He's My Brother

Last week I mentioned about a new hire on my belt at UPS who is Iranian and that I was going to take my Farsi-English Bible to work and see if he would be interested in reading it. Before sort, I was laying on the belt and reading some Scripture when he came by. He looked at me and smiled and then glanced down at my Bible (the Farsi one). I asked him if he would like to take a look at it, and he picked it up with a smile. I asked, "So have you ever read the Bible?" He replied, "Oh yes! I am Christian." Stunned, I replied, "So you believe in Jesus Christ as your Savior?' Again he replied, "Oh yes! I am a Christian." I was blown away. In God's providence, God has placed a fellow Iranian Christian right next to me. How many Iranian Christians are out there? In Louisville? And people tell me God is not sovereign over all things. Here's the deal. His name is Nasrot, and he became a Christian six years ago before he came to the States. He is also Baptist. So I began to explore his testimony and previous church experience. I came to find out that he had quit going to church, and this is the reason he gave me. In broken English, he shared, "When I would read my Bible, I would see that Jesus told me two important things: I must love God with everything that I am, and that I must love the people around me as well. When I went to church, all I heard was talk, talk, talk. I saw people who knew how to dress in a suit and tie, but did not know how to love. I didn't belong." He later added the following, "I had a really hard time because the Baptist church was too narrow." Thinking that he was talking in a pluralistic or syncretistic sense, I probed. "So do you believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven?" Nasrot answered, "Yes. The Bible says nothing about Muhammed or any other person. The Bible is where I find my answers, and it tells me that Jesus is the only way and that Christianity is the only true religion." I was puzzled and asked him to explain to me, then, what he was talking about. He shared, "I was told that the Baptist are the only ones that are Christians. I cannot agree with that. It is too narrow. I believe there will be more people in heaven than Baptists." Amen to that brother! I rejoiced to know that he understood the truth but grieved to know that he was out of church because of the aforementioned reasons. From a Middle-Eastern perspective, he sees the American church in its superficiality, formality, and lukewarmness. He understands that there is more to community, to service, to worship, to Christianity than what was being piped down to him. He knew that Landmark Baptists were not settling their convictions on the Bible. I concluded with an invitation to church which he hesitantly accepted. I asked him about where he is right now in his relationship with Jesus. He concluded, saying "When I became a Christian, that was the greatest thing that ever happend to me. Every day as I pray and read the Bible, God speaks to me and helps me in my life. He always hears my prayers and is kind to answer." Needless to say, I am very encouraged. I pray that the Lord will give me opportunity to labor in the life of Nasrot in the time that we have and that he might want to join me in taking the gospel to our fellow UPSers. Go figure. Two Iranian Christians taking the gospel to Americans. Neat.