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CBN.com – “This soldier took a gun and placed it at my forehead and told me he was going to end my life.”
David Nasser was only nine when the soldiers came to his school in Iran and threatened his life.
His parents knew the time had come to flee the ongoing revolution and seek refuge in the United States.
“We came here at the same time the American hostages were taken at the American embassy in Iran,” David says. “So people were watching on TV how the Iranians were burning the American flag and calling America 'The Great Satan.' We moved right in at the wrong time from the wrong place.
“My father was having a hard time just being hired by someone, and I was having a hard time just finding a friend.”
David struggled to learn English and dreaded going to school. The kids could be cruel.
He says he was called, “every nickname you could think of. Every 7/11 joke, every turban joke. You start to think, ‘I must not be as good.’”
David’s life changed dramatically right before high school.
“It was the last day of the summer. I was sitting in my room, and I was crying. My dad heard me, and he walked in. I told him, ‘Nobody likes me, and I don’t like them. I’m kind of the school loner and just coming from a different part of the world has not been easy for me.’
“My father just said, ‘Ok, let’s go.’ My dad took me to the mall, and you know the mall is where you go when you want to clone America. I wanted to be like everyone else, clothes, shoes, and haircut. Overnight through this extreme makeover, I found acceptance.”
David was raised Muslim and while he admits that his family was not devout, faith was a core part of his foundation.
“I still remember my mother praying three times a day, and I remember being taught the Koran,” David says.
David still felt “disconnected” even with his newfound popularity. When high school ended, his loneliness intensified. He turned to a friend for help.
“I was telling him how lonely I was, and he invited me to go to church with him. I said, ‘Man I don’t want to go to church. I hate religion.’ He said, ‘No, no, no. This isn’t the Muslim religion. This is Christianity.’
“I wasn’t convinced, and then he named the five prettiest girls from our high school and said they all go to our church. Immediately I was motivated.”
They all became friends and met David right at his point of need.
David recalls, “I’m getting a whiff of something I can’t deny. I’m seeing something that’s radiating out of your life that’s authentic. When I asked, ‘What is different?’ They always said, ‘Jesus Christ. Jesus has changed our lives. He is the Son of God. He lived the perfect life, and He died the sinner’s death. He wants to live in your life. He wants to come and transform you.”
One night after church, David’s transformation began.
“I realized people are always going to let you down. Churches will always let you down but Jesus Himself never will. He was the one calling me, and I said, ‘Jesus, I want You to save me from myself, from religion, from performance, from all these different things. It doesn’t mean that struggle goes away. It doesn’t mean that persecution goes away. It doesn’t mean that doubt goes away. It just means that you begin a new journey as a new you and that you’re not alone.”
David’s parents put up with what they thought was his “religious phase” for awhile. But when he decided to be baptized, they put their foot down.
“That was the night that my parents basically said, ‘You’re out of the house,’” David recalls. “The beauty of it is since that moment, one by one I’ve seen my entire family come to Jesus Christ.”
Evangelist David Nasser now speaks to half a million people every year.
“We all long for acceptance. We all long for purpose. We all long to fill this empty hole in our lives with what we think is not gonna make us feel empty anymore.”
David’s new book A Call to Grace focuses on an issue he believes we all struggle with regardless of our nationality.
“The greatest obstacle for someone from the Muslim faith when it comes to Christianity is the grace factor. They see this idea of you and I finding our salvation and earning the favor of God through the completed works of Jesus as just kind of a cop out.
“It’s not that salvation is easy. It’s that salvation is impossible when it comes to you being good enough because when are you good enough? When are you ever righteous enough? When are you ever pure enough? If there’s one thing I know I’m going to be consistent in today, it’s in being inconsistent. We all fail everyday.
“We are going to live imperfect lives, and that’s why we need a perfect Savior."
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