Fearing the Misunderstood

*This blog post is a follow-up to the post "Needing Clarity"

 

"Now the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and the teaching of demons, through hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared. If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith and the good teaching that you have followed."  1 Timothy 4:1-2, 6

 

The time had come to teach the women about the religion that they were unfamiliar with. I had studied, prayed, and was anxious to teach them. The religion is all around them, yet they know nothing about its teachings. The sun was beginning to set and they gathered on the reed mats to learn. The number 1,000,000,000 was written on the white board under the shade tree. I began by asking them what number this was. Their response was, "One thousand million". I replied, "One billion". The number astonished them as I began to teach about the religion that they knew but didn't understand. They listened with open hearts as I taught about where Islam had begun, the countries it was in and the differences between Islam and Christianity. My reasoning in teaching this to them was the fact that they misunderstood and didn't understand that they do not worship the One True God, but Allah. Walking in the darkness and misunderstanding of what Islam is. I wrote many verses of Scripture and teachings. The sounds of  "oh?!?", "Ah?!", and laughter were heard among the crowd. At the end of the teaching they had many questions that demonstrated to me their understanding and still learning.

At the end of the teaching, a lady of small stature approached me. And she said this, "I want to tell you about your teaching. Now that you have taught us about Islam, we understand the reason that we do not need to fellowship and gather with them." My heart leapt and I was so happy because the purpose of the teaching was for them to understand the difference between the two religions. The goal of the teaching was reached and the women understood. We should not fear Islam or Muslims, we need to love them with the love of Christ and pray for their salvation. We should not fear the unknown but study to understand and share Christ.