May 12, 2010 (Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org)
The following is by our friend Shem Dharampaul of Alberta, Canada, MD (University of Alberta), FRCPC (Fellow of the College of Physicians of Canada), and trained in Nuclear Medicine. He is published in the Journal of Parasitology, Journal of Rehabilitation, Clinical & Experimental Immunology, Virchow’s Archives, and the Journal of Medical Entomology.
____________________________
I want to share with you the account of a day that began as the worst day in my life and ended as the best day in my life. I will tell you first how I got to that day, and then I will tell you what happened on that day.
I was born in a small country in South America, although my grandparents were from somewhere in the Indian Subcontinent. I often attended a Lutheran Church with my mother when I was a child. My parents divorced when I was eleven years old, and my mother, two brothers, and I, immigrated to Canada when I was fourteen years old.
I did not go to Church for years after we moved to Canada. By the time I finished High School, I was questioning the existence of God. I went to University, and by the time I finished my four year degree in Science, I was very much a secular humanist/atheist. That’s a person who does not believe that there is a God and believes that humans are the ultimate and best product of evolution.
In University, I became more and more involved in a sinful way of life. During my four years of study in Science, I met a Christian in my class. I would ridicule her beliefs and try to show her the contradictions in her life and philosophy. She invited me to a meeting once where they showed a movie about Jesus, but I did not believe it then. At the end of our third year in the Science Program, this classmate went to another part of the country to study Medicine. I finished the fourth year in Science and enrolled in Medical School at the University that I was already attending.
At about this time, my brother became a Christian. I think he used to be worse than me at sinning, but he started to show a change in his life after he became a Christian. However, he would still do or say bad things sometimes, and then I would mock him. He also told me about Jesus, but I didn’t believe, and I hated my brother for telling me that I was a sinner on my way to Hell.
In Medical School, two things started to happen to me. First, I started hating myself for sinning, but I still kept on sinning. Then, I started to question my disbelief in God. I think that I was starting to realize that there was more to life than evolution. I was looking at what I learned in Medical School about how complex the human body was and thinking that this couldn’t happen by chance. Then I realized that if humans were the ultimate in evolution, and were the only ones that could fix all the problems in the world, then there was no hope. Why? Because I was a human and was such a terrible person that I couldn’t help myself, much less the world.
These thoughts became more and more consuming in my mind. I started having doubts about a lot of things. I would try talking to God, saying in my mind, that “if you’re there, then do something to let me know.” I would look at the sky in the night, and say, “OK God, I am looking right at that star, make it go super nova, then I will know that there is a God.”
Of course, nothing like that happened, but with time, I became more and more convinced that there was a God. I talked to many people in University of different religions, and was most impressed with Christians for their love for those that hated them. I felt that if there was a God, it must be the God of the Bible. However, I did not want to submit to God. I would say as if speaking to God, that “God, when I die, I don’t want to go to heaven, or hell. I just want to die and disappear into nothingness.”
At this time, I was in my second year of Medical School, and more steeped in sin than ever. I took a summer job setting up appointments for a savings plan representative. During that summer, things got worse, and I hated my sins so much, that I felt that I could live with them no longer. One day, I was alone in my bedroom, and no one else was at home. I could no longer bear the weight of my sins, and decided to take my life. I was about to, when I remembered one of the clients that I had met that week on the job seemed like a nice person. For some reason, I decided to phone her, and I did. She started telling me about how God had worked in her life to overcome some difficulties. While on that phone, for about five or ten minutes, I decided to bring my burdens to God. So, after I hung up the phone, I knelt down beside my bed and prayed to God. I said I now fully believe in Him and all that I had heard about how Jesus died for me. I remembered a verse in the Bible that my Christian friend from the Science Program wrote to me a while before, Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And when I finished praying, I was no longer crying, and I felt a peace in my my heart that I had never felt before. The burden of my sins had been lifted! My sins were forgiven. I was washed clean by the pure, sinless blood of Jesus Christ, by placing my faith and trust in Him. I went to the window and raised the blind and the sun came into my bedroom, and I heard a bird singing. And I said aloud, that from that time forth, I wanted to live for the things of God, and not the things of man, because all that man touched was spoilt.
Later that week, I faced many temptations to sin again, and the Lord my God and Savior delivered me from them. I also tried to find that client that I had phoned, but never saw her again. There was no one at the townhouse where I had met her. I tracked down the Christian classmate from the Science Program and phoned her to tell her that I had gotten saved. She replied that of all the people she ever knew, she thought that I would be the last to get saved! Well, she was wrong, because there have been countless others saved after me, a few whom I shared the gospel with. Indeed, God’s mercy is great, and He is still saving people from their sins today.
It is now fourteen years later. I am practicing Medicine. God has blessed me with a faithful Christian wife and two children. We serve God in our local Church. I want all who hear my testimony to know that I serve the living God who created heaven and earth and all that is in them. It is this same God, who took on the form of man as Jesus Christ so that He can experience life as a man in order to take on Himself the penalty of man’s sins, yet He Himself was without sin. And it is this same God, who in the form of Jesus Christ, died on the cross and shed His sinless blood to atone for the sins of this world. And all sinners can find salvation in Him, by repenting of their sins and placing their faith in Him to save them from their sins. Won’t you please do that today?
The following is by our friend Shem Dharampaul of Alberta, Canada, MD (University of Alberta), FRCPC (Fellow of the College of Physicians of Canada), and trained in Nuclear Medicine. He is published in the Journal of Parasitology, Journal of Rehabilitation, Clinical & Experimental Immunology, Virchow’s Archives, and the Journal of Medical Entomology.
____________________________
I want to share with you the account of a day that began as the worst day in my life and ended as the best day in my life. I will tell you first how I got to that day, and then I will tell you what happened on that day.
I was born in a small country in South America, although my grandparents were from somewhere in the Indian Subcontinent. I often attended a Lutheran Church with my mother when I was a child. My parents divorced when I was eleven years old, and my mother, two brothers, and I, immigrated to Canada when I was fourteen years old.
I did not go to Church for years after we moved to Canada. By the time I finished High School, I was questioning the existence of God. I went to University, and by the time I finished my four year degree in Science, I was very much a secular humanist/atheist. That’s a person who does not believe that there is a God and believes that humans are the ultimate and best product of evolution.
In University, I became more and more involved in a sinful way of life. During my four years of study in Science, I met a Christian in my class. I would ridicule her beliefs and try to show her the contradictions in her life and philosophy. She invited me to a meeting once where they showed a movie about Jesus, but I did not believe it then. At the end of our third year in the Science Program, this classmate went to another part of the country to study Medicine. I finished the fourth year in Science and enrolled in Medical School at the University that I was already attending.
At about this time, my brother became a Christian. I think he used to be worse than me at sinning, but he started to show a change in his life after he became a Christian. However, he would still do or say bad things sometimes, and then I would mock him. He also told me about Jesus, but I didn’t believe, and I hated my brother for telling me that I was a sinner on my way to Hell.
In Medical School, two things started to happen to me. First, I started hating myself for sinning, but I still kept on sinning. Then, I started to question my disbelief in God. I think that I was starting to realize that there was more to life than evolution. I was looking at what I learned in Medical School about how complex the human body was and thinking that this couldn’t happen by chance. Then I realized that if humans were the ultimate in evolution, and were the only ones that could fix all the problems in the world, then there was no hope. Why? Because I was a human and was such a terrible person that I couldn’t help myself, much less the world.
These thoughts became more and more consuming in my mind. I started having doubts about a lot of things. I would try talking to God, saying in my mind, that “if you’re there, then do something to let me know.” I would look at the sky in the night, and say, “OK God, I am looking right at that star, make it go super nova, then I will know that there is a God.”
Of course, nothing like that happened, but with time, I became more and more convinced that there was a God. I talked to many people in University of different religions, and was most impressed with Christians for their love for those that hated them. I felt that if there was a God, it must be the God of the Bible. However, I did not want to submit to God. I would say as if speaking to God, that “God, when I die, I don’t want to go to heaven, or hell. I just want to die and disappear into nothingness.”
At this time, I was in my second year of Medical School, and more steeped in sin than ever. I took a summer job setting up appointments for a savings plan representative. During that summer, things got worse, and I hated my sins so much, that I felt that I could live with them no longer. One day, I was alone in my bedroom, and no one else was at home. I could no longer bear the weight of my sins, and decided to take my life. I was about to, when I remembered one of the clients that I had met that week on the job seemed like a nice person. For some reason, I decided to phone her, and I did. She started telling me about how God had worked in her life to overcome some difficulties. While on that phone, for about five or ten minutes, I decided to bring my burdens to God. So, after I hung up the phone, I knelt down beside my bed and prayed to God. I said I now fully believe in Him and all that I had heard about how Jesus died for me. I remembered a verse in the Bible that my Christian friend from the Science Program wrote to me a while before, Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” And when I finished praying, I was no longer crying, and I felt a peace in my my heart that I had never felt before. The burden of my sins had been lifted! My sins were forgiven. I was washed clean by the pure, sinless blood of Jesus Christ, by placing my faith and trust in Him. I went to the window and raised the blind and the sun came into my bedroom, and I heard a bird singing. And I said aloud, that from that time forth, I wanted to live for the things of God, and not the things of man, because all that man touched was spoilt.
Later that week, I faced many temptations to sin again, and the Lord my God and Savior delivered me from them. I also tried to find that client that I had phoned, but never saw her again. There was no one at the townhouse where I had met her. I tracked down the Christian classmate from the Science Program and phoned her to tell her that I had gotten saved. She replied that of all the people she ever knew, she thought that I would be the last to get saved! Well, she was wrong, because there have been countless others saved after me, a few whom I shared the gospel with. Indeed, God’s mercy is great, and He is still saving people from their sins today.
It is now fourteen years later. I am practicing Medicine. God has blessed me with a faithful Christian wife and two children. We serve God in our local Church. I want all who hear my testimony to know that I serve the living God who created heaven and earth and all that is in them. It is this same God, who took on the form of man as Jesus Christ so that He can experience life as a man in order to take on Himself the penalty of man’s sins, yet He Himself was without sin. And it is this same God, who in the form of Jesus Christ, died on the cross and shed His sinless blood to atone for the sins of this world. And all sinners can find salvation in Him, by repenting of their sins and placing their faith in Him to save them from their sins. Won’t you please do that today?
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