If you've never read the book Extreme Devotion, I'd like to encourage you to purchase a copy at the Voice of the Martyrs bookstore today. Here is one devotion that you'll get when you buy the book.
Zahid was a Pakistani Muslim priest who ambushed Christians and burned their Bibles. Once he kept one of the Bibles and started studying it to prove that Christianity was a lie.
“I read the Bible, looking for contradictions I could use against the Christian faith,” Zahid shared. “All of a sudden, a great light appeared in my room and I heard a voice call my name. The light illuminated the entire room.
“‘Zahid, why do you persecute me?’ the voice asked.
“I was scared. I didn’t know what to do. I asked, ‘Who are you?’
“‘I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ For the next three nights, the light and the voice returned. On the fourth night, I knelt down and accepted Jesus as my Savior.”
Having converted to Christianity, Zahid was arrested and imprisoned as a traitor to Islam. He was tortured in prison for two years and eventually sentenced to death. As the noose was placed around his neck, Zahid told his executioners that Jesus was “the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He wanted his last breath to be used to save his countrymen.
Then suddenly, guards rushed in and said that there had been a stay of execution and Zahid was released. No one knows why Zahid’s sentence was reversed, but today Zahid continues to travel Pakistan as an evangelist.
People who have been through a near-death experience usually say the same thing. They conclude that God must have had a purpose for extending their lives. Unfortunately, television interviews rarely go back to see what that purpose turned out to be! Did they discover God’s purpose for their lives or not? Actually, God has the same purpose for each one of our lives. He wants us to know him and to make him known to others. Some, like Zahid, may go through unique experiences to come to those particular places where they are to make God known. However, our mission remains basically the same. Ever feel like God has you on this earth for a specific reason? It’s to know him—and to make him known.
