Evangelical Christians Now Thanking Allah

Aug 25 by Sam Guzman

Last week it was reported that Brian McLaren and other emergent church leaders are celebrating Ramadan with Muslims. WorldnetDaily has an article on this new trend and notes that McLaren is not fasting for the salvation of his Muslim neighbors, but rather to join them in an act of community and solidarity.

This is What a False Convert Professes: From His Own Website, Brian Mclaren

Ramadan 2009: Part 1 What’s going on?

Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting for spiritual renewal and purification. It commemorates the month during which Muslims believe Mohammed received the Quran through divine revelation, and it calls Muslims to self-control, sacrificial generosity and solidarity with the poor, diligent reading of the Quran, and intensified prayer.

This year, I, along with a few Christian friends (and perhaps others currently unknown to us will want to join in) will be joining Muslim friends in the fast which begins August 21. We are not doing so in order to become Muslims: we are deeply committed Christians. But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them. Just as Jesus, a devout Jew, overcame religious prejudice and learned from a Syrophonecian woman and was inspired by her faith two thousand years ago (Matthew 15:21 ff, Mark 7:24 ff), we seek to learn from our Muslim sisters and brothers today.

Muslims observe Ramadan in the same basic way world-wide: they fast from food, water, sex, etc., from dawn to dusk. We Christians who are joining in the fast will share these four common commitments:

We, as Christians, humbly seek to join Muslims in this observance of Ramadan as a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness. Each of us will have at least one Muslim friend who will serve as our partner in the fast. These friends welcome us in the same spirit of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness.We will seek to avoid being disrespectful or unfaithful to our own faith tradition in our desire to be respectful to the faith tradition of our friends. For example, since the Bible teaches us the importance of fasting and being generous to the poor, we can participate as Christians in fidelity to the Bible as our Muslim friends do so in fidelity to the Quran.

Among the core values of Ramadan are self control, expressing kindness, and resolving conflicts. For this reason, if we are criticized or misunderstood by Christians, Muslims, or others for this endeavor, we will avoid defending ourselves or engaging in arguments. Instead, we will seek to explain ourselves humbly, simply, and briefly when necessary, connecting with empathy to the needs and feelings of others as we express our own.

The god of Your Own Choosing

Our main purpose for participating will be our own spiritual growth, health, learning, and maturity, but we also hope that our experience will inspire others to pray and work for peace and the common good, together with people of other faith traditions.
May God bless all people, and teach us to love God and love one another, and so fulfill our calling as human beings.

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If you sit in one of these on Sunday, make sure you proclaim what you heard to those who don’t sit here on Sunday.

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
“Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent,

The following are emails from David Campbell, one of the faithful going to the Pilot truck stop at 170 and I 35w.  He goes there to proclaim the Gospel. 

Ron,
 
I was excited to tell you about tonight although I could not find you when I was done.  I saw your truck but did not find you. I was freezing so I left.  I hope you fared well.  Tonight was a most gracious gift from our common savior and Lord, Jesus Christ.  If you remember we asked that He allow us to see some fruit for our efforts and you asked specifically for at least one person.  He gave me just what we asked for. 
 
I was unable to speak with anyone until I got to the end and there was a truck there and the guy waved me over.  I simply asked him if I could explain the gospel to him and he said sure and turned his truck off (the truck was positioned to be insulated against noise).  We went through the law and he said, “I thought I was a decent person but that standard is so high no one can meet it, what are we going to do?”  I then explained to him Christ and HIs atoning sacrifice and even drew stories from the Old Testament which I was not sure if he even knew but he seemed in awe.
 
Then he said that just this morning he asked for ‘God’ to help him because he just had an overwhelming sense that everything needed to change.  He said it is so bizarre that I showed up tonight.  I began to walk him through laying down ones life to follow Christ and looking to the life that will be ours one day and the treasure of Christ as exceeding the best that this life has to offer.  I talked about the cost of following Christ and explained the difficulties that he was sure to face.  He said he wants Christ.  He asked “If I want to know God and I begin asking God to save me, how soon do I get to know him?  How soon do I see a change in my life?” (we had talked about the evidences of salvation)  I later shared with him the story of the Navigators founder (forgot his name) and talked about how when he was driving a truck he would make it a point to memorize and think about a new verse each and every day.  I talked to him about the desire for Christian fellowship, the desire to read the bible, the desire to walk as Jesus walked.  Not as salvific but as evidences of a renewed life.
 
I do not know what will happen with Billy but I must say I am so excited how the Lord was pleased to answer my prayer and encourage me to persevere in my prayers for the lost.  He is so good to me, He is so patient, He is so kind.
 
Take care brother, it is an honor serving with you.

Ron,
 
I had been meaning to write you back about the truck stop the other night.  Chris and I ended up staying out until almost 10:30pm or so.  It seems that standing where we were we continued to engage person after person that happened to be coming by.  It was a difficult night for me but also a very good night.  I saw how the gospel can cause divisions even in a husband and wife, the wife was extremely receptive and the husband thought it was all a big joke.
 
I think the most striking is that both Chris and myself (independently) came across people who made the statement that it was angels that came and killed the guards outside the tomb and therefore they tried to lay at the feet of the only true Sovereign the death of two ‘innocent’ soldiers.  I was baffled when I heard it because it was so ridiculous that I could not believe that some one actually said it out loud.  Chris was kind of dumb founded as well since he had never heard such a claim either.  How in the world does a human being charge the Almighty God with murder!?  Talk about total depravity!

Thank you David for your continued labor for our Lord.

Matthew Henry quote:

The harvest is appointed and looked for before it comes; so was the gospel. Harvest-time is busy time; all must be then at work. Harvest-time is a short time, and harvest-work must be done then, or not at all; so the time of the gospel is a season, which if once past, cannot be recalled.

[Concerning one of the new "movements" in the church that was causing a stir among Christians:] “There’s also a stir when the circus comes to town.”
-Leonard Ravenhill

Leonard Ravenhill was one of Britain’s foremost outdoor evangelists of the 20th century. God used him to help bring thousands of people to Christ throughout Britain. Unlike the case with many of today’s evangelists, the conversions that Leonard helped to bring about were generally lasting conversions. That’s because he did not water down the Gospel when he preached it. Later in life, Leonard and his family moved to the United States, where he worked with Bethany House Publishers. In the 1980s, Leonard and his family moved to a home near Lindale, Texas, a short distance from Last Days Ministries. Leonard regularly taught classes at Last Days Ministries, and he was a mentor to the late Keith Green.

by David Bercot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gc4pclpeau0