As part of Josiah Project I was to attend a Jesus in the Qur'an seminar.
Pause. What?
Now, I could almost guarantee that most people reading this blog would say that Jesus in the Qur'an has to be an absolute contradiction in terms. That's like saying vegetarians for meat. Boy, was I wrong.
Thursday we finished sailing and hopped in the car to drive from Annapolis to Durham, NC (which is apparently halfway between there and Atlanta? yeah, look it up...) Anyway, we took a pitstop in the horrible DC traffic to visit my family for about half an hour. I loved it. Missed my cat mainly...you know, my family doesn't mean much...KIDDING. I love them. I won't lie, after leaving them I was a little uneasy about this whole Jesus in a Muslim book thing. Like, seriously, what the heck? I thought Muslims hate Christians, and for that matter Jesus. Despite the ensuing apprehensions I took a few naps, listened to some Hillsong and arrived in Durham for the night.
Yesterday, we traveled the rest of the way to Atlanta--stopping in Greenville, SC for lunch with a former JP "graduate". Pause the journey for a paragraph:
Tucker, the JP graduate, is an awesome man of God. Typically a meal doesn't make you an expert on a person. I wouldn't say I'm an expert on Tucker, but let's just say that I could see God working in his life to radically change others. What a testimony. He's working with some middle schoolers in Greenville for his second summer, and it looks like he's already furthering the kingdom. Actually, I know he's furthering the kingdom. I'm pumped for his ministry. Go for God!
We climbed back into the car with stuffed bellies and continued on to Atlanta. The seminar was being held at Grace Church in Snellville...yeah, Snellville. Google it if you don't believe me. Anyway, we arrived. At this point I'd been given a few pointers on the speaker--Jamie. He's incredible; he works in the Middle East spreading the Gospel to Muslims. And I'm like yeah, ok, cool. What does that even mean?
We walk in, and the first story he tells us completely blows my mind. A girl from a tiny Indonesian town, intelligent, but her school system is corrupted and will basically only give good grades to those who can pay for them. Jamie let her "visit" his international school classroom and learn as much as she could. She has no grades. He sent 5 letters to major universities to tell them about this girl--and to make a long story short, this girl gets a 100% scholarship and falls in love with Jesus. Now, in a Muslim culture--that's unheard of. Girls don't even go to school--let alone get a full ride to an American school. Yeah, crazy.
I'll do my best to give details about this conference without freaking anybody out or making any huge theological mistakes.
Basically here's the deal: The problem between Christians and Muslims will not be solved using bombs, bullets and blood. God isn't in the business of destroying. That's the devil's kingdom. God's in the business of loving and transforming.
I know nothing about the Qur'an. There, I admit it. Today, I got my first Qur'an. As I received the book I felt as though I was committing a HUGE sin. Like umm, this is not my book. I don't do this. I don't even want to open this, I don't want to know what this says--this is not truth. I'm sure you probably would react the same way.
You know, as I listened to these speakers--story after story of how they're reaching Muslims, I'm like hey, maybe the way I can reach Muslims is by reading this. Woah. Did I seriously just say that? What?! Pause. Did you ever notice how God does things? How did Joshua conquer Jericho? Strategically, let's think about this for a second. He used the band? Yeah, the band should go first and run around the city blowing their horns like 6 times you know--just because God says so. Umm, what? That's how this city is going to fall? You're nuts.
A HA! Yeah, this seems to be a recurring theme in the Bible. I'm God, and I'm going to BLOW your mind. I'm Jesus, I'm going to feed 5000 people with two fish and some loaves of bread from this little kid.
Now, just hear me out. This is what I'm seeing today. Hey, Amy, here's this book that you know isn't truth, you know isn't of me, you know that 1.57 billion people in world read this and believe it and think it's truth. How 'bout you read it.
What?
Here's the deal. God is unconventional. I'm not saying I'm a Muslim convert--and I'm not saying I'm going to go and convert all the Muslims to Christianity. Frankly, they don't even want to hear that. What they want to hear is that Jesus is the way to Heaven, because, well, that's the good news, right? The way to the Kingdom of Heaven is through Jesus alone. FYI, the Kingdom of Heaven (God) is mentioned over 100x in the New Testament. Christian is mentioned 3x, and Conversion is mentioned 7x. Food for thought.
Flipping through this completely foreign book--I see the name Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.He's mentioned more than 100 times in the Qur'an. What? Did you know Mary, the mother of Jesus is the only woman mentioned in the Qur'an? Yeah, I didn't. Ok, so how do Muslims and Christians talk without converting each other and without killing each other? How is that even doctrinally possible? See, like I said, the amazing thing is that God is unconventional.
The speakers basically use the Qur'an to point to Jesus--that Jesus is the common ground. The Bible is the inerrant, inspired word of God, and the Holy Books in the Islamic tradition include the Qur'an but also the Old and New Testaments. Muhammad specifically tells his followers that if they're good Muslims they will read ALL the Holy Books--the Bible is included. Muslims are coming to faith, and entering the Kingdom of God and getting saved by reading the Bible. Through conversion? No. Through Christians telling them they're infidels, they'll go to hell, they're wrong and Muhammad was a joke? NO. God meets them where they're at. Do you think God created 2 billion people to follow him, and that's all there is? Are you insane? What about the 1.57 billion people who see Jesus as a Messiah, the Mercy of God? Does God have a plan for them? How do they enter the Kingdom? Followers of Jesus meet them where they are, and show them the Kingdom in their own book. This is what the Qur'an says about Jesus. Look, he's in there, let's study the holy books together. Take a look at the Bible.
Is your mind blown yet? Is the hurricane underway? Yeah, it is for me too. Now, to tell you the truth, God spoke to me today. I felt my spirit shift in this morning's session. I won't lie it wasn't a good shift. My view of Muslims hasn't been negative really, but it also hasn't been positive. It's more of an impossible feat. I wanted to contradict every single thing that the speakers said. I wanted to say, if you're Muslim, by definition you can't be a follower of Jesus. That doesn't make sense to me. My heart broke at lunch. I was confused and frustrated. I cried. I want to reach the lost, and I want to share Jesus, but is this right? Are you sure?
Meredith took me out and just said, let's ask God to show you. What does God have to say about this. What are you to discern? God said this to me: Amy. You are so stubborn. I can't even speak, you are arguing before I even open my mouth. I'm giving you the answer. Just listen. SHUT UP. Listen. Light will shine in darkness. Light will shine in darkness. Open your heart, let me clear out the gunk. I will not lead you astray. I will never leave you.
Wow. I was attentive this afternoon. It doesn't mean I completely see every parallel, and I have theological questions about where this all goes once we find our common ground and we all know Jesus is the way. But, wow. How awesome. God is good. All the time. I think I know everything. I think I've got it, I, I, I. Me. Me. Me. Jesus? Jesus? Jesus. What do you think is more important?
"This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righeous. Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we obey his commands and do what pleases him. And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us."
1 John 3:11-24
Ishmael was Isaac's brother. Ishmael is the father of Islam. Ishmael received the promise of blessing and Isaac received the promsie of the covenant. Isaac is supposed to bless Ishmael with the covenant but Israel didn't share the covenant even though it was for all. However, Ishmael's descendents are uniquely prepared to understand the Gospel becaused they are promised blessing, and they have a common ancestry with Israel. If we really believe what we proclaim, are we loving our brothers and sisters? Are we bringing them to the Kingdom? Will they know us by our love? Do they know us by our love? I pray that God breaks the barriers, and convicts our hearts.
Heavenly Daddy, show us the kingdom. We're lost. Jesus is the way. The only way. I ask for guidance, for peace, for grace, mercy and love to overflow on our people, and on Muslims. I pray for openness for your power and love to FALL. Fall and set our hearts ablaze for the One true God, Jesus Christ. Amen.
P.S. We Are The Sound--The Afters, check it out. http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/afters/wearethesound.html
Very cool.
ReplyDeleteIf I may, I'd like to tell you about an interaction I had with a Muslim just a couple of weeks ago!
I was with a group of friends, leaving the Next conference in Baltimore. We had parked outside the city and had to take a train to get there. When we got on the train, a couple of black guys sitting in front of us asked us where we all were coming from. We told them we were coming from a Christian conference, and they were like "ohh, you guys are Christians, huh?" And we started engaging them in conversation.
One of them just up and left, but the other guy, Dennis, was very interested in talking about God. We started talking about Jesus and he was like "yeah, yeah, I believe in Jesus. He was a great prophet." And we were all like "Yes, but he died on the cross for our sins." He was very open to discussion, but he just kept repeating that he believed stuff in the Bible and he believed that Jesus came and died.
I think the key difference is that Muslims don't believe in the resurrection. But the resurrection means everything.
He left the train abruptly with a quick goodbye at one of the stops (I don't think he had a ticket for the train), but it was so awesome to have the opportunity to talk with a Muslim for a few mins and share the Gospel.
It was totally unexpected, and all God's doing.
I think it's awesome that you get to learn how to relate with Muslims and share the Gospel with them! They are stuck in legalism and trying to please Allah, who will send them to Hell if they do not follow all the commands. When God shows them that they don't have to do all that and can be free by Jesus Christ, that's just awesome.