I pray to our Father in Heaven that what I say reflects Him and only Him. Amen.
I'm going to start by saying that I am one of the great number of people from an Islamic background who had dreams and visions that ultimately helped bring me to salvation.
I will not recount those because those are not important. In fact, I would go so far as to say we shouldn't be trusting them to guide us, as I don't believe that every instance of dreams and visions are of Christ. (Though I cannot deny some are from Christ)
I get along just fine with cessationists as a result, even though I'm not one personally (experiences that I cannot discount).
Now that I have said that, I will share my conversion with you all.
I believed in Islam.. it was more than cultural for me. But across the course of my life I came, like so many others, to know that something was missing.. and whatever was missing was integral to knowing God in Truth.
It's like there was a hole that couldn't be filled.
At any rate I began to seriously question my faith, and I truly and honestly wanted at one point to understand Christianity - The Jesus of Islam and the Jesus of Christianity are two different people, and the role of Christ within Islam didn't seem to fit (if that makes sense) the role of Savior of anyone.
But here's the rub.. I didn't actually know any real Christians whom to ask, and those who had claimed to be Christian had, from my perspective at the time, either seemed like total nut jobs, or were only cultural Christians, or they couldn't explain their understanding of Christ to my satisfaction (in a way that made sense).
Next thing I know into my life walks a simple hillbilly I could barely understand his accent was so thick! Ha! God sent him, of this I have no doubt.
I, to this day, cannot explain how I knew that man had the answers I needed - but I knew....that he knew .
While it's to God to open our hearts to preaching, I personally think it helps when the preacher "speaks your language" so to speak, and this simple hillbilly I could barely understand spoke mine. (He had to repeat himself a lot until I learned to understand him through the accent, this is why I say barely understand...)
So at any rate I started asking him questions about the Christian faith - I had so many!
He debated me - his God versus mine, which God was really a God.. this is exactly where we started, not with Christ, but with the general concepts of God and which faith in it's teaching and practice showed a God that had no need of man. Islam didn't win here...
These discussions and debates between he and I are not quickly recounted, as this went on for months before I recognized more fully what God is...
I'm hardheaded at best... Hahaha
I did move from being convinced of Islam then, to being convinced of the Christian God.
Yet the death of Christ and the necessity thereof for salvation did become a sticking point for me, as I just couldn't manage to understand why. And, God allowed my blindness on this matter for some time before I came to the full realization of the Truth in Christ Jesus.
When I finally understood salvation it was in the space of an instant... And my whole world was forever changed.
I was saved, filled with God's Holy Spirit and left all I ever knew - and everyone I ever knew save my son, to be a Christian.
I was water baptized a few months after that because I was saved in winter time and they take you to the river here to baptize you. While my mother in law said she was baptized in winter my husband wouldn't allow it until spring because he worries for me.
P.S. I did marry the man who helped lead me to Christ. He's a widower and I divorced (I served my ex husband with divorce papers before they removed him from the United States and barred him from reentry so I was able to be divorced more easily - this I did when I was still Muslim).
So, my husband's family is the only family I have, and I live in the Appalachian mountain region now.
God bless everyone. Hopefully, perhaps, this helps you to understand me a little more.
I'm going to start by saying that I am one of the great number of people from an Islamic background who had dreams and visions that ultimately helped bring me to salvation.
I will not recount those because those are not important. In fact, I would go so far as to say we shouldn't be trusting them to guide us, as I don't believe that every instance of dreams and visions are of Christ. (Though I cannot deny some are from Christ)
I get along just fine with cessationists as a result, even though I'm not one personally (experiences that I cannot discount).
Now that I have said that, I will share my conversion with you all.
I believed in Islam.. it was more than cultural for me. But across the course of my life I came, like so many others, to know that something was missing.. and whatever was missing was integral to knowing God in Truth.
It's like there was a hole that couldn't be filled.
At any rate I began to seriously question my faith, and I truly and honestly wanted at one point to understand Christianity - The Jesus of Islam and the Jesus of Christianity are two different people, and the role of Christ within Islam didn't seem to fit (if that makes sense) the role of Savior of anyone.
But here's the rub.. I didn't actually know any real Christians whom to ask, and those who had claimed to be Christian had, from my perspective at the time, either seemed like total nut jobs, or were only cultural Christians, or they couldn't explain their understanding of Christ to my satisfaction (in a way that made sense).
Next thing I know into my life walks a simple hillbilly I could barely understand his accent was so thick! Ha! God sent him, of this I have no doubt.
I, to this day, cannot explain how I knew that man had the answers I needed - but I knew....that he knew .
While it's to God to open our hearts to preaching, I personally think it helps when the preacher "speaks your language" so to speak, and this simple hillbilly I could barely understand spoke mine. (He had to repeat himself a lot until I learned to understand him through the accent, this is why I say barely understand...)
So at any rate I started asking him questions about the Christian faith - I had so many!
He debated me - his God versus mine, which God was really a God.. this is exactly where we started, not with Christ, but with the general concepts of God and which faith in it's teaching and practice showed a God that had no need of man. Islam didn't win here...
These discussions and debates between he and I are not quickly recounted, as this went on for months before I recognized more fully what God is...
I'm hardheaded at best... Hahaha
I did move from being convinced of Islam then, to being convinced of the Christian God.
Yet the death of Christ and the necessity thereof for salvation did become a sticking point for me, as I just couldn't manage to understand why. And, God allowed my blindness on this matter for some time before I came to the full realization of the Truth in Christ Jesus.
When I finally understood salvation it was in the space of an instant... And my whole world was forever changed.
I was saved, filled with God's Holy Spirit and left all I ever knew - and everyone I ever knew save my son, to be a Christian.
I was water baptized a few months after that because I was saved in winter time and they take you to the river here to baptize you. While my mother in law said she was baptized in winter my husband wouldn't allow it until spring because he worries for me.
P.S. I did marry the man who helped lead me to Christ. He's a widower and I divorced (I served my ex husband with divorce papers before they removed him from the United States and barred him from reentry so I was able to be divorced more easily - this I did when I was still Muslim).
So, my husband's family is the only family I have, and I live in the Appalachian mountain region now.
God bless everyone. Hopefully, perhaps, this helps you to understand me a little more.
