Par foi, souvent - 3e partie Fri 24 Jul 2009 1 comment

[ < 2e partie | thémas Bouquins & Foi | archivage automatique du billet sur Mohamed Ulad Mohand, étonnant producteur TV ] L'homme ne vivra pas que de business (Anonyme) La foi. Oui. La foi, la confiance, si différente de la religion (traditions). Tout ça dixit André Frossard (1915-1995). L'auteur de Dieu existe, je L'ai rencontré, citant l'étrange Bernanos (1888-1948), rappelle que les convertis sont encombrants. Encombrants pour les institutions : religieuses, culturelles, sociales [1]. Les convertis ? Comme leur nom l'indique, ils transforment quelque chose : leur propre matière, eux-mêmes, leur coeur. Et ils attribuent ce changement fort (qui va jusqu'à baigner le monde, le reconfigurer à leurs yeux), eh bien ils l'attribuent à l'extérieur. À un agent qui les dépasse. En stature peut-être, encore et surtout en qualité : disponibilité, hauteur de vues, présence réelle au monde. Et, croyez-le si vous voulez, c'est un agent... qui les aime. C'est-à-dire qui prend le risque à leurs côtés. Et les soutient [2]. Le coeur, pour les convertis comme pour les autres, c'est la sensibilité, l'intimité qui perdure : c'est - pour citer l'Écclésiaste (et faire une boucle vers Don Richardson) - ce qui pressent l'éternité [3], cet état, ce vécu qui dépasse même la mort. Et ressemble donc à l'amour (voire se confond avec lui, ou procède d'une même source). L'éternité ? Le coeur la recherche, en mode actif ou par aspirations (plus ou moins conscientes, plus ou moins fructueuses - cf. recours aux idoles). Alors ce coeur, il va vers quoi ? Mmh ? Le mien va vers ça, en dessous. Je veux dire que ces bouquins m'apportent des trésors : Je leur ajoute La Croix et le Poignard (David Wilkerson), de même que The Incredible Power of prayer (anglais très simple à lire) de Roger J. Morneau. Reprenons Wilkerson (livre de ma fin d'adolescence) et ajoutons, côté témoignages, l'incroyable Miracle sur la rivière Kwai du vétéran Ernest Gordon (1917-2002), ouvert aux expériences les plus extrêmes. Une beigne. Digne de Papillon. Bouquin parallèle au film Le Pont de la rivière Kwai (mêmes faits). Mention spéciale à Corrie ten Boom aussi. Son Dieu en enfer (The Hidding Place) - qui glace le sang - montre qu'on est loin (bien loin) de la guimauve. Est-ce que quelqu'un peut m'expliquer comment [4], après Ravensbrück, on peut trouver la force d'avancer ? (Bouquin sublime, bouquin ultime.) Le Rentrer chez soi d'Henri J.M. Nouwen [5] est un très beau condensé de théologie : logique, touchant et simple. On y comprend... tout. Il y a aussi, sur la question de la Trinité, le bel Évangile de Jean (individu qui a connu Jésus de son vivant), traduit par Jean-Yves Leloup. Une sage autorité (atypique, documentée) s'en dégage. Le Business Unlimited de J. Gunnar Olson ? Affaires sans frontières, en français ? Il m'a « juste » aidé à vivre pendant 4 mois. Allez, je finis avec L'Éternité dans leur coeur de Don Richardson. Livre-beigne aussi. Mais ça, vous le savez ;) __ [1] Ce qui, anthropologiquement, participe du même socle, voire se maille dans les approches et se confond. Cf. idéal de transversalité, à l'instar de ce que font par exemple Edgar Morin, Boris Cyrulnik ou Joël de Rosnay. [2] Dieu serait-Il Promoteur ? Persévérant ? Empathique ? Débat stérile, mais drôle et ouvert. [3] Pour les chrétiens, la juste appréciation de l'éternité (sa juste canalisation, comme si c'était une aspiration, un besoin, voire une pulsion) passe par l'expérience, ici et maintenant (ou progressive), de la résurrection. Celle-ci donne sa pleine mesure à la vie. Elle lui fait passer un cran, la sort non pas de ses contingences (ici-bas, les épreuves et la frustration), mais de sa vanité. De son creux. De son à-quoi-bon. De sa solitude intrinsèque. Là, tout change : c'est beaucoup plus qu'un espoir, beaucoup plus que des modifications, c'est un royaume qui vient (comme dans le cas de Naaman ou de l'eunuque de Candace). Un nouvel ordre qui s'installe : une transformation (un réveil, cf. Degré 2). Qui ouvre au monde et au prochain (sorte d'horizontalité). Et qui ouvre à la Source de vie (verticalité stimulante). À l'explosion fraîche et vivante. [4] Même si le contexte diffère du tout au tout, le pasteur palestinien Maron peut expliquer comment vivre. Le pardon personnel, en temps de guerre, il connaît bien. [5] Nouwen exprime une lecture particulièrement proche de celle de Girard, pour qui la racine du mal humain, c'est la convoitise : jalouser l'autre. Ce mauvais Animus (peur de la perte) exerce un contrôle morbide sur autrui. (Revoir ce pauvre Abel.) Pour affaisser ce pouvoir (terme de Nouwen), Dieu choisit l'impuissance : il décide de détruire le leurre et sa logique... de l'intérieur. À lire absolument. [ Je suis protestant (2 % de la population française, l'un de ses berceaux, et 9 fois plus... en Corée du Sud), en même temps mes écrivains catholiques préférés sont Frossard et François Mauriac - de même que j'aime le photographe Joël Peter Witkin (eh oui - voici d'ailleurs mes photographes favoris, attention not safe for work, NSFW) | autre sujet - La grâce serait une synergie (rencontre, mélange énergétique) entre amour et liberté (Qu'en dites-vous ?) | l'amour, lui, pourrait être le carrefour vif entre contingences et liberté, c'est-à-dire risque volontaire (engagement) et dépassement de la mort (qui est repli, séparation, peur) : engagement, tiens, oui c'est ça - ou fidélité, ou attachement inconditionnel et confiance (Any idea, mmh ?) | who Nouwen was, video | Nouwen aidait les déficients mentaux | Corrie ten Boom, the museum | Ernest Gordon, personnage-choc pour le musicien Paul Adams | Bad Lieutenant, plus grand film sur la rédemption ? Interview de son réalisateur (inclassable) Abel Ferrara | après tout ça, soyons fous, rions ]

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Category: Absara - Divers  Tags: abel ferrara, affaires sans frontières, amour, andré frossard, animus, bad lieutenant, berbanos, bible, business unlimited, candace, coeur, contrôle, conversion, converti, convertir, convertis, convoitise, corrie ten boom, croire, david wilkerson, dieu, dieu en enfer, ernest gordon, eunuque, ferrara, foi, frossard, georges bernanos, gordon, grâce, henri j.m. nouwen, henri nouwen, j gunnar olson, jean-yves leloup, jourdain, jésus, jésus-christ, kwai, la croix et le poignard, leloup, linn, livres, lâcher-prise, lèpre, miracle sur la rivière kwai, morneau, morneau, mort, naaman, nouwen, nsfw, olson, photographe, photographes, photographie, protestant, protestantisme, ravensbrück, rivière kwai, roger j morneau, rédemption, résurrection, théologie, trinité, vie, vie éternelle, wilkerson, éternité

24 Jul 2009 @ 13:22 by Lionel : Love in Middle-East
A Life Transformed

Maron was once a drug addict living in the Old City of Jerusalem. If life had taken its natural course of events, Maron would be dead. He had no will to live; no expectations in life. But something happened to change his life for ever. Still relatively young, life has taken him along an often dangerous path. Today this former drug addict, who at one time couldn't have cared whether he lived or died, is driven on by a sense of urgency to reach his own Arab people with the gospel message of peace and reconciliation.

Here is Maron's story... told in his own words:

How I came to be working as a Christian evangelist is quite a story. I am a Palestinian, born in Jerusalem. My family was originally from Ramleh. Then in 1948, during the war here, they escaped from Ramleh and went to live in the Old City of Jerusalem. We were' a nominal Christian family. I had seven sisters and two brothers and we all lived together in one room that measured three square meters. We had no electricity and there was often friction. And many times I had nowhere to sleep, so I slept outside in the street. And so it was that I grew up as a refugee. We were very poor at that time.

When I was growing up and still living with my family in the old City, there was a growing, menacing problem - drugs. Many people were using drugs, including my brother, Abraham. He became a drug addict and started to do things that did not please my family, and eventually my father threw him out of the house.

Abraham ended up in prison, but something extraordinary happened to him there. My eldest sister visited him and gave him a Bible. Soon after, we heard he had given his life to Jesus Christ, and when he left prison he started to be an evangelist. He went from place to place talking about the Lord! It amazed me.

Watching what happened to my brother had a big impact on my life because I too had begun to take soft drugs occasionally. They were so easy to get in the Old City. Everybody was taking them, and many people were dying.

As a teenager, I was always fighting with my father. I had bitterness in my heart towards him - I didn't like him. He was a tough man. He often beat me and would throw me out of the house. Sometimes in the winter I had nowhere to sleep. I couldn't go home. I was cold. Then one day, when I was looking for somewhere to sleep, I met somebody who I had known from school. He told me he was sleeping in a hotel and he invited me to join him. I was so grateful to him for offering me accommodation that I jumped at the opportunity. However, I soon realized that he was taking hard drugs. I watched as he injected himself, and soon after I started to use the drugs with him. I was twenty-three years old.

Things went from bad to worse. I hated my father. I hated Jews. I was a heroin addict. I drank a lot of alcohol. I took any drug I could get my hands on. I was very skinny and looked close to death. I later heard that my mother was told by people who knew me, to prepare for my burial. I had reached the lowest point in my life.

My view on life started to shift when my father became a Christian and I saw a huge change in him, which surprised me. He died shortly afterwards, sadly before he saw a change in me. But seeing him mellow and become so sweet-natured really shocked me and I started to wonder about my own life. Could I change too? Could I make something of my life? Could I ever kick the drug habit and be somebody, and do something worthwhile?

And so it was that shortly after my father died, I agreed, reluctantly, to visit a rehabilitation centre (House of Victory) in Haifa run by believers, and it was there that I met the Lord, and there that the Lord changed my life. It didn't happen all at once; when I arrived and looked around I thought I would stay for one week and then escape! But you know, the Lord kept me there, and started to change slowly my life.

One Brother at the rehab centre, Danny, who was Jewish, asked me if I could help him build the Succah in the garden. When I was working with him, I realized I was finding it a pleasure. It occurred me that previously, before I had become a Christian, I would have wanted to destroy him - now I loved him like my own brother. I asked myself how this could be... I had realized that since I had given my life to Jesus Christ, he was living in me and changing my attitudes in a radical way. After I finished my rehab program in Haifa, I went to study the Bible at a college run by the Assemblies of God. Two years later I met Angelika, and before long we were married and I started working full time as an Evangelist.

My outreach areas are stretching out from Jerusalem to Ramleh, Jaffa and to the West bank, and I am happy to assist Churches with Crusades and Outreach-Work. My goal is, to reach out to the unreached, and to pioneer new home groups.

Today I am a Pastor with the Assemblies of God. I believe God wants to teach us Arabs and Jews how to forgive each other because we are living in the last days and Jesus will be returning soon. I is a message of hope, and I remember the prayer that Jesus Christ prayed in John 17: "Let them be one as you and I are one"- That's what Jesus Christ wants. He wants us all to be one in his body. It doesn't matter what kind of nation or what kind of tongue we have, what counts is what effort we bring, to reach out to our unreached brothers around us, with the Gospel of Love.  

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