30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World | www.30-days.net » mind sets http://www.30-days.net What Christians should know about Islamic background, history and culture. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:11:00 +0000 en hourly 1 Our Attitudes: Unbelief, Belief and Love in any circumstance? http://www.30-days.net/islam/issues/our-attitudes/ http://www.30-days.net/islam/issues/our-attitudes/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 05:45:33 +0000 TDI http://www.30-days.net/?p=997 Unbelief, Belief and Love

Scriptures to meditate and proclaim in prayer: Mt. 19:26, Jeremiah 32:27, Romans 12:1-2

It is often said that Muslims are hard to reach with the Gospel. For religious, cultural and spiritual reasons this is often true. However it is not impossible. The Bible tells us that nothing is impossible for God (Mt. 19:26). Do I agree with God that nothing is too hard for Him?

Is our attitude one of love?

Faith is important but do I also love Muslims? What is my most profound reaction when I meet them, when I see them on television? How would I react if a man in Muslim clothing came to my church? How would I react if a new believer from a Muslim background wanted to marry into my family? Would I be willing to give a thousand dollars so someone could proclaim the Gospel among Muslims? Would I be willing to sit and eat with a Muslim in a crowded restaurant? Have I been involved in criticizing them without knowing them? Am I fearful of Muslims? Is my main attitude toward them one of mistrust? Am I able to do as Jesus says, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”? Is this my desire, is this my goal?

Prayer Starters:

Be honest with God. Pray as He directs you. (Use the scriptures cited above.) If it seems appropriate, pray for yourself and / or other believers around the world who may also be struggling with their attitudes, ideas and actions toward Muslims.  Scriptures: Mt. 19:26, Jeremiah 32:27, Romans 12:1-2

A believer’s testimony

and some significant questions about Islam and Muslims

The author of the following paragraph loves Muslims very much.

“I want you to know that I have personally survived two attempts by Muslim extremist crowds to lynch me. Once in 1986 because I was a Westerner and once because of my witness concerning Jesus Christ in 1989. I have received more death threats from Muslim extremists than I can count. I have been arrested, I have had my home searched and my Bibles have been confiscated. The police have interrogated me about my faith and witness. I have close friends who have been tortured. I think I can honestly say that I have earned the right to say that I am not naïve about Muslim extremism. But I want to ask: What does our Christian faith say about the attitude we should have as believers toward Islam and Muslims in the world today?”

“I have received more

death threats from Muslim

extremists than I can count.”

Images we have

Joseph, the author of the previous paragraph, asks other questions: What image springs to the mind of most Christians when they think about Muslims? The Twin towers? Osama bin Laden? Are we called to defend “Christian civilisation” or are we willing to lay down our lives in love for Muslims and share with them the Good News of Jesus? Are we interested in self preservation or self-giving for the Gospel? Joseph believes that the Christian faith is primarily costly discipleship to Jesus Christ the Crucified. What do we believe? (See 1 Peter 3:15, Mark 8:34-35, Mt. 5:39 and 44.)*

In the words of Floyd McClung, there is a life-giving way to think and act concerning Islam and Muslims:

Radical Prayer – Pray with love and faith for Muslims to experience the mercy and grace of God.
Persevering Faith – Believe God to raise up committed, trained believers to take God’s message to Muslims and establish new groups of believers.
Extreme Sacrifice – The militancy of Muslims is best responded to by sacrificial love and a willingness to suffer and even die to make Jesus known.

Rather than responding in fear or disdain toward Muslims, McClung believes we should respond in the opposite spirit, in an attitude of Christ-like love. The “30 Days” movement shares this belief.

* Taken from the book “From Seed to Fruit,” pages 318-323. Published by William Carey Library, Pasadena, CA 2008.

Video: DanStevers.com

Consumer Worship from DanStevers.com on Vimeo.

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]]> http://www.30-days.net/islam/issues/our-attitudes/feed/ 13 Islam – a peace-loving or militant religion? http://www.30-days.net/islam/culture/peace/ http://www.30-days.net/islam/culture/peace/#comments Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:35:38 +0000 TDI http://www.30-days.net/reveal/peace/ Is Islam a peace-loving religion, or does it tend towards violence? Both! Islam has a whole spectrum of positions. Some Muslims are liberally-minded and adapt themselves to democratic and pluralistic values, others are fundamentalists who struggle actively for a reformation of society, and still others are militant extremists prone to violence. Among the dedicated Muslim activists are peace-loving conservatives as well as the terrorist jihad supporters. It is important not to lump all Muslims and Islamic fundamentalists together.

What has contributed to the rise of militant Islam?

For a start, there are a number of events that have been traumatic for Muslims. Thinking of the past, they mourn the loss of the “Golden Age” of the beginnings of Islam and the Islamic cultural and military predominance from the seventh to 17th centuries. In addition, they have suffered under Western colonialism until recent times. Worldwide, they constantly experience the political, economical and military predominance of the “Christian” West. They have a sense of being under attack through events in Israel, Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. They hate the repressive regimes in the Muslim world, which are often supported by the “Christian” West. They see their young people in danger from the immoral Western (“so-called Christian”) global culture. Many feel powerless and despised, leading them to be full of anger.

For militant Islamists, the example of Mohammad and the verses in the Qur’an that call for war against the “unbelievers” (Surat 2:190f, 9:5 and others) seem to be the only answer to this crisis. According to the Qur’an, violence is allowed if Muslims see themselves burdened or attacked. Petrodollars have helped many in the process of promoting militant Islam. They are inspired by the historic examples of commitment even to death of well-known Islamic personalities (eg Ibn Hanbal, Ibn Taimiyya, and Sayyid M Outb, the founder of modern jihad who was executed by the Egyptian government in 1966). It is probable that nearly every Muslim is convinced that one day all peoples will have to submit to Islam.

How can we pray for Islamists and for extremists?

1. Islamic fundamentalism, which is prone to violence, has evoked two types of reaction among Muslims: on the one hand, a stronger hatred of the West and stronger opposition to the gospel; on the other, a disillusionment with Islam and greater openness for the mercy and peace of God. Many Muslims are appalled by the acts of violence which are done in the name of Islam. This is verbalised in some internet chat room contributions as well as by testimonies of former Muslims in Algeria, Iran and Afghanistan who have turned their backs on Islam.

2. Some Islamic militants have come to understand something of God’s mercy and love from reading the Bible and observing the life of Christians. Interviews with more than 600 converts from a Muslim background have shown that these factors play crucial roles in about half of the decisions for Christ.

3. Some Islamic fundamentalists have experienced God’s direct intervention, ie through dreams, visions, healings or encounters with the risen Christ. Jesus encountered Saul, the persecutor of Christians (Acts 9); He can also reveal Himself to Muslim fighters and those involved in jihad in our day. Testimonies of converts from Islam make it clear that this is happening again and again.

4. Christians who work in the Islamic world and the Churches in the West need God’s help and a heart full of mercy to build up deep relationships with Muslims.

5. Churches worldwide need friendliness, love and creativity to express the love of God to Muslims. Only the Holy Spirit can open the eyes of Islamic militants to the truth. (This is no small matter. In Germany alone the National Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimates that there are about 30,000 Muslim militants who, under the right circumstances, could be prone to violence.)

6. We should also pray for God to frustrate the destructive plans of Islamic terrorists. Governments around the world need wisdom and the political will to counter these extremists in an appropriate way and protect the world from harm. We should also pray for the many victims of extremist Islam.

7. Let us pray for ourselves that we may be free from nationalistic and cultural attitudes concerned with defending the West. May we be free from fear (not seeing everything from a friend-enemy perspective) so that we can see militant Muslims through God’s eyes. Above all, may God give us His love for Islamic militants. Jesus also died and rose again for them, to bring them true peace.

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]]> http://www.30-days.net/islam/culture/peace/feed/ 6 Sufism now and then http://www.30-days.net/islam/history/sufism/ http://www.30-days.net/islam/history/sufism/#comments Sat, 15 May 2010 11:23:54 +0000 TDI http://www.30-days.net/reveal/sufism/ (Written from an Indian perspective.)

Initiated Into Sufism

Anwar was filled with excitement, anticipation, and a bit of fear. After completing nearly a year of exercises to be accepted into his father’s order of Sufism, he was to be initiated at last and would become a Murid, or a disciple in mystical communion with Allah, through the power of his spiritual guide, his Murshid.

He arrived at the appointed hour and found the room already filled with disciples, those to be initiated, listening to a younger man in the front of the room singing a devotional song. Then the Murshid himself, a middle-aged man with a long beard and the long hair of a mystic, appeared and led the rapidly growing group in hypnotic chanting of the phrase, “There is no god but God”. The guide prayed a prayer of blessing and forgiveness for them. Each responded in a vow of complete obedience to their Murshid.

About Sufism

Sufism goes back to the founding of Islam; as Islam spread from Arabia to other parts of the world, it interacted with new cultures and philosophies. Islam encountered Christian monks in the desert, Gnostics of various sorts, Neoplatonic philosophy, and Buddhism and Hinduism from India. Some Muslims came under these influences and began to develop a mystical version of Islam that was centered less on shari’a, or law, and more on an expression of hunger for God and longing for union with Him. It adopted the emphasis on God’s love from the Christian mystics, an emphasis on ascending spiritually through secret, esoteric knowledge from the Gnostics, and a pantheistic interpretation of “union” with God from both Neo-Platonism and the Indian religions.

Early on, Muslims persecuted the Sufis, even crucifying an early Persian Sufi leader. However, largely through the efforts of 12th century Islamic theologian Abu Hamid Al-Ghazali, Muslims eventually brought Sufism within the mainstream of acceptable Islamic thought.

The Sufi Path

The Sufi path is generally marked by an increasing union with and eventual absorption or annihilation of one’s personal identity, first into one’s spiritual guide, and eventually into God. At the core of most Sufi belief is a deep yearning for intimacy with God, which can only be fulfilled in Christ. In spite of the pantheism that is mixed in with the Sufi understanding of God’s nature, often Sufis have a more Biblical understanding of God’s character and love for humankind than the stern understanding often emphasized in more orthodox expressions of Islam.

Prayer requests:

* Pray that God would reveal Himself directly to Sufis who are truly “hungering and thirsting for righteousness” (c.f., Matthew 5:6).

* Pray for the Lord to raise up more people with a desire to reach Sufis with discernment and boldness in their witness to the reality of Jesus.

* Pray against the powers of darkness who would want to keep Sufis from grasping, “…the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV).

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