New Covenant Fellowship - Glendora, Calif.

Hanan (right) with Dr. John Biswas
Commentary
Jesus' Muslim Friends

Believe it or not but there are 7 million Muslims living in the United States! And according to a wide range of reports the Living Christ is beginning to reveal himself to the Muslim community, especially those around the globe.

Some years ago a group of Christian strategists came up with the term ”the 10-40 Window” to describe the ancient heartlands of Islam from Morocco to Malaysia as the hardest part of the world to reach with the Christian message.

Islam has always had more tolerance of Christians and Jews than is normally thought, but when a Muslim converts to Christianity this is seen as a major offence in the Islamic world and may be met with persecution and death. That is why it was recently heartening to meet two former Muslims at Lake Avenue Congregational Church in Pasadena, CA at a seminar on representing Jesus to the Muslim world.

'Courage Is...'

"Courage is fear that has said its prayers," was the unabashed declaration of Captain Guy Gruters on ABC News on May 28. He was one of many American prisoners released from the torture and danger of the "Hanoi Hilton" during the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

President Nixon had arranged their release in 1973 after Captain Gruters had put in 1900 days of high stress uncertainty. The Nixon Library in Southern California held a reenactment of the special dinner given to the ex-POWS back in 1973 as part of this year's Memorial Day tribute.

Captain Gruters told Diane Sawyer he had to launch three months of intense prayer to learn how to forgive his brutal captors. Some prisoners wrote prayers and hymns on toilet paper, including one hymn they sang at the 1970s dinner, as this clip shows. Faith thrives in the unlikeliest places as even ABC acknowledged.

Gideon's army blowing trumpets
Sermon
The Barley Cake Army: Winning by Faith

The good news is that God is much more dedicated to developing saving faith in us then we are ourselves.

Sometimes a case history, a field study can make things real, for faith can be a tricky subject. Sometimes Jesus said “according to your faith” and other times he raised dead people who had no faith at all.

So as a case study let me present…Gideon from the biblical Book of Judges.