My apologies for not posting in a few days.  Jet lag is a beast, especially when you fly across 12 time zones.

So you know how lit up I am about our recent trip to Malaysia, and there are so many stories worth sharing, but this one deserves the top spot.  It is about a new brother in Christ who repented of his sins and exercised faith in the gospel during our trip.  His nickname is Richie and he just began a relationship with the Living God!

I met him one evening after I spoke at the conference for university students.  He immediately struck me as being extremely intelligent.  He began asking honest questions about my message, about the basics of Christianity, and the claims of Christ and of scripture.  He informed me that he was  Hindu, but that he was also a free thinker, something that most university students adhere to in Malaysia.  We spent a little less than an hour talking about how all religions may contain elements of the truth, but they cannot all possibly be true because they contradict one another on multiple levels.  Hinduism, I told him, believed in a multitude of Gods, none of which love people and none of which died to save people from their sins.  Orthodox Christianity claims there is but one God, and Jesus was that God come in the flesh to this world in love to deal once and for all with our sin on the cross.

He listened intently but gave no indication he was ready to go any further.  I walked away thankful for the chance to share but not expecting to see any sort of immediate fruit from the conversation.  Man, was I surprised!

The next message I preached was a simple Biblical and apologetic sermon on the person of Christ and His death and resurrection for our salvation and the atonement of sins.  I gave an invitation (something many people cringe at, especially beyond American Evangelical borders) and 33 students indicated that they had prayed to receive Christ.  Richie was one of them.  I walked to the very back row where he was seated and he told me that he knew he was supposed to convert to faith in Christ, because he knew it was true.  He said he felt hot all over his body, his heart was beating fast, and all he wanted to do was cry.  We prayed and he shared his decision with a campus minister that had been sharing with him for some time.

Two days later, Richie was spending some time with our group while we were walking around town, and he asked me if he could share the rest of his testimony with me.  I tried to write it down verbatim.  Here it is, with his permission.

“Clayton, I had been hearing about Jesus for sometime, and was confused about so many things, then I went to church with my friend.  After church, I kept thinking about the words and about Jesus, but did not want to leave my tradition.  But a few nights later, in my sleep, Jesus appeared to me in a dream.  He did not say any words, He just stood there looking at me and smiling.  I felt great calm and peace, and I knew that He loved me in my dream.  When you asked us to put all our faith in Him, I felt that same calm come over me, and I knew it was time for me to submit to Him.  Now I am a Christian and I love Jesus, too.”

I really don’t think that testimony needs much explanation or commentary from me.  God is already in all the places where we pray the gospel will spread, and we get the joy of being those who carry it to this world.  Glory to God for Jesus, Who is still alive and still calling people to Himself!

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