Who You Are in Christ

Your testimony of who Christ is in your life is the brightest light in a Muslim's world. Don't hide your own light, tell your story and share what God is doing in you as you share with your Muslim friends.

Jesus

Jesus is absolutely appealing in who He is. He is not cheap either, making Him into a quick easy answer isn't who He is. His path is hard, recognize this as you share, be sure not to cheapen Him by offering Him like a quick fix. He is a huge commitment and requires everything.

Be Real

There might be times where you feel like giving up. These are times to take time to pray for your friend. Some seeds don't sprout overnight, some take years to find their way to the light. The journey to faith can be a long and arduous one.

Things Hoped For

I’ve heard it said we don’t pray to get God to change His mind, but we pray to change our own hearts. It is easy to look at the chaos of the Muslim world, the wars, the strife and say to oneself, let’s throw in the towel. There is no hope here. They are living in such a darkness the light just barely penetrates. It is easy to look and see little progress and wonder at their growth and give up. Many do. They are a hard soil to plough. However, we must never give them up, like the Lord told Ezekiel, “Go to the people and speak to them and tell them, whether they listen or not,...” Ez 3:11. Sometimes they won’t listen, but our work is to tell them, and that job changes us, molds our hearts and enables us to have a closer relationship with the Lord.

Ministries and churches all want numbers, it makes us feel like our investments matter, that we are doing the right job by the numbers. But this is the wisdom of the world, the Wisdom of the Lord leaves the 99 behind to look for the 1. Ministry should never be about the numbers, but about what the Lord has asked us to do. Measuring relationships and progress is impossible, and so we don’t even try. Our measuring stick should be about how much our own hearts have been changed by what we do in our ministry. “Do I feel compassion or anger? Do I feel embittered or delighted for these people? Do I want to argue or do I want a friendship?” This is a huge challenge for us in the ministry to Muslims, as they have a way of bringing out a lot of emotions due to the political actions of some. Many Christians we encounter want to evangelize them with a spirit of revenge. Of course, this is never a successful endeavor, but is especially difficult to deal with in the Arab Christian community where it is very strong.

When your friendship with a Muslim doesn’t seem to be making an impact on their heart, don’t be discouraged. Our job is to simply obey and allow the Spirit to do the work of conviction. We may or may not see that soul come to Him, but we will be made better in the friendship, we will be strengthened and drawn closer by our faithful obedience. The fruit of the seeds planted may not be seen for even generations to come, but our work was His and that is all that matters. The question you really might ask is how much impact has this friendship had on you.

The Lord also told Ezekiel “They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, our hope is gone; we are doomed.’” and then said “I am going to open your graves and lift you out O my people.” Ez 37:11 and 12.  Hope is never gone when the Lord is involved. Dry bones come together, muscles rebuild, hearts begin to beat, lungs to fill with air once more. We are all indeed brought from death to life in Him! So also can the Muslim world be brought back from death and be brought to His Life renewed. This is our hope, our prayer and joy as we are filled with Him as we obey.