During our last month in Tanzania the Lord redefined what the gospel means to me through a series of events that have certainly changed my faith forever.
Have you ever had to fight for your faith? To defend why you have certain convictions? To stand against someone of opposing beliefs? Many times in my life I've had to stand on something I've believed in, whether it was a political position or simply my own opinion. When I came to know Jesus, I found that those conversations came up more often.
Life as a Christian isn't a cakewalk. We aren't saved by grace and then free from persecution, maltreatment or even death. Even aside from the more extreme suffering, we are guaranteed to experience a plethora of opposition.
"I have said these things to you, that you may find peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world." -John 16:33
If you're following Jesus, yet not facing adversity, I dare say that you are not truly walking in the boldness Christ calls us to.
As followers of Jesus we must choose to live as citizens of heaven, focusing our eternal life with God. If we get this confused we will see ourselves conforming to the patterns of the world and forsaking our calling to proclaim the gospel.
"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world- the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions- is not from the Father but is from the world." -John 2:15,16
FOR I AM NOT ASHAMED OF THE GOSPEL…
If anything, I am submitted to it and willing to stake my life on it.
I'd love to share a story from Tanzania that prompted my newfound boldness in sharing what Christ did for us all. My prayer is that it will stir up our desire to share the gospel with all people and all nations.
Meet Jesus. He is in his late twenties and from Morogoro, Tanzania. He has read both the Qu'ran and the Bible. He attends the local Muslim University and believes with everything in him that Allah is the one true God.
We met him one day during door-to-door evangelism when we passed a group of Muslim university students standing under a large tree. Our pastor, Albinus, led us over to them and we asked if we could share why we were in Morogoro. Surprisingly, they were quite open to hearing what we had to say. I proceeded to share the gospel. After finishing they asked if they could share their beliefs. We listened intently as they confidently declared why they had dedicated their lives to the Islamic faith.
They asked a lot of questions. Muslim Jesus came into the conversation and stirred things up quite a bit. He questioned our authority as women preaching the gospel, bringing up controversial scripture and giving us little to no time to explain how he had misinterpreted it. The conversation turned quickly into a one-sided argument. At first, I punched back hard with bold statements and with (what I thought would be) paralyzing comebacks. Unfortunately, my fiery attitude only inflamed his. I should have known better.
Thankfully Cara called me out saying that my sharp tone was doing nothing to build rapport and that it was actually taking away from my strong defense. After I realized the pride and immaturity behind my attitude, I took about 20 minutes to gather myself and repent for my lack of humility. Then I apologized to the whole group and reentered the conversation with a new sense of peace.
This encounter deeply impacted me. I was more than humbled by Cara's feedback. My inability to keep my cool was simply uncharacteristic of Jesus. Jesus' incomparable humility always prevailed in His ministry and it continues to today. As Christians we must realize that it is the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit that ultimately changes hearts. It cannot be forced.
A lot happened in that 2 hour conversation; about 30 Muslims joined us, we argued about many scriptures, the Bible's alleged "contradictions", Jesus' divinity, etc. Let's just say it was some heavy dialogue.
That afternoon we endured major hits to our pride, femininity and beliefs…but we wanted more. The Lord gave us a supernatural courage to stand upon the His living word. Therefore, towards the end to the discussion, we asked them if they would like to continue the "debate" in a more formal manner. We decided that the following Saturday we would meet in our pastor's church to discuss two subjects: the inerrancy of scripture and the religion of Jesus Christ.
That Saturday came quickly and we did everything we could to prepare for the debate. I called the other three WR teams in the area and we all congregated in Pastor Albinus' church. The Muslim students slowly filtered in with our small group. Eventually the ratio of Christians to Muslims was about 25 to 150. Sure, we were the underdogs, but God was with us.
Though I have no pictures to show you what it was like to be surrounded by 150 men donning the traditional Muslim outfits, try to imagine it. It was intense. These weren't just lukewarm Muslims. They had given up everything, just like us, to follow their beliefs.
As much as I want to give you all a play-by-play of what went down that day, I won't. Otherwise you would spend the rest of your day reading this blog. Instead, I will go through the highlight reel:
- My teammate Cara Parker first gave an awesome 25-minute presentation on the inerrancy of scripture.
- They gave a 25-minute response.
- We proceeded with about four 10-minute responses.
- To end that chapter each side had five minutes to summarize.
- BREAK FOR PRAYER/LUNCH
- Their speaker (Jesus the Muslim) gave a 25-minute presentation on the religion of Jesus Christ.
- We responded for 25 minutes and then repeated the same thing as before with 10-minute responses and 5-minute summaries.
During this 6 hour long process we were CHALLENGED. The Bible was put to the test. Our beliefs were often mocked, laughed at or belittled. Every so often they would shout "La llaha ill Allah" (There is no divinity but Allah) or Allah u Akbar" (Allah is great) after their speaker made a jab at our scripture. Feelings were disregarded. The speakers chose to read out of books that are not included in the Bible (like the gospels of Mary and Maccabee), attempting to show viable contradictions. The whole time they read out of a Catholic Bible trying to convince us, as Protestants, that we didn't agree with the Catholic Bible…interesting.
They wanted answers to questions about scripture that had been so clearly taken out of context. It ached to hear such misrepresentations of Jesus. Christians as a whole were put under a magnifying glass, reminding us of just how imperfect we are. The religiousity of the Muslim faith and their blindness by the law disabled them from understanding the gospel set before them.
Despite everything mentioned, I am so grateful that the Lord gave us this opportunity. It was one of my best days of ministry on the race. I was able to hear some of the most incredible proclaimations of Jesus Christ from my peers. Allan Boehm and Dustin Suttle presented the gospel in a way I had never heard it and it brought me to tears.
Allan emphasized repentance as the main message preached from Jesus and the character of God the Father. Erica Kaufman spoke about Old Testament prophecies (using knowledge from her Jewish upbringing) to show how they all point to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ . I, alongside a few others, spoke briefly at different moments but spent most of the time listening and interceeding on behalf of everyone. Dustin closed by reining in all that we said then humbly apologizing for all the misguided attempts that we Christians have made trying "to save the world". He also made strong declaration of our love for all the people present.
As you can imagine, by the end we were all mentally drained, yet filled with an overwhelming peace that we did all we could. We were given the grace of asking many questions where we gained a lot of knowledge about the Islamic faith. I must say even though they tried their best to sway my beliefs, I am now EVEN MORE commited to a life following Jesus. He is the way, the truth and the life. Because of this experience, the rest of my ministry in Tanzania was amplified with an unquenchable thirst to share the gospel.
More stories to come.
