My Testimony

The Beginning

Dear reader, here I will take the time to share my testimony.

My last name is Asaph and I am originally from Lebanon. Since I was a little kid, I always had an interest for Jesus Christ, His person, who He was, why was He so popular and why He died on a cross. I knew deep down there was something about Him that was true. I didn’t know why. This desire would only grow with time.

I emigrated to Canada in 1995 and around the year 2003, I started reading the bible for the first time in my life after I lost my father to cancer. It was a very hard time. I was 22 years old. Being from a Catholic background and to my surprise, the more I read, the more I discovered that the image of Jesus I had in my mind did not fit with the Jesus Christ of the bible. This pushed me to study more and more the words of the Lord. It got to a point where this would be my sole focus after high school. I would lock myself in my room and read the bible. At one point, during my search for God, I started wondering why the apostles of Christ would have died for their faith if something did not really happen. I mean, they were eyewitnesses, and knowing they died for what they witnessed as the resurrected Jesus, I just could not understand how the story could not be true. At that instant, I started to entertain the thought that Jesus Christ is ALIVE. This was the start of my conversion. I just started believing.

This time, I started reading the gospel with real faith. At one point, as I was reading the gospel of John in my room, I suddenly felt the words jump out from the page, especially when I read the words of Jesus. Every sentence would explode in my mind with revealed meaning. Simultaneously, waves of warm glow would fill my chest up to my neck. I couldn’t explain it but I KNEW I was experiencing the presence of God. It was so Pure, Holy, Loving and Powerful at the same time. My true sinful state was revealed to me. How filthy and undeserving I am in the presence of this Holiness, pure Holiness! The hidden darkness in me was getting exposed and I could not contain it. I understood why I needed God to save. I could not do it myself. I was just too filthy. There was nothing on this earth that could wash me . The clean water had to come from above, not from earth. Then it hit me. For the first time, I understood why God sent His Son Jesus, why He sacrificed Him to provide a way back to Him, why it was important to believe this. I could not believe how real that experience was. It was amazing! I met God, I met Jesus, I met the Spirit! I was born again.