Muslims, Christ and the women who love them

The word "Muslim" stirs mixed emotions among Americans. Fear, skepticism and stereotypes have fueled misunderstandings between Muslims and Christians in the years following 9/11, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have raised a deeper awareness both of great danger and desperation found among Muslim-populated areas worldwide.

As part of your own soul searching, how do you respond when you see a veiled head, hear conversations in Arabic, or experience any of the other artifacts pointing to worshipers of Allah?

It was MSC missionary Cherie Gray in Tucson, Arizona, who first opened our eyes to the Islamic world of African refugees as, unhindered by language, religion and stereotypes, she offered the practical presence of the Gospel among families disoriented in their transition from refugee camps in Somalia to a desert valley city in the wild west United States.

MSC missionary Pat Maddox in Clarkston, Georgia, was next. Daily, through her work with Friends of Refugees, she visited the families freshly arrived from Somalia, Morocco, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, offering them bread, English lessons, assistance with moves, furniture or just the presence of a caring person. Through partnerships with local relief agencies and churches she also demonstrated practically the work of Christ in her life.

And just recently we spoke with Annie Taylor*, a NAMB Nehemiah Church Planter serving in another town in the southeastern United States where Muslim families have established communities and strong Muslim culture, but where God is at work through dreams and visions and the willingness of faithful believers willing to enter the lives of Muslims. For Annie, it's through deep connections with Muslim women.

"There's a window of opportunity of about a year," says Annie. "When they come to the states if they meet a true Christian within the first year, they are much more likely to accept Christ."

By spending hours with families, attending birthday parties for the prophet Muhammed and making Muslim women her true friends, Annie has experienced God's work.

"They'll tell me the story of how in a dream Jesus was standing at the edge of their bed. He'll say something like 'I am the truth.' This happens more than you would believe."

In a recent book, Woman to Woman, another Christian woman, Joy Loewen, recounts her journey from indifference and even fear to love and friendship with the Muslim women in her life. Her book is a memoir but it's also a manual for understanding the mind of a Muslim woman. Just as the missionaries mentioned above, Loewen chronicles the complexity of culture among Muslim women who are responding to the gentle love of Christ as believers are faithful in sharing His Good News.

It was a fashion show, just as I expected, writes Loewen. Approximately two hundred women, lavishly dressed and happily chattering away in Arabic, Persian and Urdu, entered the hall carrying large pans of fragrant meats and sweet dishes. I knew I was in for a delectable treat of Eastern cuisine. Scanning the room quickly, I realized I was the lone Caucasian woman. I braced myself and asked God to make me stand tall and ryal like Queen Esthers, who name my parents had intentionally chosen for my middle name. As I prayed and viewed all this from the doorway, my nervousness fled and enjoyment rose within me.

As we consider how to share Christ in the real world among Muslims, what is keeping us from appreciating their rich culture and some amazing opportunities to help them know the one true God through Jesus?

--Adam Miller

More resources

What does Islam teach about Jesus? Jesus and the Koran

Christianity and Islam. What's the difference?

Mistakes Christians make with Muslims. Common mistakes

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Can we be certain Jesus died on the cross?

By Mike Licona

All four New Testament Gospels report that Jesus was crucified and died as a result. Is the evidence sufficient to warrant the conclusion that these reports are accurate? Before investigating for an answer, I would like to note the importance of this question. The atoning death and resurrection of Jesus are the cornerstone doctrines of Christianity. If either failed to occur, the Christianity preached by the apostles is false. For if Jesus did not die on the cross, there is no sacrificial death on behalf of our sins as the New Testament teaches. Moreover, since the term "resurrection" refers to the transformation of a corpse into an immortal body, if Jesus did not die, there was no corpse to be transformed by a resurrection.

Without a resurrection, Christianity is falsified. The apostle Paul taught: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless" (1 Cor. 15:17 HCSB). The Gospels report that Jesus likewise said that his resurrection would serve as proof that His claims about Himself were true (see Matt. 12:39-40; John 2:18-22). Thus, according to Jesus and Paul, if the resurrection of Jesus did not occur, it is time to find another worldview. Accordingly, since a resurrection requires death, Jesus' death by crucifixion is a link that cannot be broken if Christianity is to be regarded as true.

In this article, I would like to provide four reasons that support the credibility of the claim that Jesus died as a result of being crucified.

Read the rest of this article at 4truth.net.

Mike Licona is a New Testament historian, author and Christian apologist. He is the apologetics coordinator for the North American Mission Board. Follow him at www.twitter.com/didjesusrise.

Planting churches in Arizona

By Mickey Noah

As a Southern Baptist pastor for the last 30 years – and as a North American Mission Board missionary for the past six – Louis Spears has conducted many a funeral. But none of them prepared him for the long, lonely walk behind his wife’s casket almost two years ago.

A native of Guthrie, Okla., Spears and his wife, Shelley, had been married for 32 years – ever since they were both 20-year-old church planters in Oklahoma. But in May 2008, she succumbed to a pancreas-related illness only 11 days after its sudden onset.

“Shelley was an incredible person, a woman of many talents,” says Spears. “The main thing I miss about Shelley – other than just being together as not only my spouse but also my best friend – is the amount of prayer-time she spent on my ministry. She was really my partner in ministry. It’s a huge loss and huge gap in my life.”

Spears’ strong, tried-and-true personal faith prevented him from caving in to the temptation of chucking his whole ministry and blaming God in the process.

“I never thought about blaming God. I was not mad at God. The worst thing was being totally cut off from Shelley, missing her encouragement and positive reinforcement.”

Still after almost two years, the 54-year-old missionary said the grief is still “like big ocean waves that just swell up over you and you can’t fight them, but you know the Lord is the Lord, that He is supreme, and that in His design, He had a purpose for it.

“I can’t see it and I don’t understand it but I really don’t argue with Him about it. I really tried during Shelley’s 11-day crisis and through the last year to live my life without regrets. I didn’t leave anything undone or unsaid,” said Spears, who has a 24-year-old daughter, Amy, one grandchild and another on the way.

Spears is one of some 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® for North American Missions. He is among the North American Mission Board missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Spears.

While no one or nothing can ever replace the vacuum in his life caused by Shelley’s death, Spears depends on his challenging missionary work in Arizona to take up some of the slack, ease the pain and bring new victories.

Read more at onmission.com

Expanding God's work in Puerto Rico

By John J. Correa

At the onset of his missionary career, pastor Luis Rodríguez and his wife, Lourdes Santiago, were dismayed at the lack of commitment from church members at the church they’d planted in Coamo, Puerto Rico. However, this apathy did not hamper the efforts of these Southern Baptists. Besides, from God's divine perspective, this was only the beginning.

Luis remembers the challenges faced during those uncertain days after being sent by the Raham First Baptist Church of Santa Isabel to plant a new church in Coamo.

"When we arrived at Raham-Coamo, we noticed the believers there didn't really have a commitment to come to the services,” said Rodriguez. “When we were on our way to a prayer service, they started calling to excuse themselves from coming to the service. In that moment I turned and looked at my wife and wondered if our efforts were really worth it. We began doubting if God was really involved.”

When Luis and Lourdes arrived at the small church for the prayer service, only one other couple had come to intercede for God’s work there – but a couple with a very special need.

"With great sorrow in our hearts, we found brother Carlos Santiago and his wife, Andrea, who was kneeling in prayer,” recalls Rodriguez. Andrea’s hair had fallen out due to the chemotherapy she was undergoing to fight her cancer.

“I looked at my wife, she looked at me, and the Lord spoke to my heart, saying, ‘For the love of that solitary life I'm sending you to Coamo. It's one life, one soul. Don't worry about the ones who made excuses and didn’t come.’”

Because of Andrea’s commitment, Luis and Lourdes were motivated to press on with God’s challenge of planting a church in Coamo. The result was the creation of the Raham Baptist Church in Coamo.

The name of the church, "Raham," is the Hebrew word for "God has shown compassion.” This is precisely the spiritual gift that continues to be one of the driving forces behind Rodriguez’s work in Coamo.

Luis and Lourdes Rodriguez are missionaries for the North American Mission Board, responsible for planting churches in Puerto Rico. They are two of the some 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® for North American Missions, and are among the NAMB missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Rodriguez.

Read more at onmission.com

In word and deed

By Adam Miller

Two blocks east of the “El” Train Red Line in Uptown Chicago, a lady named Susan limps over from under a covered bus stop.

“That’s my spot. I was here. I just had to sit down.”

She marks her spot by hanging two canvas bags on the fence where a dozen men and women are lined up outside Uptown Baptist Church.

“I was here. This weather is killing my arthritis.”

Her voice is husky but kind. She limps toward the bus stop, sits and takes a sip from something tightly wrapped in brown paper, looks over her shoulder again, then settles back against the glass enclosure.

As the line builds, she comes back.

Next Monday, she says, they’re giving out shoes.

“Could you help me with this?” asks Susan, holding up a kids’ Revenge of the Sith wristwatch six hours fast. “It’s a cheap watch. I don’t know how to fix it. It’s not a very nice watch.” 

Every Monday around 4:30 p.m. the iron gate separating Uptown Baptist from the sidewalk creaks open and some 350 homeless men and women file into pews for a word from scripture then to the basement for a hot meal.

Shouldering computer bags and backpacks, a flock of Chicagoans scatter from the train and the buses toward home or an evening job in one of the city’s most diverse communities.

This is North American Mission Board missionary Michael Allen’s mission field.

“Uptown is one of the most diverse places in the Chicago area,” says Allen. “It's diverse in almost every way you can imagine -- ethnically, socio-economically, in gender and in age. It’s home to retirees, young couples, newborns, the brilliant and the mentally ill.”

Nearly 80 languages are represented in Uptown’s public schools.  The neighborhood’s population includes government officials, college professors, business professionals and a sub-culture of “down-and-outs.”

Allen is one of more than 5,300 missionaries in the United States, Canada and their territories supported by the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering®. He is among the NAMB missionaries featured as part of the annual Week of Prayer, March 7-14, 2010. This year’s theme is “Live with Urgency: Share God’s Transforming Power.” The 2010 Annie Armstrong Easter Offering’s goal is $70 million, 100 percent of which benefits missionaries like Allen.

Allen has worked with social ministries for years, beginning with his tenure at Moody Bible Church and continuing with leadership at homeless and recovery ministries throughout the city. His ability to interact across a broad spectrum has given the Jamaican-born pastor a voice among Chicago businessmen and politicians. 

“One day I could be at a press conference with the mayor of Chicago and all the movers and shakers and be in a suit and tie, then later that day on the street talking to somebody who’s drunk and just gave his girlfriend AIDS,” says Allen. “It's a powerful thing. It's an amazing thing. It's God at work changing people's lives and I get to be used by Him to accomplish it.”

Read more at onmission.com >>>