Anchored in Christ

Kanye West’s apparent conversion to Christianity and bold gospel proclamation (reports of 1,000 committing lives to Christ at one of West’s Sunday Services) has me thinking: Our Sovereign God can use whatever means He wants to bring people to Himself.

I was reminded of this recently as I read a couple of testimonies of how God used two secular movies to bring people to saving faith.

Nacho Libre

Two missionaries met a waiter named Ali in a Muslim neighborhood who told them, “I had no peace in Islam, but I found peace in Jesus.” The Pioneers blog shares what triggered his hunger for Christ:

Within a few days, we gathered together for breakfast with Ali and his two sons. We wanted to hear his story of coming to faith. And as we talked, his 16-year-old son noticed the movie Nacho Libre on my teammate’s shelf.  It’s a slapstick comedy about a monastery cook who moonlights as a luchador, or Mexican wrestler, to supplement the funds used to feed the orphans in their care.

Ali and his sons were spiritually inspired by the movie, despite its silliness. They say that the movie was their first exposure to Jesus. In it they saw a Christian caring for orphans, and that raised questions in their hearts about a God who cares for the marginalized and downtrodden. And God had prepared their hearts to hear a message of His love before seeing Nacho Libre.

Hacksaw Ridge

Lee Grady of the Mordecai Project told this story on social media:

My new friend “Bahram” is an Iranian living in Australia. Just a few years ago, while in Iran, he started seeking God and asking spiritual questions. In 2016 he saw the film “Hacksaw Ridge,” in which a framed copy of the Lord’s prayer is shown during a key scene. Bahram had never heard of the prayer. He looked it up on the internet out of curiosity. A few days later, two random pages of the Bible ended up on his doorstep, blown by the wind. The pages included Luke 11, where the Lord’s prayer appears. Bahram saw this as a sign from God, and he gave his life to Christ. To this day he keeps those pages in his Farsi Bible, as a reminder that Jesus came looking for him!

What an amazing God we serve!

I share these stories to deepen your faith in our Sovereign Father who has lavished His amazing grace on us and encourage you to pray faithfully for God to save the lost. He may just surprise you in who He saves and how He saves them. Nobody is beyond His reach.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” John 6:44