Daily Topic for October 08, 2007

Josh. 5:13-15
"Joshua went up to the man and asked, 'Are you for us or for our enemies?' 'Neither,' he replied, 'but as commander of the army of the Lord have I come'"

This passage is very instructive. God is not “for” one people or “against” another. He is only “for” His purposes among all the peoples of the earth. The story is told of a lady who asked American President Lincoln during the Civil War, “Do you think God is on your side?” The great president wisely answered, “The question is not if God is on my side, but if I am on God’s side.”

Father, forgive us for our habitual self-centeredness. Help us to see the peoples and nations of the earth from Your perspective - as peoples who desperately need to hear and to receive the gospel.

Muslim Arabs in the Maldive Islands

With all the color and excitement of a great story-teller Grandpa recounted to his grandchildren days when white-robed Bedouin Arabs rode their steeds around the Maldives and around India. With all the imagination of an active six-year-old boy, his grandson thrust out his chest and shouted, “I’m an Arab, and always will be!” His siblings giggled.

Today Arabs are the majority in 22 nations, and a minority in nations like the Maldives and India. Though the Arabs are diverse, they hold the Arabic language and their identity as Arabs in common wherever they live. Long ago, Arabs believed that all of them had descended from a common male ancestor. The history of Arabs reaches back thousands of years, and they are mentioned in the Bible. 

It was early in the 7th century when Mohammed preached the tenets of Islam to Bedouin Arabs in what is now Saudi Arabia. He raised up a mighty army that conquered a vast region and converted the people to Islam. The powerful Arabs went as traders to other parts of the world as well where they converted more people to Islam. Some settled in places like the Maldive Islands, where they still retain their Islamic beliefs and their Arab culture. Though there are many Arab Christians, we know of none in the Maldive Islands.

Learn more at joshuaproject.net

Pray that God will somehow reach out and touch the hearts and lives of Arabs living in the Maldives.-MC

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