[Evangelist]

MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

When I started university in New York State in 1976 some of the first people I met in my dormitory were Christian. Although at that time I did not have a faith myself I was interested in making friends with them because I thought it would be prudent to associate with good people and religious people fell in that category of good. From time to time our conversations would shift to spiritual topics.

Once during one such discussion when it was my turn to express an opinion I said

“There is one God but that people could reach him in different ways ” One person there said something I had never heard in my life. He said: ” Jesus Christ is the only way to God”.

This categorical statement struck me and although I did not say anything at the time it went straight into my heart.

My contacts with these Christians started to become more and more infrequent. From time to time if the subject of Christianity ever came up I would be offered some tracts which I would accept in order not to hurt them but I would put them in the bottom drawer of my desk without reading them. By the end of the year when it became clear that I would not be able to pursue a degree in medicine which had become like an idol in my life my life no longer had any goal or purpose.

When the academic year ended, I returned to my parents' home and started to do some reading in Marxism in a university library near my home. This ideology was starting to fill the void in my life.

The following year when I moved into a dormitory in another university I quickly learned that the student who was staying across the corridor was someone who was ready to discuss spiritual matters with anyone who might be interested. He was a Christian.

This seemed like a strange coincidence but now I understand that it was God's merciful plan that I come once again in contact with the truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

But at the time that's not what I thought. My leanings toward Marxism started to make me more antagonistic to Christianity.

From my new contact I learned that Jesus Christ would come again as Judge and King. This seemed to me a very incredible thing to believe. In my mind this seemed to me the weakest point of Christianity.

So one evening before classes started for the term I found myself in my friend's room. When chatting I noticed on his desk what looked like a book about Christianity. It was actually about the Lord's Second Coming.

That evening as I read this book carefully in the quietness of my room the Lord opened my heart to receive the message of that book as the Lord had opened Lydia's heart to respond to Paul's message in Acts 16:14.

I read that book from cover to cover and by the time I reached the end I had completely surrendered to Christ.

Everything I read pointed to the deity of Jesus Christ and I had for the first time began to see this truth.

Shortly thereafter I got my first Bible and started reading it. The words began to speak to me directly.

I also met with Christians on campus. I was advised to reveal to my parents my faith when I went home during the Christmas holidays. I did. I did not expect the extremely vigorous opposition to which I was immediately subjected. I did go back to university after the Christmas recess and was baptised about four months later in April of 1977. During my confession of faith at my baptism I still remember saying I would follow Christ wherever he would lead me.

Please mail me at Celal777@yahoo.com

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