|
SHARMA'S DILEMMA
|
|
February 18, 2008
|
Ken Barickman, AGWM personnel who serves as a prison chaplain in Belgium relates the following testimony.
 "I first met Sharma several months ago. He was arrested for being involved in the illegal trafficking of other Indians from Belgium to England. He had come to believe that followers of all religious systems will be accepted in heaven. So he practices rituals and elements, reads various religious scriptures, and prays to gods of various religions. I carefully, yet clearly, exposed this error in talking with Sharma. I prayed for him, and told him I’d come back the next week to talk with him more about it. He agreed, and asked me to procure for him a Punjabi Bible (in his mother tongue).
The next week when I visited Sharma, I told him that I had ordered a Punjabi Bible for him from the Bible Society. I asked him about his thinking and belief in other religions, and was assured that he understood that he needed to accept Christ Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. We then prayed on our knees, asking that the blood of Christ would cleanse Sharma from his sins. But, only God knows the true state of the heart of a man.
It was a month later that the Punjabi Bible finally arrived. With joy, I took it to Sharma’s cell. I have never seen anyone so happy to receive a Bible before! He thanked me, he shook my hand, he kissed the Bible cover over and over; He looked up to Heaven and said, 'Thank you, O God, for giving me this Bible in my own language and Pastor Ken who got it for me.' We talked and prayed some more before I left him to enjoy reading God’s Word in his own language.
A couple of weeks passed before I was able to visit Sharma again. I came into his cell and could see that he was deeply troubled. He sat down on his bed and soon opened his heart as to what the problem was. He said, 'I don’t know what to do. I am so deeply troubled. I have prayed to Buddha, meditated, I’ve read the Bible and prayed to Christ. But I’m still troubled, I have such a dilemma.' I understood then that he didn't realize that he should stop praying to all the various gods. But when he told me just what his dilemma was all about, I had hope because I knew that God was trying to get through to him.
You see, Sharma had a girl friend whom he loved very much. He had a ‘dream’ or a premonition that during his time in prison, she was being unfaithful to him and going out with other men. Though he had no proof, it was so real to him that during a visit with her, he accused her of being unfaithful to him. She responded saying that she only loved him, was being faithful, and that he had no proof of what he was saying.
While he was telling me his story, the Lord spoke to me to tell him that his feelings toward his girl friend were God’s way of speaking to him about his praying to many gods. I said, 'Sharma, listen carefully; God wants you to know that He loves you very much, even more than you love your girl friend. There is only one true God and He has revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ who died for you on the cross. A few weeks ago, you made a decision to accept Him into your life as Lord and Savior; Now, He is very jealous about you and wants you to follow Him and Him alone. Your praying and meditating on other gods is unacceptable to Him, and He has given you these thoughts about your girl friend to make you know how much He wants you to worship Him alone. You have no proof that your girl friend is unfaithful to you, but God knows everything about you. He knows that you pray to other gods and is jealous over you and wants you to stop.'
Sharma looked at me very seriously and said, 'Oh, is that right?' I said, 'Yes, that’s right. You have no proof that your girl friend is unfaithful to you; and your feelings only reflect to you the feelings of your Heavenly Father who wants you to be His and His alone. Please pray to Him only, and stop looking to all or any other of man’s replacements for the one and only true God, revealed to man in Jesus Christ.' Sharma nodded his head, showing his understanding of what I said. Hopefully it would only be a matter of time before he makes the decision to cut out all the ‘false gods’ from his life."
Prisoners like Sharma are the lost being reached for Christ who died for all.
|
<Home | Archives> |
|
|
|
| Download the Prayer Calendar
Daily
(PDF 122K)
By
Areas (PDF 92K)
need Adobe Reader? 
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Would
you like to receive the monthly email
report from Eye On Europe or request our
prayer calendar?
Email
us |
|
| Let your voice be heard.
Click here.
|
|
|
|
