The fragrance of spicy tea and baked goods hung in the warm afternoon air. My friend Ishak and I walked in the shade of the adobe apartment buildings on our street as we did each week, talking above the clamor of children playing and bicycles rattling past.
“I’m trying to improve my management style within my business,” Ishak shared. “Can you recommend a book on communication or relationships?”
“Of course,” I answered with a smile. “I suggest you read the Injil. It says if you humble yourself, God will lift you up, and it instructs us to think of others more highly than ourselves.”
“I would like to know the message God has for me.”
“Those sound like good management principles,” Ishak said.
I agreed. “Jesus said that if we want to be leaders, we should be servants. In fact, just before his death, he washed the feet of his followers.”
“I’d like to read the Injil,” Ishak said. “I’ve been interested in learning more about your religion anyway. I would like to know the message God has for me, wherever it comes from. How can I download it?”
I pulled out my phone and showed him where to download the Bible in his language before we parted ways for the evening.
“Would you still love him?”
When we met again the next week, Ishak had already read a substantial portion of the New Testament, and he was eager to ask questions about it.
“What if you follow Jesus, but when you meet God, He says you were wrong and sends you to hell?” He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and gripped my shoulder. “Would you still love him?”
“I would still love him.”
I hesitated, taken off guard by the unexpected question. Many nonbelieving friends had asked religious questions to entrap me, but Ishak’s query seemed sincere.
Ishak dropped his hand and kept talking before I could respond. “Because if that happened to me, I would still love Him.”
Tears filled my eyes. After only a week of reading the Bible, Ishak’s heart had begun to turn to Christ as he understood Jesus’ love and sacrifice for him. “Yes,” I said. “I would, too.”
Ishak and I continue to discuss the Bible on our weekly walks. I pray that he will learn to not only love Jesus but also accept that He is the one true way to God.
Pray:
- Pray for Ishak as he continues to seek God’s message for him.
- Ask God to give more Muslim men and women a desire to read the Bible and discover Jesus.
- Pray that field workers would be prepared to answer even difficult questions about their faith in a way that glorifies Jesus Christ.
Mishal used to have a stutter. Now he’s learning to speak about Christ with clarity and conviction.
This account comes from a long-term worker. Names and places have been changed for security.