Moved with Compassion

from the Reach Across U.S. Director

Someone recently wrote that the Western media's portrayal of Islam is generally neither fair nor balanced. It's either "why can't we all get along" or "shoot ‘em and let God sort ‘em out." These ignorant assumptions lead us astray and may keep us from engaging with whole people groups that God has called His church to understand and love.

Jerry Trousdale has written some very encouraging works in his recent volume, Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus (description at the bottom of the blog). This excerpt is from pages 71 and 72:

“When most Christians look at Muslims, they see a monolithic mass of humanity, staunch in their beliefs, ready to fight for their religion, and aggressively seeking to extend the rule of Sharia law into all the world. That is not a complete or accurate picture! Most Christians cannot imagine what is really going on inside mosques, as more and more Muslims are doubting the teachings and worldview of the Islam that they inherited from their parents, a rigid belief system about which they are not supposed to ask questions.

Actually, we are discovering that shockingly high percentage of Muslim leaders are discouraged and disillusioned because they struggle to meet deep spiritual needs in a system built around a very different view of God than the loving God of the Bible. . . . A personal, loving relationship with God is not only impossible in Islam, it is not even a desired goal.

Muslims living in Christian-heritage countries, like the United States, find that it takes some courage to face each day in public. Despite a hefty dose of political correctness, in dozens of ways a message is transmitted clearly to Muslims every day: “Since you choose a religion of intimidation and violence, you are unwelcome here.” But many peaceful Muslims worry privately that something is terribly wrong with a violent Islamic worldview.

Unfortunately, most Christians have difficulty looking beyond the perplexities of today’s news from the Islamic world to imagine what can happen when a Muslim family discovers and obeys truth in the Bible. No devout Muslim anywhere has any concept of what it means to call God ‘Father,’ never mind something as intimate as ‘Abba’ (Daddy). . . . These core principles of Christianity are far outside the thinking of Muslims, but when they discover and obey these truths, their lives are transformed in unimaginable ways.

Recall some of the words and phrases describing Jesus’ view of the people around Him: “moved with compassion,’ “weary,” “scattered,” “without a shepherd.” If we are to follow the example of Jesus, we would do well to learn similar responses to the Muslims who live in our own communities, learning to be moved with compassion toward those who lack godly leadership, who are trapped in bondage to a religion that warps and despises human individuality, who are exhausted with their endless pursuit of good works that cannot lead to salvation.

We should be moved with compassion toward those who are lost.”

Are we?

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We recommend this book to encourage us all with the fact that the Holy Spirit is reaching Muslims today. While Trousdale’s descriptions of great openness to the Gospel among Muslims today have largely to do with specific locations in Africa, they give us hope that Muslims in other areas of the world will respond to His call, and remind us that no one is beyond His reach!

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Miraculous-Movement-PB-Trousdale-Masih/dp/141854728X