THE EMMAUS WALK PRESENTS:

"Stopped Dead But Made Alive," Naomi's Testimony

Excerpt from "Invitation--Billy Graham and the Lives God Touched,"

Stories of Real People Transformed by God,

by Basyle and Aram Tchividjian, Grandsons of Billy Graham, BGEA

[The following true account is by my cousin--Ed.

Naomi had been zipping through life, gathering momentum but going nowhere. She knew something was wrong. At first she couldn't put a finger on the problem--a numbness within that she couldn't quite reach. What was going on? Did other people feel like this too? What did they do about it?

In 1976, Naomi had just moved to Wyoming with a new baby but no husband. "I was lost and alone, and it was Christmas Eve. My friend and her parents wanted me to to go to a Christmas Eve service, but I told them I'd rather stay home."

Soon after everyone left, Naomi found herself pacing back and forth in front of the television, not really paying attention to what was on.

As she paced, the sound of singing coming from the television caught Naomi's attention. She lurched to a standstill midstep. A Billy Graham crusade was being televised, and like millions of others, Naomi was about to discover relief for the numbness that characterized her life.

"I stopped and listened as the choir sang. My hardened heart seemed to soften a little. I was tired, so I put my baby in the crib in the next room and went back to finish watching the crusade. I hardly remember what was said, but as I walked into my bedroom later, I felt as though God was there. The only place His presence couldn't be felt was inside me. Inside I felt a void, an emptiness I couldn't describe."

Pointing to her heart, a gesture that no one but God could see, Naomi acknowledged His presence in the room.

"Whatever is out there?" she said. "I want it in here." She laid her hand over her heart. "Immediately God filled me with His Spirit, and I felt peace."

Many years later, that God-given serenity is still with Naomi.

"To this day, I attribute my salvation directly to the ministry of Billy Graham. God's presence in the crusade that Christmas Eve stopped me dead in my tracks."

Because of that unexpected moment, Naomi's life was pointed in a new direction.

Note: Think about it, on Christmas Eve particularly, an unspeakably wondrous Gift of saving love and forgiveness and PEACE flooded Naomi my cousin's empty, troubled, pain-filled but numb heart.

If YOU the reader haven't yet received that Gift, you can right now, just ask for it as a child as Naomi did, and it is Yours forever! You don't need an elaborate prayer. Just make your request simple and true. God will hear that honest prayer. That Gift is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, God's Gift to you.

When I prayed as a boy at fifteen alone in my dormitory room of a small Christian school away from home thousands of miles, I didn't kneel, or pray a lot of words, or even think, I just asked the Lord to forgive my sins and come into my heart. You can not pray a more simple prayer than that, probably. I hadn't even tried to clean up my heart and life. I came to him just as I was--and I was not good, I was a sinner and full of hard-hearted rebellion and defiance and resentment concerning my dad's death and all the consequences, and bitterness toward others, let me tell you!

But he must have looked beyond that all my sin, obviously, for as the moment I ended my prayer, bang, he answered, and came into my heart, as he gave me a special sign I must have needed that he had answered me so I wouldn't forget what I had prayed--a wonderful, warm glow filled my upper chest and stayed there for a week or so, then faded away.

That was my experience. God never copies, he will treat you uniquely and individually. But know that he answers! He will answer every sinner's honest prayer, as he so chooses, with or without any special sign. Often it is just the changed heart and changed behavior that results, and different desires you never had before to do right and draw closer to spiritual things and away from the worldly life you had lived. But you will change, as He is changing you from the inside out, by far the most lasting way to change in a lasting way.--Ed.

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