Husam is a Muslim-background believer and one of our team’s closest national partners. As a result of our partnership, several groups of Muslims have started studying God’s Word. Those groups are multiplying as people discover Jesus Christ, grow as His disciples, and become trained as house church leaders.
In monthly gatherings, Husam leads these Muslim-background church leaders in a time of encouragement and training on how to make disciples of Christ in their communities.
In recent meetings, they’ve been studying Paul’s exhortations in the book of Romans. One leader in the group asked, “Who are these Gentiles that Paul keeps referring to? And why does he keep on insisting that they are included in God’s Kingdom?”
“There are people of other religions all around us. They are our Gentiles. God’s plan includes them too.”
“In Paul’s time, the Gentiles were cultural outsiders,” Husam explained. Gentiles lived near Jewish communities, but they belonged to a different tribe. They didn’t follow the Jewish customs or celebrate the Jewish festivals. They were “other” to the Jewish people.
As a Jew himself, Paul insisted that God’s plan wasn’t limited to the Jews. It extended to the Gentiles too.
After Husam shared this, the leaders quietly considered what this meant for them in their own communities.
Then someone broke the silence and said, “We have our own version of Gentiles here in our communities. We are from Muslim families, and it’s good that we’ve been making disciples of Jesus among our Muslim people. But there are people of other religions all around us. They are our Gentiles. God’s plan includes them too, and we must reach out to them!”
The room filled with energy as everyone nodded in collective agreement. They spent the rest of their time discussing how to follow Paul’s example and become servants to all in order to win others for the sake of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 9:19–23).
In the weeks following that meeting, several Muslim-background believers have started Bible studies with men and women who belong to other cultural and religious groups—even with those they’d been taught to view as their enemies.
My teammates and I couldn’t be more encouraged by this sign of maturity and faith: new believers not only sharing the Gospel within their communities but also bridging the gap to reach others outside their own culture.
- Praise God for moving in the hearts of new believers and using them to reach past cultural and religious barriers to share the Gospel with all peoples.
- Pray for the growth of the Kingdom in Muslim communities, and pray for it to expand to other communities and people groups.
- Who might be the Gentiles in your life? Ask God to give you courage, grace, and humility to help reach them with the message of Christ.
This account comes from a long-term worker. Names have been changed for security.