Growing in a Middle Eastern culture I was often compared with other men based on height (and I am relatively short), looks (and I am an average looking Middle Eastern man), education (and I was a general labourer/forklift driver for 4 years), wealth (and I come from a middle class family and I earned minimum wages). Because of this throughout all my life I have always wanted my wife to love me for who I am: my God-given personality and talents, my continuously conforming character to being Christ-like, faith and relationship with the Lord, and my love and commitment to her. This desire to find a woman who loves me for who I am scared me from getting education early in my life (that is, right after graduating from high school) because I was always told, “Fadi, get a good education so when you want to get married the woman… read more
university
Two Thousand Seven was an extremely stressful year for me because I lost the friendship of someone I dearly loved with all my heart. I found myself depressed for a long time, and my eyes teared for no reason, I cried almost daily, and wrestled with God daily. To make things worse I started university in September of that year and the stress level just shot up! So I became not only emotionally and spiritually tired but also physically and mentally tired and very sleep deprived. One day in early January of 2008 I went to sleep around 3:30 AM (because of school work I had to stay late), so I laid with my back flat on the bed looking at the ceiling and because I was so exhausted as soon as I put my head on the pillow I fell asleep. Suddenly (what seemed like a second after I… read more
One hot summer afternoon in Iraq I was walking with my best friend from the neighborhood; we were both in our early teens. He told me that he wants to be a doctor. I thought it was kind of an unrealistic goal since he wasn’t a straight A student so I asked him why he wanted to be a doctor. He told me that his dad was motivating him to finish school and to do his best. I knew my friend’s dad worked long hours, from early morning until afternoon, as construction worker then worked as a taxi driver until late evening or night. Then he continued telling me that when his dad was a teenager his grandparents never told his dad to finish school so his dad doesn’t want the same thing to happen to him. I remember making a mental note to the like, “You have to change;… read more
Dr. Charles Stanley once said something to the like, “Keep a journal of God’s faithfulness because a day is going to come when you will need to look back and hold on to God’s faithful nature and be strengthened through the trial.†So this writing is not for you—it is for me. It has taking me a month to write it, mainly because it was hard to write about something I don’t feel, and may not even believe. But I had forced myself to write it hoping there is a good outcome from it. What you are looking at in this photo is King College Road: this is the “engineering street†that every student must walk to go to their classes because the engineering buildings are at its right and left. Sometimes when I walk through St. George campus I wonder to myself, “How did I get… read more
I grew up in a semi-devoted Roman Catholic family. My parents are good people, but my mom was never the religious type and my dad had more doubt than faith. The only religious influence on me and my sister was our grandmother even though she didn’t have spiritual understanding of the Bible. She didn’t understand grace, or Salvation, nor did she have an accurate view of God’s character or ways. Nevertheless, seeing her reading prayer books everyday encouraged me to read the New Testament. In my early teens in the summer time as soon as it gets around 4 or 5 PM I would get ready to go play soccer and burst running out of the door in excitement! Just then I would hear my mom yelling to me, “Fadi, come take the garbage out!†After running for few more meters I would remember those words of our Lord in… read more
I want to talk about a topic I think most Christians won’t like, but I feel burdened to talk about it, so please if you start reading the next line, keep reading to the end…otherwise you will get the wrong idea. Growing up in a Christian family meant I had neutral feelings towards Israel or the Jews. But as I started reading the Bible starting from the Old Testament at the age of 16 I started to be really impressed by the Jews because of their rich history, God’s mighty work among them, and their lasting legacy. When all other civilizations disappeared they still existed. And being a teenager and wanting to find a purpose in life and belong to something, I really considered going to Israel and becoming a Jewish Rabbi!!! Later on when I came to Canada and started reading novels about the Holocaust I again admired the… read more
For some reason I, and I believe many Christians, are aware less of God’s just nature than any of His other characteristics. We seem to forget that His justice is just as powerful and important as His love, grace, mercy, and absolute control and power. This is evident in our preaching. We seem to try to strip the message of the cross from God’s justice, anger, vengeance, and hatred towards sin. I believe the consequence of this is the absence of godly repentance, and false hope in salvation. Somehow in our minds the Lamb of God, the Savior of the world, is not quite as present as the Lion of Judah, the Lord of Lords. May be we are scared to think about God’s justice because we don’t like to think about the day when we will stand in front of Him and give account for our actions. Or may… read more