Searching for Allah, but finding Jesus- a former Islamic man shares how he found Jesus

9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

One of my pastimes while working out is listening to podcasts by leading authors. One of those was a podcast by Nabeel Qureshi about his friendship with a Christian while attending college and their dialogue. He was trying to convert his Christian friend and vice versa. He said those dialogues took place over a 7-year period.

He said something profound. Muslims, when they come to Christ, have to be strong enough to counter their cultural resistance. In fact, this resistance is so strong that Muslim,as well as Jewish and Hindu families, will consider their Christian son or daughter as dead. Some will have a funeral for the child, and from that moment on, end all communication with them.

For the first time, I started to see Muslims through the eyes of Jesus. I could feel the tension they were feeling as they saw Jesus in their dreams. I could sense what they might have been experiencing with parental rejection of their new faith. I could sense what it must be like to never be able to go back to their country of origin, or to see their Muslim parents without threats of violence toward them. He said one of the greatest honors for a Muslim boy is Jihad. They know that from their Muslim upbringing, they will see God when they kill Gentiles. On September 11th, 2001, all of the men who hijacked the commercial airliners believed they would be ushered into heaven once their planes crashed because of their faith in Allah.

Nabeel's life didn't end in Jihad, but through dreams of Jesus, he found new life as a Christian

This was Nabeel's faith story. He wrote a book and has traveled on speaking engagements, always sharing his faith story. Everyone has a story to tell others about finding Jesus. Like the cornerstone date often found on buildings, each of us has an etched-in date the moment we found Jesus.

If you are not sure if you know Christ because of so much cultural confusion, there is hope in simply saying this prayer of salvation. Prayer is having a conversation with God.

Lord God, I come before You with a humble heart, acknowledging that I am a sinner in need of Your saving grace. I recognize that I cannot achieve righteousness on my own or earn Your forgiveness through my works. I ask You to open my eyes to my true spiritual condition and lead me into truth. Have mercy on me, cleanse my heart, and draw me closer to Your love. Help me to fully understand my need for salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Amen If you said this prayer with a humble heart, you can rest assured that your name is written in the book of life. You can have assurance that when you take your final breath on this earth, you will see Jesus in heaven.

Earth is not our final destination.

If you are in Christ, then you have a story of how Jesus saved you from lifes tragedies. Don't be afraid of sharing your story because people need to see there is hope in this hopeless world.

And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. That You May Know 13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

For most of my life I would sit and listen to those in pain at the very juncture of their tragic losses and watching the effects of their pain. One's losses doesn't have to define them as a person they were when things were going great. I knew from my own losses, that God is always there to support me. I may not know it at the time through my cloudy vision, but in time when my eyes became more focused of the pathway of life, I realized that Jesus never abandoned me at the height of my pain.

I knew that Jesus gave me the assurance of not only life everlasting, but that I would see loved ones again when I take my final breath. Not until my mission is complete on this planet and not until I hear the words, "well done my good and faithful servant" when I will see loved ones in the my receiving line of heavens welcome room.

I noticed another phenomenal moment months later when the same grief stricken person comes back after participating in a 13 week grief share group- this time they have an aura of hope that is filled with smiles and a 'I can't wait to share my recovery story' Their story inspires me when I see first hand God's hand on their shoulder, gently guiding them to successful culmination of their loss. They knew that God was really in their story and that He hadn't abandoned them.

If you are grieving over a loss of a loved one, I encourage you to explore a 13 week grief share group to help you recover from the painful throes of your loss. In every loss, I've noticed beautiful miracles that takes them from a wilted flower to a rejunvenated rose because of what Christ is doing in their life.

If you're not sure if you are a Christian I encourage you to pray this prayer.

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name. Amen.

God is now in control of your life and he will guide you through life's pitfalls and turnmoils.

The greatest gift God gave mankind was the free gift of salvation when Jesus was sacrificed on the cross. But death wasn't the final result.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved. Acts 4:12

As i walked toward the good friday service, I overheard a little boy asking his dad," Why do they call it good friday? There is nothing good about Jesus dying.

His dad looked into his little boys eyes and asked him to remember those bible stories from his Sunday school class Yes, good Friday is sad, but two days later, Jesus Christ will rise out of the grave into eternal life. God made it abundantly clear through all of the major prophets and the words of Jesus regarding what would happen to Him. Good Friday and Easter morning were clear signs that death would be forever defeated. No more pain, or suffering to us all because of what Jesus did on the cross.

Sigh, as I reflected on the millions of Iranian Christians who were murdered by the Radical Islamic regime since 1979 as a result of the Khomeini regime's skewed way of thinking when it pushed out the peoples choice of leader, the Shah, and ushered in Sharia law to anyone who dared violated their skewed way of thinking.

Sigh, as I reflected on the millions of babies ripped limb for limb by the satanic abortion industry simply because of 'woman's rights.

Sigh, as I reflected on the historically know racism of the Democratic party since the civil war days that lynched black men, destroyed black families by giving woman extra money in Government handouts if they weren't married.

Sigh, as I reflected on the lies said by the Democratic politians that they were never the racist party. Then, I remembered through the years a record number of racist laws passed by them like Lyndon Johnson's great welfare program when he mentioned that he will have blacks voting democratic for the next 200 years.

Sigh, as I reflected on the radical indoctrination of our public institutions with declining academic scores, increased hatred between the races that only fuals riots in the street, especially around major election cycles.

As I reflected on the victims, I see Jesus Christ standing at the gate of heaven with open arms welcoming those who's lives ended abruptly. For them, their bodies were healed without a single trace of any earthly affliction. Jesus healed and made them whole.

As I looked at the rising morning sun, I was reflecting on my own salvation- a decision I made to Jesus in the spring of 1974 at the little country coffee house in the Minnetonka Mills neighborhood. It was a decision I never regretted as I sensed the presense of Jesus walking by my side every day of my life.

While there is still time, I encouraged anyone who doesn't know Jesus as their personal Savior to bow before God and invite his son, Jesus, into your heart with this simple prayer: Heavenly Father, I believe that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God came to earth to be the Saviour of the world, and that by His death on he cross, He paid the price for the sin of the world, so that whosoever believes on Him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

Thank You for Jesus and thank You for my free gift of salvation. Thank You that by believing on His name, I am forgiven of my sins and and brought into sweet fellowship with my heavenly Father.

Thank You, Lord, for sending Your Son to die on Calvary's cross in my place. Thank You that His innocent life was sufficient to pay the full price for my sin, and the sin of the world.

Lord, I turn from all my prideful sins and from everything that is dishonoring to Your name, and pray that I would grow in grace and in a knowledge of Jesus, until I come to a spiritual maturity, as day by day the Holy Spirit seeks to transform my lowly body into the likeness of Jesus.

Thank You, Father, for Your wonderful gift of salvation and thank You that by believing I am now Your child. In Jesus' name I pray,

Amen.

If you said this prayer, you can be assured that you will see Jesus Christ the moment you take your final breath on this side of the veil.