I have discovered over the years, that life can be challenging. God desires to sustain us as we look for "splashes of His grace" every day. My desire is that through posts, or book reviews, you may find something that points you to the grace of God, and that He ultimately will make a difference in your life.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Dreams and Visions by Tom Doyle

Living in America, I don't believe we can fully comprehend the difficulty people encounter when trying to share the gospel in countries where the gospel is not welcomed. Persecution of Christians around the world is a very real thing.  Sharing the good news about Jesus in these countries can cost you your life. It can be dangerous and at times, seemingly impossible, to get the gospel to people who are living in spiritual darkness. But what seems impossible to do by human standards, God can make possible.

Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World, is a captivating book by Tom Doyle with Greg Webster, which recounts what Muslims in the Middle East are experiencing through dreams and visions they have been having.  Jesus, Himself, has been appearing to them in dreams, sometimes in multiple dreams over days or weeks. Jesus reaches out to them in love and it's something they cannot ignore.  Doyle emphasizes that as he has gathered information from missionaries there, "no one says a dream recipient goes to sleep a Muslim and wakes up a Christian."  They still have to understand "that Jesus died for their sins and that this requires they repent and follow Christ for life."  How is this possible when people cannot freely share about their faith. It was fascinating to read how after a person would have a dream, God had already prepared someone to share the truth about Jesus with him or her. At great risk, these believers share the truth about Jesus to these "seekers".

Dreams and visions are found in both the Old and New Testaments in the Bible, so I do not hesitate to believe that God can still work in and through them today. If a person cannot go into these places easily, He is going Himself -- bringing Light into extremely dark places. The word "Muslim" can conger up fear in some people's minds, but Muslims are people God loves, and He is doing a mighty work in the Middle East, bringing them to faith in Jesus Christ through this unusual means.

I was humbled and in awe of the great commitment and risk these believers take in an effort to share their faith with people they come in contact with. They have been so impacted by Jesus, they are willing to die for Him, and as the people who are having dreams come to understand who Jesus is, they too are willing to face being disowned, beaten, jailed, or even killed for becoming a Christian.

I would highly recommend this book. May it open our eyes and give us courage to share about Jesus where we live.

I received a complementary copy of this book from the BookSneeze blogger program in exchange for my honest review.