Radical Faith

One of the most impacting meetings I had in Israel this past November was with an amazing Arab believer, Mohammed (name is changed for security reasons). Mohammed goes into the West Bank and ministers to the radical Muslims, some of whom are former terrorists. After going through security checkpoints he pastors over one hundred beloved Muslims that he has led to the Lord. His life is in danger each time he witnesses, but God's supernatural protection and grace has covered him and his young family.


Muhammed shared with me that just a few days earlier, the owner of a Christian bookstore in Gaza was brutally murdered. Mohammed knew this man and his family. The man that was murdered left behind two young boys and his wife who is pregnant with a baby girl. Mohammed shared how some people came to her house and asked her how she felt about the death of her husband. "I am very, very sad that my husband was killed," she said, "but, I would be even sadder if he had come home alive. That would have meant that he had denied Jesus."


I sat stunned. This woman's faith rattled my worldview as a believer from the West.
The Muslim extremists will bribe or shame Christians to get them to renounce their faith, Muhammed continued. A Christian was bribed with a car, a home, and a good job, and converted to Islam. A Christian woman was brutally shamed into converting to Islam."


"Do many believers convert to Islam through bribery and fear?" I asked.
Mohammed looked shocked, "Oh no! Believers would never convert! They would much rather die for the Lord." He was nodding his head to confirm my agreement.


I then understood the difference. "Christian" is just a name, a family background into which one is born. "Believers" are the sold out ones who have already given up their lives to the Lord, who do "not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." (Revelation 12:11)

This fearless lifestyle deeply impacted me as I reflected on my own commitment to live and even to die for the Lord.


Tod, Mohammed and Richard together in Israel


Blessings- Tod

todmcdowell@gmail.com

http://www.mcdowellsmessage.com/

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