Testimonies

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The Agnostic Violinist: Part Three of Three
Authored by Josprel (Joseph Perrello)
[email protected]
[email protected]

BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS IN THE LIVES OF JOSPREL'S PARENTS.

The agnostic violinist claimed no one could know that God existed. Then God revealed Himself to him.

The Agnostic Violinist - Part Three of Three.
by
Josprel

Paul took the seat Grace had reserved; however Broz joined the orchestra. Kneeling worshipers filled the alter rail, others knelt at their seats. Myriad voices, seemingly in rogation, undulated through the sanctuary. Then, the muted majesty of the great pipe organ softly blended in, reverently harmonized by the orchestral entourage, Broszi's feathery metallic swishes whispering their rhythm.

Arms raised heavenward, a small man moved to the pulpit. The singing multitude stood, many clapping, others with arms lifted high. And, as the glorious worship music saturated the building, Paul understood what had drawn
Broszi here!

At first, the sermons confused Paul, but the music drew him back. Broszi gave him a Bible, marking several passages for him. Romans, chapter one, stunned the agnostic. It seemed to refer to him. He had often struggled with the concept that the complexity of the universe evidenced the existence of an infinite intellect. Comparing it to the impossibility of an intricate orchestral arrangement existing without a master arranger, he had pushed the troubling thought from him, but there it was in the Bible. Once, the minister even preached on the chapter. Paul thought Broszi asked him to do so, but he had not.

He feared telling Sara about the church and read the Bible in secret. Then, one night, he returned from a gig feeling so empty.

"If there isn't a God, there should be one," he told himself, "It's for sure that at least for me, life makes no sense without one. Only if there's a God, does this crazy world have any hope."

He had read in the Bible that the fool says there's no God. He remembered the minister preaching that God hears sincere people who want the truth, even those with hard questions. Paul knew that was him. He could no longer live with his uncertainty, so he went to his knees. If God existed, he wanted to know Him and serve Him.

"Please God, if you really exist, help me to know you, so I can serve you. And, please let Sara go to church with me. Heal her and Laura. I pray to you in the Name of Jesus, your Son, just like that minister teaches peoples to do. Amen."

Their infant daughter, Laura, was sick with a high fever. Medication wasn't helping, and the doctor recommended "waiting it out." When Paul asked Sara to take Laura to the church for prayer, to his amazement, she consented.

"The only reason I'm going is to have the baby prayed for, just in case it might help her. I'm not going to that church after that. Just because you're a heretic, doesn't mean you're going to make me one. Is that clear; do you understand what I'm saying?"

Paul understood.
*****

The church was crowded, but Sara thought nothing of it. Her own church was a large one, too; moreover, as the wife of a musician, and a woman who loved to party and dance, she was accustomed to large gatherings. It was the service that bewildering her; she couldn't relate it to anything she had ever before experienced. She found the music and singing exhilarating, realizing now, that Paul had not exaggerated when he told her that the music in this church was "fantastic."

The kind of praying these people did that astonished her. It was a strange kind of praying. The man behind the pulpit made a remark and the congregation rose to its feet, turned and knelt between the pews. Paul also went to his knees, but not Sara. She sat uncompromisingly at rigid attention, cradling Laura.

After several voices in succession uttered what Sara took to be prayers, one man close by spoke out loud in a language she knew was like none she had ever heard. The man's voice subsided and an expectant hush fell on the gathering. Then, from several isles away, a women voice spoke out in English.

"You are seeking to enter heaven by following a religion, but no religion will get you there. Jesus Christ said that He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to God, the Father, without going through Jesus Christ. Only Jesus can lead you to eternal life.

"You have come to this service tonight only to receive healing for your child, yet God also will heal you from the terrible tumor that afflicts you. Your soul also needs to be healed from your sins and your doubts and fears. Tonight you shall be born again by God's Holy Spirit and you shall become a new person. God will fill you with his Holy Spirit and you shall witness to many others of the wondrous things Jesus Christ has done for you."

It was a flabbergasted violinist's wife who sat through the offering and the preaching that followed.
*****

Just before the preaching ended, Sara turned toward Paul and whispered, "A voice in my head keeps saying that I'll saved and healed, and filled with the Holy Spirit tonight. That's the same thing that woman said would happen me. I don't know what that all means. I'm scared. Let's leave."

Paul took her hand and whispered, "But if God is going to do it, so it should be fine. You want Laura to be healed, don't you? If we leave now, she won't be prayed for."

With an uneasy look, Sara nodded.
*****

The alter call was given. The minister progressed down the long line of supplicants, finally reaching Sara, Laura cradled in her arms, Paul and Grace behind them.

"Are you saved? Have you been born again?"

"I believed in God."

"But are you saved? Have you received Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior?"

"I don't understand what you mean. I said I believe in Jesus."

"You must receive Him into your heart and life, personally. You must believe that He died to save you from the power of sin, and that He rose from the grave to give you eternal life. When you confess that, He will save you from your sins."

"But I already believe all those things. My own religion taught them to me when I was only a little girl. Anyway, I'm not a bad person. I'm not a sinner."

"Do you read the Bible?"

Sara shrunk back in horror. "No! Never! That's a mortal sin. Only the priests are allowed to read that book. I would never do something like that. But my husband just started to read it, and I don't want him to. I try to stop him, but he won't listen to me. He shuts himself in the bathroom, so I can't stop him from reading it."

The minister smiled knowingly and prayed for her. He lightly touched her brow. Sara's her legs instantly buckled and Grace grabbed Laura.

Covered by a blanket, arms lifted, eyes closed, oblivious to her surroundings, Sara sang to the Lord in songs so soul-stirring, that other worshipers wept. Not Paul, however. Staggered, he watched Sara's tumor diminish, and then vanish. When Grace informed him that Laura no longer was feverish, his consternation increased. Oblivious to time and surroundings, Sara continued her heavenly singing.

When she at last opened her eyes and attempted to speak, melodic tunes were all she could utter. This lasted for several days, then the phenomenon ceased. Afterward, Paul brought Sara and the Laura to their physician. They informed him of the miracles. Having no other alternative, he pronounced that Sara's tumor had spontaneously disappeared, and that Laura also was cured.

Now Paul knew God existed and that He answered prayer. Informing his orchestra he was leaving, he surrendered all orchestral rights to his second violinist, consecrating his own music to God.

Paul and Sara zealously witnessed of God and His Son, Jesus Christ. They gave their testimony to all who would listen.

Conducting street meetings in Sara's hometown brought them persecution. Though her parents never attended their own church, Sara's conversion devastated them. Even her healing failed to move them. Her brother, with whom she had been exceptionally close, slapped her across the face and disowned her as his sister.

Paul fared no better with his family. His six brothers and two sisters wanted nothing more to do with him and Sara. Paul's mother, a plain Italian woman with extremely poor vision, loved Sara as her own daughter. Immediately after Sara's marriage to Paul, she and her mother-in-law had bonded into an exceptionally loving relationship. Now, Paul's sisters and brothers informed their mother that Paul and Sara had "lost their minds." They insisted that she stay away from them because they might harm her.

The persecution did not last, however. Within a decade, Sara's brother was born again. So were Paul's mother and three of his brothers with their entire families.

Both Paul and Sara continued to give glory to Jesus Christ, who redeemed them and who answered the prayer of a former agnostic violinist.
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