India: God's love is blooming
9/30/2007 10:59:46 PM
  
India is the birthplace of two major world religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. The country is also famous for Mother Teresa, Ghandi, and hot curries. India is also a place where God is drawing people to Himself through Jesus Christ.
In one part this vast country, God spoke through an idol to draw a woman to Himself. A widow in Madhya Pradesh state worshiped her idols faithfully. One night, one of the idols spoke to her in a dream: “In a few days, a man with a book will come and turn your faith away. It would be better for you to move somewhere else, so we can remain together forever.” As predicted, the visitor came-a Christian evangelist. But when she heard the good news of God’s love and of salvation in Jesus Christ, she turned her back on her idols.
“Sydney” is from a Jat Sikh family in India. “When I started college,” he said, “I began feeling a vacuum in my life. I started feeling like I was empty and needed something more. I thought that if I got to be friends with the senior students, then maybe that emptiness would go away. I started hanging out with senior students and taking part in many filthy things. Then I also started taking some drugs. I thought maybe this can satisfy me, what I am longing for, but it never did. I became very frustrated because I got addicted to many things.
Then I met a friend of mine who was Christian. I told him about how I was really struggling in my life. I told him that I wanted to have real peace in my life and real joy. He said, “Come to Jesus Christ; He can give you that.” But I said, ‘No, it’s not possible’ because I was a Sikh.
I started applying different philosophies in my life. I went to a New Age movement and started listening to their teachings also. All these people said, “You need to be good, try to be good and try to do good and behave in a good way.” But I always used to s question in my mind, “I want to be good, I want to be a good son of my parents. I want to be a good student in my college. But how can I? How can I?” That hole was always there.
I met a pastor in my hometown and he started arguing with me about Christian faith and Sikhism. In the end he just asked me to read Rev. 3:20 from Bible. When I read it I really felt in my heart that, yes, someone is knocking there. Until that day I used to think that God is living in my heart, but on that particular day I got a conviction within myself, “No, God cannot live in this filthy heart because I am full of bad things.” I knew that I was sinful.
I went back to my home and wrote two letters in my notebook. One I wrote to my Sikh Gurus. I told them, “I am really attracted to Christianity. I just want to see if Jesus can really change my life. I just want a leave for six months. If He’ll change me, then I’ll be His follower. If He won’t then I’ll come back to Sikhism.”
Then I wrote a letter to Jesus Christ and said, “Jesus, I believe that you came to this world. I believe that you died on the cross. I believe that you rose again from the dead. But now please change my life.”
I just prayed that prayer and when I opened my eyes there was a sweet peace in my heart and a, really, I heard a voice calling, “Yes, Sydney, this is the decision. This is the right decision you have taken in your life, and I was waiting for it.”
But there are still millions without Jesus in India. “O” is one of those. O invited her newfound Christian friend to spend a day visiting family in a nearby town. When the friends stopped at a bridge just outside the family's town, the believer watched as “O” walked to the side of the bridge and threw pictures of a graven images into the river. When asked why, “O” said that since all streams flow to the sacred Ganges River, the gods would be pleased with her offering.
"My spirit was crushed as she threw a cross necklace in, representing the Son, along with the picture offerings,” the Christan friend said. “Does she see the Son as just another god? The miracle is that today “O” and I discussed how the Father only requires trust in the Son. Pray that O would place her trust in Jesus Christ alone. “O” is leaving soon to further her education in another city. Lift up a prayer that the Father will put another believer in her path."
Pray for “O” and all of those without Christ in India. Ask God to send laborers to the ripe harvest field of India. Ask the Lord where He would have you labor in the fields. Will you be one to go and tell them about Jesus, possibly for the first time some have ever heard? How can they accept Christ unless someone they hear about Him? How can they hear unless someone goes to tell them. Will you go?
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