“I feel like I’m dead inside,” my friend Hamid said to me as we sat in a park. “I need someone to come and make me alive.”
I had met Hamid several weeks earlier when he came to our house to fix our stove. He texted me a few days later and asked if I wanted to play badminton with him that evening. I said I’d be happy to—even though badminton is not really my thing.
It was when we sat down to take a break between volleys that the questions started coming.
“You’re a Christian?” Hamid asked. “What do you believe?” With each question, he got more persistent and direct. “You think Jesus is God? Is Mohammed a prophet? Do you think what I believe is wrong?”
After three hours of discussion, he said, “One of us is right and one of us is wrong. We can’t both be right.” I agreed. Then he added, “We need to read the Bible and the Qur’an together to find out.”
I suggested we read them in chronological order—first the Old Testament, then the New Testament, and then the Qur’an. I suspected that if Hamid had the chance to encounter Jesus’ miracles and beautiful words of life in the Gospels, he might not even want to continue on to the Qur’an.
He started coming to our house a couple nights a week to read through parts of the Old Testament. When we read Genesis 3, Hamid fixated on God’s words to Eve when He said that her offspring would crush the serpent’s head and the serpent would strike his heel.
“There is something important here,” he said, his heart soft and open.
“Yes,” I replied, “This is the first prophecy about Jesus the Messiah.”
Another time we read about Abraham sacrificing his son. When I asked Hamid what we can learn about God from the passage, he responded, “God provides a sacrifice.” We talked about how this is a picture of the Lord God providing the perfect lamb for us in Jesus Christ.
“OK, then let’s read about Jesus,” he replied simply.
Now we’re in the book of Matthew and having great discussions about Jesus. Hamid is grappling with truths that are entirely new to him. Sometimes, I won’t hear from him for a week or two, but that doesn’t worry or surprise me. I know he needs a break to process and digest everything as he discovers who Jesus Christ is. And I know that once he gets a glimpse of the Savior, there is no turning back.
- Pray that Hamid would continue seeking Jesus Christ and fully commit to following Him.
- Pray also for diligence in reaching out to Hamid and speaking truth to him.
- Ask the Lord to move powerfully in the hearts of Muslim men and women, stirring them to hunger for the truth of Jesus Christ.
**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names and places have been changed for security.**
Original article: https://www.frontiersusa.org/blog/article/discovering-jesus-in-the-gospels
