...It was a little passed midnight... Our small student cottage, located in the corner of student-housing complex still lit. It is then six years that we have entered U.S. hoping both of us (me and my husband) would be able to graduate from college. We have lost all of our belongings. Whatever we had saved in the past five years, was lost in an investment. There was no hope any longer to obtain the green card, which we waited three years for. And above all, we had not paid our tuitions for two semesters in a row. It was close to the week of final exams. Hopelessness and disappointment have contained all over my being. Scripts of the book was crying for me... I wish I could stay in my sleeping bag for the rest of my life so that I would not confront with the monster of life.
Dear reader: If you could only imagine momentarily the situation of a person in the verge of falling off a high-elevated mountain, you could somehow feel part of my every-moment and every-day living. Physicians and counselors had dismissed me long time ago and hospitals and medications were only somewhat temporary help... That night, just like any other night, was passing by. I used to pray (Namaz) regularly for years [I was a Muslim-born girl who followed religious law (Shar-ayet) since my teen-age years]. I prayed (Namaz) constantly and cried after each Rak-at (unit of prayer in Islams traditional Namaz): "Dear God! Give me patience, Please hear my groan and never-ending cry, my cry has turned into blood and my heart is burning... God.. heal me and show me the way of salvation...!" The very same night, someone knocked our door and when I opened the door, I noticed my long-time friend whom I had not seen for years, standing by the door. She came in and I shared with her part of my sad story. That night, she gave me the phone number of a person and asked me to call him. "Call him" she said. "He helps everybody and here is his number!" I found out later that she had not even visited this man before that night. I visited this person later that week and told him my story. He was an Iranian pastor. After patiently listening to my long story, he said: "I will pray for you and invite you to come to church." With our financial constraints, it was worth driving 70 miles to this far-away city, that the church was located at, to have a FREE meal! Gradually, going to church lost its meaning of having a free meal and I began to see and experience its true face and meaning. Within the next three years after that visit, I along with my husband were allowed to pay only $50 per month in payments to the university for our large outstanding balance (of course with no interest charge!!).. This monthly payment was covering our tuitions and rent of our student-housing unit. We both graduated successfully in the same semester, 1993, with only $50 per month!! Also within the same three years, I received my green card through my job as well... The horror and fear that had chained me for years, turned into an ever-lasting joy and happiness.
Dear reader: I gained the most precious and ever-lasting gift of this world for FREE! This eternal wealth also can be yours for free, if you believe in that Jesus paid the price on the Cross for our sins so we can live free from them. I have to regret heartedly that the words can not even begin to express this miracle of God. Have you heard this saying that goes like: Unless you be a mother, you can not feel the meaning of motherhood? With the same token, Unless you open your heart, you will not hear his (God's) voice. He embraces you with open arms and gives you peace of mind and power just like a sleeping baby in the arms of his mother. He even informs you of his divine secrets. Nothing will hurt and bother you any longer since you are assured that he is the only way that you can be saved thru. Jesus says in John 14:6: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is thru me." In your own personal relationship with him, he clearly shows you that he has control over everything in this world. His justice becomes so clear to you that in spite of all apparent injustice around this world, you become certain that his powerful hand is working in every step and every thing in the world. The everyday works and details of the world are all part of his grand plan and at the end he will act upon his promises, reflected in his word as he has done so thru Jesus up to this day. Matthew 28:18 says: "All power in heaven and on earth is given to me."
Dear reader! Do not let cares, financial belongings, disappointments and worries of this world deprive you of such a great blessing. Wake up! Oh Africans, Europeans, Easterners and Oh! Westerners, everybody can take advantage of this salvation that is offered by God for free to all mankind. It does not matter what origin you are coming from or what language you speak. Dont even worry about your past. The way you are now, is how Jesus wants you and embraces you with his ever-lasting love. Luke 24:47: ".. That a change of hearts and lives and forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations..." He is saying whoever repents of his sins and opens his heart to him , He would forgive. No one has ever dared to claim such a power of forgiveness in history. Only Jesus says (John 14:9): "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father..." Jesus is the face of the unseen God. Dear friend! Only if you open your heart to him, and ask him to enter your life and let him to take control of your life, you will experience what he can do for you. Ask him regularly to enter your life.
Today, I am a Christian, not for my comfortable and well-off situation and not even for the healing of my irremediable pain. I am a Christian because the world can not give the comfort and the rest that Jesus can bring. Matthew 11:28 says: "Come to me, all of you who are tired and have heavy loads, and I will give you the peace..." In Christianity, you find such a close relationship with God that your worship and praise will not be because of your fear of hell or hope to reach heaven, but only to see his eternal beauty and elegance. Dear Lord! Give this living hope to all humans because of your grace, even though we have done nothing to deserve this. May the life of Jesus shines the world like a holy pattern. May everybody in the face of the earth share this grand joy and happiness. I pray you could be chosen by the grace of God for ever-lasting and powerful relationship with him, so your way of living can glorify his holy name.. Do not lose this opportunity and do not postpone it for tomorrow.
A saved lost in Jesus,
V.S.
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