My name is Gurdeep Lu Luthra and I was born in a Sikh family. For you to understand why I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour, let me take you back in time. I was born in Amritsar and lived in Punjab till the age of four. Then my parents moved to Agra. I went to a primary school and spent my early childhood years growing up in Agra. When I was nine, my family shifted base to Bombay, India.Ours was a religious Sikh family and I took active part in religious activities from an early age. My mother, a devout sikh lady, would regularly meditate on the Sikh scriptures and follow Sikh rituals. We had a small room designated for prayers at our home in Bombay. The Holy Granth is kept in this room and this is a common practice in many Sikh homes. The main worship is performed twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. So we as a family were quite involved in Sikhism.
Now since I was raised in a very holy family in India and stayed away from evils like drinking, drugs, smoking etc., I naturally thought of myself as a good person and holy in the eyes of God. This was to be proved wrong later!
In 1970 I had the opportunity to go to New Jersey, US for higher education. Like any youngster I too had dreams to make it big.
I finished college in 1974 and moved to New York, where I bought a restaurant. So I started living there. This is where I fell in love with a girl and we decided to get married. I have been living happily with my wife ever since. We stayed in New York for three years till we moved to Minneapolis in 1978. I had found a good job there.
Soon the Lord blessed us with a baby girl and we were quite happy! As soon as she grew up, we got her admitted to a Catholic School.
Now, i was blessed with a very good job, a loving family and a good home but inspite of everything there was a void in my life, an emptiness which I felt but could not identify. Basically I was enjoying all comforts of life but there was not much peace in my heart..
During the Christmas season, a family of my daughter’s classmate invited us for a Christmas play in their Church. We decided to go, and I was quite surprised to see the joy on everyone’s faces. Everyone seemed so happy! They all had a peace which i too wanted to have. I came home and shared this with my wife, that i would also like to have that peace and joy in my life, as we had witnessed in the Church.
Several months went by and soon my wife accepted the Lord but without my knowledge – her friends in Church asked her not to share this with me. But they encouraged her to keep on praying for my salvation. And she did that faithfully.
After a month, when I came home from work one day I told my wife that I need God in my life. I said this without realizing why I was saying so or what I really meant!
The same evening my daughter asked us to drop her to a friend’s place. Bob (dad of my daughter’s friend) had planned to take my daughter to the Church with his family that evening but I had no clue about this earlier. So, when Bob asked me if I would also like to accompany them to the Church, I initially refused but my wife insisted that I went. She said that she would stay home and fellowship with Bob’s wife but urged us to go with Bob and his daughter to their Church. So all four of us went.
Once inside the Church, Bob led me to a room where about eight people were praying - some were speaking in tongues also. I found it quite strange and regretted coming there, thinking what have I gotten myself into!
Well I had no option but to sit there and observe! After about fifty minutes the Church Pastor came over to me and asked me if I wanted to accept Jesus in my heart. This set me thinking.
Then i thought, since I am already worshipping many Gurus and Gods, so let me add Jesus also to the list of already existing Gods. So I decided to listen to the Pastor and accept Jesus. I then asked Jesus to come into my heart and repeated the prayer of confession after the Pastor. Personally I could not feel any difference but as soon as I reached Bob’s home, my wife sensed a new glow on my face. She said it was not there before! She asked me,” You found Him today, didn’t you?”. But i didn’t pay much heed to her words cause i felt the same as before.
When we reached home that night, i went to bed as usual but when i woke up the next morning, I felt something different in me. Something had changed in me. I realized I was a different man!
As the days passed by, this joy and peace increased in my heart. Deep inside of me i was experiencing a new love, happiness and hope – a hope that wasn’t there before. This was the peace i was searching for all these years! Suddenly all the emptiness was going away from my heart and I could sense God’s love filling me, and transforming me!
I was excited and convinced that there is a LIVING GOD after all and HIS name is Jesus Christ!! When I prayed that night, I was sure that now my prayers were being heard by someone who cared for me. God actually cared for me – I felt this for the first time in all these years. Years of following other Gods had never given me this assurance, this peace, this hope. Oh what joy and peace this inner transformation bought!
And that my friends, is how the Holy Spirit revealed God’s glory to me, Hallelujah!
Since that day, my life hasn’t been the same. I and my wife felt God’s strong call in our lives and we dedicated ourselves to study and meditate on His Word. We seeked His guidance and soon the Lord spoke to our hearts. He gave us directions to go in full time ministry - and preach the Gospel. This was in the year 1991. The Lord has blessed us with three children and now we serve the Lord full time in US, pastor a Church as well as travel to other parts of globe to share the Good News. We have also opened a Bible college, in order to train people for God’s ministry. We are thankful to the Holy Spirit for constant guidance at every step.
Since my childhood I had always thought that my good deeds would be able to save me and I thought of myself as holy and righteous. This is what we were taught from childhood.
But the Bible says” For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. God is perfect and holy, and our sins separate us from God forever. I am thankful that God has showed me the way to eternal life. He offers us the gift of eternal life -- of living forever with Him in heaven if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior.
And my brothers and sisters, this free gift of salvation is for all - Romans 10:8-13 New International Version (NIV) says: "But what does the Bible say? "The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, "that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in Jesus will never be put to shame. For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved."
I have found true joy and happiness in my life. God has brought us out from darkness to light. I pray for this light to shine on all my dear brethren – all over the globe. God bless you all.
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