There are around 17 countries in the Middle East. The population is approximately 500 Million and Islam is the largest religion. However, thousands of people secretly believe in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. People are thirsty for the Word of God. Bibles For Mideast distributes Bibles free of cost and establishes house churches among them.
The following story may seem unbelievable to many of us in the West, but it is part of daily reality for Christians in the Suffering Middle East Church. The account is from Bibles For Mideast.
“I am Haroon (name not real), a young Arab, born and brought up in a prominent Muslim family of the Middle East. My father was one of the top religious authorities, enforcing Sharia law in
respect to religious behaviour in the state. I am a trained sharp shooter. And I was commanding a militant wing to protect the religion. A few weeks ago, I got information that a Christian group was going to have a baptism service in the Arabian sea.
I picked up militants and rushed to the seashore. We were 19 members in our wing for the operation. Our ultimate aim was to kill everybody in the sea itself. We wanted the world to wake up hearing this as breaking news. So that Christians must fear Muslims and stop evangelising them from our region.” But the baptism service was over and the baptisers (were) in a bus before we reached the seashore. We followed and shot at the bus several times. Within seconds, a giant dust storm formed in front of our vehicles… We all got down from our cars and continued shooting through the dust storm. Suddenly we saw Christ Jesus appear in the dust storm.
With a mighty voice he told us, “Why are you persecuting me.” “His voice produced a strong wind and we all fell down on the road. Our guns flew away from us. Somehow we stood up from the road, but we were unable to say anything. Our voices were lost. Jesus said again, “I came to the world not to destroy anyone; but to save you. Go in peace”. He disappeared. The dust storm also disappeared with him. We experienced both terrible fear and an abundant peace at a time. We never had such experience in our life before.”
Source: Bible4mideast.com; Christian Today
Bible Study: Psalm 34:4-8
MARCH: Praise God that He is in the business of defending His people and saving the lost. Pray for the Islamic world, especially those who use terror.