When I left Islam to follow Jesus, I did not know what it was going to cost me, I had not realized that it would be necessary to renounce myself, leave my life, and take my cross (Matthew 16:24). I don’t know that even my family’s precious relationships shouldn’t be between me and?Follow Christ? that I despise my family in relation to my love for Jesus (Luke 14:26).
But God taught me that if I take my cross and give up my life, then I will get my life back. Over time, I began to experience this truth. My life as a result of Jesus was not the life I imagined, but yes. it became the life I want: a life used for the glory of God as I grow in the knowledge of Christ and make it known to others. This is what I discovered when I was forced to choose between Jesus and my father.
- I was born in Houston and grew up in a devout Muslim home.
- My father was very involved in the Iranian Muslim community.
- Growing up.
- I learned the five pillars of Islam and that if I did my best.
- Then maybe I’d go to heaven.
- When I was two.
- My family moved to Iran.
- Where my parents are from.
- But at the age of six.
- The Islamic revolution of the late 1970s struck this country.
- My father.
- Who was a doctor.
- Had the means to get us out of the country.
- So our family went back to Houston.
He spoke ‘farsi’, a Persian language, not English, so God, in his incredible plan, provided a Christian Lady to guide me, teaching me the English language every day reading me books. In second grade, she said, “Afshin, I want to give you the most important book you’ve ever read. “When he gave me a little New Testament, he told me he wouldn’t fully understand this momonto, but he asked me to promise to keep it. me until I grow up.
She gave me this Bible during the hostage crisis in Iran, a time when my family and other Iranians in the United States were condemned and hated by many. This lady, however, earned the right to be heard by the way she loved me, showed me Christ’s love and shed her life on me, because the Bible came out of it, I thought it was important and I kept this New Testament, she had planted a seed in my life in the second year, which would not materialize until ten years later. Then.
As a high school veteran, I used the Lord’s name in vain while playing basketball. A young man came up to me in the field and said, “Hey, that Jesus whose name did you just mention?Is he my god? As a Muslim I learned that Jesus was a prophet, so I thought this guy was crazy. A few days later, while watching television, I came across a historical documentary about the life of Jesus, where I heard him say, “Some people worship Jesus as God and call themselves Christians. “My mind returned to the child’s words on the basketball court, and the Lord reminded me of the Bible I had received ten years earlier. That afternoon I found this little New Testament at the bottom of my closet and began reading Matthew.
Every day I read under the sheets of my bed with a flashlight, so my parents don’t come to see what I’m doing. Meanwhile, at my school, a Christian student sat at the table with me and told me about Jesus. . I spoke to him every day, and then at night I went home to find out more about his Jesus.
One day I arrived at the Book of Romans and the third chapter completely changed my life. I read about a justice that stands out from the law, beyond what I do for God. I read that this justice comes as a gift to be received. I was impressed by Romans 3:22, which says that this righteousness reaches all who believe. I thought that if I was born a Muslim, I should always be a Muslim, but this verse said that this justice was for all. I believed, of any ethnicity. A few weeks later, a young man invited me to an evangelical crusade (always an interesting word for a Muslim!), where I heard the proclamation of the gospel and came to faith in Christ.
One aside: I am often asked what form of evangelization I think is most effective. God has used evangelism in different ways in my life. He used a loving teacher and a teacher, a boy, a classmate he shared individually in a cafeteria, a boy talking about the name of Christ on a basketball court, an invitation to an evangelistic event, and preaching the gospel in a community setting. I believe in each of these forms of evangelization because God has used them in my own life.
I made my public commitment to Christ during this gospel crusade, but it was on the way home when I left the event that I came up with: “What am I going to say to my family?What am I going to tell my dad?” My father has always been the most important person of my life, the man I have always admired, I am ashamed to say that I have decided to hide my new faith from him and the rest of my family. correspondence from the church I attended and hid my Bible.
Finally, one day, my father found out. He saw my Bible, he also saw other evidence in my life. He made me sit down and said, “Son, what’s going on?I said, “Dad, I’m a Christian,” he said, “No, you’re not, young man, you’re a Muslim, and you’ll always be a Muslim. “I said, “Father, does the Bible say that if I trust only Christ for my salvation, then I am a Christian?”Then my father said, “Afshin, if you want to be a Christian, you can no longer be my son. “
Everything in my flesh meant, “Forget it, will I be a Muslim?I didn’t want to lose my relationship with my father. So I even was surprised when I opened my mouth and said, “Dad, if I have to choose between you and Jesus, then I choose Jesus. And if I have to choose between my earthly father and my heavenly Father, do I choose my heavenly Father?My father immediately repudiated me.
I went up to my room and, at that turning point in my life, I said, “God, how could you do that to me?Jesus, if you’re real, how can you take my father away from me?And the Lord”. took me to where Jesus said:
Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, I too will confess it to my Father who is in heaven; But anyone who denies me before men, I too will deny him before my Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I didn’t come here to bring peace, but a sword, because have I come to provoke the division between man and his father?(Matthew 10. 32?35)
I read this moments after my father repudiated me and thought, Wow, it just happened to me!Jesus goes on to say:
“Why did I come to cause division? Between daughter and mother and between stepdaughter and stepmother. Thus, man’s enemies will be those of his own house. He who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; He who loves His son or daughter more than I am not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and come after me is not worthy of me; He who finds his life will lose it; who, however, lost her for me, will find her?(Matthew 10,35?39)
It was there that I first understood what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
I had to lose my father to follow Christ, but I learned firsthand that when you lose your life, God found her, she gave me a roommate at the university who was also a Muslim and was also repudiated by her father. God took me to the seminary. He provided a businessman in Dallas who paid for my entire seminary and an internship at church, which eventually led me to a position as a college pastor. God gave me a fifteen-year ministry when I traveled the United States, preached the gospel, and saw Muslims come to believe in Christ.
I have partnered with a ministry that comes to Iran with the gospel and have had the privilege of training and equipping Iranian pastors, helping to spread the gospel in the same country where my family came from. I am now pastor of a church in Frisco, Texas, where I must remind our people every week to consider the cost of following Christ. As a result, we grew up, established three churches, and sent several missionaries around the world. Finally, I am very happy to say that my relationship with my father has been restored and I continue to pray daily for his salvation.
I am passionate about telling people that following Jesus comes at a cost, how much does it cost to follow Him?It may be that what you hold is what prevents you from living for its glory. To me, he was my father. For you, it could be something else.
There is a big difference between being a disciple of Christ and simply giving your mental nod to the truths about Jesus. Christ’s call is not simply “Believe in the good things of me,” but “Follow me. “And to follow Jesus is to lose Is to abandon your dreams, your quests, your idols to seize the greatest treasure of life: Jesus. When we lose our lives, God will exploit them for their glory and for others to know Jesus. There is no greater joy and satisfaction in life than that.