Lessons from Mazhar
Mazhar Mallouhi was incredible last night. We met and he told his story. He spoke on the Kingdom of God and what it meant to live it. He and I like reading a lot of the same people I found out. He talked about the best way for Christians to connect with Muslims. He also spoke a lot on what it meant to be a follower of Christ. Here are some things he said that really stood out:
1. Let your life be your message. It is not debate, but it is letting someone see the life of Jesus alive in you - your faith alive that becomes the message.
2. Own your own experience. Don’t allow others to color it or shape it for you. It is a journey for all of us - enjoy and learn from your journey. Americans are driven from church to church, program to program, personality to personality - be driven to Jesus.
3. We love the book (the Bible) but we should love the author of the book more. I lives should be a reflection of who Jesus is.
4. Love your neighbor first. We can try to love Muslims and others, but we must love those we are closest to and nearest. If we do that, we will love Muslims, Bhuddist, communists and everyone else!
5. Often we confuse religion with culture. The Middle-East was Arabic long before it was Islamic. To be a Muslim follower of Jesus - means I am submitted to God following Jesus. Someone asked him, “Can you be a Muslim Christian?” To which he asked, “Can you be an American Christian? How do you do that!”
There was much more - but what stood out for me - and stood our for me when I met him in Beirut a few months ago was more than anything, it was about following and loving Jesus. Isn’t that what it’s always about?
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Aug 22, 2008 at 08:08 AM
Awesome stuff. Wish I could have been there.
Aug 22, 2008 at 10:17 AM
My mind has been continually pouring over the stories and messages Mazhar shared with us yesterday evening.
My journey of faith has taken my from my up-bringing in the Catholic church, seeking out a personal relationship with Christ, to finding it and now the effort to continually walk with, and grow my understanding in Him. There have been many people and circumstances that have challenged my faith, and even more that have encouraged me to grow.
God works in awesome ways. Along that path no one has asked me to look deeper into my faith and examine it than my friend who is Muslim. We've known each other for more than 12 years, and his journey in his faith is close to where I'm at in mine. We've gone from rote, mechanical sharing of Bible and Qu'ran to passionate discussion of the meaning of the passages in our respective faiths. I thank God for that.
I look forward to hearing Mazhar in the Sunday service. His words and lessons yesterday were both very insightful, and challenging. He may or may not have meant to, yet his words yesterday have begged of me to examine my faith, and where I place God in my life, and I thank him for it. I have already gone back to my favorite chapter, Romans 12 and found new and deeper meaning. And there is so much more to examine. Yet God continually brings my thoughts back to Romans 12. As for Mazhar’s comments, and your point number 1 Bob, I need to live my faith. So many of us profess it, but don’t live it. I accept the correction. Romans 12.
Aug 22, 2008 at 10:25 AM
As Mr. Mallouhi was speaking, you could see how those from the Arab culture would get and appreciate the language of the Bible in a much different way than those of us from the West. I'm not saying they have a monopoly on the meaning of God's Word, but like you say all the time Bob, "we have so much to learn from the East."
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