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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

I once was a Muslim....

This is my conversion from Islam to Christianity.

I was raised in an A.M.E. Church, (African Methodist Episcopal) for the first 18 yrs of my life… But never really understood the Biblical story, I loved the church service, it was fun, the music was exciting, but still I never had any type of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

One day in Sunday School class, I asked some hard question’s to the teacher, but my question’s were not satisfying to me…
Also around the same time, I was working part time at my mom’s job, and I met a guy, who was a Muslim…After watching him and talking with him for a couple of months, and also paying attention to a woman who said she was a Christian, mis-treat this guy, who always treated her with respect, it showed me something, that your behavior should reflect your
Faith..

So with a friend, I started to attend the Mosque’s in Brooklyn,N.Y. and their teaching sounded ok to me, then I started to read their material and didn’t know how to defend their own faith…..also the quran, after a couple of months, I took my shahada/in other words get born again (as far as Islam goes) and I told my mother/grandmother and they were not happy, but they themselves, were not grounded enough to show me their faith in Christianity…and like many other Christians,

What that did for me is make my new found religion even more sure to me, that I was following the right religion at first….
By the age of 19, I went into the military and met many Christians and again, they didn’t know how to defend their faith….(which just strengthened my religion to me) and some time in the U.S. Navy, I met my wife in Pascagoula, Mississippi. She was from Mobile, Alabama. She wasn’t saved but after some years later, maybe like the last couple of years, there was a difference in my wife…Suddenly she was going to Church more….but her life to me, changed little, until the last year or two (2001-2003). But around that time within me, I kept feeling am I really in the right religion ?.... Because this is my eternal destiny I am talking about here, I will only get one chance at this, and there are no do over’s…..

While at work, I met a preacher, and he asked me if I went to Church with my family….and I told him no, and he then said, a man should always go to Church with his family, so I told him, there are other ways of going to Heaven, then Church….

So, he basicly told me that if I didn’t believe in Jesus I was going to Hell, after he told me that I was hot, and searched in the Bible now I had disputed many other Christians before, so I looked in the Book of Revelations and tried to find a verse, that I wasn’t able to find….Instead I ended up reading the whole Book of Revelations, and by the time I got to the end, I was sure that God loved me and that Jesus was the Christ the Son of the living God,now you would think that by reading the Book of Revelations, that is what converted me…

But when I look back at that time in my life, it wasn’t just reading that Book, I had read the Bible before, (certain parts) also leading up to that point, that year in my spirit I had a deep feeling that I could not explain, that I wasn’t sure about my religion anymore, what was happening was God was causing the seeds in my heart from a child to grow….also what changed my life was that God showed His glory to me….and at that time, I had a choice to make, to either to accept God or continue to deny Him…..I don’t believe it was just the evidence alone…..God had changed my heart/ and also gave me the faith also that I needed.. ( Ephesians 2:8,9)

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

From the time I got saved about the third week of November 2003, until maybe a week later, I was sure God was putting in my heart to preach His Word.


So, I went back to the preacher that helped me see the gospel of Christ and asked him when do you know if the Lord is calling you to preach ?

So, he told me you won’t be able to rest, and the calling won’t leave, basically you will know….
He also told me that this isn’t something you want to play around with, you must be absolutely sure about that calling….and I knew it was….

Not too long after my conversion, I felt the need to ask the Lord for wisdom and also to understand the Scriptures so I would not lead no one wrongly, and then later I felt the desire to mostly listen to teaching and scholars/theologians as well…..

God had given me the gifts that I ask for and also the gift of teaching…. I can now understand why the Lord said, teachers will be judged more strictly, because people keep that teaching with them and it (the Word) guides them also….

By what has happened to my life, has also affected my wife, because she now reads and not just reads but studies the Word for herself, to God be the glory for what He has done…..




Amen….

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