96: The Blue Book, Part 1, Imam Asar (Refugee)

See the heart of a devout Muslim who converted to Christianity. Asar was raised in conservative Tehran before embracing Christianity. He recounts his early passion for seeking God while struggling with archaic texts, and how a mysterious Blue Book pointed him towards Christianity. His amazing story includes moments of prayer, visions, and even a Holy Spirit bath, ultimately leading him to openly declare his faith in Jesus Christ. Despite facing persecution and threats, Asar remained steadfast, further deepening his faith through his community and service in various churches.

In part 1 you’ll see that Asar’s zeal for prayer helps turn him toward Christ, with the Blue Book changing him before he even knew what was happening.

Be encouraged as you hear a story testifying what is happening all over Persia. 

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Transcript

Welcome to 180 Transforming Testimonies

Speaker 1 0:02

Welcome to 180, transforming testimonies from next door to across the globe. Be amazed at how God works to bring people to Himself. Share today's 180 with a friend. It might be the best news they hear today.

Speaker 2 0:17

And I remember like my hand becoming so, so hot. I felt like melting iron is in my hand. It was burning my hand. I was scared also, but I was praying. Maybe like half an hour I was praying for the baby.

Speaker 3 0:35

Omid Assar has a fascinating story of a 25-year search for Jesus as a Muslim background believer. You'll find many twists and turns. While we interviewed Omid, he also was a refugee, moving from home to home country to country. So his story represents many, many persecuted Christians in parts of the world who also happen to have super amazing testimonies. This is your host, margaret Araneta. Welcome to OMID's 180,.

Muslim Childhood and Questioning Faith

Speaker 2 1:16

The Blue Book, part 1. My name is OMID and I was born in a conservative family in Tehran in Iran, and since a very young age I was so passionate for God and being connected with Him and praying to Him. I remember when I was around six years old, even before starting going to school, going to school, they had a trend back then that time about a young boy who knew all Quran by heart and memorized it. There was kind of competition between some families encouraging their kids to go to mosque and become someone like this boy to be proud of. So I was six years old and I remember learning and reading Quran. I was going to mosque almost every day, before even going to school.

Speaker 2 2:10

I really love God and since childhood I found this inside my heart. So I was asking questions and I remember both my grandmas. They were so passionate and also like praying a lot so passionate and also like praying a lot, a lot the way that both their prayer mats were open at the corner of rooms in their houses. I was asking questions why should we pray in Arabic, not in our own language?

Speaker 3 2:38

Just wanted to clarify here that Muslims often pray in Arabic, even if it's not their native language, so that's why this is significant.

Speaker 2 2:46

That was the point that I started to ask, I think, the most important question in my journey to understand and learn more about God. So I used to ask them and they didn't have honest answers. Later I used to ask my parents these questions and they didn't have also like a proper answer. I really wanted to understand what I'm telling to God. I wanted to pray, so before going to sleep I started to build up this habit to pray to God in my own language. I started praying three times a day, going extra mile to pray at night too. So I really wanted to get connected more and more with God, spending time in prayer and worship.

Speaker 2 3:34

It was the time that I started fasting in Ramadan, so it was time that formed my curiosity about God, and many times I was praying and asking him where do you live? I was so curious and I could see, like in the photos of Mecca and Kaaba in Saudi Arabia, that they are like turning around it and worshiping and praying. But in my heart I was saying you are not there. You should be somewhere else. You cannot be limited to only this place. And I believe that was Holy Spirit from very small age was leading me to the truth, because I was asking questions. I was asking where do you live? Show me.

Speaker 3 4:20

Did you get that? It's so cool. Omid says that the Holy Spirit was trying to reach him for years before he became a believer, and even showing him how to pray better. Over the years, it slowly grew.

Speaker 2 4:37

And one of the things like it's funny that motivated me to start learning English when I was nine years old 10 years old it was. I wanted to find another language. Maybe God knows, so I can communicate or, if he doesn't know, I can maybe teach him another language One day. I was around 12, 13.

The Mysterious Blue Book Appears

Speaker 2 4:58

My father came home. He came to my room and he said he met Armenian-Iranian guy. He gave a blue book to my room and he said he met Armenian, iranian guy. He gave a blue book to my father and he said give this book to your son. It's very good for his future, it will changes his future and very good contents inside. So he gave it to me, that blue book, and I receive it and there is nothing on the cover. It's a blue book and I open it. I thought like it's one of the Islamic prayer books, because especially in Shia, they have prayer books beside Quran for different imams, for different occasions and some special days Also. They are praying and asking God's favor, allah's favor for them. So I thought maybe it's one of those books, because what I saw in the book was two columns in each page and there were like Persian words, some Arabic words.

Speaker 2 5:53

I had a doubt like should I continue reading this book or not, or something I'm doing like Allah doesn't like? Because that time we used to be frightened about hell Don't make angry God, don't do anything against him, not to end up in hell. So my father, my parents, the reason like used to mostly stick to prayer and fasting was because of the fear of going to hell rather than his love to God to pray and have the relationship. So I started reading this book, slowly, slowly, sometimes like half a page. Later I found out that was a Bible. So it was hard to understand, but I could see the conviction inside my heart praying even more. I could see like, I could feel like it's something special. But I had the fear like going and digging into this book more. I could see many times Jesus' name there, but I could see something is changing from inside my heart and my mind.

Speaker 3 7:02

So this mysterious blue book, omid later finds out is the Bible. He's not even reading it that much, but it's actually changing him from the inside out and transforming him slowly.

Speaker 2 7:16

Same years elementary school, we all children together going to a group prayer at noontime. So I started like building up a new habit for myself. I was tired of saying repeatable verses and surah in the prayers, I started like talking to God, about my family issues, about my problems with other children at the school, other students, about my wishes, about my love. And that time I remember I used to read Quran at the same time, sometimes not understanding much. Some verses even like not connected much with the next or a previous one.

Speaker 2 7:58

So I was praying to the names that I could see in Quran and in the blue book I was reading also, sometimes I was praying to Jesus, sometimes calling his name Moses, noah. I was building my own way of praying, kind of like because the same acts that they were doing, like going to different positions for prayer. I was because the same acts that they were doing, like going to different positions for prayer. I was doing the same. But what they were saying I was not repeating in myself whispering. I was saying my own prayers in Farsi because I was asking and praying to God a lot, especially at night. So my prayers not was only limiting to our family. I was praying for other kids. I didn't want only for myself a bicycle. I was praying for other friends in the neighborhood that God providing them.

Speaker 3 8:54

So now, instead of just praying like he normally does, omid's actually in a situation where he is praying for healing and God delivers so cool.

Prayer and a Miraculous Healing

Speaker 2 9:07

And we had a neighbor recently gave birth to a boy. They found very soon that he has a problem and he might be disabled because his skull was not becoming hard and it was soft. So the mom was crying a lot Many times I could hear and I was so sad. I really wanted God to do something for this family and for this baby. So one time I remember I got permission to hold the baby. I carry with extra care the baby, so I hold the baby and I went to the corner of the room and I started like praying so, so hard and strong and crying out to God and asking him for healing this baby. So I laid hands on the head of the baby and I was praying and crying and asking Lord, god, to heal this baby. And I remember like my hand becoming so, so hot. I felt like melting iron is in my hand. This was burning my hand. I was scared also but I was praying. Maybe like half an hour I was praying for the baby. In one, two months they had another appointment with the doctor and I remember my grandma called my mom and she was saying like there was a miracle happened and doctors were shocked and they said suddenly the forming started changing for the bones and now there is a big chance for this baby to survive. All glory to God. To survive All glory to God. And it was one of the things that I experienced the miracles way before knowing Holy Spirit, way before having clear vision who is Jesus Christ and God, and all this. So time passed.

Speaker 2 10:56

We used to have around maybe 10, 11 different size and publication of Quran in our home. I was very curious about like translation and reading Quran in Farsi. So I remember we received a special translation of Quran in Farsi. It's known as Allahi Qumshi. I heard it in the past. It's a very good translation of Quran and it was another milestone for me.

Speaker 2 11:25

So I was so happy and I started reading it and I could see and feel like something is like bothering me when I'm going page after page reading it. Sometimes I was reading some part of that blue book, reading this version of Quran, and one night it was around 3, 4 am and I was reading it and sitting in the middle of my room. Just I found out like my tears are falling on the pages of Quran Without my intention, pouring tears from my eyes and crying, and I closed the book I said like this cannot be written by a true God. God should be way more loving. And I was so broken in heart inside myself and hollowed from in and I could feel like spiritually I am empty Because you know like you really love your father, your God, and you come to the point that you lose this hope and this relationship, to the point that I found myself so empty and.

Crisis of Faith and Emptiness

Speaker 2 12:34

I stopped like reading neither of books for a couple of months or maybe a year. I used to stop praying and practicing salat namaz and I was so empty and I was like brokenhearted, sad towards God. You know, from inside, something was telling me there is a problem here, but I was not able to understand. What was inside me, telling me that there is one truth, definitely, but how can I understand and get connected to the truth of this universe? Everything is being formed by him and that was the problem of mine, because the things I used to build up my faith and foundation spiritually was all shaken and I found I'm not standing on the rock. It's like I'm hollowed from inside out and, as I said, I could see myself far from God and even for a time I was thinking like, okay, I don't believe for anything, I just want to become atheist. And I tried to be like this. But the love that I had for God inside after, maybe a year or more passed.

Speaker 2 13:55

I started praying because I had the struggles, I had problems in my life. I really wanted to have this relationship with God and I didn't have it and sometimes, again before going to sleep, I used to pray, I used to talk to him. I was saying I know whatever it is Behind all these things, that it's being formed and all the creation, there is a truth and I don't know like it's, whom and how. Show me more and reveal it to me. I really felt that time, especially receiving the book, the Bible I received, I could feel like a personal relation is forming inside me with Jesus. So I was around 18 and one of our relatives they were so in movies and they were talking about the new movies. It's very trending in the West the Passion of Christ.

Speaker 2 14:57

It was illegal but they had it. So one time we were at their place and they were watching Passion of Christ and I remember the time that we arrived at their place they already like was part of movie. It was very last part of the movie, like maybe 20%, 30%.

Speaker 2 15:15

But, I started to see and that was the point that changed forever that I said I'm in love with this guy and I really like him a lot. What he's saying I could see the things I read, read and it's visualized like many things for me and I said, okay, now I can feel like what he's saying. I am the way, I am the only way, and I was searching and praying for this for many years and I was reading this in the book and I could see in the movie also, and I was reading this in the book and I could see in the movie also. It was the turning point in my life to try to focus more on Jesus. So after that, when I was praying, I had a visionary picture on the wall in my room. That's Jesus Christ on the cross. And it was a visionary picture. And when I was praying the picture was coming and as soon as I was out of the presence and praying it was not there anymore, but it was so beautiful picture of Jesus Christ on the cross and baby Jesus in Mary's arm. These two pictures I had on the wall when I was praying.

Speaker 2 16:30

So when I finished my high school and entered to university, I started learning to become an architect, but what I can say, it's very important for believers. I could see this. I was praying, but I didn't 100% believe in him as a king, as a God, as my savior. But I found a way. Honestly, I found Jesus, a way that it connecting me to God. It was a path for me, year after year, going and digging, like it was. It started a journey to knowing and getting closer and closer to God. So a few years later, it's funny for someone with this idea and beliefs to receive a task as an architect years after, to design a mosque and be the engineer to visit the site and observing the project. To visit the site and observing the project.

Finding Jesus and Leaving Iran

Speaker 2 17:30

It came to me through one of my friends and I was not able not to accept it because they came to me because of their needs. They didn't have another person and they were so limited in their budget. So one of my friends we used to business partner came to me and asked to design the mosque for them. So I said, okay, I'm doing this, and I designed it and started to build.

Speaker 2 17:59

It was a beautiful one and I was praying to God, like the way that you started, like changing me from inside out, change the people coming to this place also and showing more to them. And because of my behavior, one of the contractors was saying I'm sure you are not a Muslim and if you come here, I will throw you from this floor. I started feeling like the persecution is getting worse and worse, like the persecution is getting worse and worse. I was praying and Holy Spirit was really convincing and pushing me that you need to leave. And it was getting louder and louder and I said, okay, I obey, and I left the country in 2016 and I moved to Turkey.

Speaker 3 18:46

Sorry for the cliffhanger so many turning points but Omid actually does come to the feet of Jesus and it's awesome. Hear how it happens and how Omid's new faith is tested and what he does about it. Listen in next week for the Blue Book, part 2.

Speaker 2 19:04

I could feel like I'm standing under a waterfall-like light, like, instead of water, very sharp, tiny needles are coming and pouring on me and I felt like I don't want to come out of this presence 1-80 is brought to you by One Way.

Speaker 1 19:33

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