The women huddled in to listen. One of them held my phone, its screen displaying the Arabic New Testament, and read several passages aloud.
We had gathered to socialize and drink coffee together like we do every week. But on this day, our souls needed comforting. Fresh in our minds was news of a bombing in a nearby city—another senseless act of violence. With hearts still grieving, my Muslim friends and I were struck by the words of Scripture.
In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
The woman reading the passages called out to her children playing in the corner. She instructed them to listen and then paraphrased the words in everyday Arabic.
“Jesus came to bring peace,” she said to them. “We know from Islam that Jesus heals the sick and raises the dead. But it says here that He also gave us the work of peace and reconciliation.”
This isn’t the first time these Muslim women had read God’s Word with me. We’d never sat down for a formal Bible study, but I have often shared Scripture with them.
The women are hungry for the truth and ask me to share more from the Word with them. Several of them are well on their way to falling in love with Christ as they realize that Jesus dealt with their sins and reconciled them to God.
Transformation happens in lives, homes, and communities where men and women take God’s Word seriously and trust in Christ’s work of peace and reconciliation. The exciting thing is that it’s happening here, too, among my friends.
There is nothing else I would rather be doing than participating in this work of reconciliation in the Muslim world.
**This account comes from a long-term worker.**
Original article: FrontiersUSA.org/blog/article/the-work-of-reconciliation
