Absolute Lordship Demands Absolute Surrender (1984)
testimony from Urbana 84by Tokunboh Adeyemoh
It is an impossible task that has been given to me to share in five minutes what Christ means to me, what he has been doing in my life since I came to embrace him as my personal savior and Lord. Usually the first edition of my testimony lasts for two hours. The revised edition about one hour. But in five minutes, I'll give you just an appetizer.
Many people make the mistake of assuming that Islam began with Muhammad. I think rather we have to go back to Genesis 16 in tracing the root of Islam. Look at the story of Ishmael and Hagar and then cross over to Galatians 4 to see what has been both the theological and the historical antagonism between Islam and Christianity. But that is not my task tonight. My task is to share with you how the Lord in his grace and mercy brought me out of Islam into the glorious light of Jesus Christ the Lord.
Over forty years ago I was born to a rich Muslim family, one of the royal family, in western Nigeria. Being the first son of my parents, and coming from the royal line, I was destined one day to become a king of my tribe. Naturally, being born into a Muslim family, I was a Muslim. But over eighteen years ago I was reborn into another royal family - the family of King Jesus, the king of Salem, the Prince of Peace, the King of Kings. And what a difference it makes in my life!
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Praise God, all things have become new. And I can tell you that things are different. Something happened to me when I gave my life to Jesus.
The story of the events leading to my conversion is too long to narrate, so I'll just give you the gist. Leaving college as a young man, I had the ambition of becoming the president of my country one day. And I sat down to make a plan, a ten-year development plan, of how to achieve that goal. I would go to work in politics. I would become an activist. And I would become a provisional secretary for one of the leading political parties in my country at that time. It was not an idle dream or speculation. I've always been made to believe that no aim is a crime. You've got to aim high in life. And so I was working toward my own goal.
My uncle was in politics and was in the first parliament. He became my mentor. There was no dichotomy between religion and politics for us, coming from the Shiite branch of Islam. The secular has meaning only in the sacred. And so religion and politics and the economy and what have you - they all go together. The golden mean of Islam.
But in 1966, considerable political confusion and turmoil arose in Nigeria. There was arson and looting, and many politicians were imprisoned or killed. My uncle was imprisoned, and I began to pity myself. Some of my property was looted and destroyed in a fire. And it was at that time that I started asking questions about the meaning of life. And my quest led me to many things. I discovered that religion did not have the answer. I became restless and alienated. There was a deep vacuum within me. I was asking questions: What is life? Where do we go from here? An unexamined life is not worth living, I thought. There must be something more to life than just the mere routine.
It was during that time that one of the teachers in my school - I was the headmaster at that time - invited me to consider the person of Jesus Christ. As a Muslim, I resisted. But he was very persistent. Consistent, hardworking, compassionate, loving, he kept pressing me to consider Jesus. And because of this gentleman, I started reading the Gospels and comparing Jesus of the Gospels with Islam of the Koran.
It was some time later that God in his mercy finally brought me to an open-air mission. A Muslim will not go to a church building because of the various theological hang-ups. But I went to this week-long open-air mission. The first night the evangelist preached, but I didn't hear anything. I was just there. The second night he preached again. But on the third night, the message came across from John 10:10 - the promise of Christ coming to the world to give life, life abundant. And it was as if that message were addressed to me alone. On that occasion, that night, I decided to follow the giver of life. I made up my mind. I went forward and prayed with the preacher, who happened to be a South African missionary, of all people. But he brought a message, and I gave my life to Jesus Christ.
I went home and told my parents of what I had done. And then the persecution
began. They thought at first I was just teasing them. I remember when I told
my mother in my little babyish expression, "I prayed to receive Jesus into
my life. I'm now following him."
"You mean you are pregnant," she replied.
"No! I'm not pregnant,"
I said.
"How then can you have somebody else in your life?" she asked.
To cut a long story short, I developed an unusual thirst and hunger for the Word of God. I started just devouring the scriptures. I wanted to know God. And as the preachers have been saying, this is the only way, through scripture. And my people began calling me prophet. "Pray for us," they would say. And I started praying for them in the name of Jesus Christ. And I submit to you, if there is one thing that the Muslims are looking for, it is not so much the definition of the gospel, but rather the demonstration of the gospel's power. Pray for them in the name of Jesus Christ. This strategy will change their lives.
I was rejected for a period of time, and I told them the Bible says when my father and my mother reject me, my God will take me up (Psalm 27:10). And my family and friends at first would not believe the gospel. But today six members of my family have become Christians. Praise the Lord.
When I decided to follow Christ, he became my all in all. Absolute lordship demands absolute surrender. My life is no longer mine. It's my master's. Where he sends, I will follow. What he gives to eat, I will swallow. And he became my own goal upon my conversion. It is not the lands that I live in that matter, but the witness that I bear for Jesus Christ wherever he places me. Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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