Paul Calvert spoke with Tass Abu Saada



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He says, "I have connections" and this word connection just stuck in my head. I could not take it out. I kept thinking what is this connection? Initially three days later after I got to the point when I wasn't able to eat or sleep, I was so messed up I wasn't able to focus on anything else except this connection. Charlie decided ok, it's time for us to get together and talk about this. We went to his house. I was so anxious and I said, "What is this connection?" He said, "What do you know about Jesus?" I replied, "I know about Jesus, I believe in Him, He's a prophet." He said, "Well He's more than a prophet." I asked, "What is he?" He said, "He's the Son of God." I jumped out of that sofa and said "that's it man, this is blasphemy, we don't believe this" and I just stormed to the door.

Let me go back just a little bit. Charlie was talking to me about miracles in his life and this and that and when we got to his house and as he was opening the door for me, he said, "Tass to have the peace that I have you must love the Jew." That freaked me out. I mean I froze. He knew how much I hated the Jews. To me at that time a good Jew was a dead Jew, period.

I am so glad for good friends who are willing to tell us the truth no matter what the cost is. He saw I was getting angry. He said, "Calm down, let's go and sit down." So we sat down and then he tells me about Jesus being the Son of God. As I stormed towards the door, he calls me back and said "Just give me one minute Tass just come back and give me one minute." So I came back and sat down. He went and got his Bible and he puts his Bible right in between the two of us and when he did that I jumped away from it. He said, "Why did you jump like this?" "I can't touch it," I replied. He said, "Why, it's just a piece of paper?" He started flipping the pages and I said "No, no, it's got the name of God and the word of God in it" and I was so nervous. He said, "So you believe this is the word of God?" I said "Yes." He said, "Ok, if you believe it let me tell you what it says about Jesus."

Why did I say yes when we don't really believe that this is the word of God?

He opened the Bible and it opened up to the book of John and from there he started to read for me from John 1:1 - "In the beginning was the word, the word was with God; the word was God in the beginning." That's as far as I heard from reading. I started shaking and I lost consciousness. Next I know I'm on my knees on the floor with my hands lifted up inviting Jesus to be my Lord and Saviour and since then my life has never been the same again. The power of God came alive.

Looking at Charlie after hearing myself inviting Jesus, Charlie was sitting on the sofa in a state of shock, shaking with tears and jaw wide open. I said "Charlie, what's the matter?" I was worried about him. He said, "Man, I've never seen anything like this in my life" and he was shaking and he said, "You looked weird but I liked it."

He came down and hugged me and cried. He said, "When I started to read the word to you, you started shaking so violently and then you were lifted off the sofa in the air and brought down to your knees. Your hands were lifted up and you were speaking in a language that I didn't know what you were saying and I was speaking to a light that was saying to me, 'I am the way the truth and the life and there is no way to heaven except through me.' Next to that light were two hands in the air in the form of prayer and on one hand the cross."

Now my nanny when I was seven-ten years old was a girl from the Philippines by the name of Miriam. She had exactly the same tattoo. I know these were Miriam's hands. She's praying for me somewhere or prayed for me at the time I don't know. I've not seen her since I was ten years old when my father sent her back to the Philippines.

You know we have power. We have the power, the power of prayers and the power of our testimony and the word of God; if we live them and practice them I think we can shake a mountain. CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.