Written: August 21, 2016
For the past two nights I have been able to listen to the testimony of a man who took a risk to think for himself and compare what he knew about his own religion to the person of Christ and the Bible. In a country where even questioning your faith is dangerous, he boldly proclaimed his confidence in the saving power of Jesus Christ. It cost him all he had held dear, but gained him so much more.
Once again, the Lord has brought back into my life one of the many of his children who were touched by my husband along the path of life. Raouf always had a soft spot for his Sudanese students at Beirut Baptist Theological Seminary in the mid 1990s, and they loved their teacher. Knowing that their tradition of learning had been different from that of students from other Arab nations, Raouf took the extra time to administer their exams orally. They knew the material, and could express their knowledge so much better verbally than in written form. Dr. Raouf knew it, and because he wanted them to succeed, he made the way for them.
Now, here I am listening to the testimony and preaching of Pastor Aman Muhammad, and being blessed. Not just because I knew him as a much younger man, early in his walk with God, but because I see the effect his testimony is having on American, Arabs and even Muslims in attendance. I know Raouf would be so proud.
When I think about the beautiful believers the Lord has allowed us to know and love around the world, and I see how He has moved them, much like Abraham, to lands they knew not, I marvel at how He is mixing up this world with peoples. Much like the spreading from the tower of Babel, peoples are on the move to countries so unlike their own. To think of Pastor Aman, from the heat of Sudan now living in the cold of Iowa — I just have to wonder at what God is doing. While I may wonder, I do not doubt God’s infinite plan — a plan to see all nations, all peoples come to know him. No longer in his home country, followers of Christ, like Aman now have an amazing freedom to share their faith as never before, and they’re doing it everywhere — in Canada, Australia, Germany, and even Tennessee. For no matter where they may roam on this earth, they carry with them “this all-surpassing power (that) is from God”…(They) always carry around in (their) body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in (their) body. (2 Cor. 4:10-11).
Though rejected by their own, they press on, and as one of the Americans listening tonight understood and shared: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29).
What a blessing to again see one who paid the price and yet has received so much more, and is so much at peace because of his confidence in the truth of the cross and the eternal life to come. Thank you, Lord, for the blessing of being a part of the Family of God Universal.
Grace and Peace