Jesus Christ can manifest His presence in the most unlikely places and touch the heart of people who have never known Him.
The daughter of a devoutly Muslim ruler of a Middle East country found this out recently, leading to her transformation and conversion even at the cost of being repudiated by her own family, who even tried to kill her for what she did.
The true story of Najima (not her real name for safety consideration), narrated by evangelist Paul Siniraj, was recently posted online in the Bibles for Mideast website. Bibles for Mideast is an undercover Bible ministry that gets the Word of God into some of the most repressive Muslim countries.
Siniraj said Najima was once a faithful Muslim who followed the Five Pillars of Islam—never missing the required five-times-a-day prayers, giving alms to the poor, fasting and following all the rules for living as a Muslim woman.
She was a student at a Western university. One day, inside the classroom she noticed a small piece of paper stuck in a crease in her desk.
She looked at the paper and found that it contained a Bible passage about Jesus Christ. It read: "For God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).
She threw the small piece of paper in the trash, but the words haunted her, even after class, even when she was already back home. She kept asking herself, "How can Jesus be sin for us?"
She tried to blank her mind and went to bed, but still the biblical passage remained stuck in her consciousness. She could not sleep.
Then suddenly her room was bathed in brilliant light coming outside her window—as if the sun was shining at midnight.
Then she heard a voice: "Daughter, you're a sinner. There is none righteous, no, not one: All are gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; But I came to take all of your sins. I did ransom for many. Believe me and accept me. I give you eternal life."
She knew it was the voice of Jesus Christ. Right then and there she knelt down and accepted Him as her personal Saviour and Lord.
She boldly declared her new faith to her friends first, and then to her family.
Her family flew into a rage when she told them she had become a Christian. They stripped her naked and tied her to a chair fixed to a metal plate. She knew it—they would kill her by electrocution.
She was prepared to die for Jesus. She made one request: for them to place a Bible on her lap.
Her father responded, "If you want to die together with your false religion, so be it."
"That will show that your religion is powerless," one of her brothers added.
Instead of fright, she felt a sense of overwhelming peace, as though Jesus Christ Himself was there standing beside her.
Her father and brothers pushed the plug into the socket, but nothing happened. They tried again and again—four times using various cables, but the electricity refused to flow through the cables although current was on inside their house.
Finally, her fuming father slapped her and screamed, "You are no longer my daughter!"
He pushed his daughter out of the house into the street, naked. She ran through the streets, crying. She found refuge in the home of a friend who clothed her and gave her shelter.
The next day, her friend asked neighbours if they saw a girl running naked through the streets.
The neighbours said yes, they saw a girl—but she was not naked. "We saw a girl was running with a wonderful white dress like angels. We asked ourselves why someone so beautifully clothed had to run through the streets," they said.
Her father later forcibly took her back home and placed her under house arrest.
Recently two women missionaries of Bibles for Mideast visited Najima at her family's house. Wearing Muslim veils, they introduced themselves as Najima's classmates and were allowed to see her.
Their visit gladdened her heart and she prayed with them. In her prayer, she asked all God's children around the world to pray for her. She also prayed for her father, mother, brothers and sisters and all the Muslims of her country so that they, too, will experience the salvation of Jesus Christ.
Najima told the women of Bibles for Mideast: "Lord Jesus Christ gave me freedom from sin and death. I experience that real freedom and peace in mind."
"Amen. Halleluiah!" she added.
