I encouraged the 1000 Muslims from around America at the Muslim American Society annual conference to “take Jesus back.” I reminded them that Jesus was from Nazareth, not Tulsa. And that he was probably 5 foot 8 with brown skin and a big hooked nose. That he looked more like the Arabs sitting on the front row than he did me. (They liked that).
I retold the parable of the Good Samaritan and how provocative it would have been in his day. And I finished with Luke 4 – Jesus’ “mission statement.” And how interesting that everyone loved his speech until he pointed out that the Prophet Elijah went to a widow in Zarapheth (modern day Lebanon) and that Elisha healed the leper from Syria. Then they tried to kill him.
The point being that all of us would like to keep Jesus to ourselves. But he continually expanded the thinking of his Jewish hearers by giving them examples of God’s grace for the outsider!
It was so well received. Imagine speaking to 1000 Muslims (mostly from Arab descent) about Jesus, and being cheered on for more. I finished by saying, “If you’ve ever felt that Christians have unfairly taken Jesus and re-packaged him in a way that you can’t understand, then TAKE HIM BACK. He’d love to be yours!”
Thank you for praying! It meant a lot.
We’ve just posted the 4-minute video of me speaking on Hezbollah TV. You can view that through my YouTube Channel, a link on my Facebook page or the website under “Resources.” Remember this: it was spur of the moment. I was totally taken off guard by the cameraman saying to me, “Tell all of Lebanon and the Middle East that America loves the Hezbollah and doesn’t approve of what Israel is doing.” What you see, is the second after he asked that question and handed me the microphone. He didn’t ask me to “preach” or “share the gospel” – he simply wanted a political statement from me. And this is my answer….
