5. Prepared To Share?

Are you concerned that you may not be the best person to share the gospel with your Muslim friends? That's a great starting point! People who have all the answers are rarely the ones God chooses for His work. He gains glory when the weak give Him their weakness, so that the fruit is seen to be due to His power, not human cleverness.

In Exodus three and four Moses had half a dozen good reasons why he couldn't lead Israel. But God had chosen Moses, and subsequent events proved how right the choice was. Increasingly Muslims are sharing their faith passionately in the West. We urgently need to respond. May I ask you to consider, carefully and prayerfully, what your role should be in sharing the gospel with Muslims here? Perhaps you need to read the story of Moses' call again. The key issue is to hear what God wants us to do.

In practice, there are several questions/objections which come up repeatedly:

• Why do Christians call Jesus the Son of God?
• Don't you worship three gods?
• Why would God let Jesus die on the cross?
• The Bible has been corrupted.
• Why is the West so immoral?

We need to have answers ready on such issues, and there are many books which can help us here. We do need to learn about Islam. But much of this can be picked up on the job. One key is to view ourselves as learners, not experts. Ask your Muslim acquaintances about their lives and faith. Learn about them.

And, learning from Jesus, who shared truth with the woman at the well simply by asking questions, we can also have leading questions ready:

• What does Islam say about sacrifice? Why should an animal dying have any effect on man's contact with God?
• Since all must die one day, do you have any certainty that God will accept you?
• Adam was a good man, but he did one thing wrong. Why did his one bad deed result in expulsion from the garden? Should not his good deeds have outweighed the bad?

In time you can develop a whole list of such questions, but these may help to get you started.

Written by a British Pioneer, currently serving in North Africa.