Yasser Arafat

There are times in our lives when we get sudden urges;Urges to go shopping,to eat something, phone someone, to drop a line or visit a friend, or to just pray for someone in particular. That's what happened to me one day in early November, I got the urge to pray for someone in particular. His name was Yasser Arafat, who was in a coma on his death bed. There was an urgency placed upon me to pray that Mr. Arafat would be ready to die and meet his Creator. Of course we have heard that Yasser Arafat, president of the PLO, had encouraged and financed many terrorists who took innocent lives in Israel. I thought about this at length. Why should I really pray for Mr. Arafat? After killing hundreds (if not thousands) of lives, did he deserve to be called a child of God? On Friday, November 11th, I received the following e-mail:

Sharing Jesus with Arafat

Early this morning Palestinian President Yasser Arafat died in a military hospital in France. American Bible teacher R.T. Kendall, who visited Arafat several times in Ramallah, reports on his Web site: "I began praying for Yasser Arafat daily over 22 years ago. I never expected to meet him, but the Holy Spirit laid him on my heart and gave me a love for him. I don't know whether Yasser Arafat has felt unconditional love from many people, especially from the West, but I wanted him to feel it from me. I wanted to be Jesus to him."

"Yasser Arafat had his 75th birthday only days before we saw him on September 2nd," reports Kendall. "I brought in a Bible which he seemed very pleased to receive, and we gave him also some crystallized fruit that I knew he loves. I have always sensed the unusual leadership of the Holy Spirit every time I am with President Arafat. On at least two occasions, when I presented the Gospel very strongly to him, I felt I had as much anointing as in any pulpit. But each time afterwards I also feared I would never be invited back. But he has invited me back three times, even to have lunch with him. We had over an hour with him on this occasion. I read Psalm 91:14-16, asked him permission to anoint him with oil and pray for him."

In March, Kendall also made a trip to Ramallah. He showed Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' to Arafat, who said he was deeply moved by the movie and allowed Kendall to pray for the whole PLO staff.
http://www.rtkendallministries.com/news.htm

I do not know if Yasser Arafat did in fact become a child of God on his death bed. However, I do know that a certain man named Saul, in Acts, a book in the Bible, had killed many Christians. He had an encounter one day as he journeyed to Damascus and became a child of God (Acts 9) and he went on to write various books of the Bible. His name was changed to Paul.

You may not have experienced the guilt of having killed many innocent people in order to promote a cause.Whether you have or havenot murdered someone in cold blood,Paul instructs us that there is nobody living as they should, not even one person. We have all taken the wrong turn and wandered down blind alleys. No one is living right-- not a single one. It is our nature to neglect giving God the time of day.Paulcontinues onin Romans 3, explaining that God sent Jesus in the form of a baby to die an innocent deathand rid the world of sin. Having faith in Him sets us clear of our sin. I urge you to consider Jesus Christ today!

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Contributed by George Prins
You may email George at this address:gprins@becon.org
or visit his Web site to read more of his writing:www.people.becon.org/~gprins/