Home » Posts tagged 'gospel'
Tag Archives: gospel
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus
by Nabeel Qureshi
Nabeel Qureshi was an intellectual raised in a Muslim home who devoted years of study and fellowship with his best friend David, a Christian intellectual. They argued, researched, prayed, and maintained their friendship as Nabeel sought the Truth. Was he to find it in Jesus or in the teachings of Islam? This book is perfect for anyone who wants to:
—approach the Bible analytically
—prove or disprove the claims about Jesus Christ
—learn more about the beliefs of Muslims, their culture and how the two are related
—learn about the history of Islam
—understand the difference in approaches to Islam in the East and in the West
—learn some basic Islamic terminology
—witness a true Christian/Muslim friendship
—see how a Christian can share Jesus with others by example as he lives out his beliefs in Jesus through his actions
—learn how to disagree respectfully
—understand the Trinity
—gain an understanding of what a Muslim gives up when he converts to Christianity and the consequences of a conversion
—comprehend the claims and arguments against and for the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus
—read truths about Muhammad and the Quran that imams don’t share with their followers.
The Foreword of Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus summarizes the book quite well: “This is the riveting story of one man’s quest to set aside his preconceptions and pursue answers to the most pressing issues of life and faith, despite enormous pressure to maintain the status quo.”
Rating: 5/5
Category: Memoir, Christian, Religion and Spiritual
Notes: The author describes the book as a “narrative biography,” and one of the contributors to the lengthy appendix which expands on the topics in the book calls it Qureshi’s “spiritual autobiography.”
Publication: August 21, 2018—Zondervan
Memorable Lines:
The culture clash of immigrant parents with their Western-born children is especially common during the emotionally stormy teenage years, and it serves to illustrate a vital fact: Muslim immigrants from the East are starkly different from their Muslim children born in the West.
Effective evangelism requires relationships. There are very few exceptions.
Because of hadith and tradition, Muslim religion, culture, heritage, and identity all find their core in the person of Muhammad. This is why Muslims see an attack on his character as equivalent to a personal attack on them and everything they stand for.
These are the costs Muslims must calculate when considering the gospel: losing the relationships they have built in this life, potentially losing this life itself, and if they are wrong, losing their afterlife in paradise. It is no understatement to say that Muslims often risk everything to embrace the cross.
Through Gates of Splendor–a call from God
Through Gates of Splendor
by Elizabeth Elliot
Five young men felt God’s call to share the good news of Jesus with an Ecuadoran Indian tribe that had never had positive encounters with outsiders. Their bad experiences date back to the ruthless rubber traders of the 1870’s—“civilized savages against unbaptized savages.” They had Stone Age technology, were feared by other Indians for their unprovoked ambushes, and had a language known only to themselves. The missionaries and their wives had a daunting task. They started by evangelizing more friendly local tribes and establishing bases, many refurbished from areas abandoned by Shell Oil Co. From these bases they did flyovers of the Auca land, first to find where in the jungle the Aucas were living and later to communicate with them by dropping gifts to demonstrate their friendly intentions.
When they felt the time was right, they finalized plans to land and meet with the Aucas in person. The book becomes very intense at that point. After an initial positive meeting, there is literally radio silence instead of the expected call back to the wives. A search and rescue team went in consisting of Ecuadorian military, volunteer missionaries and Indians, and U.S military. It was a dangerous mission.
Although the preparation and action are the basis of the story, the core of the book is faith in God. Elizabeth Elliot, the author of Through Gates of Splendor, was the wife of Jim Elliot, the first missionary of the group to respond to God’s call to contact this people group who had never heard of Him. Jim Elliot was willing to die if need be to share the good news of salvation to the Aucas. He said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” The story of the lives of these young men and their dedication to God is inspiring and many of their notes and thoughts are recorded in this book. In its pages you will see a vivd picture of what God’s call can look like as well as how these missionaries and their wives responded.
Rating: 5/5
Category: History, Christian, Memoir
Notes: The 40th anniversary edition which I read included:
1. Maps
2. Photographs, many taken at great peril by a Life magazine reporter who chose to stay with the search party when he could have returned to the base and safety.
3. Two Epilogues. One was written in 1958 explaining the immediate aftermath of the first contact and one written in 1996 relating the lives of the families as they evolved over the next 40 years.
Publication: Originally 1956
40th anniversary edition in 1996—Living Books (Tyndale)
Memorable Lines:
“If that old engine had quit up there, God alone could have saved me. I might just as well admit it frankly right here; I don’t like to fly over stuff like that and I have to have a pretty good reason to be over it without a good position-check and a good river to identify my position by. But these are people for whom Christ died, and you have to find them before you can take the Gospel to them, so I was happy to have stumbled on them.”
Pete Fleming was one of those who could not be content while the Aucas remained in darkness. In his diary he wrote: “It is a grave and solemn problem; an unreachable people who murder and kill with extreme hatred. It comes to me strongly that God is leading me to do something about it, and a strong idea and impression comes into my mind that I ought to devote the majority of my time to collecting linguistic data on the tribe and making some intensive air surveys to look for Auca houses….I know that this may be the most important decision of my life, but I have a quiet peace about it.
September, 1955, was the month in which Operation Auca really started, the month in which the Lord began to weave five separate threads into a single glowing fabric for His own Glory. Five men with widely differing personalities had come to Ecuador from the eastern United States, the West Coast, and the Midwestern States. Representing three different “faith-missions,” these men and their wives were one in their common belief in the Bible as the literal and supernatural and perfect word from God to man. Christ said “Go ye”; their answer was “Lord, send me.”
At Home in Mitford–welcome to Mitford
At Home in Mitford
by Jan Karon
You’ll want to start the Mitford Years series at the beginning with At Home in Mitford. This character-driven novel introduces you to the fictional, small, North Carolina town of Mitford inhabited by people you will want to know—flaws and all. Father Tim is a devoted and hard working bachelor rector whom everyone loves. He is caring and lives out his Christian faith in his interactions with others from Barnabas, the huge dog that adopts him, settling down only at the quotation of Scripture, to Dooley, a young boy who has had a hard life and needs stability and love.
If you are tired of the endless news cycle, reading At Home in Mitford will give you the break you need. It is a peaceful story spiked with humorous characters and situations, gentle romance, some mysterious happenings, and a little action. Although it has a definite Christian bent, this novel is never “preachy.” One of the themes of the book is found on the first page as Father Tim stops at his office door to pray: “Father, make me a blessing to someone today, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” Overall, you will enjoy the time you spend in Mitford and look forward to returning for another visit.
Rating: 5/5
Category: Fiction, Christian
Notes: This is the first of 14 books, which may seem like a daunting number, but I encourage you to give it a try. Even if you don’t plan on reading the whole series, I think you will enjoy At Home in Mitford. I have read the series, some as a group when I discovered this author and many others as they were published over the years. I just reread this first novel with my book club, and I enjoyed it thoroughly all over again.
Publication: 1994—Penguin Books
Memorable Lines:
“You don’t ramble at all, you get right to the point, and it’s always God’s point, as far as I can see. But, do you know what I appreciate more than your sermons?” “What’s that?” “The fact that you love us. Yes, that’s enough for me, that you love us.”
Good heavens, thought the rector. No wonder he had never felt the need to devour mystery and suspense stories. Nearly every day he encountered mysteries and suspense galore.
How could he have considered taking Monday off? Monday was the diving board poised over the rest of the week. One walked out on the board, reviewed the situation, planned one’s strategy, bounced a few times to get the feel of things, and then made a clean dive. Without Monday, one simply bombed into the water, belly first, and hoped for the best.
education pathways 