I was afraid to pray as a Muslim to the God of Christians
A Turkish Muslim becomes a Christian after being persuaded by friends
My name is Sezgin. I live in a turkish city. I was a strict Muslim and kept the rules more accurately than my family; I prayed five times a day. Over time I found it unsatisfactory to pray Arabic words that I did not understand. In my heart I felt no love for the God whom I worshiped.
The first service
One day – I was 15 years old – I had enough of it. The whole thing made no sense. I did not go to prayer anymore. Years later, a colleague from Sweden invited me to a church in the city. I hesitated and felt a little scared. Even though I was no longer a practicing Muslim, how could I go to church? But I thought it would help me to learn English better. So I went. I liked the happy atmosphere and that the Christians prayed in Turkish touched me deeply. A song that addressed God as Father and spoke of his love moved me inwardly. My father died when I was six years old. Tears came in the middle of prayer. I started praying myself and said, „God, please forgive me if I pray in the name of Jesus. But I really want to move forward and find out who Jesus is. „I was very afraid to pray as a Muslim to the Christian God. But at that moment, a great joy came into my heart.
Repentance and conversion
My new friends invited me to watch the Jesus-movie. I was very interested. But it occurred to me how I should explain all this to my family. My mother and siblings would question me; that scared me. After some time, I stopped attending church and focused on finding a job.
Later, a friend invited me to a larger Christian conference. He also mentioned the pretty Turkish women who would attend. The prospect of a friend made the difference that I went there. An American came to talk to me, offered me a New Testament and tried to explain it to me. Later I got a discussion about the Bible and the Koran. I intervened to make it clear to the Christians that they annoyed the Muslims. Amazingly, they were able to answer all my questions and invalidate the arguments – with passages from the Bible. I was split internally: I was convinced in my heart, but there was still confusion in my mind. Finally, I prayed to Christ, „Jesus, if you are truly the Son of God, then help me find you.“ Several weeks later, during a conversation in the church, I felt that now was the moment. I turned to my friend and told him straight out, „I want to give my life to Jesus now. I want to accept him as my Savior. „After this step, the hardest thing to do was to testify to my new faith in my family. How should I explain that to her? For four or five months I read the Bible, prayed, prepared and thought about how to do it.
Time of self-revelation
One day everyone was home. God had said to my heart, „Sezgin, tonight, you’ll teach them what you believe.“ I had a blue booklet that compares the Koran and the Bible and shows their credibility. My brother wanted to see it. I told him that it was about Muhammad and the meaning of Jesus, who is regarded by the Muslims as a prophet, but for the Christians is more. He started reading in it. Finally, he asked me, „Which book do you believe in now?“
I said, „For me, Jesus gives a clear, clear message in the Bible. I believe that he is the Son of God, and I have accepted him as my Savior. „My brother got angry, went up to me, grabbed my collar, and began to beat me. I did not resist. Suddenly he sank unconscious to the ground. Everyone cried out. Desperately, they ran back and forth. God gave me the strength to pray silently for my brother. I put my hand on his head and began to pray. My mother watched me. After a while he came to himself and stood up. I thought he was going to hit me again. But he only said he was cold and asked for a blanket to lie down. I was completely surprised. The Holy Spirit really helped me in this situation!
That’s how my family learned that I had become a Christian. That happened five and a half years ago. It took some time for my brothers and sisters to take me seriously. I had to endure a lot. In doing so, I made it clear to them that I had not made the decision for Christ to annoy them. I told them, „I am a Christian, I love Jesus and stick with it, no matter what you do. You will not be able to separate me from Jesus. „Eventually, they said that they had their religion and I mine, and forbade me to continue talking about Jesus at home. Today we are good friends.
Source: Orientdienst.de