Saturday, November 10, 2007

My House...My Rules!

Two days ago I had a conversation I would love to share with everyone reading. It was around 7:30 at night and one of my "friends" came to visit me. We made the first required 1/2 hour of small talk and then she started in on me. She has always tried to convince me to convert to Isalm. She always begins the same way....we are the same, we both love God,etc. I always struggle to get a word in. She is in her 40's and twice my size with a very forceful type personality. She has a very argumentative way about her in her conversation style. This is always very frustrating for me. So.....this time I with the courage that only God can give I let her have it.:) I was speaking in a tone I rarely use. I told her," Excuse me, this is MY house and you are NOT going to come here and talk at me. If you are going to continue to sit here I get to talk and you get to LISTEN." I went on to question her about the "peace" and "liberty" she talks about in her religion???? "So what I am seeing in Iran is liberty???"(In Iran, it has been reported that women are being arrested for exposing an inch of their hair. Also for wearing too bright of colors.) And What about Jihad?????? "Is that the peace you are talking about???" Or course she was trying desprately to stop me so she could speak, I just continued with my heart pounding and the feeling of anxiety probably very obvious in my voice. I could feel my face and neck were red hot. I continued by addressing her favorite topic....about how our Bible has been corrupted. She is always saying this. I told her to show me when and how it has been corrputed, I told her I needed an answer outside of the quran. Then from there we began to talk about a how I have read the quran and how she doesn't have a clue about the true Words of Jesus. I asked her why she is afraid to read the New Testament? Why is the Arabic Bible illegal here? I explained that in my country we have the freedom to search out the truth and that I did just that. I became a Christian when I was 17 so it is easy for me to explain how we are not born followers of Jesus. I explained that every person who is a ture follwer of Jesus Christ makes that choice for himself. I again let her know that I have read a good portion of the quran and I STILL believe the Words of Jesus. I challenged her to read the NT and to compare the lives and teachings of Jesus to the those of Mohammed. I paused to let her speak....I had to take a break.....She honestly didn't have much to say. I had gone to the bedroomto get her a NT.I laid it on the table and explained it was a gift from me to her. She picked it up and looked at it. She was quiet. I saw her struggle for what to say next. After a few minutes I guess she realized she had to change the subject, so what does she start in on.......President Bush....How we are all the REAL KILLERS....all the problems in entire world are caused by AMERICA. AHHHHHHHH...... with all the self control had I asked her if she wanted me to believe that all Muslims are terrorist and killers. Of course she said "NO!! That is not true." I explained that if we believe everything we hear on the news we cause ourselves to be ignorant only thinking what they want us to think. I told her how I believe we need to talk about problems we can do something about. I joked about me calling President Bush. She agreed with me that there is absolutly nothing she or I could do about the problems in Iraq, Afganistan, or Palestine. WOW....I was shocked we agreed on something. We talked peacefully for awhile longer and when she was leaving she thanked my over and over again for the NT. She kissed it and touched it to her heart. She left with the Word of God in her purse and questions in her mind.

1 comment:

TJ said...

Good for you! I often let people say what they want because I don't want to be confrontational. God gave you the words to speak that gave your friend something to think about. We'll pray that he will use what you said and that she will come back with more questions!