The “Changed by Jesus” series features stories about how Jesus is working through the ministry of Mars Hill Church to change lives. If God has used Mars Hill to transform your life, please consider emailing your account to testimony[at]marshillchurch.org.

This week’s story is a little different. Arjuna is not a member of Mars Hill Church, but we are all members of his ministry, Vision Nationals, through longstanding support and partnership. Read more about Vision Nationals in our Annual Report (PDF), or visit visionnationals.org.

Christ Alone — Changed by Jesus #7

By Arjuna Chiguluri, founder of Vision Nationals

I was seventeen when my father, a devout Hindu believer, came to Christ after a miraculous healing from paralysis. From that time on he studied the Christian Scriptures and vowed that all of his family would serve Jesus Christ as the only God. Despite the miracle, I was not about to trade the gods and scriptures I had loved since my childhood for a Western religion. I could not deny Jesus was a god; he had healed my father, after all. But by no means would I serve Christ as the only God.

Angry at my father’s conversion and convinced that the Bible would affirm a plurality of gods, I pored over the Bible my father had given me, looking for the evidence I needed to convince him that the Bible was consistent with our Hindu beliefs. What I found instead was: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them…know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other” (Ex. 20:4–5; Deut. 4:39).

Still angry, unconvinced, and certain that plural gods must be affirmed in the Bible somewhere, I studied the Scriptures for six months looking for the answer I wanted. Then one morning I awoke a Christian. To this day I cannot explain what happened. I remember waking up. My room looked strange. The colors were literally brighter. I looked out my bedroom window at the people walking by and thought, “Man, they need Jesus!” And so it began that, from the moment he saved me, God burdened me to plant churches to reach people with the transforming gospel of Jesus Christ.