Why would anyone want to be a Christian in the first place?

I just listened to the heart-wrenching testimony of Ramin, an Iranian Muslim who spent three months looking in every bookstore and library for a New Testament after hearing the gospel over the radio for the first time. He found none. Every website offering the Bible was blocked. After learning how to use a VPN, he read the first five chapters of Matthew straight through, weeping at the beautiful words. He cried to Jesus, “If you are real, show me!”

Ramin, along with thousands of other young people, used to torture himself with chains on the streets of Iran to earn points from God. He described the excitement, like a child at Christmas, when his father gave him his first black torture shirt and a cluster of chains. By contrast, he said that when he cried out to Jesus, “It was like someone put his hand in my heart and yanked out all the hatred, anger, bitterness and depression.”

Ramin made CD copies of the New Testament and started sharing them. It was only a matter of months before someone was sent to silence him, stabbing him with a knife. He escaped to America and started a church for Iranian refugees; they are coming to Jesus left and right. If you want to hear the rest of Ramin’s story, go on YouTube and search these words: “Iranian stabbed for sharing his faith.”1

Thousands have commented on the video, sharing similar experiences. One said, “I was hugged by God as a young child when my parents told me that I was an accident, a mistake. God hugged me, and He said, ‘I don’t make accidents. I don’t make mistakes. I love you.’”

At the beginning of our furlough, we learned that the health of Stephanie’s brother, Gary Roberts, was going downhill fast. A fellow missionary (on three continents), he died at 46 of fast-growing brain tumors only weeks after his first symptom. Gary leaves behind a wife and daughter who, only days later, turned 18 years old.

While our grief is beyond words, the love and support we have received from so many have felt as if it was from God’s own hand. He gave us a bittersweet time together as a family. We have clung to God’s word. It turns out the Bible is a book for the grieving. It tells of a mother standing by helpless, watching her son die. Sisters, brothers, fathers, and mothers can all find real encouragement. When we say, “Where are you, God? Haven’t we had enough?” Jesus says, “My resurrection is a downpayment of what I can do for you one day.” The same power can yank out our hate by the roots and replace it with unconditional love. Do you know that love? He is where love comes from.

How could anyone not want to be a Christian?

1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYnKNPoW9mc&t=219s

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