A film of radical transformation of a murderer into a servant of Christ is moving the hearts of thousands today.
It’s the story of a modern-day Apostle Paul. His name is Yassir and he was raised in Sudan, in the most radical sects of Islam, and was taught to hate Christians and especially the Jews.
He hated Zachariah, the only Christian student in the school, who was a very smart and intelligent boy. As a muslim, Zachariah thought that he should be better than him. So every day his friends and he would beat him and one night along with some other friends they hatched an evil plan to murder Zachariah.
Five of them climbed a tree and waited. When Zachariah was passing by, they pounced on him, breaking his hands and legs and covering his mouth. He shivered, then stopped breathing. They left him there in the woods, thinking they had done a great deed according to their religion.
Yassir was born and raised in a deeply religious Muslim family. At age 8, his father enrolled him in a Quran school and left him there. There his head was shaved, and he had to sit in a circle with the shaikh in the middle who had a very long whip and forced them to memorize it.
Any mistake in learning the scripture would result in a whip on the head. He would cry every night due to this. Yassir developed a hatred for non-muslims, especially the Jews. He was ready to die for his religion but wondered what would happen to him if he died.
Unknown to Yassir, the one true creator of heaven and earth had started his work in his life. One day his cousin was severely sick and was going to die, two Coptic Christians turned up and wanted to pray for the child. They started talking to God like a friend and as they ended their prayer saying Amen, the child opened his eyes.
The child, who had been bedridden, was able to sit up and walk after just four weeks—a miracle. One of the men then spoke to him and said that God wanted to change his heart. They asked him if he believed Jesus was alive, he said yes because the Muslims believe that God took Jesus to heaven.
God transformed his life from hate to love through these two people, especially when they told him that he could talk to Jesus, and He would listen to him. He began reading the Bible and his hatred for the Jews turned to love.
After his radical transformation, his family disowned him, even conducting a funeral for him, because he had left their religion. Upset at what was happening he asked God where he was, and he heard a voice tell him, that his grave is empty just like Jesus’s grave was.
Yassir had an opportunity to visit Egypt after many years and met a Sudanese pastor there who was an elderly man with gray hair. After he had told him his story, the man began to weep and told him that he was Zachariah. He told him that because he hated him so much he was always praying for him. He had written Yassir’s name on the first page.
What a powerful story of redemption, share your comments about how this has impacted your heart today.
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