An Opportunity On The Washington Mall - Be In Prayer

This Friday September 25th, there is going to be an Islamic prayer event on Washington DC mall. It is anticipated that there will be 50,000 Muslims praying there and the website promoting the event says, "Our Time Has Come."

In light of this event, a Chicago based ministry (that we partner with) sees this as an incredible opportunity to reach Muslims with the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are driving a van and an SUV full of people to DC for this occasion and are giving a copy of the Jesus Film DVD to as many Muslims there as will accept them. These DVDs are in 16 of the most commonly spoken languages among Muslims. There are other Christian ministries throughout the country who will have a similar effort going tomorrow.

I recently received an email from a ministry staff person sharing the following prayer request. "Please, sincerely pray for this outreach on Friday. There will be another group of people there who are planning on rudely inciting Muslims' anger and we don't want to be associated with these people - surely this would be counter-productive. I believe that evangelism is a high form of spiritual warfare and we intent to be fully engaged. Again, please pray for all those working to get the message of Jesus Christ to the Muslims in DC on Friday."

This event is yet another in a string of recent events that has brought the religion of Islam into greater media attention. Just to keep things straight, Islam is the religion. Muslims are those who follow Islam (In the same way Christianity/Christians). Sadly man of us here in the US, and especially Christians, do not understand Islam. Like most things we don't understand, we fear it. Therefore we not only fear the religion, we fear Muslims (if we are honest in most cases). However, we must keep things in perspective. As followers of Jesus Christ we should hate Islam, but we MUST love Muslims. In other words, we must hate the religious system that keeps people in spiritual bondage and distracts them from the true message of Jesus Christ. At the same time, we must love Muslims and must be intentional about building relational bridges in order to share the liberating message of the Gospel.

For years in our churches we have prayed for the "1040 Window." The 10/40 Window is an area of the world that contains the largest population of non-Christians in the world. The area extends from 10 degrees to 40 degrees North of the equator, and stretches from North Africa across to China. Many of the nations and people groups within the 1040 Window are Muslim. These nations have been "closed" to the gospel, making Christian missionary activity illegal. We have been praying that God would open doors and allow missionaries to enter these places. I now believe that God, in His Sovereignty, is bringing these nations to us in the US. Acts 17:26-27 speaks to God's Sovereignty over the movement of people. It states, "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us." In light of this verse, could the fact that we now have an ever-increasing number of "Muslims living among us" be in His Sovereign plan. I think this is the case.

So then the question becomes, do we view this as an "opportunity" or as a "threat"?

Romans 10:14-16 states, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

This is not the time to send emails that evoke fear. This is not the time to work towards tighter "border security." This is not the time to retreat into our "Christian bubbles." This is the time to dig into the Scripture and to know what we believe and why we believe it. This is the time to live intentional Christian lives. This is the time to be the Church.

(I know that someone is asking/thinking, "but what about Jihad?" What about Muslims that view us - Christians - as the enemy? Should we not consider them our enemies?" My response would be to remind them that Jesus gave us instructions in how to deal with "enemies." He commanded us to love them!)

Thoughts? I really would like to have discussion on this!