April 20, 2021
The Gospel has reached people in nearly every tribe and tongue, fulfilling Christ’s promise: “I will call them my people who were not my people” (Romans 9:25).
But Muslims must jump three significant hurdles on their path to faith in Christ.
Hurdle 1) Clearly hearing and understanding the Gospel. Many never hear Christ’s message clearly presented or compellingly lived out.
Hurdle 2) Overcoming false Islamic teachings that the Bible is corrupted. That Jesus did not die. That belief in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost constitutes polytheism. Etc.
Hurdle 3) Believing and trusting in Jesus, which often results in persecution or rejection by the Islamic community.
A personal crisis may compel an individual to jump a few of these hurdles at once, but each person’s journey is different, as I witnessed with Abdul, one of several imams serving a mosque in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
It may seem counterintuitive, but there’s a higher percentage of Muslims in Texas than any other state. Muslims make up 1.68 percent of people in Texas. (Census figures reveal that there are 422,000 Muslims in Texas, up from 140,000 in 1990, and it’s estimated that 60,000-100,000 Muslims live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, most of Pakistani heritage.)
A Christian worker shared the Gospel with Abdul in the mosque. Soon, the two began meeting for discussions about the Bible.
Abdul found the Bible interesting, but not compelling. Then came crisis.
He was wrongly forced out of his imam position, which exposed him to the hypocrisy of the other mosque members. And he needed to leave DFW for work.
It’s more difficult for the two men to stay in touch now, but Abdul is reading some Christian books he was given.
Pray for more trained followers of Jesus to engage Muslims like Abdul with the hope and love of Christ.
- Pray that God raises up workers from local churches to be trained and mobilized to share the gospel with Muslims (Luke 10:2).
- Pray that the Holy Spirit grants understanding and courage to Abdul and others to clear the second and third hurdles.
NOTE
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