The Call for Muslim Evangelism

We had 12 people in our Bible study tonight! Five of them were newbies who have never been inside the church for anything other than English classes before.

Our subject tonight was basic but extremely important - Jesus Christ: “The Only One.”

He is what seperates us from all other religions in the world.

“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (I Timothy 2:5).

This is the same message we take all around the world, regardless of language, culture, or religion.

Jesus Christ is the only individual who can take us to the Father. His name is the only name under heaven by which we are saved. He is the way, the truth and the life. He is the Son of God. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the foundation of our faith. He is the Door by which enter into heaven.

He is “The Only One.”

Every missionary has to deal with it at some point.

The indescribable stress of living in a world completely different than the one you’re used to, surrounded by people who don’t understand a word of the only language you really know, and you are the weirdo who doesn’t do things the way everybody else does them or thinks they should be done. You are different, and believe me, EVERYBODY NOTICES!

It affects everybody in a different way, but eventually “culture shock” will hit home.

I’m going to confess a little carnality on my part when it comes to this, and tell you how I’ve recently experienced this.

To preface my story, I want to say up front that the root of my “culture shock” has been my own blatant pride. Until I recognized that and confessed it, I had no victory over it. That’s not to say that I don’t struggle with it anymore (because I do), it’s just easier to put it to an end and get on with doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

Now that you know that, let me tell you how I’ve experienced this phenomena first hand.

When I arrived here in Peru, I expected to face a lot of differences in culture. Surprisingly, it didn’t bother me too much that the food was different or that the stores never have what you want in stock or that when they say they will have it next week they really mean that they will never have it again and when you come back they will try to sell you something completely different and twice as ugly in its place. Things like that were easy for me to laugh off and say, “Oh well, we’ll just have to improvise.”

I wasn’t however, ready for the language issue. I thought I was, but boy, was I wrong.

With the stress that ministry naturally brings along with it, the inability to communicate the most important message in the world is overwhelmingly frustrating. Mainly, because I have taught and preached the Bible for years in English at times to congregations larger than 2,000, but now I freak out about having to speak to a handful of people for 3 minutes. I went from an environment where I felt like I could communicate with people and loved doing it to an environment where all I can think is, “survive”!

I went from the dean’s list at Miami University to below kindergarten level in communications skills. It’s like I’m starting life over again with only two years to grow up and become a respectable adult. If you have ever thought, “man, that would be nice to be a kid again without a care in the world,” realize that that is the most ridiculous thing we could ever wish for. I know because I got just that…only all of the cares are still there, and multiplied at that.

As much as I don’t want it to bother me, it’s still hard to handle a woman who barely finished high school laughing at me and telling me that I talk like her four year old son. Then comes the blank stare I get from so many people when I try to explain something and that seems to always be when the pride flares up again. All I can think is, “You can at least TRY to understand what I am saying! You just stand there and look at me like I’M the idiot!”

I literally have to fight the urge to punch people in the nose. And then, usually, about that time it hits me…I AM the IDIOT! What I said, usually ends up being the equivalent to something like, “Me want know where vroom vroom is.” No wonder they have no clue what I trying to tell them!

That’s when I have to stop what I am doing and ask the Lord to forgive me for my pride, and tell Him that I’m trusting Him to help me deal with the language. I can’t do it in my own power and wisdom, only through His.

Culture shock seems like such a little thing, but it has the potiential to destroy lives, ministries, and families if it’s not confronted quickly and entrusted to the Lord. Satan will use whatever he can to make us ineffective. We need to recognize the attack, draw close to the Lord, and resist the devil.

It’s not always been easy, but it’s been a good experience.

I’m so thankful for getting to do what I do.

To God be the glory!

This has been on my mind lately and I wanted to share it with you.

My entire life, I’ve heard about spiritual warfare and the way Satan attacks, but it’s never been so real to me before now. All of the stories I heard as a child scared me to death, and I always wondered when I would be the one to see books flying across the office or stand face to face with a demon in my bedroom. Recently, however, I’ve realized that that isn’t usually how this battle against spiritual wickedness in high places takes place.

Satan’s usually much more subtle than that.

What happens instead is not quite as obvious. The battle field usually is in the mind and if the devil can plant seeds of fear, doubt, pride, or simply irritation he will. When this happens, we end up saying things we don’t really mean, hurt people we don’t want to hurt, react in ways we know we shouldn’t, and when it’s all said and done we can’t make any sense of what we just did.

We make excuses like, I’m just having a bad day or I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, but in reality, we are under attack. The first step in getting victory over this is recognizing it for what it is.

If you decide to follow Jesus Christ you will without a doubt face this on a regular basis. The more you try to serve the Lord the more opposition you will face. We need to be ready for it and know how to handle it right away. I Peter 5:8 tells us, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.”

So once we recognize it for what it is, how do we overcome?

James 4:7-10 gives us the answer

1. Submit yourself unto God - This is the part of the verse that we Christians so “conveniently” miss. Before the attack even occurs, we should already have a close walk with the Lord. When the attacks come we need to realize that it won’t be by our strength that we pull through this, but His. Stop what you are doing and tell the Lord, “I’m trusting you to win this one.” Claim the promises of victory He has already given us in Scripture, and start acting like He means what He says (because He does).

2. Resist the devil - A lot of times Christians try to do this first without submitting to the Lord and lose the battle. Michael the archangel wouldn’t even bring “railing accusation” against Satan, but said, “The Lord rebuke thee.” The power is in the name of the Lord not in us. When we resist, we should cry out in the name of Jesus Christ and pray that He rebuke the devil. Replace the impure thoughts which were placed in your mind with pure thoughts as we are told to do in Philippians 4:8.

3. Draw nigh unto God - I don’t think that any of us stand a chance facing a roaring lion determined to devour us by our selves. Who are we kidding?! Our only hope to withstand him is to stay close to a bigger and stronger Lion who has already promised to love and protect us. Get as close as you can to Him, and trust that He will give you the victory.

4. Cleanse your hands - Then comes the time when we deal with our personal sins - the doubts, the fears, the pride, the hatred; the double mind (straddling the fence). A born again Christian does not need to worry about losing his salvation, however, it is important that our fellowship with the Lord is close. Sin in the life of a believer keeps him from the victories he could have had and limits his effectiveness in serving the Lord. Thankfully we have the promise in I John 1:9 that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

5. Brokenness and Humility - It’s the great paradox of life, that the way to live is to die, the way to receive is to give, and the way up is down. Only through humility and recognizing that we can’t succeed by ourselves will we then be lifted up and given victory. Know your weaknesses, admit you have them, and then build up safe guards to protect yourself against further attacks.

The Lord alone is worthy to receive the glory, honor, and power.

We no longer are slaves to sin. Victory can be ours through Him.

We had another great Bible study tonight. There were eight of us in total, and some of the people who came were definitely not believers.

It’s amazing what kind of reactions I got tonight on the simple topic of salvation. In spite of how clear the Bible is about salvation being by grace through faith without any works, the unsaved mind can’t seem to handle it and somehow such a simple concept seems to make no sense at all. If God asked us to do some crazy thing like cut our right index finger and soak it in lemon juice to be saved, more people would be likely to do that than simply believe and call on the name of Jesus Christ.

That’s where the work of the Holy Spirit comes in to play. He is the one who changes hearts and lives when the Bible is taught.

It’s not usually profitable to argue with contentious people, so when they had their questions tonight, I did my best to stay on track and show them what the Bible said about the issue rather than my own personal opinion. When they realized that the Bible was clear about what it was saying they had to make a choice to either accept it or reject it. The Lord worked during the few hours we had together, and by the end their questions were much more sincere and not anywhere near as contentious.

The Bible is powerful and can defend itself as long as we are willing to put it to use.

I am looking forward to next week’s study as we tackle this issue of religion verses a relationship. The main difference between what the Bible teaches and all other belief systems push.

I almost forgot to mention that yesterday we had another earthquake down here. It seems like we have one about every other month in Arequipa, so I was pretty surprised to find out that this one actually made international news. This earthquake, I’ll admit, was a little different than most in that it seemed to last for a lot longer than normal - or at least my wife told me that it did.

I needed to go back to my house to pick up a few things before church last night and that’s when it all happened. My wife was talking to me as I was scurrying around looking for everything, and then all of the sudden she said, “I think we’re having another earthquake,” to which I responded, “Are you sure? I don’t feel anything.” She tried to convince me that the bed she was on was moving and so was everything on our walls. I still didn’t notice it, and blamed it away as some kind of disillusion related to being pregnant. She kept on telling me that it was still going, and finally I saw one of our blinds shift. That was it!

When I got to church, everybody was talking about the “BIG” earthquake that just happened. I still was wondering what the big deal was and found out on the news after I got home that it was actually a 7.5 on the Richter Scale and more than 330 were killed. Most of the damage was done in the epicenter in a city named Chicha Alta located between Arequipa and Lima.

Every school in the country was canceled today and people all over the place were shaken up pretty bad.

Our house must be well built or I have a serious equilibrium problem, because I didn’t see or feel hardly anything at all. I’m amazed sometimes at how oblivious I can be. We experienced Peru’s biggest earthquake in 40 years and I had no clue.

Just because I didn’t feel the earthquake doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen, and the evidence is pretty convincing (a thought for Atheists, I guess).

Please be in prayer for the families who lost loved ones due to this catastrophe as well as the hundreds who are still  injured.

We started the English classes back up again tonight. The attendance was pretty good considering we just came off of a five week winter break. Close to fifty people showed up and we started off with some review in greetings and pronunciation. They seemed to get a kick out of me acting words out on stage and singing kindergarten songs to help them remember our lesson. They probably taught me about as much Spanish tonight as I taught them English, but we all had a good time with it.

My goal with English classes is not just to teach a language, but also get connected with some of the people in the community who would otherwise probably not enter a Baptist Church if their life depended on it. It’s a good way to help them take the next step in knowing Christ as their Savior. More than ten of the students who do not attend a church anywhere in the city, signed up to come to our Friday night Bible study (in Spanish).

We’re excited about what God is doing down here, and we could use your prayers now more than ever.

Why does it seem so difficult for Christian parents to raise children who love God the way they do and want to serve Him?

I’ve wondered about this a lot especially since I started working with Muslims around the world. It blows my mind when a fifteen year old girl in Atlanta, Georgia, has no problem with wearing a head covering in public and loves to talk about how she looks forward to a month of fasting during Ramadan. While working in the same Muslim community, I met some teenagers who had to excuse themselves from our conversation to perform their evening prayers. Their religion requires a lot from them, but it doesn’t seem to keep them from wanting to be a Muslim for the rest of their life.

One day, I mentioned this to my good friend, Austin Gardner, and what he had to say seemed to clear this all up for me. His response was that Satan doesn’t have to fight Muslim children and get them to reject their parents religion. In fact, he wins by getting them to stay Muslim. Christians, on the other hand, have the truth and that is what Satan hates and wants to keep people from.

Wow! That’s rough stuff! Though it may be hard to accept, the Bible definitely supports the argument.

In other words, Muslims don’t face the same spiritual struggle that we who are born again believers face. Their rebellion against God is expressed not by rejecting, but rather, following the teachings of Islam and rejecting the His Word. We have to recognize that we are in the middle of a spiritual battle, and things are not always what they seem.

The broad path is never the right path. We shouldn’t judge truth by what the majority of people think or do. In fact if most of the world is doing it, it’s probably the wrong way.

Just remember the next time you wonder why there is so much resistance in the Christian life and why do other false religions seem to prosper, that the lost world is bound by the miserable chains of their religion and they need what we have. Our enemy is not Islam or Atheism, it is Satan and his army fighting to keep the world rebellious through obedience to their religion. 

The Bible is the final authority on all our faith and practice (or at least it should be).

It’s only natural that if Satan wants to hinder the spread of the gospel, then he and all of his followers would make discrediting the word of God a high priority. That is why, regardless of the culture or religion, the first thing people want to do when we talk to them about Jesus Christ is question the reliability of the Bible.

Muslims claim that Christians and Jews corrupted it, Americans think that it is a crutch for weak minded people, and Universities worldwide love to teach that everyone is entitled to their own interpretation of any piece of literature regardless of what the author meant when he wrote it.

However the Bible is not given to private interpretation and it is very clear in what it tells us. The problem is not with what is being said, the problem is the one hearing it and refusing to listen. Unfortunately, Christians don’t usually know how to respond when someone challenges them on the issue.

“Evidence that Demands a Verdict” by Josh McDowell tackles this issue head on and has alreadyhelped me in my ministry. McDowell studied the issue thoroughly before he was saved and then after weighing the evidence, he was so overwhelmingly convinced that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and resurrected from the dead that he accepted Him as his Savior. He then wrote this book to help believers with this issue. The evidence in the book is, “not for proving the Word of God, but simply providing a basis for faith.”

Every Christian should know why he believes what he believes. Christianity is not a blind faith, it is an intelligent faith. I like the quote from Paul Little that states, “Faith in Christianity is based on evidence. It is reasonable faith. Faith in the Christian sense goes beyond reason but not against it.”

The Word of God is powerful without our human reasoning, and when we teach and preach it, God will use it, as He always does, to change hearts and lives. We don’t need to waste our time arguing the reliability of the Word of God, but we should at least be confident enough to use it without apology.

I have a little more to go before I finish it, but I can tell you already that if you haven’t read this book, you should.

I don’t tell jokes.

That’s kind of a personal rule of mine that I’ve addopted over the past few years of public speaking. Being funny is one thing, but telling jokes is a completely different ballgame.

I don’t even tell them to my closest friends who speak English and understand my culture.

So why did I try to tell a joke while giving a three minute offering devotion in Spanish during church tonight?

I HAVE NO IDEA!!! But I decided to take the risk anyway.

These devotions are suposed to be just a few minutes long, when somebody (i.e. me) challenges the people with a biblical thought on giving. Realizing that I didn’t have much time, I put all my eggs in one basket and then promptly hurled the whole thing into the middle of a busy interstate.

You know it’s not going well when all of the people who are suposed to be suporting you on the front row drop their heads in the middle of the story. I should have read the warning signs and stopped right then and there, but I didn’t! The murderous silence that screamed after the punch line was enough to make any speaker want to dig his own grave and hide there for a few years. I read the verse that prompted the thought (and the terrible joke), prayed, and then sat down.

All I could think was, “So this is why public speaking is the world’s number one fear.”

Sunday evening’s coming and I get to do it again. Maybe I’ll practice my Spanish a little more before I get up there. Maybe I’ll have a funny joke to tell (probably not). Maybe I’ll get up there and make a fool of myself again. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll realize that regardless of what happens it’s not about me, it’s about my Savior.

I love getting the oportunity to make a fool of myself for Christ’s sake. Sure it’s uncomforatble sometimes, but it’s worth it! Nothing worth doing is without risk.

The medical clinic got kicked off here at the Peru Baptist College on Monday morning. The doctors and nurses have already seen over 1,500 patients and the gigantic line outside the gate sugests no end in sight. More than 500 people have accepted Christ as their Savior and are needing church homes. This could be a huge help to all of the churches represented here during the ongoing youth congress this week as well. Both the clinic and the congress go until Friday night. Please continue to pray for the doctors and nursed working hard at treating the people and for more people to get saved as they come through. For many of them it is the first time they have ever heard a clear presentation of the gospel.