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Love Muslims the way Jesus Loves Muslims.
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I suppose I’ll never forget this embarrassing conversation: I’d taken my dad and our pastor to visit Muslim situations in South and Southeast Asia. During a chat in Malaysia or India, a kind and eager young guy was laying out the case for our conversion. (If you’ve never had a nice person try to offer you life and save you from Hell, you should try it sometime. Don’t actually convert, mind you, but appreciate the care in someone’s heart who tries.)

Anyway, the embarrassing part: As a case in point for choosing Islam over the older, inferior Christianity, our friend said this, “Islam is so good, so complete. It tells you how to do everything in life. From how to pray and be a good person to details like how to go to the bathroom and how to make love to your wife.” 

I sat there by my dad, both wife-less and clueless, but my very presence providing clear evidence that he had some understanding of the last bit. And now my acute embarrassment triggered an urgent need to go to the bathroom! Correctly or incorrectly, I didn’t care!

I wonder sometimes if part of Islam’s appeal is clear direction, rules if you will, for all areas of life. I sometimes wonder if that’s the draw for some streams of Christianity, too. If we just know the right way, if we just have a clear handle on the rules, we’ll follow them. As a result, we’ll earn for ourselves the reward of being right and acting right. 

In my sermon last Sunday, I said one good thing, “Self-sufficiency, while a hallmark of American culture, is dangerous to a life of faith.” In some ways, it was killing the Pharisees when Jesus was kicking around Galilee, and I fear it robs life from Christians and Muslims alike today. 

I don’t know how this all works, but somehow it depends on submission to Jesus, and on reveling in the freedom and the life he came, lived, died and rose to bring. 

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Copyright © 2020 Shane Bennett, All rights reserved.


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