A New Creation in Christ

When I took this photo of the white flower I remembered how in Christ we are new creation. But here I would like to just talk about the joy of being new creation in Christ, because it seems that joy is the first gift Christ gives us through the Holy Spirit when we surrender our lives to Him. Here is a little story…

In the summer of 2003, I had just graduated from high school and by then I was in Canada for 4 years, I decided to find Christian chat rooms online. I had never been to a chat room before (or since) but I really wanted to join one because I needed spiritual advice on how to overcome lust, and I didn’t have any other source of help.

So I went to MSN chat rooms (been closed for a while now) and I looked through few Christian chat rooms before I mustered the courage to join one that had about 8-12 people in it. There were only 2 Christians ladies and the rest were all men. When I joined they were all nice calling me brother and so forth, and asked what brought me to the chat room and I told them my problem and how I was seeking advice on overcoming lust. For some reason that didn’t go well with the men and the “senior” male member finally told me something like, “My grandfather and my dad both look at women, lust after them, and comment on their bodies, and I do the same…we all do and we turned out just fine!” I answered him, “My dad does too but I don’t follow your dad or mine—I follow Christ.” That didn’t go well with them and the senior male member said something to the like, “This is turning stupid and boring, I am leaving”, and he left. Five minutes later I was there only with the two ladies who happened to be the creators/moderators of that chat room (and older lady and a younger lady). They were very friendly and we talked about sin, and the Bible and so on. That was the first night, and they asked me to come to their chat room the next night too.

Next night I went to the chat room again but there was nobody except the older moderator. After few minutes this lady comes into the chat room and begs us to save her friend! She says that she just met this lady in her early to mid 20s yesterday through another chat room and she is suicidal. That’s when I thought, “Ok, it is time to leave!”, because I didn’t want to trouble them with my lust problem when they have to deal with a person who is ready to commit suicide! So the older moderator asked the new lady to bring the young lady into the chat room so she can talk with her. The new lady kept going and coming back saying she can’t convince the young lady to come to the chat room. After 10 minutes or so the young lady finally joins our chat room, and so they both, the moderator and the lady, start talking to her but she wasn’t opening up to anyone. That’s when they both decided to leave her for me to handle, and the older moderator told me that she is going away and that I was in charge of the chat room!

A New Creation in Christ by Fadi

I didn’t know what to say, after all I was there for help! So I just quoted this verse, “He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds,” which I found on Dr. Stanley’s website (InTouch.org). The young lady asked, “Where does the Bible say this?” I told her, “Psalm 147:3”. Then the new lady got occupied by new members. So I decided to open a private window to chat with the young lady alone.

She told me about her life: how she knows about God from attending a Catholic School, how she doesn’t know where her mom is, she lives with her father and grandmother who are alcoholics, her grandmother is also into all kind of black magic that she is sometimes too scared to even leave her room, and how her brother is also into magic and is a drug dealer! I tried my best so share Christ with her but I was just happy she was opening up—I was afraid she would hurt herself. Around 3:30 AM I was worn out and she said, “Be right back”, so I took the opportunity to go to my bed, kneel on it and pray. I prayed until she came back; I prayed for her well physically and spiritually health and for her to have joy in her life.

We talked a bit more and then I was very tired and my eyes were hurting me so I told her, “I really got to go sleep because I am very tired.” But she kept me chatting for few more minutes until when I really had to leave she blurred, “Ok, I want to get saved, I want to have a personal relationship with Christ but I don’t know how!” So she asked me a bit more about salvation and I told her to go pray asking God to forgive her of her sins, to turn away from her sins, and tell Him that she believes He sent His son to die for all her sins, and to invite Him as Lord into her heart. She agreed and went away and came back after few minutes. We decided to close the private window and go back to the main chat room window.

Something changed in that girl right away! I mean she was happy, and talkative, and cracking jokes and praising God on the Internet! The only thing concerned me is that her typing was becoming far between, so she would type something, then disappear for a minute then she would come back type something and disappear again! I asked her if she was alright and she said, “Oh, I am fantastic! I am just typing like this because my laptop is on the floor and I type something then I roll on the carpet from joy and then roll back to the laptop, type something, then roll away again!”

I never heard from her after that night, and I remember that her user name was something like, “livingindarkness”; I really hope she is now living in the Light of our Lord.

When I accepted our Lord as Saviour I was 16 years old and that was in 1999. I was living in Amman, Jordan with my family as we were waiting our immigration papers to Canada to be completed. It was summer time and it was in the afternoon. I was laying on a straw carpet near the window reading a book called More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell; the book was translated into Arabic and I had gotten it from a neighbour who left it behind after he immigrated to Sweden. I was at the end of the book and he was telling his story of how his relationship with his dad was recovered after he had become a Christian. At the end of the story he asked if anyone want Jesus Christ to change their lives they must come to Him in prayer, ask for forgiveness, believe that He died for their sins, and surrender their lives to Him. And there was a sample prayer which I prayed that afternoon. I don’t remember the month or the date/day, but I do remember that for two days afterwards I was so happy! I was like I had woken up from a terrible nightmare, or that a very heavy load had been lifted off my shoulders.

In 2004 I was sharing Christ with a friend and she decided to accept Him into her heart and I lead her into that same prayer, and the same thing happened to her: for two days afterward she would call me telling me that she was very happy…actually, she really acted like she was high on happiness! I could tell that her heart and life was filled with joy in those two days. Strange thing is that she didn’t remember that but I do remember it.

Do you remember that time when you realized you are a sinner and in need of Salvation? How did you feel afterwards? How does that feeling compare to the feeling prior to accepting Christ?