International (MNN) — The Lord is at work in the Islamic world, and Muslims are turning to Christ. However, some believers from Muslim backgrounds see little growth after accepting Jesus as their Savior.
Pierre Houssney with Horizons International explains, “We’ve seen people from a Muslim background hanging around churches for many years but still are not understanding basic things in the faith because nobody explained it to them based on their former worldview.”
Similarities between Islam and Christianity often present a stumbling block. “For example, if you take the word ‘sin,’ they have that word in Islam, and we have that word in Christianity, but they mean totally different things,” Houssney says.
“In Islam, sin is like a rule you break. If you do a good deed, it will balance out or wipe out the impact of that sin in your life.”
(Graphic courtesy of Horizons International)
This Islamic understanding means that believers from a Muslim background often don’t fully grasp teachings about salvation.
“When you preach a message of grace [about how] Jesus can wipe away your sin, they’re seeing Him as another way, like, ‘Oh, I could either go on a pilgrimage, or I could accept Jesus, or I could, you know, give to the poor. Those are all good deeds that would wipe away my sin as an act,’” Houssney says.
Pierre’s father, Georges Houssney, drew on decades of experience to develop Cubs to Lions, a discipleship curriculum for MBBs or believers from a Muslim background. The material presents truth in a way that’s familiar to Muslims yet clearly separates Christianity’s teaching from Islam.
“They (Muslims) don’t understand that the wages of sin are death,” Pierre Houssney says.
“They need to understand what sin is according to the Bible before they can understand what salvation is and who Jesus is.”
Connect with Horizons here to learn more about Cubs to Lions.
“Soon, [listeners and readers will] be able to read the book my dad is writing about how to disciple Muslim converts effectively,” Houssney says.
“We’re [also] going to be doing an online training, and we do that periodically; we can bring people into that online Zoom training to learn how to disciple Muslims.”
Header image is a screengrab of the “Love Muslims” campaign. Photo courtesy of Prayercast.
