Ben Ali's Testimony (Islam)

Bernardi, he and his wife are the cause of all of this. And praise God for that. I'm not going to say any further, please. I'm coming forward.

English or Arabic? You're going to get English. It's going to be Midwestern Kansas City, English. So, yeah, Jed was just talking about America and you know, I hear the testimonies. I'm like, man, my testimony, you know, everybody's got a testimony. And it's just amazing to see that it's the same Jesus Christ that's halfway around the world or on the other side of the earth that is meeting each one of you where you're at.

It's the same one that met me in Kansas City, Missouri, under way different circumstances. My goodness. I mean, I do praise God that I am in this country because of the freedom and the ability that we have to just meet like this, you know. Okay, thank you. But the freedom and the ability that we have to gather like this is just, I mean, praise God that we can do this.

But, you know, the battle here is not so much physical as it is for the mind. The culture in America is, is powerful. And those of you that have kids here, and maybe this is, you're the first generation in the United States, but you've probably seen it with your kids that there is a great battle for your, for your child's mind and for their life with the culture in the United States.

And I guess in relation to, you know, Islam and my testimony, My testimony would probably be considered or viewed as the testimony of a child who grew up in a home where his father was Muslim and his mother was Catholic and both non practicing, obviously, because they would have never gotten married had they been practicing.

But yeah, so it was, growing up in a household like that was, it was, it was normal for me. I didn't know anything else but God. The subject of God was never really talked about. Just as an example, the prayers that we would have would be only at dinner time.

And the prayer would be, thank you, God for this food. Amen. You're not talking about Jesus Christ. You're not talking about Muhammad, you're not talking about Allah. You are talking God, whoever God is, whoever that is, to the unknown God, thanks for this food, as Paul would say. But I grew up in a house and in the United States growing up, you are.

There is no. It is very hard and very difficult to not ever hear something about Jesus Christ somewhere through Christmas, Easter, all of those things, even though those holidays are all twisted and they are not revolved around Jesus Christ. But there is still a taint of that. So you do get that growing up in America, but I still never.

Lord, he's coming back. Okay, you're all still here. Good. I am safe. Okay. I thought the Rapture was here, but growing up in that environment, you know, you get a chance. Growing up in the United States, you know, you get a chance. You meet friends in school, and you can't get around people who are Christians.

I mean, you can't escape people who are Christians in the United States because you will eventually meet some. And growing up, I would spend the night at a friend's house. You know, you go over and you play on Saturday night, and then the next morning you get up and you go to church.

And you are like, whoa, church? What's this? You go to church with these people. And I would hear things. And my view of Christianity and who Jesus Christ was was a bunch of, you can't do this, you can't do that. A lot of things that. Man, these people just don't seem happy.

You know, a lot of the people that I met were. All they ever wanted to do was condemn me for my. For what I. You know, for what. For the things that I had done. But I didn't know any better. I was lost. I was a sinner, dying, going to hell, and I knew no better.

And so I grew up. That would be my brush with Christianity, would be going to church on a Sunday morning every once in a while. And my mom would sneak me off sometimes to Catholic mass on Christmas or on Easter. And, you know, my dad. Dad didn't know about it.

Maybe he did, and he just didn't want to confront it. I don't know. But in high school, I met a girl that was my wife. She is currently my wife. In high school, I met a girl who was a Christian and who had fallen away from God, who was out of fellowship with Christ.

We started dating. I was 17 years old and graduated from high school. We were still together. And in high school, I started playing guitar in rock bands, you know, and doing the old. The things you see on tv, you know, mtv. I wanted to. That's what I wanted. I wanted what you see on those mtv and all that stuff your kids are probably watching on TV or trying to watch secretly.

But that's what I wanted. That's the life that I wanted, was to be a rock star. And thankfully, God did not allow that to happen. And I met my wife, and we were dating for two years. We graduated from high school, and you Know, when you graduate from high school, you come to a point in your life, life where you are faced with the reality in America.

You are faced with the reality of, oh, my gosh, I have got to make a decision. I have got to start making choices on what I want my life to be. So you kind of start taking life a little more serious, which is what I did. I started seeking things.

Not seeking God, because the Bible says that there is none that seeketh after God. In Romans, it says that God seeks us. I was seeking for something, but it wasn't God. I was trying to fill my life with things

that were not of the word of God, were not of the Bible, had nothing to do with Christ. So at that point, a couple years into our relationship with my relationship with my girlfriend at that time, she decided to start going back to church. And, you know, hey, I was like, hey, that's fine.

Just don't push it on me. You know, I'll go with you every once in a while. And what had happened was she decided God had gotten ahold of her and convicted her of her sin and the life that she was living. One of those things was being with me, being unequally yoked, as the Bible says, with the lost world.

So she said, you know what? I need to do this, Ben. You are either coming with me or you are not. But I am making this decision. I was like, well, I will go with you to church every once in a while. I will check it out. So I started going to church, and I would hear Bible studies and I would hear actual preaching from the Bible, which was just amazing to me, because the Bible to me was a book that no one could possibly understand.

And I grew up, my dad with the Quran was like, don't touch the Quran. I don't know, you guys might be familiar with that. You can't touch The Koran without clean hands. So that's how I grew up. I was like, oh, the Bible, you can never understand it. It's impossible to understand.

It's not a book written for us today. It's a bunch of stories that happened a long time ago. But at this point, God started convicting me about my life and convicting me about sin. You know, I was a pretty good guy, I thought, because I didn't drink. You know, all of the things you see in American culture, you know, with kids that struggle with, you know, high schoolers, they struggle with, you know, alcohol, peer pressure for alcohol, drinking, smoking, you know, drugs, all of those things.

I didn't do any of that stuff. I didn't even cuss in public. Believe it or not, that's a big thing. I mean, in America now, you can't go around without going to a restaurant or mall, without hearing some little teenager just with the filthiest mouth. But I realized my wife's mother had given me a Bible that Christmas.

And I started hearing the preaching of the word of God. And I started hearing about that there is none righteous. No, not one. I heard of the fact that it doesn't matter. You are a sinner because of your mind and your heart and because of who you are. The Bible says, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin.

And for that all have sinned. That was Adam, obviously. So then I came to a point where I understood that sin is inherent in us as people. After I realized that, God kept trying to. He was knocking on the heart of my door, or the door of my heart, I am sorry, the door of my heart.

And I just kept putting it off and saying, later, God, later, God, later, God. You know? But eventually, after one late night with my wife talking, and she was just, you know, Ben, you've got to understand, you've got to make this decision. I was like, ah, no more. And I just left and I went home.

It was probably about 1:00 in the morning on a Saturday night. And I went home, went upstairs in my bedroom, and it was dark and my parents were sleeping and I just got on my knees and I just said, lord, I'm tired of running. I'm sick of it. I know what the truth is.

You guys have all been there. You come to a point where you are just like, I can't take it anymore. I am sick of running and I am tired of it. I came to a point where I realized. I repented of my sin and I realized that I was a sinner.

My sin didn't affect other people, but I was a sinner because I had it in my mind and in my heart. I was wicked. I was a wicked man. I realized that. And I realized that I needed Christ as my savior. So at that point, this is where it starts getting good.

You guys probably know that. Five minutes, okay? Thankfully, it's not five seconds. But at this point, you can imagine what it would probably be like for someone whose dad was a Muslim and I had just become a Christian. I didn't know what to do. I knew if I told him or talked to him about it, I was out of that house and I was 18 years old, you know, 17, 18 years old.

I couldn't support myself. So I went to my pastor and I asked him. I told him the situation, and I asked him what the best thing to do would be. And he said, you know what? Just stay where you are at and obey your parents, because that is what the Bible says.

Your parents are your authority. Obey them. When you are old enough, you make the decision. So I did that. And I prayed. I prayed that God. What I truly wanted was to be able to have an open relationship with God. Just to be able to read my Bible at home without having to throw it under the bed when I heard someone creeping up the stairs without running inside after church with the Bible under my shirt.

And then asking, where were you, son? Oh, I was working, you know, and so I prayed for that opportunity, and I prayed that my family would be saved. And I had other people in my church pray for that same thing. And three months later, you guys probably know the story.

My dad. I think it was me. It was me that was shaving or something, wasn't it? Okay, I was shaving, you know, just living my life. My dad comes around the corner, son, I want you to know. And I had the accent that I accepted Jesus Christ as my savior.

And I was like, oh, my goodness. You know, to hear that from my father's mouth, it was just. It was incredible. I mean, he wasn't cussing when he said Jesus Christ. You know, he was talking about Jesus Christ as his Lord and savior. I was like, wait a what?

Whoa, wait, this isn't. Wait a minute. I just hugged him and just said, so did I. You know, we just started crying, and he was like, whoa. He kind of

took him by surprise. So at that point, then I started growing in my relationship with God, and so did my father. And then soon after that, my mother came into the body of Christ, and then my sister got saved as well. I mean, it's just sitting here now. It's been almost 10 years.

1993. It's just incredible every time I think about this, just to see God's fingerprints in our lives, you know, and it's really. I mean, it's encouraging. When we think about sometimes when we struggle and we go through trials and tribulations, and sometimes we feel like we're alone. But at least we can always cling to our testimony, you know, and we can.

When we're alone and we feel like we're alone, we can cling to that testimony. And we can see, you know, God's there. God is There and he's with you and he wants you to grow through that. I want to share one verse. I know my dad's getting up real quick.

One verse. Sorry, feel the pressure.

I want to share a verse with you that God had given me a couple years ago just as my life verse right now. It may change next year, I don't know. But it always happens. God is like that, you know, but just taking. You know, God has worked in me in the past couple years just in trying to really live a true Christian life, not be a hypocrite, not meet in church and, you know, go through the rest of the week with my Bible in my car, you know, because sometimes that happens.

It probably happens with you guys. Second Peter, chapter three,

verse 14, it says, and this is in reference to the second coming of Christ. And when he comes back, and it says in verse 14, wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot, blameless. And as Christians, that's how we need to be living our life each day.

That God would find us. If you were to come back today. This is every time I finish my testimony. I just like to challenge people to think about their relationship with Christ and think about yourself and think about, do you. Would you. Would he find you living in peace right now?

Would he find your life in peace? Would he find you without spot, you know, the sin, the secret sin in our lives? Would he find us without spot and blameless? You know, do we remain blameless? Can the world not blame us? Or do we live a life where we allow, where we give latitude for the world to blame us for sin, even though if we don't, even though we really don't, do we live a life where they can?

So those are the three things that I just wanted to leave you guys with. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.