Third day of celebration of our 25th year marriage anniversary!

Okay. So, where did I stop? Let me think.

Oh, yes! My Baby, the man I laid my eyes on since I was 17 came to visit me in New Delhi, India and went back to America. Yes, that was where I stopped last time.

Well, after staying with him for 17 days, now he’s gone, I began looking for my newly found Christian friends whom I began to worship God with before my boyfriend came to visit me. I thought they were okay with me staying with my boyfriend in the hotel for 17 days. I thought they would give me a warm welcome back. Instead, I saw lots of frowny faces and I didn’t even know who to talk to. I wanted to say, “Hold on a second! Please don’t kick me out. I can explain. Oh, you have no idea how I missed Jesus Christ. I come here to be with Him! Please!” But I realized that none of them were willing to even have a conversation with me. I was shaking and sweating. I hid my emotion and left.

To this day, you have no idea how thankful I am of those precious people. Yes, with some of them, here in Maryland, we remember those days and we laugh hard. But at the time, it was a very tough time for me. At the same time though, I believe with all my heart that it was God who allowed me to go through that. I got many lifetime lessons that I cannot serve two masters, the Lord Jesus Christ and the devil, that I cannot lead a double life, a righteous lifestyle and a sinful lifestyle, that I cannot have two gods, One True God or the devil.

These lessons were imprinted on my DNA since then. As long as I live, I strive to live out these life lessons those brothers and sisters in Christ taught me.

The word of God says,

“Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.” 1 Corinthians 5:6-11 NIV

I was “the old yeast” that was needed to be thrown out from the fellowship of saints who were gathering together to celebrate “the Unleavened bread Festival” for “the Passover Lamb” had been sacrificed.

Do you see how God and all the angelical beings, including the fallen ones, see our gatherings? When we believers get together and worship God in one accord, it is called a Festival of people who are rescued from this dark world by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, namely Jesus Christ. In this Festival, “the old leavened bread” leavened by sin should not be allowed to take part with the unleavened bread of “sincerity and truth.”

And notice the main message of the above passage (1 Corinthians 5:6-11 NIV): It is not saying, “Don’t let the people of this world, people who don’t believe in Jesus Christ, come to your church.” Rather it says, “Don’t fellowship with the so called “a believer” but lives in sin.” Make sure you see this message clearly from the passage.

Yes, those brothers and sisters taught me this passage practically.

It was not an easy time for me. I went to my apartment and cried a lot. I didn’t have anywhere to go. School was closed for summer vacation. The only two places I used to go were church and fellowship. So, I had to wait for Sunday to come to go to church but after that scary experience, I was very scared to even go to church. I went to church on Sunday and I was crying like a little baby throughout the whole service. I thought Jesus would not be my Jesus anymore.

I don’t remember the details but within few weeks, I was able to go back to our fellowship but I was told that I couldn’t take part in anything. I agreed. I mean, think about it. I was new to the country and I was new to the faith. These were the only people I knew who were singing the songs I wanted to sing to Jesus. So, as long as they let me worship Jesus Christ with them, it was okay with me.

Then everybody came to realize that I was serious in my walk with Christ and I was repentant of my sin. So, I began to participate in the fellowship in many ways, singing, praying, preaching and leading a worship service. Nobody asked me about my boyfriend after that and I never talked about him to anyone except two of my best lovely friends and sisters in Christ. These two friends of mine know about me, I think more than I do. They remember everything, I mean, everything means, everything.

Anyways, I don’t want to bore you with the details but after a year, I moved to Maryland and joined my boyfriend.

By the time I came to Maryland, my heart was burning for Jesus Christ. But after my conversion, the only thing I was good at when it comes to Christianity was singing and following after “miracle workers.” Oh, yes! I was too obsessed with that kind of stuff. No word of God! No depth in my Christianity. So, I came to America being filled with lots of questions, unbelief, struggles pretty much in all areas of my life.

So it was very easy to join my boyfriend’s lifestyle without any question. However, since I did not give “birth” to myself into the Kingdom of God, something inside me was opposing me to everything I was doing. I bugged my Berhan to look for a church for me. After trying two or three American churches, we found one Ethiopian church. Then Berhan drops me on Sunday and he goes to his business. When the service ends, he comes and picks me up. On Friday night, Berhan’s routine was to go to club with his friends. He invited me to join him but I couldn’t do that. So, I stay home and he comes home drank.

(Some people still struggle to picture my Berhan drinking alcohol. But they find it easy to picture me drinking alcohol. I wonder why.)

Anyways, the One who gave me this “new birth” and brought me into the Kingdom of His Son actually didn’t leave me even when I was very distant from him. The Bible says,

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written,

“For Your sake we are being put to death all day long;
We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39 NASB

May His name be praised forever!

My Berhan and I continued living like that for few months, me going to church, him going to club with his friends. Then Berhan decided to go to Ethiopia to send “ሽማግሌ” to my parents (it is our culture for a groom’s-to-be family to send elders to the parents of the bride-to-be so they can formally ask the bride’s-to-be parents to give their daughter to their son as a wife).

I didn’t disagree with Berhan’s decision to do that because I had a plan. My plan was to be with the Lord all by myself so I would get the strength to do what God wanted me to do: To just walk away from Berhan.

By this time I figured where I could find the passage in the Bible where it commands believers to marry only believers:

“Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,

“I will dwell in them and walk among them;
And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
“Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord.
“And do not touch what is unclean;
And I will welcome you.
“And I will be a father to you,
And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,”
Says the Lord Almighty.” 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 NASB

So, when Berhan left for Ethiopia, I started to fast and pray, to do what? Just to walk away from this relationship. I called back home and I heard that the ceremony was wonderful and my parents were happy and all that.

I was not pressured or stressed by that. I was too focused. I was spending many hours with the word of God and praying. So, I felt so strong to do what I was supposed to do: To just walk away from Berhan.

But whenever I imagined myself to actually doing that, I would get emotional and I cried myself to sleep.

When Berhan came back from Ethiopia, he met a completely different woman, a woman that he didn’t leave behind and he immediately knew that (as he told me later) I was determined to leave him and the reason was not because Berhan was not loving me or anything but because he was “dead” and I was alive. I was in love with Jesus, he was not.

You see, before he left to Ethiopia, Berhan pretty much stopped going to DC, like going to clubs, drinking and all that. He also began going to church with me but there was nothing in him that was changed from the inside and I couldn’t deny that fact.

Oh, young people, are you reading this note? Are you a born-again Christian? Listen to me please! Resolve now that you rather die than marry an unbelieving person. Do you hear me? I hope you do! There is no joy for the one who decides to disobey the word of God. Obey God’s word and you will never be put to shame! Obeying the word of God is the only possible way we can show that we love Jesus and we believe in Him. No other way!

Faith without works (meaning, believing in God without obeying the word of God) is dead as the body without the spirit is dead (James 2). Yes, we are saved by faith only but not by faith that is alone (Ephesians 2). Saving faith is always paired  up with works. Saving faith shows its existence in us when we walk in obedience to the word of God (James 2). Otherwise our faith is dead!

But coming back to my story, did I eventually marry a man who didn’t believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

The answer is coming up in my next post. So, stay tuned! ///