I have just a fascinating guest with us now, Mike Shreve. He is the author of In Search of the True Light. But really, what the story is, is you've got this sort of really cool ministry where you speak to people coming out of really, really different worldviews, right? Like people out of yoga, people out of Scientology, like myself. Hinduism, Buddhism, Eastern religions, Taoism, Sikhism. Sikhism? I hadn't heard that one. That's an offshoot of Hinduism.
Guru Nanak started it, and it's similar in some respects to Hinduism, but quite a bit different too. So it's interesting to me that, you know, 2 Corinthians chapter 1 says, you know, the God of all comfort comforts us so that we can comfort others with the comfort God gave us. So it sounds like that story plays out in your life, doesn't it? Well, I have a little bit additional way of saying it, that if God ever brings you out of a certain kind of darkness, you automatically earn the right to reach back and pull someone else out. And that's what I try to do, because I was of a different mindset.
I was not of a biblical mindset. I was studying under an Indian guru. I was teaching yoga and meditation at four universities. And I was running a yoga ashram in Tampa, Florida back in 1970. And then God interrupted what I thought was a very predictable life and gave me a revelation of the truth that was stunning and strong enough to change my direction altogether. Can you take us into that story a little bit?
Yes, I certainly will, and very happy to, Robbie. I was teaching, as I said, at four universities like the University of South Florida, University of Tampa, New College, and Florida Presbyterian. And I had about three or four hundred students following my teachings and attending my yoga classes.
And the Tampa Tribune newspaper did a big article on me that I thought would just increase my attendance. I did not know that it would alert a local prayer group to begin praying for me on a continuing basis. And they had a twenty-four hour prayer chain, and somebody was fasting and praying for me every hour of every day.
How do you escape intercession like that? Within about three weeks, God started doing things sovereignly to bring me into the kingdom. I got a letter from an old friend of mine telling me how he had been born again, how he had walked into church and heard an audible voice say, Jesus is the only way. And that was really a mystery to me because he had left college when I had to study Eastern religions. So I was pondering that. And then finally one day I decided, you know, I'm a truth seeker.
This is the truth network. Well, I'm a truth seeker. I thought, I can't be closed-minded even though I think Christianity is illogical. So I thought, I'll dedicate one day to Jesus. And I won't do any yogic rituals. I won't do mantra yoga, hatha yoga. I won't do any of the breathing exercises. I won't read the Bhagavad Gita.
I won't do any of that. I decided all I was going to do was pray to the Lord Jesus and read the Bible. And I did that for like nine or ten hours, asking him, if you're the only way, if you're truly the savior of the world, give me a supernatural sign today. And that afternoon I was hitchhiking to go teach a yoga class at University of South Florida. And one of the members of the prayer group just happened to be two miles away walking into a laundromat when I stepped out on the road hitchhiking. And that member of the prayer group just happened to be a former yoga student himself who had become a Christian. And I just happened to have heard about him through the grapevine because he was a more advanced student of yoga than I was, or that I felt I was. So I had heard he'd gotten hung up with some Jesus freaks that believed Jesus was the only way. He'd heard about me because his prayer group was praying for me. Well, he's walking into a laundromat and the Holy Spirit spoke to his heart and said, don't go in there. Get back in your van.
I've got a job for you to do. He had no idea what God's intentions were, but he just went ahead, obeyed, got behind the wheel, started driving, and whenever he felt an impulse, made a turn. He never picked up hitchhikers but felt compelled to pick me up. And when I opened the door to his van, I looked in and there was a picture of Jesus on the ceiling of the van. And so I knew this is my son. He could talk my language, my lingo, and explain to me why the cross, the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus, the resurrection, makes Christianity exclusive.
That's a beautiful thing, right? That God sent somebody that knew the key. Number one, you were hunger for something spiritual or you wouldn't be on the trail you're on.
Absolutely. You wouldn't accept your yoga and this, that, and the other, except that you were hungry for something spiritual. And so for a lot of folks, they don't accept the extra kind of concepts of spirituality, but you had completely embraced that through your Eastern study. And this gentleman knew the lingo. It'd be like me talking to somebody in Scientology. If they'd tried to lead me to Christ, they could use the word.
They knew the terminology and the buzzwords, so to speak. And so just out of curiosity, because I love that, I mean, it's like... Well, one of the main things he explained to me was the difference in the view of ultimate reality, where in Hinduism it's Brahman. And Brahman is an impersonal life force that flows through all the universe. The life of the tree is God. The life of every dog and cat, that's God.
The life of every human being, that's God. So God is this impersonal life force. And to discover and experience that God, you look within, because it's already there.
Not he. Brahman is not referred to with the pronoun he, because it is just a cosmic flow of energy and life. And you tap into it, awaken it within yourself, and discover that you are God. Well, of course, the biblical worldview is totally opposite. God exists apart from physical creation. The Hindu view is called pantheism. That means all is God. But we as Bible believers believe in theism, that God exists apart from the physical universe. He is a personal God. He is a personal God. And when you invite the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart, you come into a relationship with this God.
And praise God, you're truly saved because the blood of Jesus Christ washes you clean from your sin. The guru I studied under used to teach us that Jesus' death on the cross was just the tragic death of a good man that went to a great extreme of suffering to prove to us how willing we should be to suffer for our cause or our belief, but that it had no redeeming quality. He also taught that Jesus was an avatar, which is a Hindu word meaning an incarnation of God. And he taught because Jesus was an avatar, he could only speak the truth.
Well, I thought if he could only speak the truth, then I need to start looking at what he had to say. And at the Last Supper, he passed the cup among his disciples and said, this is the blood of the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for many. He did not say as an example of obedience, like the guru I studied under said. He said, this blood is shed for many for the remission of sins. So I thought, if anybody knew the purpose of his death, he would have known. And he said it was for our redemption, for the cleansing of sin, for our salvation. I found out it's true because when I invited him into my heart that day in the back of that Volkswagen van on the side of the road, I was born again. I went back to all my classes, told them unknowingly I had misled them.
I shut down my yoga ashram, burned all my books on yoga and started a brand new life. Wow. How long ago was that? It's 50, well, 50 years this coming fall.
Really? Yes. No, no, I'm sorry, 50 years last October. And this coming year will be 50 years of ministry for me. So it's my Jubilee year of salvation this year.
How exciting. And you've got lots of things that you're doing, but how would, you know, somebody that, I mean, you really love to minister to people what I want. So somebody involved in yoga ministry or what, what would you recommend they do to contact you or get involved with your ministry?
What, if someone's involved in yoga or involved in, you know, they have a loved one, they would love to know what to do with this situation. Well, they can contact me at either one of my websites. I have a ministry website, which is shreveministries.org, that's S-H-R-E-V-E, shreveministries.org. And I try to pay attention personally to every email that comes through that website. I also have my testimony in much greater detail available as a free downloadable book called The Highest Adventure, Encountering God. And then I have an outreach website where there's testimonies of people who have come out of other religions to find Jesus. And there's a lot of teachings there that are very valuable teaching for someone who's searching for the truth, and that is thetruelight.net, thetruelight.net. And so, again, if they come to that website or shreveministries.org, send me a message.
I help people all the time reach their loved ones for the kingdom. Wow, wow. So his new book, In Search of the True Light. Well, actually, it's 20 years old. Well, this book is 20 years old.
Almost. It was published in 2003. Okay. So it's pretty easy to get on almost any, but obviously on Amazon, In Search of the True Light. And it's available as an e-book also. But also you've got a whole group that's working on a documentary.
Oh, yeah. We're about to start a series of documentary films with the same title, In Search of the True Light. And we're going to be filming in the Los Angeles area. And our goal is to get people who either are adherents of other worldviews, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Muslim, et cetera, or they have belonged to those worldviews and are now Christian.
And the whole purpose of the series of films is 13 films. Each one will take a central subject like the nature of God and get the opinion of a Hindu, a Sikh, a Muslim, a Buddhist, a New Ager, a Scientologist, whatever, or someone who's come out of those belief systems and will treat the subject matter and the people who are on the program with love and with kindness in an interchange of ideas. Even though many of us will disagree on the subject matter, we can agree to love one another and to be peaceful and to be kind as I try to convince them that they should convert to my belief system. And they try to convince me I should be converted to their belief system. So we agree we're trying to convert each other.
But Christianity and the gospel have a power behind them that the others don't have. That's a beautiful thing, and what a beautiful project. How could people pray for or get involved with that for you? Well, again, they could come to thetruelight.net, and there will be updates there about the television project. If they want to request a flyer, we've got a rack card that describes the True Light project. If they just send me a message, say, please send me the rack card. We're also developing literature where former Hindus are sharing their story in a small booklet form, former Buddhists, former Muslims, etc. And so if they have a loved one in any of those world views, hopefully we'll have literature available for them.
But if they request the rack card, that tells the whole story. Wonderful, wonderful. God bless you. Keep up the great work. Thank you, Mike. Well thank you, Robbie, and I hope we stay connected, and I hope I can be a blessing in the future. You will, you will, I'm sure. God bless you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-09-21 22:57:06 / 2023-09-21 23:02:25 / 5
