“Hey now this is my desire consume me like a fire ‘cus I just want something beautiful to touch me I know that I’m in reach ‘cus I am down on my knees I’m waiting for something beautiful” – Something Beautiful by NeedToBreathe
These are some of my favorite lyrics of all time but I had forgotten them over the past few months. I have acquired so much amazing new music this year (Jesus Culture and Derek Webb are my current favorites) that I’ve forgotten about some of my old favorites. This song came on my ipod the other day and I literally froze- it just speaks to my spirit whenever I hear it. When it comes to music I have been so absorbed with the new things I am enjoying that I have forgotten about some of the awesome songs of my past. The opposite has been happening with my mind. As the Race is coming to a close I find myself spending so much time trying to recall and hold onto the memorable moments from the past 10 months that I’ve almost begun to miss out on the present. Today, however, has been an amazing combination of past and present that I will never forget.
Today three teams from our squad were invited to a Christian/Muslim debate to discuss the religion of Jesus Christ and the validity of Scripture. At 8am over 100 Muslims showed up to debate the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the 20 of us. These weren’t just any Muslims they were the top university students in the Tanzania. These are the modern day Pauls of the Tanzanian Muslim world and the future of this society. There were four Muslim men who did all of the talking and they posed ideas ranging from the contradictions of the Bible to the idea that Jesus was a Muslim. It was an incredibly exciting, trying, interesting and intense morning to say the least.
Cara Parker opened the debate with an overview of scripture, the Gospels, what we believe and the credibility of the Bible. Dustin Suttle gave an incredible historical account of the validity of Scripture. Allan Boehm gave the most beautiful Gospel presentation I have ever heard in my life. He spoke twice and both times when he sat down I looked around our group to see every hand pressed to a heart and a tear in every eye. It was incredible. Jessica Keown, Christina Palmer and Addie Weaver used scripture and logic to back up our points and answer questions posed by the Muslims. Shaun Frederickson spoke and found that the four main speakers were the only ones out of the 100 Muslims there who had actually read the Bible. He pleaded with them to stop listening to our voices and go home and read it for themselves, just the four Gospels, and a few men promised that they would. Dustin spoke again at the end to summarize all that we had said and explain that the reason we were sharing this with them was because we love them. Brooks Elliott mediated the entire event and kept people under control.
In the beginning their leader brought up a bunch of argument from the book of Maccabees from the apocrypha. I looked around the room and just saw the hope, confidence and air get sucked right out of my squad mates. None of them had ever studied this book and had no idea how to respond to what he was saying. But of all the 100 some odd writings not in our canonized scripture God led this man to speak about the one and only book that I knew all about. As I got in front of the group and spoke about Judah the Maccabee and the miracle of Hanukkah, God’s covenant with His people and how the Jewish laws and traditions are discussed in the New Testament our confidence and hope returned.
Shaun said that as I was speaking He felt us come together as a body of Christ. It was as if we were all pieces of a puzzle that God was putting together to present the beautiful picture of His Gospel. No one else in that room knew the stories I was talking about. And when Allan and Dustin and the others got up there and spoke I found myself just sitting back in awe overwhelmed by their knowledge. None of us could have done it alone. None of us had the knowledge or experience to stand by ourselves and defend the Gospel of Christ as it was being attacked today. But together, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we were beautiful.
“Hey now this is my desire consume me like a fire ‘cus I just want something beautiful to touch me I know that I’m in reach ‘cus I am down on my knees I’m waiting for something beautiful.”
God is a beautiful God and He works in beautiful ways.
One of the main focuses of the debate was the term “Christian”. The Muslim leader attacked this term for about an hour of his time. What hit me however was that before Dustin’s closing speech not a single one of us referred to ourselves as Christians. We used the terms “children of God” and called God our “Father” and our “Lord” but we never called ourselves Christians. When we were defending God with all that we had, the way we did it was not through our titles but through our identities. We weren’t defending a religion or a concept or an idea, we were defending our God and all that He is to us.
Back in month two when we were praying into whether God was calling us to go to Southern or Eastern Africa, one theme played a large part in the decision. We felt as if God was calling us to stand on the front lines for Him. Eastern Africa and the countries we are in are the path by which the Muslims are advancing into Southern Africa. Well today we stood on those front lines and we battled, we prayed, we cried, we honored and we loved. It was truly Something Beautiful.
Representing Jesus and the Jews
This man was the main Muslim representative… his name was Jesus…. seriously.
