Tuesday 14 February 2017

By This Shall All Men Know

One day I told the Lord I desired to meet Muslims - because I'd come to feel a bit better equipped to minister to them.
Just a few days later someone phoned me, saying he wished for me to meet his workmate - a Muslim.
So we met - and I visited him in his home a number more times, sharing Jesus, and just showing love. He was hospitable to me too.
I told him that while I wish for him to know Jesus the way I have experienced Him, as Saviour, I will still love him even if he doesn't convert to Christianity. That felt a bit different to him.
Furthermore, he was from Turkey - a couple of times when we met or talked, it was ANZAC Day.
He argued from the Koran, and even from the Bible in some ways. He had bookshelves lined with well-studied Islamic commentaries. But he seemed a bit stumped once he personally came to know a couple of Christians who he could see worshiped God with the disciplined lifestyle he himself strived for. He was well aware of the struggle in his own life - but the difference with us was we claimed to have received the changed-life as a gift - and he could see it.
One day he told me he'd visited a nearby church, by himself.
He said, "It was all dark - looked like a nightclub. I didn't really hear about Jesus there. They talked more about how to feel good about yourself. I don't want to hear how to feel good about myself - I already feel good about myself. I was hoping to hear about Jesus, from the Bible. I don't think I'll go there again - I'd rather talk to you," he said.
Across the course of our association, he never did say whether he'd come to believe everything I'd said about Jesus from the Bible (His Lordship, His death for us on the cross, His resurrection, His salvation, forgiveness and ability to make in us a new heart) - but one thing he did remark: "You've got love".
On my next visit to his house, no-one was home. I made a follow-up visit sometime afterwards, but found he and his precious family had moved away - I don't know where.

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