We Need to Deliver the Gospel! - Episode #8 Summary of the episode: During this discussion, Brandon and Timothy review chapters 19 – 21 of his book, “Loving Your Muslim Neighbor.” This discussion answers the question, “Does it kill to love Muslim people?” We also answer the question, “Who brought Muslims to America?” America, as we know it, was discovered land. The country was built as a land of the free and home of the brave. Her constitution allows all men to practice their faith freely without prejudice. Tune into this discussion with Brandon and Timothy! Meet the Guest: Timothy and Miriam speak in churches everywhere to educate, equip, and energize Christians to gain God’s heart for Muslim people and to love them. Please listen to Episode #1 of this season to learn more about Timothy and Miriam Harris. Calls to action: Please check out their website, www.lovingyourmuslimneighbor.com. You can also purchase a copy of the book from the website and follow along during this season! To connect with Timothy and Miriam Harris, email them at [email protected]. Note: This podcast is part of the Christian Podcast Community. You can click here to access more episodes and similar podcasts. Works Cited: Cover Art: Brandon Queen | Bible Translations – English Standard Version (unless stated/noted in the interview) | Quotes: authentic from the host and guest (unless stated/pointed out during the podcast) | Song: Turkish Beat - Music by: Muzaproduction from Pixabay --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elderqueen/support --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/elderqueen/support
The Ear, Evangelical and Reformed, Christian Podcast. Welcome to The Ear, the Evangelical and Reformed, a Christian podcast that urges you to think deeper and draws you closer to God through faith. Through powerful sermons, teaching segments, and discussions, The Ear hopes to give you a different perspective on secular topics from a Christian worldview. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Please welcome your host, Brandon Queen.
Well, good morning podcast world and welcome back to yet another fantastic, super awesome, blessed podcast episode from this season, Loving Your Muslim Neighbor. Now, we've been talking about this over the past couple of weeks on, you know, why we should love our Muslim neighbor. We've also hinted on why we need to go forth and preach God's word.
Now, we are privileged to have the author of this book with us, Loving Your Muslim Neighbor, Mr. Timothy Harris. Now, with that being said, we're just going to go ahead and dive right on in. Now, if I'm not mistaken, you went to the Middle East recently, did you?
Hey, Brandon, good to be with you again, dear brother. Yes, I just returned about two weeks ago from a wonderful trip to a country that Miriam and I dearly love, the country of Jordan in the Middle East.
Nice. I don't want to get too detailed because I know, you know, mission work is very... uh, secretive, but not secretive. If you know what I mean, it's kind of like, it's kind of like a CIA mission, but, uh, uh, Christians in action, by the way, is what CIA means.
There you go.
Um, so what was your, your overall goal in Jordan?
Yeah. So just a little background. Um, my wife and I have been going to the middle East since around 2005 and And in 2000, and I think it was 2012, we met this amazing group of men in the country of Jordan. They have their own NGO. These guys are Arab Christian men really devoted to Jesus. And their ministry really is to help refugees that come to Jordan, refugees primarily from Syria
but also from Iraq and Yemen. And so, Brandon, what they do is they just really help these refugees in super practical ways. You know, like, let's say it's the wintertime. These people have no money, so they need blankets. They need little stoves, little kerosene heaters, stoves, and kerosene itself. They just need so many things. In the summer, it can be sweltering. They need fans.
And they need help often with rent and with food and just everything. So what I do when I go over, and Miriam, when she can go with me, we just hang out with these refugees. We go to their homes. We take them food. We sit with them. We listen to their stories. And then with the leading of these three groups, Arab Christian men, we share the gospel as opportunities arise.
Nice. That is awesome. So, well, let me kind of get a lay out of the land for a second. How did it feel or how did it look in the Middle East?
Well, Jordan is a really wonderful country and by and large, super safe. People always say, are you afraid to go there? No, Jordan is very safe, and the king and the government there have done a good job of that. And so the lay of the land is really, you've got a country that is almost half Palestinian people since 1948 when they fled. Basically, as Israel was being started, they fled.
They had to get out. And then many more people. So you've got a country that's about half Palestinians. And then you've got the Jordanians. And then you've got this incredibly huge influx of these refugees from the civil war in Syria. And then all the issues that have happened in Iraq with ISIS, with Al Qaeda and many other groups.
And then you've got the Yemenis flooding in now more because of the civil war there. So it's a safe country. It's a crowded country. It's a poor country. They don't have oil and gas. They don't even have much water. But we just love the country. It's very raw. It's very, you know, down to earth. It doesn't have the kind of pretentiousness that you find in the Gulf countries.
Countries when we have traveled there like Qatar or Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, it doesn't have that kind of wealth or outward beauty and money. So it's just a down-to-earth country with down-to-earth wonderful people.
Man, that's awesome. So you said Jordan has a king?
Yeah, yeah, King Abdullah II. Yep, they sure do.
Awesome. And it's predominantly Muslim country there, right?
Yes, very much. There are Christians for sure. And there are some churches, uh, but it is not legal there to convert from being a Muslim to, uh, being a Christian to becoming a Christian. It's that is that gets somebody in big trouble. Wow.
Hmm. That's interesting. So, uh, so part of your work is basically, um, what we would call here in America, disaster relief or, uh, not disaster relief. That's if something catastrophic happened. Uh, so ours is more like, um, you know, assistance work, if you will, we step in and help and fill in the gaps where needed.
Okay. So yeah, community, some of its community development and, and definitely assistance. Absolutely.
Awesome. And then being able to share the gospel, um, it's pretty cool. So like, let's say, let's say if I decided to move to Jordan, uh, as a Christian, it would be okay for me to be Christian, right?
Oh, absolutely. There are many, many missionaries right now in Jordan. Normally you need, you know, something to do there. You can't just go there and live. Although we do have a friend. This is funny, Brandon. He has lived there for over 25 years on a tourist visa. And so he has to leave every I can't remember if it's every six months or a year. I think it's six months.
He just has to go out of the country and come back in. It's kind of a visa issue. And so he's actually lived there that long on a tourist visa. But you can also go there. There are many Westerners, including, of course, Americans that are in Jordan studying Arabic so that they're just trying to figure out if God wants to call them to that part of the world or they do already feel a calling.
to that region. And so they, of course, need to learn Arabic to be able to be lights for Jesus there.
Yeah, that's very true. That is very, very true. I'm saying it now, but that's not something I think I can do at this point in my life. You know, but it would be fun. Now, the people there, do they speak English?
By and large, no. I mean, they mostly speak Arabic. There are some folks that uh speak some english some of the jordanians themselves but the refugees um usually they don't they don't speak much uh english at all and these are refugees coming from other countries for to seek yeah okay yeah those three countries primarily syria iraq and yemen okay
Yeah, that would make sense. I should have known that. So while you were in Jordan and, you know, doing all this work and helping people out, can you tell us how God moved while you were there?
Yeah, yeah. I'd love to tell you some stories. In fact, right here, sitting in front of my computer, just looking at pictures from this trip, because I always take a lot of pictures. I love pictures. And yeah, so... Let me back up a minute and just say that the way that this NGO, this Christian NGO works is that they do help people with their material needs.
But Brandon, what happens, and it's so cool, is that very often these refugees will say to them, and of course, again, these men are Arab Christians, so they can speak Arabic with these refugees. But these refugees are Muslims, and they'll say to them, hey, why are you helping us? You know, you're not a Muslim.
And many times they'll say, you know, the mosques or the Muslims here in Jordan aren't helping us, but you're Christians and we don't understand why you're helping us. And then these men that we love so much, these Christian Arab men that run this this NGO, this non-government office, you know, organization, they share the gospel, but they're careful. They do it.
bit by bit, piece by piece, and really as they're led by the Holy Spirit. So here's a story for you, brother. I wanted to share a few short stories, but the first one is a Syrian man that was a taxi driver when he lived in Syria. He's been in Jordan now for 10 years, waiting with his large family to try to make it to the U.S., Canada,
Australia or whatever he was a taxi driver in again in Syria and he was tortured by the way he was put in prison by the regime there yeah you hear some you hear some stories that are just it's it's unfathomable I mean I can hardly say that word but um so this guy one of the guys from our NGO said to him okay you're you were a taxi driver yeah yeah I was
And this is always interpreted for us, by the way. Someone's always translating for us in English. So he said, he said, listen, I want to use an illustration for you about about heaven related to taxi drivers. So he said, if I if I was going to try to get somewhere in my city and I saw two taxis. And so I went over to one of the taxis and I said, sir, I need to go to so-and-so address.
Do you know where it is? And can you get me there? I really need to get there. It's very important. And the taxi driver says, you know, I'm not sure. Maybe, why don't you get in? We'll figure it out. Inshallah, we'll get there. Inshallah for your listeners that don't know what that term means. Muslims very often use that term. It just means if God wills.
So they say it about everything, you know, inshallah, we'll do this, inshallah, we'll do that. So our friend says to this former taxi driver from Syria, you know, who would get in a taxi of a man who said, inshallah, I mean, I don't really know. But he said, now there's another taxi there that you see. And you go over to this taxi because the first guy said, I'm not really sure.
Inshallah, maybe God wills, we'll figure it out. You go over to this other taxi and there's a man in there and you say, listen, I need to go to this address. It's very important that I get there. Can you take me there? And that man says to you, he replies, absolutely. I know exactly where that address is. Get in. I'm confident I'm going to get you there right away. Which taxi would you get in?
And so what our friend is doing, it's kind of a parable or a metaphor, basically, of Muhammad and Jesus. Are you going to get in the taxi driven to paradise, driven by Muhammad, who said when people asked him, what will Allah do with us? He is known to have responded by saying, I don't know what Allah or Allah will do with you. I don't even know what he'll do with me. Wow.
Can you imagine following someone who says that? But then the other taxi driver, of course, represents Jesus who says, absolutely, I know the address of heaven. I can get you there. I'm going there. I'm going to prepare a place for you that where I am, you will be. And so he's sharing this with this guy on this trip. And then this guy's listening.
And then I share with him, I go outside his door and he's sitting right inside it. And I knock on the door and I said, we'll just call this guy Mustafa, not his real name. I say, Mustafa, this is what Jesus says in the Bible to you. He says, listen, I'm knocking on the door of your heart. So I knock on his literal door. I'm knocking on the door of your heart.
If you open the door, I'll come in and I'll eat with you. Now, every Middle Eastern person knows that eating with you in this context means friendship. It means commitment to one another. And so he said on this day, now listen, this is important to hear, Brandon. These Christian men have been reaching out to Mustafa for 10 years with practical help and the gospel.
But on this day, Mustafa said, my door is open. After I shared Revelation 320 with him. And so this day, and I looked over at our friend from this Christian NGO that's been witnessing to him. And on the way home, he said, Mark, Timothy Mark, he said, this was his day. He said, I just know it. I sense it. I just sensed this was the day he said yes to Jesus and opened his door.
wow and so yeah so man i mean i've i've seen mustafa for years i've been in his home many times this man who's so poor got a bunch of kids lives in desperation um but this was the day brandon i gotta see him open the door to jesus
Wow. I want to read Revelation 3.20 for the listeners. Revelation 3.20 states, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me. And then verse 21 goes on to say, and then the one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne. Wow.
Yeah. And I know, Brandon, you and I both believe that theology is important and context of a scripture. And so I know that those verses are written to a church. Nevertheless, I think that the verse about Jesus knocking on the door of a heart, the application can still be used, I believe, for unbelievers as it relates to evangelism. And
So for this man to say in Arabic and then be translated to us in English, you know, my door is open. The door is open. It was like and my friend who's been with him for 10 years, he could tell and he could sense, you know, this was this was real. And so we've just. Yeah. Hey, can I tell you a couple more stories? Yeah, absolutely.
We want to hear about it.
Okay, brother. Well, so one of the great things that this organization is doing is they're not just about community development and physical assistance or even seeing Muslims embrace Jesus as Savior. They are also very much about discipleship. So, for example, I was blessed to go. One of the leaders asked me, he said, can you do an overview of the book of numbers on Thursday?
And I was I don't know about you, but I'm thinking numbers like when was the last time I'm kind of embarrassed. When was the last time I read numbers? So I got on. I used at the hotel. The night before, I jumped on the Internet on my phone and I looked up the Bible Project, you know, and I looked up their overview of numbers and it was excellent. And and they also have it in Arabic. So, yeah.
So we were able to play that. They have this center for refugees. And so 18 men came in. They were all from Iraq.
including one former muslim man that they call nicodemus because he was saved at night wow yeah so with these 18 men brandon it was so cool that i got to do an overview of um the book of numbers with them and ask them questions you know instead of just lecturing really ask them questions
And there's so many great stories in there and instructive stories about, you know, the people complaining, the immorality that's talked about. Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians 10. These things were written as instructions for us and how God punished the people. And the people were bitten with snakes, for example. And Moses was instructed to to, you know, create a serpent to put on a pole.
And if people would look at that serpent, they'd be healed. And Jesus, of course, referred to that as he then shared John 3, 16, as we know it with Nicodemus. And so it was just so cool to do this overview of numbers. And then the following Tuesday, we took these 18 Iraqi men to Mount Nebo, which is not far from Amman, Jordan, the capital.
to Mount Nebo, which looks over, of course, Israel and Palestine. And we went up there and did more discipleship with them up there and related to stories from Moses and how Moses wasn't allowed to go into the promised land. And we went into reasons for that. And the most endearing memory I have
Brandon of being up at Mount Nebo with these 18 Iraqi men was that that one of those 18, as I mentioned earlier, was from a Muslim background. He went up to there's a there's a large sculpture on top of Mount Nebo. And it's it looks like it's the shape of a cross. It's so cool. And there's like a sculpture like of a serpent wrapped around it.
And on the bottom of it, it has those verses from John three about, you know, if they would look up at that serpent that that God had provided through Moses, they would be healed.
and then god so loved the world and gave his son and so we were everybody all these tourists were there and they were all doing these photo ops up by this sculpture of this kind of cross with the serpent this man this man we call nicodemus that was a former muslim he went up there to get his picture and and brandon it was so moving and endearing he knelt down
beside it, he got on his knees and embraced it with his arms and looked up to the top at the serpent. And it was just like, man, this guy gets it. This guy was symbolically looking at Jesus as his salvation, as his healing from, you know, the snake bite, the serpent bites of sin and Satan and of hell.
And so what a memory we had of discipling these 18 men in Numbers, the book of Numbers, and then going up to Mount Nebo and then seeing this former Muslim man just embracing the sacrifice of Jesus for him.
That's awesome. That's amazing. And let me ask, so you probably have to think about it for a minute, but what Bible scripture, for example, did you see come to light? while you were in Jordan doing God's work?
Oh, wow. Well, I certainly did see Revelation 3.20, as I mentioned earlier, with the man Mustafa. I mean, that if we hear, you know, Jesus knocking on the door, and I said to him, brother, you know, I said, Mustafa, he's been knocking on your door a long time. Let this be the day. for you. Don't keep putting it off. And I felt led to challenge him. So I saw that verse really in reality.
I think I saw there was a woman that we saw on an earlier trip. Miriam just really had developed a connection with this woman very quickly. She's a woman that lives
in a village in jordan she's the only she was a muslim all her life she became a believer and she's the only believer in her village wow and yeah and her brother is the muslim leader of the mosque of their village and so it's hard for her she wears this little cross underneath her her scarf for her job she's a bit of a secret believer but she started to share with people well we um
We gave money to the organization we worked with to bring her into Amman, the capital from her village, which is quite a ways away. So we could just sit down and see how she was doing. And she was depressed. She was lonely. And as we listened to her, I just felt like that it was just so clear. I mean, this woman is spiritually starving.
She's a believer, but she's kind of a baby and she doesn't she's not getting she's not getting milk, let alone meat spiritually. Yeah. And and so, you know, those scriptures about how important it is for someone, you know, in Colossians, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly or fully abundantly. Well, she's not getting that. She's not getting someone. to teach her the word.
And in the book of Hebrews, you know, let's don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together. She's not getting that. And so I was able to work with our friends again, and they said, listen, we've got to start getting her into our city, you know, like once a week at least, or once every two weeks, every two weeks at least, for discipleship.
and uh we can't go to her because she it's too hard in the village people will see it but we can bring her here and and so those things can happen in her life and so we sat with her served her communion it was only the second time she's ever had it she's getting ready to be baptized and and then this was a fun thing uh brandon She carries this phone that's literally falling apart.
She has to use twine to kind of tie it to hold it together.
Wow.
Cell phone? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was just like this piece of old, I don't know what, you know. And so I said to our friends at the Christian NGO, I said, Miriam and I, Miriam wasn't with me on this trip, but I said, I can speak for her.
can we go to a cell phone store right now and buy this woman a nice phone and so we didn't have to walk too far and we got her a nice uh samsung galaxy and now she can she can text she can watch christian um you know videos um on youtube she can hear sermons uh she can receive pictures and so oh she she was so joyful.
She made a little video in Arabic with our friend translating in English for my wife that I sent back to thank Miriam for this amazing gift. And yeah, I mean, so the scriptures there are just that she's not getting, you know, Peter says like, like babes long for the sincere milk of the word. Well, she's doesn't have someone to teach her.
And so we're getting that set up and then don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. So we're getting that, those things set up for her now better than ever.
That's awesome. That's awesome, man. I tell you what, um, I want to go to Israel. I do know that. I want to make a trip to Israel, visit the Holy Land, possibly visit some of these other countries that surround it just to see how vibrant God's word is, just to see how he's moving on that side of the world, if you will. Because, like, I'm over here in America. I don't know.
You know, I hear stories of people converting, people coming to Christ. You know, we just witnessed Andrew Brunson, one of our brothers in the faith, basically be in prison for no reason over in Turkey.
Yes.
You know, there we saw God's hand at work. You know, there's a saying, you said it earlier in Arabic, but it says, God willing. You know, I've come to dislike that phrase. And here's why. Because when a person says, you know, I'll bring you so-and-so if God's willing. Well... because we're human and we have doubt, we, we say that, I mean, let's be honest, that phrase comes out of doubt. Okay.
Because God is always willing. The question is, are we willing to submit to his will?
Yeah. Yeah. I agree with you, brother. I mean, I think, I think the phrase is, is good to be used. If you use it like in the book of James, um,
and and that's where he's speaking to people who are kind of arrogantly insulating or isolating themselves from god well james says you shouldn't say you're going to go to so-and-so a city and do business you should say if god wills we'll do that well he's speaking to people who just want to have their own plans
And they're not acknowledging God in their lives as being important to how they live out their daily lives. But yeah, we can also use it as an excuse, like if God wills. Yeah. And so I get what you're saying. And.
hey can i share i want to share something that's not maybe as serious as those other stories but maybe one of my favorite memories of any of my trips to the middle east i'd love to share a short story about this trip uh to jordan with you let's hear it all right here we go so these refugees as i keep mentioning they're from syria they're from iraq and they're from yemen um
The Syrians are allowed to legally work in Jordan, but it's hard for them to find jobs. And sometimes they're not paid well, or sometimes people withhold their pay because they're kind of at the mercy of people there as refugees. The Iraqis and Yemenis cannot work there legally. So they get paid under the table, they find jobs, but they can be shipped back to their
their countries if they're caught working. So one of the things that just came to my mind when I was out with a Syrian family, it's really funny. This guy, when I first met him, Brandon, he had two wives and seven kids. He was a Muslim, but he was so interested in the Lord. And he has since become a very committed believer in his second wife left him when he became a believer.
So God kind of took care of that difficulty.
Right.
But yeah, but he keeps growing in Christ, but he just struggles. I mean, Brandon, you know, while we're sitting in his apartment, just fellowshipping, we took him some food. We're listening to his story in walks. The guy comes and knocks on the door. That's the guy that handles the electricity. Well, our friend,
Our dear Christian friend from a Muslim background was like three months behind in his electricity and two months behind in his rent. And so just he just felt so much pressure and he works, but he had developed sciatica. And so he had terrible back and leg issues and he was he couldn't work for weeks. And so he got behind and weeks or I think maybe a month or two at least.
And so as we're talking to him, I could just see this weight on him. And so we conferred our little team and we said, hey, we're going to we're going to pay for this. You know, we're going to take care of this. And it was like his spirit just lifted. And then the idea came to me and I said to him, have your children ever been to McDonald's? And because there's there are McDonald's in in Jordan.
And he said, no, I mean, you know, it was kind of a I know it was kind of a stupid question because it's like, you know, how am I going to take my kids to McDonald's when I can't pay my electricity and rent? And I said, I would like to take you and your family to McDonald's tonight. If you're if you can if you can get there, he said.
he said oh he was so appreciative but he said i don't even have money for a taxi so we gave him money for a taxi and uh and and brandon it was so amazing to sit and watch this man and his family at mcdonald's his children never been there and it was pretty obvious when they ate these large sandwiches that they were hungry They don't have that much food.
And so we did that with this dear friend from Syria. And then there's another man, another family. They're from Yemen. And this man works in the hotel where I often stay. And he invited me over to his home. And I went, had a great time with them. And then I said to him...
have your has your family ever been to mcdonald's well of course it was the same thing i mean no i have he said once but my wife's never been my four kids never have i said can i take you tomorrow night and and and we did man i took them and you know to see the looks on their faces as they ate food in there and then i remember seeing him at the hotel the next day after we went and he just said my family is so happy today
you know, about going to McDonald's. And so, you know, I want to tell your listeners that obviously we need to be careful with how we do quote unquote charity. I mean, there's books on when helping hurts and toxic charity and all that. But sometimes just doing a simple thing for someone like that, it just means the world to them and they'll never forget it.
And in the case of the Muslim guy from Yemen, it's just another way to open the door to his heart, to the gospel. Because Muslim people aren't doing these kinds of things for him, but we are, you know, we are.
And so those are maybe not super deep stories, but to take two families, refugee families separately to McDonald's was one of the funnest and most fulfilling things I've done on a mission trip.
Wow. So that's powerful. So going, going to another country and having to learn their culture and, you know, uh, I don't want to say adhere to it, but definitely learn their culture is it's something that that shocks a lot of people. You know, for example, let's say I've actually this is a true story.
When I was heavily involved with Boy Scouts, a couple been about 10 years now, I used to I was put on a special team that traveled the northern hemisphere to. advocate to bring the world jamboree to the United States.
So the team consisted of, I can't remember how many Americans, I'm going to say like seven Americans, four Mexican people, literally from Mexico, and I think like four or five Canadians. Okay. So this team assembled and, you know, we built a very strong bond over our four to five years of working together. But America in and of itself is diverse, right?
So on that team, we had an Asian American, I think she was more Vietnamese, that lived in California. So we went to California. That was one of our places we went to have one of our meetings. And we got to meet her parents. And we got to meet the folks from her venturing crew. Well, they have a special dish that they have called balut. Balut. It's basically eating a chicken embryo.
I'll just leave it at that.
Oh, wow.
And they were like, oh, Brady, you want to try it? I'm like, I mean, I like chicken, but I don't know. But I ate it and it was actually pretty good. I'm not going to lie. It was pretty good. But I was willing to.
accept their culture and and partake in their culture at the same time still showing my christian belief my belief in god per se you know so uh that that shocks people that you know that that's a for me that is a form of love for me amen brother yeah you're that's that's beautiful and it is so important to try to learn some cultural things
before you go on any mission trip, or even, as you said, just spending time with people from another culture here, I'd love to recommend a book to your listeners that we really believe in as it relates to short-term trips. I may or may not have mentioned this earlier, but we have a little book that we use called Before You Go. It's a 40-day devotional guide for short-term mission trips.
And it's written by a guy named Jack Hempling, H-E-M-F-L-I-N-G. It's an amazing little book. And he goes into a lot of the cultural do's and don'ts before you go on a mission trip. But yeah, man, you are so right. If you just do anything to learn something,
a few words in the language of the people you're going to be with whether it's people here or overseas if you do learn some things about um i remember you talking about related to scouts about you know taking off your shoes yes before you went in yeah uh and you said you know i could have been a snarky american said hey i'm an american man i'm not taking off my shoes for these muslim guys to go into their place well
you know i mean jesus philippians 2 said he emptied himself right he emptied himself to come and be part of our culture and live in our world and sacrificed everything to do that and so Yeah, I think for you and for me and for all of your listeners, we absolutely do need to learn cultural do's and don'ts as it relates to any people group in order to reach them for the gospel.
Amen. And that's the goal of this entire podcast as a whole. is to reach people with the gospel. You know, I do it in seasons and I do different topics and stories or, you know, groups or whatever, but it's all to share the gospel because the gospel, the word of God has to go forth. It has to, you know, and God is using us to do that. And that's a beautiful thing.
And we need to embrace that and we need to do it with vigor and we need to do it with the Holy Spirit at our backs.
Amen. When you said the word has to, I love, we all know John 3.16, but not many people have thought much of John 10.16, where Jesus said, I have other sheep which are not of this fold. In other words, they're not, it's not just the Jewish people. I have other sheep outside the
uh the jewish people and then jesus said i must bring them also and so yeah there's just this jesus was compelled this beautiful compulsion and and paul said it too right to the corinthians the love of christ compels us um and so yeah there's there is a it's i think uh evangelism and missions It's so beautiful when it changes from a duty to a delight. Absolutely.
Yeah.
You know, like Jesus said in John four to his disciples when they came back and they went to buy food and and he said, you know, he didn't didn't need any. And they're thinking like, who gave him food? And he said, I have food to eat that you guys don't yet really understand. You don't know anything about my food is to do the will of my father. Well, what was it?
Well, in that case, clearly it was evangelism. He was evangelizing the Samaritan woman. And when she received what he gave her of this living water that he talked about, and she ran off to tell everyone, that was so fulfilling to Jesus, such a delight that he likened it to food.
Yeah, it's amazing. It is definitely amazing.
Delicious food, man.
Oh, that day to sit at the table with Christ. I can't wait. I cannot wait.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, that is all I have for this episode. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experiences on your last mission trip, Mr. Tim. I appreciate that a lot. To my listeners, you can get a copy of this book at lovingyourmuslimneighbor.com. You can also find a link to this podcast on that website as well. But again, I want to thank you guys for tuning in for this episode.
And I want to look forward to giving you more content from this book with weeks to come. God bless you all. And remember, keep the Holy Spirit at your backside to compel you to bring the gospel forward. Thank you and stay blessed.
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