Courtesy of Hedieh MirahmadiI initially got here to Christ in a single of the darkest instances of my existence. I left Islam as soon as I eliminated my head cowl and was instructed i would spend an eternity in hellfire, hanging from my hair. After more than twenty years, I might no longer worship a God that was that cruel and unpredictable. I resolved to a life without a relationship with God, but it changed into not lengthy before my very own and professional lifestyles was in utter chaos. I became to prayer for support. I not knew or had a personal relationship with the God i used to be seeking, however I knew He would help me.
all the way through that time, I came throughout a tweet from a woman I didn't even know who posted a clip from her celeb pastor. She mentioned his sermons had healed her of her emotional trauma, and that piqued my curiosity. i needed to understand how a Christian pastor could supply that sort of idea, so I watched the video. to put it it appears that evidently, i used to be hooked. The pastor's message changed into about the healing and redemptive vigor of accepting Christ as Lord and Savior. That He by myself can fix what was broken and would provide the ability to conquer something boundaries you have in lifestyles. It became like taking note of a Christian Tony Robbins seminar, filling me with hope, motivation, and the desire to be trained more about the Jesus of the Bible.
At this point, I simplest had one Christian friend and by no means set foot in a church for worship. My most effective exposure to the energy of Christ was on YouTube. After binge-staring at this pastor for more than a month, I started to pray for God to reveal Himself. i was so puzzled by the thought that Jesus was God as a result of, as a Muslim, we're advised believing within the Trinity would violate God's oneness. in a single of these prayers, head bowed on the ground as I did within the common variety of Muslim worship, I heard the audible voice of Christ say, "Hedieh, it's Me". At that moment, my existence changed perpetually. The Lord Jesus Christ had answered my prayer, and it was no longer long earlier than i was baptized and have become a Christ-follower.
I traveled to North Carolina to be baptized at the megachurch of that pastor, and a group of astounding believers surrounded me. They supported me through the emotional upheaval of telling family unit and chums i was now a Christ follower and recommended me on the value of prayer and analyzing the Scripture. They helped me consider the way to hear God's voice and reside a life that reflects God's holiness. at last, i realized that what my church friends have been educating me changed into not in the pastor's messages. in its place, they inspired me to attract closer to God's observe and reside the existence that the disciples described for a believer during the Gospel. Our pastor changed into charismatic and led me to explore what Christ had to present, however eventually, I obligatory greater.
The pastor by no means said repentance and turning away from sin. He didn't warn us about false lecturers and the level of deception that could take place before Christ's return. He well-nigh completely disregarded the ebook of Revelation, and every sermon handiest lined one or two verses of the Bible. It changed into not until I started to attend Calvary Chapel Chino Hills that i realized how little I realized concerning the Bible from my outdated church. Had the Lord now not led me to are looking for out authentic teachings of the Bible, i'd have stayed in the megachurch that turned into the "cool location to be" however left me with out the connection to Christ I crucial to withstand the storms of existence.
All of this is to say that as a Muslim convert, the crisis of many megachurch is beyond the hypocrisy of celeb pastors who preach what they do not emulate. extra complicated for individuals like me is that many movie star pastors fail to teach the total counsel of the Gospel; the obsession with social media reputation, own recognition, and wealth accumulation ends up in an intentional omission of the difficult truths of Christ's message. Repenting and turning from sin, no longer conforming to the patterns of this world, and facing persecution for our beliefs is a relentless theme in the Bible. without these truths to e-book our habits, a church body finally ends up more like a self-help community or a social club than a place of discipleship.
i'm forever grateful that the Lord led me to discover a Bible-based mostly pastor so i can grow within the expertise of righteousness. however, I can't disregard that i was drawn to Christ and fed the milk via a celebrity pastor. As Paul explains in Hebrews:
You need milk, not solid food, for every person who lives on milk is unskilled within the be aware of righteousness when you consider that he is a toddler. but strong food is for the mature, for people that have their powers of discernment informed by using steady practice to distinguish first rate from evil.[1]
I witnessed a whole bunch of recent believers come through my previous church, and though I don't know what number of of them became genuine believers, I remember the parable of the wheat and the tares[2]. The Lord teaches that it is not for us as servants to uproot what the enemy sows because we can also lose the respectable in the technique.
As a group of believers, we ought to do every little thing in our energy to evade corruption within the Church, and the use of the requisites of corporate the united states instead of Christ will most effective lead to additional ethical decay.[3] we are also commanded to defend towards false academics and people that come as wolves in sheep's garb to misinform the flock[4]. finally, our attendance at church should still be concentrated on drawing just about God, now not idolizing a preacher and his hip experience of trend.[5] All this being genuine, we can not brush aside how God makes use of some of those institutions to attract americans like me. maybe i might have ultimately found my way to Christ through one more potential, however the knowledge of the parable offers me pause.
He says, "Let both develop together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest, i'll say to the reapers, "First accumulate together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat into my barn."[6]
[1] Hebrews 5: 12-14[2] Matthew 13:24-30[3] https://www.christianpost.com/voices/the-modern-evangelical-church-is-ailing-where-it-fell-aside.html[4] Matthew 7:15[5] https://www.christianpost.com/books/preachersnsneakers-creator-churchgoers-demand-celebrity-pastors.html[6] Matthew 13:30
Hedieh Mirahmadi turned into a devout Muslim for two decades working in the box of national security before she experienced the redemptive power of Jesus Christ and has a brand new ardour for sharing the Gospel. She dedicates herself full-time to Resurrect Ministry, a web resource that harnesses the vigor of the web to make salvation via Christ obtainable to individuals of all countries, and her daily podcast LivingFearlessDevotional.com.
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