Unshakable (II)

 

As we continued through the day, the second speaker to come to the stage was Nabeel Qureshi. The youngest among those who would be speaking today, Nabeel initially felt to me as someone not really on my radar to keep track of. But the Lord is one who does not look at the appearances of man and the youthfulness of His servants, but at the heart and the Spirit that He provides to empower. Indeed this came out in full force as I was astounded by the quality and strength of Nabeel’s message and delivery.

Nabeel began with establishing the his story and testimony. A man from a strong Islamic background, from an early age he was a very devout Muslim. I later discovered that his form of belief even during his Muslim years was also in the form of apologetics, wherein he defended the faith of Islam with reason and a logical foundation.  He also told us that as a Qureshi, he was a member of the same noble tribe that Mohammed had come from. This familial connection was considered to be prestigious and added to his societal influence. Eventually as he entered medical school, he came to encounter Christ and Christianity in a closer way. He decided to apply his reason to disprove Christianity and began studying it with that purpose.

One main point he came to confront was the claim of Christ as the Divine. It is reasonable for us to think that a person today who would say he is God is someone who should be introduced to the comfortable rooms of a certain kind of medical institution. However, during Christ’s day He had given certain proof of His power – such things as miraculous healing, exorcism of evil spirits, and of course the sign of Jonah, the Resurrection. He figured if he could disprove this, then the faith that was Christianity would collapse and hold no water. But over the years he came to discover the reality of Christ through his study and research of history and the bible, and that Christ was indeed God.

The concept of the Christian God – of Christ – is very much at odds with what we would think would be more reasonable. Nabeel tells us that to many, it is a mind-blowing idea that such a transcendent, supernatural being would come into this world as an infant, rather than as a fully grown man, with the majesty of His full glory from heaven. And not only as an infant, but one born to two young teenaged Jews of humble stature. He could have been born within the halls of respect and honor, rather than to people who had the aura of illegitimacy and scandal surrounding them due to Mary’s pregnancy before marriage.

Christ’s crucifixion is the cornerstone of the Christian faith and this act is again something that is at odds with many beliefs. That a living God would allow Himself to be humiliated and injured at the hands of those He wanted to save, tortured and killed, is yet another defining characteristic. That Christ was God, yet reduced Himself to pass through all this is an awesome thing to those whose view of Heaven and God is so much different from those who grew up to a more culturally Christian background.

Ephesians 4:22-24 tells us what we should be, laying off the old self and putting on the new. That we are to be grounded in the life of Christ and that we have been created by God. Nabeel shows the concept here of ‘having been created’ to a very purposeful, personal thing which is at odds with the world-view of many others. He then proceeded to link it to how he had tried to disprove Christianity not only though contrasting it with Islam but also against scientific belief.

He raises the point that countless universities and educational institutions today teach the belief in the Big Bang Theory and the Theory of Evolution. These are teachings which form our beliefs and are treated as accepted facts, which do have an effect on us. He notes that the assumptions needed for such things to come to pass are a statistical improbability, which have been stated by many minds outside Christianity. But even assuming such things to be true – the big reveal is that this kind of belief gives us a message we may not be conscious of.

If we are the product of chance, what does that tell us about yourself? That we are a product of accidents? That we have no purpose to existence? That nothing matters in life, it is completely made up of what we make for ourselves? That even as everything ages and dies, and even mankind itself will eventually die as millions of years pass, all things end up for nothing? This is an amazing world-view if you follow it to its end thought.

But if we return to another way of thinking – accepting the existence of God and His hand in our creation, we see that we are made for a reason and a purpose. We have been designed by a cosmic, powerful Creator. Our existence matters and is completely known to He who made us. We are given life and the will with which we can exercise our choices – all purposed and given to us. It calls to our mind the huge difference in thought between a theist belief and an atheist one. Success and our concept of success in life can stem from this.

Tom Brady is a well-known American football player. He has a $40 million contract with his team. He has won multiple awards as MVP in the leagues he plays in. He is married to a Victoria’s Secret model. He has been nominated most eligible bachelor many times before he got married. He has accomplished all this and is not even yet 40 years old. By most standards he is a great success. But on an interview he said, “there has got to be something more than this.” Even with all this, a man can still ask for more – because there is more.

Nabeel uses the example of a car. We may be like a Ferrari or some other high-value car, but no matter how expensive the vehicle is, unless we’re fueling it with the right kind of fuel we will eventually run dry or damage the vehicle. This applies to us as well in life. We try to get by with many things. Fame, riches, power, people, and many other things of value.  But these are not enough to fuel us and bring us along. Our true purpose in life is to become more Christlike, to know the Lord.

 

 

Acts 17:27 tells us this, that God’s purpose for us was that we would seek Him and live in enjoyment within His will, and that He is never far away from us. Nabeel then pulls up Psalm 37:4, which he says is an often misused verse and gives to as an interesting way to understand it. Here we often think that when we pursue God, God will give us what our heart wants. But we are also told that what it may really mean is that when we pursue the Lord, the desires of our heart will be ones given by God and placed into our hearts – Godly desires. It will be God who will give us new desires in our hearts – desires which would help us become more Christlike.

As he closed, Nabeel reminds us that no matter where we are in life, this is the kind of God that is present and around for us. That He is a god not of distance and harshness, but of love and redemption. He is a god who takes even the ‘worst’ of our lives and turns it into the best.