Union Baptist Association posted a review of my books
I am grateful to “Guest” for posting a review of my books on the UBA website at https://www.ubahouston.org/blog/2019/3/26/discipling-muslim-background-believers-by-abu-daud .
In part, the review stated:
Reaching out to Muslims who may be seeking Christ and discipling Muslim-background believers can be a unique challenge for those who are unfamiliar with it. One resource we have found particularly helpful [are] Abu Da’ud’s 5-book[s] … on Discipling Muslim background believers. From his own experience coming to faith in Christ and reaching out to other Muslims, Da’ud discusses common misconceptions about Christians, answers questions Muslims often have, provides a structure for discipling new believers, and creates specific study resources for those who are helping Muslim-background believers grow in their faith…. Discipling Muslim Background Believers is an excellent resource for discipleship.
Keywords: MBB, discipleship, Discipling Muslim Background Believers, evangelism
Your God-given value makes comparison and competition unnecessary
People often compare themselves to others or compete with others in order to find or to re-affirm their value. In a previous post,https://abudaud.com/2019/03/09/a-loving-god-gives-value-to-each-person/ , I wrote that an individual’s value comes from God, and is infinite. We do not have to do anything to find, prove or affirm it.
The following verse indicates that those that try to find their value relative to others do not understand God’s way of ascribing our value to us — He made and loves us.
12 For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. 2 Corinthians 10:12 WEB
Understanding God’s value system makes comparison unnecessary because His love for you makes your worth infinite. The following verse, which uses “provoke” in the sense of “challenge”, indicates that we should not even challenge each other — we don’t have to. I’m not suggesting not playing sports. Instead, I am saying that we find our value in God’s love for us rather than trying to find value by overcoming another in a real or imagined contest.
26 Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another. Galatians 5:26 WEB
Philippians 2:3-4 contains a similar prohibition against rivalry:
3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; 4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.
Philippians 2:3-4 WEB
Having infinite value, and knowing that others share that same value, makes it possible to count others better than yourselves. You are God’s completely loved masterpiece, so you do not need to create a system of comparisons and competitions to find out or prove how much you are worth. God gave you value when He created you, and proved that love by paying the ultimate price for each individual through Jesus’ death on the cross.
A future post (“The hallmark of a Christian…”) will cover how Christians, knowing their infinite value, should direct their energies.
Keywords: God loves you, relationship, value, competition, simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ
A loving God gives value to each person
God loves you. He loves each one of us. Love is in His nature – He is love. He wants the best for us, and wants to have a deep and personal relationship with each one of us.
When God created mankind, He gave intrinsic value to each one of us. He wanted to have a good relationship with each one of us, but our sin prevented that. To overcome the offense of our sin and the gap between His requirements and our behavior, Jesus Christ died on a cross for our sins and rose from the dead three days later. Those actions provide those who believe in and followed Jesus Christ as Lord an everlasting and familial relationship with God. They also show that God was willing to pay an infinite amount for each of us. We each have infinite worth.
Christians are members of God‘s family. We do not have a second-class relationship with God, but instead are loved by God the Father the same way that He loves Jesus (John 17). We are fully loved by the One who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and our Creator. God shows His love to each of us in a very personal way. he not only saves us, but also speaks to us, provides for us, guides us, has specific plans for each life, and gives us meaning through relationship with Him and letting us work with Him towards His purposes.
The intrinsic value given to mankind at creation is fully realized in a Christian’s relationship with God. You have it, and do not have to earn it.
Keywords: God loves you, relationship, value, competition, simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ
Restoring a sense of wonder
Humans tend to get used to things around them. That can lead to taking good things for granted, including a relationship with God, marriage, friendships and other marvelous blessings. It is possible to restore a sense of wonder, as described in this excerpt from Discipling Muslim Background Believers (you do not have to be an MBB for this to apply to you):
2.29.2.1 When Amazing Becomes Too Familiar, You Should …
When amazing becomes too familiar, tempting you to unbelief, remember and refocus. I’ll elaborate in a bit, but first a story. Sometimes I walk in a park that is home to a family of amazing red-tailed hawks. I always stop and stare at them, completely amazed at how they fly and the way they relate to each other. My two children and I will often take binoculars to the park to see the hawks a little better.
One day a person walking in the park asked us what we were looking at. When we told him, he disappointedly said, “Oh, I see those every day.” He turned and resumed his walk, oblivious to the majestic, breathtaking feats of flying that he had just ignored. It was all a little too familiar for him. There was no more amazement. He had become so used to amazing that it held little or no value for him.
He had lost his focus on the birds’ ways and characteristics, and he could no longer really see them for what they were. All he would have had to do to see again was to choose to remember what he used to see and value, use that as motivation to look again, refocus on the birds, and he would have been captured again by their majesty, elegance, power and beauty.
How many times do we take things for granted, including God, the Bible, Christianity, our lives, spouses, family friends, jobs and other things? The tragedy is that the solution is so simple. We just have to choose to remember and re-focus. It may in some situations require some repentance (see 1.1.5.6 What Is Repentance?), but then all we have to do is to remember and refocus.
In a way, that is what the Israelites of old did in setting up stones of remembrance. They purposely choose to remember (see 2.16.6 Making, Marking and Celebrating Memories). It would not hurt us to do the same – to purposely remember. Being thankful also helps us not take things for granted. [Parentheticals contain hyperlinks in electronic versions]
Keywords: discipleship, restoring wonder
MBBs face an underappreciated life shift
MBBs need new structures in their lives because of an underappreciated life shift that occurs when they leave Islam. In the Quran and the Hadith, Islam contains over 3,600 commands and traditions that Muslims are to follow. Many commands and traditions govern specific day-to-day activities of Muslims, including how far up their arms they must wash prior to prayer. There is a tremendous shift in their lives when they become Christians.
While the Bible has some specific dos and don’ts, the Law and prophets are summarized in the command to Christians to love God fully and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The New Testament deals much more with principles than with specific actions. MBBs lose specific guidance, and need new structures in their lives, because much of what they used to do automatically is now gone and there is nothing to take its place. The lack of specificity can lead, in some MBBs, to a profound sense of disorientation. Most disciplers do not actively help MBBs develop new structures, partly because many are not aware of just how much the new structures are needed. Some of those that are aware may not know which structures are most useful.
In my MBB discipleship handbook, Discipling Muslim Background Believers (available for sale on the home page), there are descriptions of new structures that are helpful, two of which are spiritual disciplines and the Christian holiday calendar. These two structures give an MBB things to do every day and some meaningful celebrations to plan for, filling to some degree the lack of structure that they might otherwise feel. That sense of structure makes it much easier to deal with the upheaval and suffering that many MBBs face upon their decision to follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Keywords: MBB discipleship, structure, spiritual disciplines, Christian holiday calendar