to thank and to praise the Lord and when we talk about morning; that is the time when we can see the glory of God or life that is perfect. And when we talk about evening; that is the time when things are starting to get a little bit difficult and sometimes we fall into temptation or sins. God needs praises at that time, God needs to find glory that comes from us but unfortunately we were not ready to glorify God.
What prevented me to glorify God on that day, was is unthankfulness, was it pride, or shame or something else? If I was not thankful for all that God has done for me during the year, what was the source of the lack of thankfulness that I had. If for example I was ashamed, what was the source of this shame? The Bible says that the one who will be ashamed of me in front of people, I will be ashamed of them in front of my Father. Will I be ready to stand in front of Jesus when He will say, Odon I am ashamed of you in front of my Father. I think that will be very difficult for me and what would that have cost us to open our mouth to say God thank you because you kept us this year. Or God thank you because we meet here together, or thank you God because I am alive or thank you God because everything that is around me is going well or thank you God because I have a present or thank you God because this house was full of people that night, there was 1001 things to glorify God about. But unfortunately we were not thankful.
When God blesses, nobody can stop Him. It doesn’t depend on our will, it depends on Him. I’ll give you an example, our sister Ang was barren and with prayer the servants of God prayed for her and Ange was healed and she conceived and today we have the first daughter of Ange. Isn’t it something to praise God for? Last time we were here with Keith and we had prayed to God that Keith would come close to God and little by little God drives him to Himself. It’s like putting a pin on the table and a magnet underneath and when God moves through the system, Keith can feel that he doesn’t want to move but he is already drawn, he can feel the power of the Christian life through our sister and he was here that night and wasn’t it a glory for God. It was a glory!
Sylvie prepared her house, she prepared lots of things for us, we ate, we drank, Michelle and others brought lots of other things; couldn’t we thank God for all these people? If Sylvie hadn’t organised her house for example how could things have worked? And if Michelle couldn’t have taken something or Teresa, what could we have eaten that night?
God was not happy about what happened; so what can we do? It is God who gives birth to the day and the same God gives birth to the evening. When He says here is morning, morning is there. And when it is evening, it is evening. Although human beings find the electric lights, this bulb will never replace daylight. The obscurity in the movie theatre will never replace night. Because what God does is always perfect and what we feel, even if it looks correct it is not correct.
I am going to ask a question, Michael do you pay the power? And if you pay how much do you use per month? About $100. During the day Michael doesn’t turn on the lights because God gives us the sun during the whole day. God gives us a river for the power for the electricity and we don’t pay this river. No body pays for the sun or the power of the sun. Although He gives the light in our house and outside our house, we don’t pay Him and He keeps being good to us, why wouldn’t we be thankful to Him. This was the first thing God needs; our glory, God needs to be glorified by us and He needs us to praise Him every morning.
What does it mean to praise God? What does it mean to glorify God and is there a difference between the both of them? We have to keep studying to remind our hearts and souls what the meaning of praising God and glorifying God is. David said my soul praises God, isn’t the mouth able to praise God? Are my hands unable to praise God but David talked about his soul praising God. And in Psalm 150 it says to praise God with all the instruments. What are these musical instruments, the cymbals, drums and others? What do these things represent, what does this noise mean and why does He want to be praised?
When you praise the king or queen what do you do? You shout. When you make noise and say, long live the king, is it praise or is it glorifying? And when you meet the king or queen and you say majesty and you kneel down what does that mean? Is it praising or glorifying? So we have to know the difference between these two things so we might come forward and glorify God in the right way.
So that day Michael said, ‘who is here to testify’, and everybody would look at one another and some people were there as visitors and these visitors were waiting for others to say something. And other visitors would look around and say the landlord is here maybe he will do something so we have to find this courage to testify for Jesus.
The second verse given to me was in I Timothy 4:4. Do you understand what this means, everything that God created is good and nothing is to be rejected and everything is to be received with gratitude. So how many things has God given to us and we have praised Him and how many things have we rejected? When our situations are difficult, sometimes we reject this difficult situation that God gives us. And when we have lots of joy and are blessed, sometimes we forget to glorify God. Each time, we must receive everything with gratitude. Either a small or big thing, we must say thankyou.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tahir's Journey - a Testimony
My name is Tahir and this is my journey from Islam to Christianity.
Soon after arriving in the United States from Palestine 14 years ago, I married a nice Christian girl. She tried to become a Muslim to please me, but the more she did, the more I turned away from her. We had a child together, but the marriage didn’t last because it is hard to love when your heart is filled with hate. Hate is what I was taught growing up in Palestine; hate towards the Jews, the Christians and hate against the world. As a Palestinian, you are taught from day one that the whole world is responsible for our misfortune especially Jews and Christians.
After we divorced, my ex-wife told me that she had my daughter baptized. I was so angry that I stormed into the church, cursed at the priest who performed the baptism, and told him that he was going to hell because of it. I didn’t want my child growing up Christian. My unsupervised visitation rights were taken away because my ex-wife feared that I would kidnap my daughter and take her to Palestine. The courts agreed and now I don’t get to see her much anymore.
My next church experience was in college when a Muslim Arab girlfriend and I toyed with the idea of converting to Christianity just because it was a more lenient religion. We knew what we were doing was wrong and the punishment for apostasy in Islam is stoning, but we needed an ideology that would justify our sinful life. Because of an invitation from an Arab Christian girl from the collage that we both were attending at that time, we visited her church one Sunday. The Church service was full of joy, something I had never seen in Islam. After the service, a Bible and a book about the divinity of Christ were given to us. A few months later and then again on Christmas Eve we looked for a church that some Arab Christian friends from collage told us about, but to our surprise it was closed.
My friend, Khalil, and I used to get together and talk about life and the state of the world. At times we wondered about Islam and why things are such a mess in Muslim countries. We wondered if this religion that we barely followed by tradition was for real. But our wondering didn’t lead to immediate action.
I got married again. This time it was an arranged marriage with a girl from Palestine. This took place after my family stood in my way of marrying my collage girlfriend due to the fact that she wasn’t pure enough for them. I brought my new wife to the U.S. but found it hard to love her since I barely knew her. So, I was glad that my job took me from city to city. That way I could indulge in things unmentionable (including having girlfriends in every town) and not have to think about my situation.
Then September 11, 2001, happened. As the towers collapsed, the last bit of respect I felt for Islam collapsed as well. This catapulted me into an all-out search for Truth.
I was laid off from a very good job as the result of the economic fallout of 9-11. As I was online every day searching for jobs, "for some reason" I frequently landed in Christian chatrooms. One day I even found the Bible in Arabic online.
One late wintry night I found myself reading the gospel of John. I never trusted the Bible, and I was taught my whole life that the Bible is corrupt and has been changed. As I started to read I was astonished. As I began reading about Jesus and his beautiful, pure, sinless, holy, amazing, miraculous life I couldn’t stop. I remember reading the whole Gospel from start to finish. It was early in the morning when I finished reading. I was crying so much that I was worried I might wake up my wife and I didn’t want her to see me crying so that she won’t ask me why.
A few days later, I logged on to my computer and "for some reason" looked for Arabic churches in the area. I then called one and the voice on the other end of the line told me that his dad was the pastor, but he had passed away. He gave me another number to call—a man named Farooq. This man is my current pastor and the person the Lord chose to lead me to himself. We discussed deep issues like Muhammad’s personality, lifestyle, his many marriages and his many wars. Farooq gave me a book he wrote that compares Islam with Christianity, complete with references from the Koran and the Bible.
As I began reading Farooq’s book, I was both shocked and fascinated. I looked up the Biblical and Koranic references—all of which were actually there—and couldn’t believe my eyes! I realized I had been deceived all my life! The main issue that grabbed my attention was the completely different way the two religions treat women.
I can’t pinpoint the exact day on which Farooq led me in a prayer accepting the Lord in my life as my personal Lord and Savior, but it was sometime in early 2002. I do remember the exact day I was baptized. It was the most incredible and scary day of my life! And I have changed so much since I accepted Christ.
I am free! I have found that there is no comparison between Christianity and Islam. Where I once had many rules to follow from the Koran and the Hadith, I now have a relationship with God. It’s so different. Islam is based on force, but Christianity brings so much peace and love. I am a completely different man now. I am committed to my wife and am learning to love her. Now, instead of partying, I read the Bible. I attend church and Bible study when I can. And I don’t hate Jews anymore.
I have been sharing my testimony and faith with pretty much anyone who comes in my way. I shared it with my family, co-workers and even people on the street. It didn’t go so well with my family especially with my wife who still refuses to accept the fact that I have converted. She thinks that I’m toying with this and soon enough I would wake up and come back to my senses. My family, on the other hand, tried talking me out of it through debating about Christianity and Islam, then through abandonment and ignorance, but finally they have come to accept me for who I have become, due to the good and loving relationship that we have. Were we still living back in Palestine I’m sure things would be different and they would disown me or even try to threaten me.
By the way, my friend, Khalil, has also rejected Islam completely and refuses to obey by its rules and commandments. He is living his life as a secular person away from religion altogether. I’m in continuous prayer for him to come to the Lord and get free from the evil one.
I gave my wife a copy of Farooq’s book, but she was offended when she read it. Please pray for her to know the Truth. I want to go to church as a family, but this is only a dream unless she accepts Jesus. Currently I attend Sunday morning church when conditions permit. My wife knowing where I go is constantly making up last minute plans to prevent me from going.
I get most of my spiritual "feeding" through reading the Bible alone and listening to pastors on the radio while I’m in my car or online.
I wanted you to know what the Lord has done in my life. If you’ve been in America for any length of time, you understand that Christians aren’t the ‘big Satan’, as you were taught."
I am proof that a life can change when Christ sheds light in the darkness. I hope you will be challenged to see and learn more of the Truth, wherever it is found — radio, TV, books, or online. May Jesus lead you in your search.
Tahir from Palestine
Soon after arriving in the United States from Palestine 14 years ago, I married a nice Christian girl. She tried to become a Muslim to please me, but the more she did, the more I turned away from her. We had a child together, but the marriage didn’t last because it is hard to love when your heart is filled with hate. Hate is what I was taught growing up in Palestine; hate towards the Jews, the Christians and hate against the world. As a Palestinian, you are taught from day one that the whole world is responsible for our misfortune especially Jews and Christians.
After we divorced, my ex-wife told me that she had my daughter baptized. I was so angry that I stormed into the church, cursed at the priest who performed the baptism, and told him that he was going to hell because of it. I didn’t want my child growing up Christian. My unsupervised visitation rights were taken away because my ex-wife feared that I would kidnap my daughter and take her to Palestine. The courts agreed and now I don’t get to see her much anymore.
My next church experience was in college when a Muslim Arab girlfriend and I toyed with the idea of converting to Christianity just because it was a more lenient religion. We knew what we were doing was wrong and the punishment for apostasy in Islam is stoning, but we needed an ideology that would justify our sinful life. Because of an invitation from an Arab Christian girl from the collage that we both were attending at that time, we visited her church one Sunday. The Church service was full of joy, something I had never seen in Islam. After the service, a Bible and a book about the divinity of Christ were given to us. A few months later and then again on Christmas Eve we looked for a church that some Arab Christian friends from collage told us about, but to our surprise it was closed.
My friend, Khalil, and I used to get together and talk about life and the state of the world. At times we wondered about Islam and why things are such a mess in Muslim countries. We wondered if this religion that we barely followed by tradition was for real. But our wondering didn’t lead to immediate action.
I got married again. This time it was an arranged marriage with a girl from Palestine. This took place after my family stood in my way of marrying my collage girlfriend due to the fact that she wasn’t pure enough for them. I brought my new wife to the U.S. but found it hard to love her since I barely knew her. So, I was glad that my job took me from city to city. That way I could indulge in things unmentionable (including having girlfriends in every town) and not have to think about my situation.
Then September 11, 2001, happened. As the towers collapsed, the last bit of respect I felt for Islam collapsed as well. This catapulted me into an all-out search for Truth.
I was laid off from a very good job as the result of the economic fallout of 9-11. As I was online every day searching for jobs, "for some reason" I frequently landed in Christian chatrooms. One day I even found the Bible in Arabic online.
One late wintry night I found myself reading the gospel of John. I never trusted the Bible, and I was taught my whole life that the Bible is corrupt and has been changed. As I started to read I was astonished. As I began reading about Jesus and his beautiful, pure, sinless, holy, amazing, miraculous life I couldn’t stop. I remember reading the whole Gospel from start to finish. It was early in the morning when I finished reading. I was crying so much that I was worried I might wake up my wife and I didn’t want her to see me crying so that she won’t ask me why.
A few days later, I logged on to my computer and "for some reason" looked for Arabic churches in the area. I then called one and the voice on the other end of the line told me that his dad was the pastor, but he had passed away. He gave me another number to call—a man named Farooq. This man is my current pastor and the person the Lord chose to lead me to himself. We discussed deep issues like Muhammad’s personality, lifestyle, his many marriages and his many wars. Farooq gave me a book he wrote that compares Islam with Christianity, complete with references from the Koran and the Bible.
As I began reading Farooq’s book, I was both shocked and fascinated. I looked up the Biblical and Koranic references—all of which were actually there—and couldn’t believe my eyes! I realized I had been deceived all my life! The main issue that grabbed my attention was the completely different way the two religions treat women.
I can’t pinpoint the exact day on which Farooq led me in a prayer accepting the Lord in my life as my personal Lord and Savior, but it was sometime in early 2002. I do remember the exact day I was baptized. It was the most incredible and scary day of my life! And I have changed so much since I accepted Christ.
I am free! I have found that there is no comparison between Christianity and Islam. Where I once had many rules to follow from the Koran and the Hadith, I now have a relationship with God. It’s so different. Islam is based on force, but Christianity brings so much peace and love. I am a completely different man now. I am committed to my wife and am learning to love her. Now, instead of partying, I read the Bible. I attend church and Bible study when I can. And I don’t hate Jews anymore.
I have been sharing my testimony and faith with pretty much anyone who comes in my way. I shared it with my family, co-workers and even people on the street. It didn’t go so well with my family especially with my wife who still refuses to accept the fact that I have converted. She thinks that I’m toying with this and soon enough I would wake up and come back to my senses. My family, on the other hand, tried talking me out of it through debating about Christianity and Islam, then through abandonment and ignorance, but finally they have come to accept me for who I have become, due to the good and loving relationship that we have. Were we still living back in Palestine I’m sure things would be different and they would disown me or even try to threaten me.
By the way, my friend, Khalil, has also rejected Islam completely and refuses to obey by its rules and commandments. He is living his life as a secular person away from religion altogether. I’m in continuous prayer for him to come to the Lord and get free from the evil one.
I gave my wife a copy of Farooq’s book, but she was offended when she read it. Please pray for her to know the Truth. I want to go to church as a family, but this is only a dream unless she accepts Jesus. Currently I attend Sunday morning church when conditions permit. My wife knowing where I go is constantly making up last minute plans to prevent me from going.
I get most of my spiritual "feeding" through reading the Bible alone and listening to pastors on the radio while I’m in my car or online.
I wanted you to know what the Lord has done in my life. If you’ve been in America for any length of time, you understand that Christians aren’t the ‘big Satan’, as you were taught."
I am proof that a life can change when Christ sheds light in the darkness. I hope you will be challenged to see and learn more of the Truth, wherever it is found — radio, TV, books, or online. May Jesus lead you in your search.
Tahir from Palestine
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