Nabeel Qureshi is now a speaker for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, but he sure has not always been a Christian Apologist.
He was raised in a close-knit Pakistani-American family devoted to Islam. To describe Qureshi's family as devout doesn't truly portray their religious legacy. His mother was a missionary kid who grew up in Indonesia, where his grandfather preached to tribes in the jungles. His great-grandfather was a missionary and physician in Uganda. Two things gave his parents a sense of respect and standing in the Muslim community: the family legacy and their children. All of that was taken away when he converted to Christ.
While in college and medical school, one of Qureshi's Christian friends challenged him to examine the Bible more seriously to see if its claims could be verified. It took years, but he began to respect the Bible and then later to recognize Jesus as God.
Due to his understanding of what his conversion would do to his family and their standing, he hesitated to turn his life to Christ. He said, "I had to deal with the idea of giving up everyone around me. Everything they'd sacrificed for me - I'd be throwing that back in their faces. Was the cost going to be worth it?"
But he did as he continued to study the Bible and pray. Matthew 10:32 convinced him: "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven,..."
He was cut off from him family which just drew him closer to God, his faith and the Word of God. Just like with Islam, he started memorizing the Scriptures.
As he begin attending church, he was unprepared for the lax attitude toward faith held by many Christians. "I encountered people who were not expecting God to do anything. People didn't really believe in the Holy Spirit. In no way did I see people relying upon God, and I slowly became accustomed to that. In Western cultures, people are fiercely individualistic... These individualist tendencies of comfort and self-reliance are the biggest challenge facing the American church.
If you would like to read his story, he released a book in 2014 - Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus.
(Story taken from "Bible Study" magazine, November, December, 2015)
No comments:
Post a Comment