I remember when I was a young boy the first time I was able to actually go to the Shiite rituals where they beat themselves and you have to have black outfit which is a sign of mourning I was so excited to buy this new black shirt and ask my dad to buy me these chains there's a cluster of chain that you that people have and they beat themselves with these chains and we used to beat ourselves on the streets thousands of young people trying to earn points and please Allah that he would may have pity
on us or forgive us and more you torture yourself more you get points and hoping and wishing that you will go to heaven so I was born and raised in Iran as a Shiite Muslim I loved God as a young boy and I always wanted to serve him and to love him and when I was 16 years old something happened to me that it changed my life I was going to my cousin's wedding some of my relatives gave me a ride and they had some alcohol I didn't and I was in the car and I
was so excited to go and suddenly as we are on the way there's a checkpoint they pull the car over they smell the alcohol and they took all of us out they took us to confinement took all our clothes off bare naked they start putting cold water on us and start beating us with these big thick cables and they were mocking us and laughing at us they threw almost 50 of us in a small room we were choking I was so angry I was feeling humiliated hatred toward the people who who torture me unjustly in
the name of Allah for something I hadn't even done so it took us to the court with shackles on our hands and our feet and I sat before a judge was a mulah and he began to judge us based upon Islamic laws my family found some connections and they paid some bribe they actually released us and we had to just pay a fine but that was the beginning of a long journey I began to question Islam Islam that I was loving and serving but kind of religion is this that there's so much Injustice my mother
said no Islam is good only these mulas this regime makes it look bad I said okay fair enough then I began to do on my own research because before I would read the Quran but just to earn points but this time I began to read to see what actually Quran says I saw so much bad things in the Quran for example Surah 9: 2930 Muhammad said that kill those who don't believe in Allah and in his messenger Surah 551 he says do not take Jews and Christians for your friends because they are friend of each
other so imagine all these years all propaganda in the school we heard bad things about America bad things about Israel we heard evil things about Jews and Christians and suddenly my eyes are being open that this is not from God a God who made this beautiful Universe the flowers and the birds and these beautiful rivers and mountains this God could not be this cruel now I lost my faith in Islam Lam then I said so so now what who is God if there's no God then what is the purpose of life who made this world
and if there is a God then who is this God I want to know him shortly after that many things happen in my life I lost my father my father passed away as a result I dropped out of a school I left all my friends I was isolated and I was so broken so hopeless and I was crying out to God God if you're real who are you so then when I was 19 I heard heard the gospel for first time our power was out I had a radio that was working with battery so I
turned this radio because I was sitting in this dark room and then I came across a channel and somebody was talking about that he was going to commit suicide to hang himself and on the way he heard this beautiful music and he followed that sound of music and he arrived to this church and he heard the good news of the gospel and his life changed it was a glimpse of hope that the began to shine in my heart but nothing changed shortly after that I heard again that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that
he came that he died for me on the cross as a sacrifice and then 3 days later he rose from the dead and if I believe in him I'll be saved I said that's a bunch of baloney I rejected the whole thing I said how could God have a son God doesn't have a wife I could not comprehend that that God would have a son and he would come and die for us but one week later I was so depressed and so sad and everything seemed dark and hopeless and I heard the message again so
that day had nothing to lose and very skeptical I said Jesus I do not know you I was told you're a prophet now I hear you're the Son of God I don't know who he's telling the truth I don't want to be a victim of religion again but if it's true I want you to show me and the moment I say that the heat went through my hand I began to cry and weep it's like somebody put his hand in my heart and yanked out all that hatred and anger and bitterness and depression because I
hated the people who torture me unjustly that hatred turned to compassion and I was so full of joy so full of love I went to my mom's house my mom saw me and she said what happened to you I said why she said your face is shining I told my mother that I um became a Christian I accepted Jesus in my heart and she didn't have a negative reaction and she was sick for many years she had a pain that the doctor said you have to have surgery and she had so much pain I had
this confidence that if I ask anything in the name of Jesus he will hear me so I prayed for my mother and instantly pain left my mom she never had the same pain same problem ever again and she was suffering for years and Jesus Christ heal her so then I began to look for a Bible I'm a Christian now I want to see what Jesus said I was told when I was a Muslim that Moses brought the Torah Jesus brought injil which is Gospel and Muhammad brought the Quran but they told me the other two
are distorted they're changed is corrupted so they're no longer valid only the Quran is the last revelation of God but now I became a Christian I want to see what Jesus says in inil so I began to look for inil and I went library after Library store after store shop after shop for 3 months I was searching I couldn't find one finally I came on the internet and I searched for the word angil and a bunch of Link show up and I clicked on them but then it said access to this website is prohibited so
the government blocked the websites that actually had the gospel on them uh so I set a computer I use the VPN and I circumvent the the blockage and I click on the link and open all the books of the Bible I saw all these books and said who are these people who is Timothy I mean what is coren Corinthians I had never heard those things before so I download only the four gospels and I began to read I think I read the four gospels in 5 days I was so glued to this computer and as
I was reading the first five chapters of Matthew made me cry because I saw these words that I had never heard before love your enemies and pray for those who hate you and spitefully use you and I began to ask this question why this book is illegal there's nothing bad in it it's all about love and I saw Jesus said I'm the Good Shepherd the Good Shepherd lays his life down for his sheep and introduced God as a loving father I mean all these beautiful powerful words I said everybody should know about this so I
began to copy the four gospels on CD and as I was going out to the gym and on the street I would give to people and people around me would hear me and they'd run to me hey can I have a copy as well can you give me one too after 8 months of doing that I was in a phone booth I was talking on the phone and somebody a guy came with a long beard and he began to stab me with a knife after he run away I felt something warm coming down my face
and my leg and I just touched it and it was blood I don't know who the person was what was his motivation but that was the moment I began to feel for sure that it was not safe for me to stay there and God wanted me to leave so one night I grabbed some clothes and I left I didn't tell anybody and I came I remember as I was walking um on the streets where I grew up I knew I'm not going to see those the streets for a long long time and I went to
the bus station and I got a ticket to tan and then from tan I came to the border of turkey and miraculously God helped me to cross the border and come to Turkey I'm a 19-year-old boy I don't have money I don't know anybody I don't know what to do I don't know where to go nobody speaking me up there's no Arrangements but I had this peace that the same God who healed my mother the same God who saved me the same God is with me I had this confidence there was no fear or uncertainty
what's going to happen I just knew that everything is going to be all right I met this Iranian guy and I didn't say oh I don't know what to do I'm a stranger please help me I just share the gospel and he said well I'm not a Christian but I'm researching I'm going to a church to see what they believe and what they say he said would you like to come with me I said of course so this guy took me to the church and then actually he gave me the first actual New Testament and
it's like somebody gave me the whole world I was so happy to have actual New Testament in my hand and I saw people rejoicing and praising God and worshiping God music guitar in contrast to mosque every time he went to mosque he was weeping and crying and sorrow and sadness after the service the pastor came to me and he said welcome what are you doing here so I told him my story and he said oh praise the Lord God has called you and he loves you and he has a plan for you so somebody in
the church took me to his house God was so faithful to me providing for me protecting me there were so many threats so I was there for 2 years and I got a call from you that you are accepted as a refugee I arrived in America and I say thank you Lord for a free country where I can freely worship you after I finished the Bible study I started a church for Iranians began to reach out to Muslims Iranians are left and right coming to Jesus imagine for all those years we would go to the
shrines of dead imams and we would pray to these dead bones crying out to Allah to Muhammad for answer and not even once Allah answered our prayer but the moment I call on the name of Jesus I felt this love I felt his power and just he showed up in my room my name is Ramin parsa and I am one for Israel [Music]
