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.
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