I Dared to Call Him Father: a Startling Book with Inspiring Messages

It started with a cold, strange presence that floated like a mist over her garden. The presence that came with darkness and the persistent sickness of her grandson. Bilquis Sheikh, a prominent, upper class woman in a quaint unknown town of Pakistan, had been a Muslim all her life until that one important day when she secretly asked her servant to find her a Bible. Not only Bibles are rare, in a Muslim-dominated country where everything Christian is opposed and punished, Bilquis was just asking for trouble. When she finally acquired the Bible, these verses sprang into her eyes:
"For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness by-the-Law for everyone who believe in him." (Romans 10:4) Startled by what she read, she continued on to the following verse:
"For the secret is very near you, in your own heart, in your own mouth...If you openly admit by your own mouth that Jesus Christ is the Lord, and if you believe in your own heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."

God revealed Himself further to convince Bilquis of his love for her. In a vivid dream one night, Bilquis found herself having supper with a man whom she knew to be Jesus (From the Quran, Muslims know Jesus as a prophet). In that dream, Jesus sat across from the table from her. With peace and joy, they had dinner together. Bilquis's life was changed upside down by that encounter. She started to delve into God's Living Word and make friend with missionaries. She found herself having more joy, more peace, more love to people around her, including her servants. She forgave her husband who left her for another woman. Ultimately, she decided to give her life to Christ. Bilquis traveled across the globe to tell the world about her Savior.

I want to recommend I Dared to Call Him Father: the Miraculous Story of a Muslim Woman's Encounter with God to anyone who are seeking truth. This inspiring book is a page-turner and gives you a glimpse of how oppressed Christians in a Muslim country are. Professing to be Christians, they are facing death threats, ostracization from families and friends, brutal attacks, and murders on a daily basis. It is an amazing book that shows us that God is the Pursuer who reaches out with his love to people who don't even know him. He is the God who embraces us with his comforting arms. The life story of Bilquis reminds me of Romans 5:8, "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Like Bilquis, I would like to thank my God for changing my life several years ago.

Thank you, Lord, for reaching out to me as a Buddhist and a sinner who did not know you and for dying on the cross for my sins. I am eternally grateful to you. Amen.

Precious in His Sight

Thousands of years ago, a psalmist penned these beautiful verses for us to ponder upon, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

Regardless of whether you are a Christian or not, I believe that you have noticed this truth about yourself. You are significantly different from your friends, even your siblings. You look, act, and think differently than they do. Your abilities, talents, and interests are unlike theirs.

That's because God creates each person as a unique human being. Each life belongs to God and is precious to Him. You are fearfully and wonderfully made!

Sadly, I observe that when pregnant women make up their mind to abort their babies, they usually come up with these four common reasons to justify their action.

1. This is not a human being. It's just a tissue or blood clot. Furthurmore, it is their (women's)choice to do whatever they want with their body.

2. The pregnancy will prevent them from having a good future. It is an obstacle for their education and career. That is why they call it a "(pregnancy) crisis" instead of a blessing.

3. They need to go through abortion because they don't have financial abilities to raise a baby.

4. They are not married. The baby born out of wedlock embarrasses them and their families. This is usually a reason women from Asian countries and cultures have for abortion.

Over decades, Planned Parenthood and the abortion industry keep bombarding us with one lie after another. They never tell us that through abortion, women are taking another person's life. Killing an unborn child is wrong regardless of circumstances. Like all of us, the babies have the capacity to feel pain when their skulls are clamped and their bodies are shred to pieces. The heartbeat of a baby starts on the 18th day after conception. Listening to Planned Parenthood's propaganda, women never know that there is an alternative to abortion, which is adoption.

As a country, do you see our hands splattered with blood when you look into these staggering numbers? One million abortions happen in the US. every year. In 1996, 1.37 million babies died from abortion. To me, the graveyard of unborn children is as big as the Pacific Oceans.

We need to embrace and cultivate a culture of life in this country and around the world. Ironically, I have friends who told me that they are against the ongoing wars, and they support a presidential candidate who will withdraw our troops from Iraq. They hate to see innocent lives die in these horrible wars. What I don't understand is that the same people who told me this turned around and voted for a candidate who strongly supports the murder of unborn children through abortion.

Jesus said "you will know the truth and the truth shall set you free." It is time for women to know the truth and stand up against the genocide of innocent lives.