I first met Sharma several months ago. He was arrested for being involved in the illegal trafficking of other Indians from Belgium to England. He grew up in a Hindu family, but had become a ‘pan-believer’, or in other words, “Anyone, from any religion, who believes in God will be accepted into heaven.” He would tell me how he had the Catholic priest to come, the Muslim Imam, and the (atheist) Moral Counselor, and that all were just fine, along with the Christian Chaplain. He said, “I meditate to Buddha, I do yoga to meditate here on my bed. I read the Koran; I read the Bible and pray to Jesus.”
Now, I have learned from experience how to deal with this type of belief, to carefully, yet directly, expose this error. I did it as carefully and clearly as possible. I asked Sharma to think about it, I prayed for him, and told him I’d come back next week to talk with him more about it. He agreed, and asked me to procure for him a Punjabi Bible (in his mother tongue). I told him, I would try to find one.
The next week, I returned and found him once again to be very friendly. I told him I’d tried to find a Bible for him, but there was none in stock, and that I had ordered one for him from the Bible Society. I asked him about his thinking and belief in other religions, and was assured that he understood that he needed to accept Christ Jesus as his personal Lord and Savior. As far as I could see, he was serious. We then prayed on our knees to make the sin question for Sharma answered by the Blood of Christ Jesus. But, only God knows the true state of the heart of a man.
It was a month later that the Punjabi Bible finally arrived. With joy, I took it to Sharma’s cell. I have never seen anyone so happy to receive a Bible before! He thanked me, he shook my hand, he kissed the Bible cover over and over; He looked up to Heaven and said, “Thank you, O God, for giving me this Bible in my own language and Pastor Ken who got it for me.”
(By the way, this Bible and the many others that I am able to give to prisoners are provided by Light for the Lost funds for evangelizing the world for Christ.) We talked and prayed some more before I left him to enjoy reading God’s Word in his own language.
A couple of weeks passed before I was able to visit Sharma again. I came into his cell and could see that he was deeply troubled. He sat down on his bed and soon opened his heart as to what the problem was. He said, “I don’t know what to do. I am so deeply troubled. I have prayed to Buddha, meditated, I’ve read the Bible and prayed to Christ. But I’m still troubled, I have such a dilemma.” I was very disappointed to hear that he really didn’t understand before, that he should stop praying to Buddha, Allah, meditating the Hindu gods, etc. But when he told me just what his “dilemma” was all about, I had hope because I knew that God was trying to get through to him.
This is what was troubling Sharma: He had a girl friend and he loved her very much. He had a ‘dream’ or a premonition that during his time in prison, she was being unfaithful to him and going out with other men. It was so real to him, though he had no proof, that during a visit with her, he accused her of being unfaithful to him. She responded saying that she only loves him and that she is being faithful, and that he could have no proof of what he is saying.
With sweat forming on his brow, Sharma said to me, “Pastor Ken, I don’t know what to do! Can you help me?” I said, “Yes, I can help you, Sharma.” While he was telling me his story, the Lord spoke to me to tell him that his feelings toward his girl friend were God’s way of speaking to him about his praying to many gods.
I said, “Sharma, listen carefully; God wants you to know that He loves you very much, even more than you love your girl friend. There is only one true God and He has revealed Himself to man in Jesus Christ who died for you on the Cross of Calvary. A few weeks ago, you made a decision to accept Him into your life as Lord and Savior; Now, He is very jealous about you and wants you to follow Him and Him alone. Your praying and meditating other gods is unacceptable to Him, and He has given you these feelings about your girl friend to make you know how much He wants you to stop and worship Him alone. You have no proof that your girl friend is unfaithful to you, but God knows everything about you. He knows that you pray to other gods and is jealous over you and wants you to stop.”
Sharma looked at me very seriously and said, “Oh, is that right?” I said, “Yes, that’s right. You have no proof that your girl friend is unfaithful to you; and your feelings only reflect to you the feelings of your Heavenly Father who wants you to be His and His alone. Please pray to Him only, and stop looking to Buddha, Mohamed, Krishna, the Virgin Mary, or any other of man’s replacements for the one and only true God, revealed to man in Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” Sharma nodded his head, showing his understanding of what I said. Hopefully it would only be a matter of time before he makes the decision to cut out all the ‘false gods’ from his life.
A few weeks went by until it was my turn to hold the chapel service again. Sharma came to the service. The message was on “The Uniqueness of Christ” from John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. After the service, Sharma came forward and asked for help. I am excited to return to St. Gilles this week to have a personal talk once again with him in his cell to see if he has made his decision to turn to Christ alone for the help he needs. Please pray for him and for me as I go to reach the lost on behalf of Christ who died for us all.
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I’m thankful to be able to add here that Sharma did make a personal decision to ask Jesus Christ into his life as Lord & Savior. The last that I heard, Sharma was transferred to another prison (Leuven, Belgium) where he has been attending the chapel regularly and continues to follow the Lord. Sincere thanks for praying for him. Ken Barickman
