SALVATION
From Pornography to
Christianity:
A Muslim Finds Christ
By Mark Woodland
The 700 Club
Morocco is a country of exotic people and culture. It is an Islamic
country that is home to one of the largest mosques in the world.
It's a place where you might not expect to find pornography, but
young Yusef had found it.
"You feel the ecstasy. You feel happy. The current takes
you along and you can't resist," said "Yusef,"
whose name has been changed to protect his identity.
It had become his favorite pastime - cruising the satellite channels
for the latest pornographic movies.
"Anyone in their teens, when they felt emptiness, they would
hold on to something else," Yusef said. "They would
either turn to sexual activity or watching pornographic movies."
And Yusef was empty. He grew up in very poor family, and there
was nothing in life that he looked forward to. So Yusef turned
to pleasure. One day while watching another pornographic movie,
his mind filled with decadent images, Yusef encountered something
unexplainable.
"I was watching the movie and I thought I heard someone
coming," Yusef said. "So I quickly changed the channel
and there was a program I had never seen called The 700 Club.
When I went to change back to finish the movie - the remote control
did not work. And we weren't able to change the station manually
either!"
But suddenly, Yusef felt strangely drawn to the story on the
screen about another man, much like him, whose life was empty
too.
"That man was hopeless and I was the same," Yusef said.
"So what was the solution? It was the voice that told him
that he needed a change - on the inside. That was the thing I
focused on."
Yusef began to want what he saw in this young man whose heart
was changed. He wanted the emptiness in his own heart to be filled,
but he had no idea how to fill it.
"I had no idea about Christianity, but I felt like something
was working in me," Yusef said. "But I didn't know what
it was. It felt like someone was pushing me from the inside. Suddenly,
I found myself praying the same way they were praying on the program.
As they prayed, I prayed with them. I repeated the same words
they said and I felt something beautiful! I felt filled up."
Yusef was so excited about what was happening inside, he knew
he must find a Bible. But he now realized he was a stranger in
his own land. How would learn more about the Lord?
"I had found a Bible at an old market," Yusef said,
"but my family started harassing me. One day while I was
in another city…someone got rid of my first Bible."
In spite of his loss, God was not about to abandon Yusef. One
day while leaving a café, a second miracle happened His
waiter approached him and gave him a book saying 'you left this
on your table!" That book was a Bible!
"I took the Bible and decided to read it and knew that I
would be rewarded with the right knowledge. I started trying to
understand and live according to the word," Yusef said.
The change that Jesus is making in Yusef's life is giving him
peace on the inside. Yusef admits it hasn't made it easy to exist
in a society that is hostile to anyone that abandons Islam.
Yusef said, "As a regular person you will be cast out of
the society, you could be taken to court; they will not leave
you alone. You will be put to shame and you could be killed because
you are perceived as infidel."
Yet God continues to protect him even after family and friends
learned that he had converted to Christianity.
"People thought I went insane," Yusef said. "But
what was amazing is that all of those people would come to me
in private and question me trying to see what if what I found
out about God is really the truth. Those people had no inner peace,
and even when they are convicted with the truth they hide it and
can't proclaim it. They fear the community. But I can tell when
people start to believe."
And what does Yusef think about Jesus today?
"He saved me, taught me how to live a different life not
like the one I lived before. I feel honored but at the same time
I feel like I have a responsibility towards those around me. The
Lord saved you; you have to help bring those around you to salvation
as well."
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