Well I have just completed a very interesting 2 hour flight on the first part of my holiday. On the plane, I read a very interesting book
.. "Jesus more than a Prophet" written by 15 muslims who have become chrisitanis.
Okay, this is not a new theme, but one of the testimonies struck me as being very valid in this present discussion.. please let me quote it to you..
"The very tradition and culture that gave meaning and depth to my life stirred profound questions in my mind, questions about God and man, about life and and ultimate reality. These sent me back to the Qur'an and there one thing appealed to me; it's testimony to Jesus Christ, prophet and apostle, but not the crucified, for in the Quran "somebody else" was put in his place. I was interested in and the life after , and it struck me that if God was personally involved in taking someone else and exchanging him for Jesus on the cross,, then God bore responsibiliity for whoever died there. Then I thought, "supposing Jesus did die on the cross and God intended it so? I reflected on the suffering and and the heart-break and the hopes dashed to pieces that are a par t of life, and it seemed to me, that deep down at the centre and core of life, the cross was declaring something about the inner mystery of life. And so I became very interested in the life of Christ. Then I can to accept as the historical event, that Jesus died on the cross, and ultimately reached the conclusion that he died for me, for my sins.
My acceptance of the Christ came from the Qur'an. After it I was led into reading the Bible and came upon the fantastic declaration that God loves me just as I am and is not interested in whether I have good points to add up. One of the greatest stumbling blocks is that God loves us as we are.. we don't need to constantly be trying to impress him and do good acts to come to that point of acceptance.
Lamin Ousman Sanneh from the book Jesus more than a prophet