Book Review: "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus" by Nabeel Qureshi

Today I finished an incredible book that I simply MUST share with like-minded friends. If you can find this book at your local library, RUN, don't walk, to check it out and read it!

This book follows a young man through an almost idyllic childhood founded upon the faith of generations before him, the peaceful Islam found in his particular sect. His parents, both born in Pakistan, have emigrated to the US before his birth, and he is raised as a flag-waving son of a U.S. Navy officer.

As a young college student, the events of 9/11 shock him as much as they shock his classmates. He is appalled to discover that the Islam that created those attacks shares so many founding beliefs with the Islam he has been raised to accept as truth.

God brings a good friend into the life of the author during his time as a med student at Old Dominion University. Over the following years, the author recounts many of their conversations, and gives incredible detail of specific surah (portions of the Qu'ran) that he used to discuss theology with this friend. The notes on these portions are excellent and detailed. Finally, as the title suggests, the author finds incontrovertible proof of Christ's claims and accepts Him as his savior.

I would have liked to see more detail of how the author was accepted as a Christian both in the Muslim community and in that of the protestant community in his hometown. Additionally, I would have liked to see the story come full-circle with the author telling his college friend of his conversion. But these are simply my own preferences to give some living qualities to what is a very deep theological discussion. Several times, I put the book down and walked around the house for a few minutes to let the issues meld in my mind. It is not a book that can be read in a quick sitting!

One more disappointing part of this book relates to textual criticism. In a discussion between the author and his Christian college friend, the author asks about two sections of Scripture, "the end of Mark" and John 7:53-8:11, referring to them as later additions to Scripture, as a result of his google research on the subject. (At this point the author is still a Muslim trying to convert his friend by undermining the Bible and holding up the Qu'ran as the perfect example.) The Christian friend says simply, "Oh, most Christian scholars agree that those are not authentic. But the fact that we know that further proves that the Scripture is accurate, because at least we know and admit where additions have been made." No further discussion is offered, and as a life-long believer and apologist for the whole Word of God, I was concerned about this statement being included. In fact, this ONE statement is the thing that would keep me from being able to recommend this book to my children and others who may be less firm in their faith than they should be. I would never want a book I had recommended to be used by Satan to place doubt in their hearts about the authenticity of every word of Scripture, since our faith puts the Word of God in such an important place.

This book was convicting to my heart as a Christian parent as I saw how clearly these Muslim parents communicated to their very young children the reasons behind their beliefs, and even more importantly their calling (by Allah, of course) to be proselytizing for their faith. Beginning in middle school, the author engages his friends in doctrinal discussions that inevitably leave him even more convinced that Islam is stronger than other faiths, and the Christian students around him flailing under talking points that failed to answer close scrutiny. As a Christian parent, I was reminded once again of my responsibility to teach my children not only the whys and wherefores of our belief system, but even more, the importance of being able to draw others to our Christ as a result of lovingly challenging their thinking.

If you choose to read this book, please let me know. I think it is an incredible piece of writing that will challenge your heart and reinforce your faith that our Christian belief system holds up to the intense scrutiny it was subjected to by this med student who desperately wanted Islam to win the battle in his own heart. I want to hear from you if it impacts you as it did me!

Meditations on Standing Nearby

Meditations on Standing Nearby

John 19: 26-27 depicts a portion of the scene in which Christ hangs on the cross, prepared to pay the eternal price for my sin. We haven’t heard from the disciples, those twelve specially chosen young men who have shadowed his footsteps for the last three years, since Peter’s denial during the trial. Then suddenly, we realize that one of them is present. There is John, perhaps the youngest of the twelve, and clearly the one who considers himself to be the closest friend of Jesus. He is standing with his own mother and Jesus’ mother, for all we know silently observing the death of his dreams.

We can learn from John’s example. When he found himself at the end of the Mission to which he had dedicated the previous three years of his life, where did he go? When everyone in his public world saw the humiliation of the Man who had called him away from a lucrative family business and dragged him around the countryside, living like vagrants, one day chasing down their Leader who had gone alone to pray, and another day watching Him escape those who would put Him to death… where do we find John? He was ‘standing nearby’. He was still in the presence of the Saviour Who had seemingly failed him. John was physically in the same place he had been for the previous three years… near to His beloved Lord.

Sometimes, in our lives, too, we find ourselves at a loss for words. We stand silently to the side as the plans we have built for months or years crumble around us. Inwardly, we question… “But Lord, YOU built this! What good could come of its failure now?” Whether in the loss of a marriage, the rebellion of a child, the failure of some earthly leader, or any other death of a vision, loss hurts. Something in our core is torn apart when it seems that what we’ve done for our Saviour has been a waste.

But more than that, even when we do have the faith to remain physically present in the midst of a crisis, we may hesitate to move forward in our spiritual walks. When we come upon the scene in John 19, it is not a static picture. While John may have been standing still, it would seem it was more with the spirit of one waiting for further instructions. It implies, if you will, ‘waiting’ as a waitperson in a restaurant, or the more archaic term of a ‘lady-in-waiting.’ John was standing ready to receive whatever his Leader instructed next, even though his Leader appeared to others to have been stripped of His authority. When Jesus instructs John to treat Mary as his own mother, the Bible says it was so “from that hour”. Wow! Oh, to be so attentive in the face of earth-shattering trials in my own life!

Whether the question you face is , “Where was God on 9/11?” or “Did your God allow the Newtown school shooting?” or even “My pastor failed our church, so how can God be true?” the answer is the same.  When I am in a personal crisis of faith, or have opportunity to speak into someone else during a crisis, I am challenged from John’s life to continue on with what I do know to be true. Yes. My God is still good. My God is still all-powerful, and He still loves me. I may not be able to tell you how, when it seems all I’ve believed in and worked toward is dying with Him on the cross, but I know what I’m supposed to do next.

Tomorrow, I’ll wake up and spend some quiet time with my Saviour, no matter how I feel.

I’ll care for my family and teach them to know and love God, too.

I’ll honor, obey, and submit to what I know until I receive further instruction. Because what I know of God hasn’t changed.  A crisis in my world need not become a crisis in my faith.

1.         Stand. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord…” (II Chronicles 20:17)
2.         Stand Nearby. “The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart.” (Psalm 34:18)
3.         Obey. “Doing the will of God from the heart…” (Ephesians 6:6b)

What do you see from this passage? Do you think John’s faith was misplaced? Leave a comment below about how you deal with personal crises. How do you “keep the faith” when the world around you is crumbling? I’d love to hear from you!

By the way, if this post would be a blessing to someone you know, please pass it along. God is glorified when we share what He has done in our lives with others!

*Loosely based on a devotion found in The Beloved Disciple by Beth Moore

Literary Review:

Postcards from Fred by Brad Whittington

Welcome to 2014! One of the things I feel God calling me to do more of this year has to do with this blog. God has given me a platform, at least with a few people, and I desire to use it to glorify Him in a greater way this year. Feel free to keep me accountable on that! :-) I would also appreciate you sharing any of these posts with your own friends if you find a blessing here.

This morning, I had the privilege of finishing my first book of the new year! Although I had chosen it as a light-hearted Christian fiction read, I soon found it to be anything but frivolous. With all the wit and reality-based humor of numerous situations that clearly mirrored my own daily life as a mom of boys, the author quickly gives his premise. He writes from the perspective of a teen-aged boy who, in retrospect, wonders whether he was foolish to commit, during a revival the previous summer, to ask "What would Jesus do?" in every situation. Having grown up as a preacher's kid, he had irreverently considered himself immune to the common malady of flash-in-the-pan revival decisions. But somehow, God had brought him to this decision, and now he was determined to pay the price, regardless of the misery it brought him personally. Nice, huh?!

As the narrator begins to pursue dating, he is stymied by The Question. It seems that every Christian he asks inserts his or her own philosophy into the answer. Each of them tells him that Jesus would do something relating to one of their own pet peeves. And none of them offers a suitable answer to his newest application, "What would Jesus do... on a date?" So, instead of marching onto the dating scene with confidence, he struggles with stops and starts in his pursuit of a fellow PK from a neighboring town. She has no such compunctions about seeking Jesus in every interaction, and has been raised in a much more separated (i.e. strict) pastor's home.

The story is peppered, both with hilarious interactions with a local deacon, who is too "spiritual" for the Biblical messages preached by the narrator's father, and also with the typical school bully issues. Between his difficulties in flying under the deacon's radar, escaping the romantic pursuits of the bully's sister, and delivering the paper to various idiosyncratic neighbors, the narrator had me in stitches and reading aloud several sections to anyone close enough to enjoy them with me.

Without giving away the entire story, I can tell you that the author's treatment of this question is unique and meaningful. It challenged my thinking as a follower of Christ in a way that it has not been challenged for too long. The book's final chapters left me convicted about things I can change in my daily life to be more like Christ, and challenged me, too, to re-visit the question, "What would Jesus do?" 

I would encourage you to find this book at your local library, or support the author by purchasing it here. Personally, I'm looking forward to finding more from the Fred series, and perhaps some of Mr. Whittington's other novels, and enjoying them soon!

What books have blessed your spiritual life recently? Share in the comments so we can all benefit!