We have a praise report to pass on and a testimony that both happened at Providence Hospital in Waco, TX yesterday. T hree of my children, Cassia, Destiny, and Charity were present praying for a precious woman that goes to our Church.  Her name is Joan Bell.  Her husband, Bob Bell, and she are our adopted grandparents for our thirteen children.

Joan was diagnosed with a dangerous heart condition.  She was obviously fearful.  Sunday, we prayed for her and felt the power of God invade her body.  She wept as the Lord touched her.  They did some exploratory surgery and found nothing that they suspected was there.  There was some damage, but it could be treated with medicine, instead of heart surgery.  Our hearts leapt at this answer to prayer.

When I arrived at the hospital, I met up with our good friend, Denise Bagby.  She was sitting in the out patient waiting room and passed on to me the good news concerning Joan.  I excitedly tracked down my children in the cafeteria to pass on to them the good report.  As I approached their table, however, I noticed a good-ole-boy, Texan, complete with a cowboy hat, engrossed in an intense conversation with my Son-In-Love, Robby Wachsmann and the rest of our children.

Robby was wearing an OSA T-shirt, which states on the front, “INTOLERANT, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6).”  On the back it proclaims, “Homosexuality is sin! Islam is a lie! Abortion is Murder! Some issues are just black and white.”

This man walked up to Robbie, shook his hand, and proclaimed, “How does it feel to shake the hand of a Muslim?”  Robbie declared that it wasn’t different that any other handshake.  From there, a holy war erupted in the cafeteria.  One of my girls, Charity, 15, told me that she was a bit frightened and was going to remain quiet, but as he kept calling them names and contradicting himself, my girl said that God’s word became like fire in her bones.  Using logic and her knowledge of the Scripture, she caught him in many contradictions.  He would laugh and then of course argue ad-hominem by calling them more names.

Little did this, good-ole-boy, Texas, Muslim know that these young people were ready to contend for the faith that was once and for all delivered to the saints.  By the time I got there, the theological debate was in full swing.  Destiny, my 17 year old, looked at me and invited me to enter the fray.  Before she did, however, she preached to him that no matter what he believed or how sincere he believed it, his knee would one day bow and his tongue confess that Jesus Christ was Lord.  She warned him not to wait till he died to experience this indisputable reality.

Quite honestly, it was a surreal setting.  It was hard to look at this man and connect him with being a Muslim.  It showed me just how much this dark, demonic religion is reaching into the very fabric of America.  In fact, I thought he was going to punch me, when I called Islam “a dark, demonic religion that has deceived him.”  Of course, he still maintained that Islam was a “peaceful” religion and that Jihad was a spiritual war against Satan, rather than a physical war against non-Muslims.  I told him that he was spiritualizing the plain text of the Koran and that those who are violent in his “peaceful” religion are more faithful to their god, Allah, than he was.

I then proceeded to ask what was troubling him and he pointed to the T-shirt bemoaning the fact that it stated “Islam was a lie?”  I then asked him if was more upset about the statement or the fact that this statement was true?  From there, I challenged him about his faith.  He told me basically that he picks and chooses, just like Mohammed before him, certain portions of the Bible to justify his belief in Islam.  I asked him who gave him the authority to treat God’s word in such a manner and how did he know what portions of Scripture were true and which were false?  He didn’t like it very much when I told him, as a creature, you have no right to stand as judge over God and His word.  You have no spiritual or moral authority to pick and choose Scriptures to create a god fashioned in your own image.  All you admitted to me is that you are a covenant-rebel that seeks to become a law and god unto yourself.

I then proceeded to challenge him that sincerity of belief did not determine the veracity of belief.  As my good friend, Flip Benham, national director of Operation Save America, has stated “The truth of what one believes is far more important than how much he believes it.”  This is an important statement and one I communicated to our Muslim friend.  Your belief, no matter how sincere, does not determine truth. The Truth must determine man’s belief.  Those who boarded the Titanic sincerely believed it wouldn’t sink.  History records they were sincerely wrong.

From there, I challenged his Islamic view that Jesus Christ was just a prophet.  I told him Islam says, “Jesus is a prophet!”  Jesus said,however that “He is God in the flesh!”  I asked him why won’t you believe The PROPHET?  You can’t have it both ways.  Either Jesus is a true prophet who spoke the true words of God or He is a false prophet whose words need to be rejected.

It was Charity that raised the C.S. Lewis argument to challenge him prior.  She pinpointed the problem Islam has when it comes to Jesus?  How can a good teacher, a true prophet, and moral philosopher retain these titles while being deluded that He is Creator/Savior God in the flesh?  Who in their right minds would still confer these accolades upon a human being that claimed He was deity?  We send people to mental hospitals today if they would spout that kind of craziness.  So, if Jesus is not Creator/Savior God in the flesh, then who is He?  Our options are limited.  He is either a liar or the most insane person who ever lived.

C.S. Lewis, the Christian apologist, addressed this thorny dilemma by stating, “I am trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: ‘I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.’ This is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Lastly, I asked him if he sincerely believed that when he died he was going to a sensual paradise where 72 virgins awaited him and he can experience sexual pleasure for eternity? What about Muslim women and their abuse?  What was there eternity suppose to be like?  He continued to laugh and called us even more names.

He did, however, take my card and promised to go on our website.  He wanted Scripture references that revealed the deity of Jesus Christ.  I promised to send them if he contacted me.  As a passing threat, however, this peaceful Muslim threatened to report me to Aljazere, Islamic media.

Please pray for this man who stated that he once was a Christian, but renounced it for Islam.  I pleaded with him to come back home to his Savior and Lord.  Perhaps, he will follow through and contact us.  May God’s word convict him, reveal the truth, and set him free in Jesus name!