I want to talk to you about my experience with God Almighty
and the journey that I walked as a Shiite Muslim.
When I came to this earth, I landed in a small city in northern Iran.
It was not my decision to be there.
God wanted me to be there and I was there on time.
Where did you land, my friend?
Did you choose to be there, or was it your destiny?
The country that I landed in has a Muslim religion.
When I grew old enough to pay attention to my heart’s desire to know the
Creator,
I was told that Allah is God and Islam is the true religion.
Was it my fault that I was exposed to Islam?
I leave the answer to you.
All I wanted was to know God and I was told His name was Allah.
I was also told many other things about the god of Islam,
and I believed what I was told.
What do you think of me now?
For thirty-three years, I thought Almighty God was
what Islam described Him to be.
I didn’t want to kill anyone.
I was just an average Muslim who wanted to be a good person,
have a relationship with God, and make it to heaven.
I believe that 90 percent of Muslims never think to hurt anyone,
or to kill, or to be involved in acts of terrorism.
I was one of those average Muslims.
Most of my life I pursued God and wanted to have Him in my life.
My dream was to get His attention,
to move Him to look at me and be pleased with me, my good works,
and my prayer five times a day.
I just wanted to know God and be known by Him.
Since I landed in Iran in a Shiite Muslim family, all I knew was Islam.
I had many Shiite Muslims around me.
When you started to listen to your heart’s desire for God,
who was around you?
What kind of information did you receive about God?
What incidents took place to form your belief or unbelief?
What were you exposed to?
Let’s talk about the minority of Muslims who end up as terrorists.
Who do you think they had around them?
Are they all bad?
Are we all good?
What should we do about our differences?
What should we do about the judgments we have against each other?
Who is right and who is wrong?
Is life about being right or wrong, or is it about love?
On January 21, 2000, Jesus appeared to me and I gave Him my heart.
I wanted to tell everyone about Him.
It looked like Christ was not in a hurry to use me to
spread the good news at first.
I begged Him many times to release me to tell Muslims about Him,
but He had a different plan for my heart in that season.
He allowed me to walk with Him day and night.
He took my heart to the school of love,
but my heart was so afraid and hurt.
I was not a very good student of love,
but my teacher was patient with me.
It makes sense that my teacher was patient because love is patient,
and love was my teacher.
After eight years of Jesus working on my heart,
I now feel personally released to share the good news of Christ with others.
I was so surprised and touched when one day I heard this in my heart:
“Close your eyes and ask your heart this question:
for the person I share the gospel of love with?”
The answer in my heart was no.
Then I heard this:
“Are you willing to meditate on laying your life down
for the one you give the good news of salvation to?”
“Yes, I am willing to meditate on it,” I said.
Later I learned that the meditation of laying down my physical life
for those I share the good news with will open my heart
to receive supernatural love from above for them.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends”
(John 15:13).
“I don’t necessarily call myself a friend of Muslims,” one may say.
“To be honest, I don’t feel like being their friend,” another may say.
But wait a minute.
Jesus was sweating blood in the garden
before being nailed on the cross for all of mankind,
which includes Muslims too.
He didn’t feel like going to the cross,
but He endured and went beyond His feelings
and pain because He is love.
His love gave Him the ability to finish the job that had to be done.
He taught us how to do the same.
Love can believe all things, endure all things, and get the job done.
[Love] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away;
if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away
(I Corinthians 13:7-8).
Some may say, “Come on, this is the twenty-first century.
Wake up and see reality.
Poetry and nice writing will not get the job done.
We need to show those Muslims that they are wrong.
We need to stop them as soon as possible or they will take over.”
I am writing this because one of you reached out to me
and shared the gospel with me.
I was a Shiite Muslim.
I am the product of God’s love through you, my friend.
You changed my life and gave me hope, my friend.
You hugged me when I so desperately needed it.
You poured into me when I was thirsty and dry,
and I bless you in His name.
May you and your country prosper and be blessed.
May your children’s children see God’s face and be blessed,
my fellow Americans.
Thank you for sharing the love of God with me.
Now I want to share with you some of the nourishment
I have received from our precious Jesus.
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