I am a news junkie. I watch all news, all the time. However, it is rare that I see a news story that actually moves me. Did any of you happen to watch "Escape from Hamas" last night on Fox News? Wow. This guy, Mosab Hassan Yousef, is the son of one of the founders of Hamas. He was the next in line to fill his father's leadership position with the terrorist organization. In fact, he was indoctrinated from a young age and worked his way up the leadership ladder and became a leader in the radical Islamic Youth Movement.
Then he met Jesus.
A simple Christian tourist in Jerusalem happened to invite him to a bible study they were having and he went. This tourist probably had no idea who he had just invited to his group. Can you imagine?!
Mosab says that while he was in an Israeli prison he witnessed his own uncle, also a leader in Hamas, torture fellow Hamas members suspected of collaborating with the Israelis. This was the turning point for him.
After his release from prison he happened to be in Jerusalem and ran into this tourist. It changed his life.
He began to study the Bible side by side the Koran. This next part is what grabbed me...
when the interviewer asked him how the Bible compared to the Koran, Mosab simply said "I loved Jesus immediately."
Can you imagine what it cost this young man to utter those words? He had to turn his back on his entire family, his devout Islamic upbringing, his hometown, his friends, his future destiny that he had been groomed for since childhood.
How casually do I let those simple yet powerful words roll off my tongue? "I loved Jesus immediately." It costs me nothing to say them. It costs people like Mosab everything. Would I have the same courage as Mosab under those circumstances? I'd like to think so but I doubt it.
Mosab now lives in the U.S. and attends an evangelical Christian church. He has applied for political asylum because Al-Qaeda has issed a death sentence for him because of his conversion. If you want to know more about him, you can go here.
I hope that Mosab will not only serve as a witness to Muslims all over the world, I hope that his story will remind those of us who have the freedom to choose Jesus that we should never take that freedom for granted. May there be nothing casual about my love for Jesus. Ever.
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3 comments:
Thank you for sharing this story. It serves as a reminder, that with God, nothing is impossible...he will get his message out. It also reminds us to be thankful for all we take forgranted.
Steph was just telling me about it this morning at church. Sounds like an amazing piece, but an even more amazing man.
What faith!!
I love that..."I loved Jesus immediately!"
I saw it and was in Aww of his faithfulness...leaving everything he had ever known behind, sleeping on the floor in someone's home and basically having a death sentence...all because he loves Jesus. We take so much for granted and we need to remember that we live in a free country as of right now and can worship how we want.
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