One of the primary ways God is drawing Muslims to Himself is through simple Bible studies that highlight passages of scripture from Creation through the Resurrection. The Waha app contains many story sets that have been translated into dozens of languages. Throughout the 30 days we will pray through these story sets that reveal Jesus, the Word made flesh.
As you read these familiar passages, prayerfully imagine what it would be like to read them for the first time – to see the wisdom, power, beauty, and authority of God and to be drawn to trust in Christ and yield your allegiance to Him.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And you, be fruitful and multiply, teem on the earth and multiply in it.” Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Here we see God entering a covenant with man. Yet man has no responsibility; God takes it all. We also see that when God makes a promise, nothing could stop Him from keeping it.
God desires us to fill the earth with His glory. Twice God commands Noah, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.”
There are a lot of similarities between the Quran’s version of Noah’s story and the Bible’s. The Quran emphasizes Noah’s preaching and moral lessons rather than narrative details.
Ibrahim came to Christ out of a Muslim background 20 years ago. For years, he led a house church and was involved in outreach that shared Christ with his people. This shifted in recent months, as he has been working with young believers in his city who are pursuing a simple, reproducible discipleship method (DMM). He jokes that he feels like he has been born again a second time, because of all of the beautiful fruit being borne as disciples are continuing to make disciples who in turn are making disciples.
The book of Acts describes the early church in Acts 6:7, “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.”
Acts 9:31 also says, “so the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.”
Continuing in Acts 12:24, “but the word of God increased and multiplied.”
We pray today that these same words would be spoken of this place. May the Word of God increase among this people group. May many become obedient to the faith here. May the church have peace as it is being built up. May believers among this people group walk in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Ultimately may the number of disciples be multiplied greatly.