Today’s email newsletter from the Southern Baptist International Mission Board features an article by Erich Bridges describing some of the challenges — and the victories — of Christian evangelism in the Muslim world. This reference to the impact of The Passion of the Christ caught my eye (emphasis mine):
Governments in some Muslim countries are allowing the film to play because of what they assume to be its anti-Semitic message. Many Muslims may be attending the movie for the same reason. When they get there, however, they see a Jesus they’ve never seen before: a Jesus who loves and forgives despite His terrible sufferings, a Jesus who offers the mercy and salvation of God to anyone who will embrace it.
One Turkish woman who saw the movie had been considering the claims of Christ for some time. Like many Muslims, however, she didn’t want to be rejected by her family for following Jesus.
After seeing ‘The Passion,’ she “could no longer deny what she knew in her heart to be true,” said a friend. “That night, after many tears, she opened her heart and for the first time accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Many of us sowed, many of us watered, but it is the Lord of the harvest that drew her to Him.”
Paul in writing to the Christians in Rome quotes the prophet Isaiah: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” Thank God even for those feet which carry the good news unwittingly or without good intentions; God’s Word will not return void.