Author: Mona Sabah

Author, Speaker & Ambassador of Christ. Saved by Grace Alone, by Faith Alone, in Christ Alone, as revealed by Scripture Alone, to the Glory of God Alone!

Ramadan 2019 – Call to Prayer

On By Mona SabahIn Islam, Jesus Christ, Muslim

May 5, 2019 begins Ramadan for the Muslim world. If you type “Ramadan 2019” into the search bar, there will be a myriad of results – from recipes for the first breaking of fast to what the requirements are to keep a Ramadan fast. For those who may not know, Ramadan is a month of fasting AND feasting! It is a celebration for the entire Muslim community. However, when I was a Muslim, I was not like some of my friends who looked forward to this time. I dreaded the month and it made me anxious.

There were good reasons for me to be anxious, for I was not a good Muslim. I would think about food all day long, I would find reasons not to fast and then, I would just plain give up after about a week (if that!). Of course, I didn’t tell people about this sad state of affairs and lack of dedication. I simply added on to my scale of bad deeds and lied to people that I was indeed fasting.

There are many rules of what to do and what not to do during the 30 days of Ramadan. There are even rules for the NON-MUSLIM (as spelled out here from an article from Saudi Arabia, the arbiters of what goes and what does not go for Islam) who lives in a Muslim country! The article says that even though one might not be a Muslim, they still need to adhere to the laws – no eating or drinking in the public while the sun is shining, no chewing gum, no smoking, etc.

just stay home…

For the Muslim person, there are many rules that spell out how to behave and how to begin and end your day. I was told that drinking a small amount of water from rinsing my mouth after brushing was haram (bad deed) and could technically break my fast. I was also told that anger or being mean to my family (= being “hangry”) would also nullify my fast. So many rules!

from: Masjid Daar as Sunnah

Many Christians want to know – what does Allah want from Muslims during Ramadan? There are many things, but here’s a chart for quick reference. Notice under the “5 Quick Tips” on number 5, it says “Follow up a bad deed with a good deed.” I believe that just about sums up Ramadan. It is a time for Muslims to try to please Allah… but with all those bad deeds, can one actually please him?

So what does the BIBLE say about pleasing God?

According to the website gotquestions.org In the New Testament, the apostle “Paul reminds the believers in Rome that “they who are in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). So the first step in pleasing God is to accept the sacrifice for sin that He provided in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. Only then are we “in the Spirit” and not “in the flesh.” We do this by faith because “without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). “

All of us who have confessed that Jesus Christ is the only sinless one who could pay the price for all the sins (bad deeds) in a perfect sacrifice that was pleasing to God become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). In order to please God, we have to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit who is given to us and who lives in us, instructing us daily how to walk according to the ways of God as revealed in the Bible (the word of God). We also have to live by faith, live and love according to Jesus’s command (John 14:21) which is to love Christ and love one another.

I believe that is one of the biggest differences I found in leaving Islam and accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. There was a peace in knowing and accepting that I could not please God from my own works. I kept messing up daily — I would think a bad thought, reply in anger at the driver who cut me off, or lie about something. I kept sinning and falling short of the rules I was supposed to abide by. The beauty of Christianity is not in us DOING things, it is in what Jesus Christ DID already for us on the cross.

May those who are fasting for Ramadan seek the one True God who is revealed in the Bible as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) AND may those of us who belong to Christ pray for the next 30 days for Muslims around the world to find peace through the Prince of Peace, the Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN.

Pray for New Zealand

On By Mona SabahIn Islam, Islamophobia, Jesus Christ
Picture from BBC.com

I woke up this morning and my husband told me about the massacre at the Mosque in Christ Church, New Zealand. When will people understand that killing in cold blood is not going to solve problems but will only result in exacerbating the existing issues?

My heart breaks for the Muslim families who were gathered together for prayer this morning. How horrific to hear that the man had an 87 page manifesto of hate that he posted on Facebook and social media. This was planned out and carried out with precision.

The only responses as a Christian should be to pray and mourn. Not only because the world is evil but also because mankind has forsaken God. Jesus said only to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” in Matthew 5:44. The man who did this was not a Christian, nor does he represent Christianity or the Bible. It’s time those who call themselves Christians to open up their Bibles and read the word of God to help bring light into a world of darkness.

My prayer: Lord, we pray for the families whose loved ones perished today. May you reveal yourself to them in their despair. May your people rise up and share your Gospel of love with the Muslim communities all around the world. May you bring good out of the evil that man perpetuates. Help us, Lord, we cry out to You. We ask in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Seminar: Reaching Muslims

On By Mona SabahIn Uncategorized

Join me for a free seminar on Evangelism to Muslims THIS Saturday, March 2 at Yukon Church (11715 NW 10th street Yukon) from 9-12. Please contact Yukon Church to register.

Address:11715 NW 10th St, Yukon, OK 73099 Phone: (405) 354-5809

8:30 am registration 

Testimony 

1 History of Islam

2 Muslim Beliefs & Practices 

         – 5 Pillars of Faith

         – 5 Beliefs of Islam

3 Traditions & Convictions

4 Women’s Role in Islam

5 Understanding Assumptions

6 Reaching Muslims through Evangelism

7 Common Objections to Christianity

Book signing!

@monasabahbooks

Seminar: Reaching Muslims


monasabahbooks.com

Open Heart, Open Home

On By Mona SabahIn culture, Diversity

Hospitality is a recurring theme in my life, especially growing up in the Middle East and Pakistan. In fact, I could not imagine my life without friends, family and yes, unknown people I have brought home for a hot cup of tea. It was getting so bad at one time that my children would come home and wonder why there wasn’t an unknown car in the driveway… they were so used to having women a my kitchen counter that they had never met. I wrote about it in a post called “HospitaliTEA” and you can read it here.

My life has been enriched by most of these encounters (yes, some of them were downright weird, but then that’s just expected!). My notion of hospitality does not come from having a perfect home (I don’t.), a perfectly appointed kitchen (It’s nice, but not perfect in the least), a perfect family (I won’t even go there), or a perfect life. In fact, I have been known to have dishes in the sink, stuff on the counter, and groceries still in the bag when I’ve had people over… why? Because that’s just life.

So, why all this talk about hospitality?

If you’re a Christian, you don’t have to have a special spiritual gift for it (that’s just an excuse) and you should be doing it – see Acts 2:46 above in the image.

Those who are believers in Christ are downright commanded to show such hospitality (see 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:7-8; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 11:13). One of my favorite passages in the Bible is when Abraham welcomes strangers to rest after their long journey (Genesis 18:2-8). In Deuteronomy, the act of sharing food (Deuteronomy 14:28-29) to help others is emphasized as a blessing. The early church made it a habit to gather together to break bread as a new family in Christ and praise God (Acts 2:42-47). A beautiful gift of hospitality was given to Jesus Christ by Zacchaeus out of the the joy he had in meeting Christ and salvation came to his house that day (Luke 19:5-6)! What a gift he received in turn from our Lord and Savior!

We miss out on blessings to give and receive when we cordon off a part of our lives to others. The early Christians wanted to be a part of one another’s life because many had their own families disown them. This was my own experience when I left Islam and became a Christian. If others had not invited me into their homes, what family would I have had?

I praise God that He invites us to His table to partake his daily bread – why are we so stingy and miserly in the way we invite others? What grace you have been given in Christ? It’s time to go out there and share the love of Jesus, the Gospel through invitation and watch salvation come to someone’s house!

Ephesians Memory Cards

On By Mona SabahIn Memorization

Week one was tough! I hope you had a chance to see my struggles in the video I uploaded. My daughter who’s been helping me has already memorized several verses and she didn’t even sign on to do this!

I thought I’d share my Memory Cards today and show how my mind works. Last week I posted a few cards. Here they are again.

Ephesians 1:1

On day 4, I realized that I was not saying the verse number or address. Now, it’s a part of the verse.

Ephesians 1:2

The numbers rhyme on verses 2 & 3:

“One-two, Grace to you…” that’s a Hershey kiss for chocolate, which equals grace to me (part of my testimony).

“One-three, Blessed be…” I also circle/box words that are duplicates. I’ve been circling the word “in” because it keeps tripping me up!

Ephesians 1:4

Verse four was more confusing- no rhymes, so I used the first word “even” that has 4 letters & is even. There are also 2 “BEFORE “ in it (reminded me of “four”).

Ephesians 1:5

I had to be more creative with verse 5. The last line for me in pictures is “accordion “ to the “porpoise” (that’s supposed to be a dolphin & not a banana with a tail, per my daughter) of His “will.”

Ephesians 1:6

More of the same… nothing to rhyme with “one-six.”

Ephesians 1:7

Got to use color for this one! Another accordion and not much to rhyme with “one-seven.” Boo hoo!

Ephesians 1:8

Only thing I could come up with today was that the word “lavished” has 8 words…

Hope this helps a bit! I’m finding that reading the verse aloud 10 times and then closing my eyes to repeat it 10 times is working. The pictures help me to get a visual reminder. Also, I’m repeating all verses up to date in the morning before I get out of bed, and at night.

Even when you don’t feel like it, push through and focus on the discipline of doing this! That’s what I’m saying to myself!

Week 1-Memorizing Ephesians

On By Mona SabahIn Bible, Memorization
I have all my stuff in front of me this morning!

So excited to start today on our walk together through memorizing Ephesians. Here’s how it went this morning:

  1. Pray that God will help me to remember and inscribe His words on my heart.
  2. Read aloud the entire book of Ephesians – took me 16 min & 51 seconds.
  3. I took Dr. Andrew Davis’s schedule on p. 23 of his booklet and wrote out the whole schedule in my notebook.
  4. On the next page, I wrote today’s verses (see picture below).
Week One’s Scriptures on one page

Then, I took verse 1:1 and wrote it out on a 3 x 5 card that I hole-punched and put onto a binder ring.

3 x 5 card for Ephesians 1:1

Dr. Davis’s recommendation is to read the verse of the day 10 times and take a mental picture of each word. For me, that’s hard to do without actually drawing something out. So here’s my card with my little notes on it for me to take a mental picture of it. I couldn’t find anything for Paul, so I put a P above it. Christ Jesus is repeated twice, so I put a Cross on top. Saints has a halo above it and Ephesus has 3 Roman Columns.

In today’s verse, Paul is saying who he is (an apostle of Christ Jesus) and who he is writing to (saints who are in Ephesus). So, say that out loud 10 x and then close your eyes and try to remember the picture of the words 10 x.

That’s it for today.

Tomorrow and the next few days, you will do the same – start with verse 1:1, then read (10x) verse 2, close eyes & say verse 1 & 2 together).

What did you do? Anything different for your study today or this week? PLEASE share!

The PLAN – Memorizing Ephesians

On By Mona SabahIn Bible, Uncategorized

Today, I want to share the plan I would like to use for memorizing the book of Ephesians. Our daughter is getting ready to audition for a children’s play. She is feeling a bit intimidated because she will have to memorize lines — why is it that actors can memorize thousands of lines but when it comes to Scripture, people aren’t ready to commit? I mentioned this to a trusted friend the other day and she said I may be on to something. She’s found that some actors take on the persona of their character and thus have an easier time understanding the role and the lines they might speak.

Isn’t that what we are called to do? I don’t mean “act” like a Christian – I mean actually BE a Christian and put on Christ. This is our calling and Paul, in Ephesians 4:1-2 tells us exactly that “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…” So, MEMORIZING is not just to babble out lines. It is to actually live the life you are being called to live. The book of Ephesians is a love letter to the church, to remind and encourage them that they belong to Christ and should look like it.

John Piper, on his website Desiring God has several articles on why you should memorize Scripture. There is a guest author who gives Ten Reasons to Memorize Scripture – he is spot on! The Jesus Himself tells us in John 15:7 ” If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you” and again in John 8:31-32 “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

HOW TO

There are several ways to approach this. The plan I will use is from Dr. Andrew Davis, called Scripture Memory Booklet. It’s a free PDF that’s 28 pages and is also available from Kindle. I recommend reading the whole booklet before you begin. It will help you tremendously and comes highly recommended. He has a plan at the end of the booklet that is 26 weeks (on p.23). Print out the plan and paste it in a notebook. On the page next to each week’s scripture, WRITE OUT the passage for the week.

Then, I will be using 3×5 note cards – not sure if I will use one card per verse, but you can. Punch a hole on the top left corner and grab a binder ring or a ribbon or twine to hold cards together. Now, take the cards wherever you go!

I read on another website that it takes 16 minutes to read Ephesians from start to finish. I didn’t believe it, so I timed myself on New Year’s Day. It took me 18 minutes at a natural pace. So, daily I will be reading ALOUD the entire book of Ephesians while I have my morning breakfast (in between sips of tea) and then I will be grabbing my note cards to read the verse over and over again.

Let’s say we start on Monday, the first thing I will do is to write out Eph 1:1 through 1:6 in my notebook. Then, I will write out the 6 verses on note cards and read the entire passage aloud. On Tuesday, read aloud and repeat verses 1:1 AND 1:2 together all day long. Wednesday – aloud + verses 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3… and so on. This way, you will not forget what you are committing to memory but are adding on.

Even if you don’t remember a single word, just reading the ENTIRE book of Ephesians over 155+ days will be quite incredible. What a wonderful way to spend time in the Bible. The book of Ephesians is about UNITY in Christ, in recognizing our WORTH in Christ, about our ROLE in life and about putting on the full armor of God! Cannot wait to have this be imprinted upon my heart!

Overview- Memorize Ephesians

On By Mona SabahIn Bible, Memorization, Uncategorized

I’m so thrilled to have several of you who have decided to join together to commit to our hearts and minds the entire book of Ephesians! Over the next few days, I will cover the who, what, when, where, why and how of all this. Before tackling anything, I like to know what I’m getting into, so I wanted to give a basic overview of the book’s layout. There are lots of outlines and guidelines out there, so please take a few moments to take a look at your Bible’s Study notes and familiarize yourself with the book’s contents. There is also a great article written by gotquestions.org.

WHO, WHEN & WHERE

It is understood that Paul was the author and the epistle (or letter) was written around 60-63 AD to the church at Ephesus (modern day Turkey about 6 miles from the Aegean sea) and was primarily written to encourage believers. Paul was most likely in prison at the time he wrote this letter (Eph 4:1-3). From the Thompson Chain Reference Bible, I found that Ephesus at the time was a huge center of worship for the goddess Diana, also known as Artemis – one of the 7 Wonders of the World. In the book of Acts 19:23-41, we find that Demetrius, a silversmith starts a riot that ends up in the amphitheater. The reference Bible mentioned that the 24,000 person amphitheater was uncovered by archaeologists at the turn of the century! It is interesting also to note that this might be the same place Paul refers to in 1 Cor 15:32 where he “fought the wild beasts in Ephesus…”

Road between the amphitheater and Temple of Artemis was paved in marble

The church at Ephesus was also one of the 7 churches mentioned in Revelation. They were noted for their hard work and endurance for the Lord, but had “forsaken (or abandoned) their first love” Revelation 2:4.

The entire book is six chapters with 155 verses – I have the outline I used to break it down by chapter (see photo). If we divide 155/6, we get 25.83, which means 6 verses a week for about 26 weeks. This will bring us to half the year for the whole book! There are plans out there for 26 weeks, but I think I may use one that is about 28 weeks (2 weeks in there to catch up).

Go ahead and grab a journal notebook (might even be one you got as a gift last Christmas?), a pen, and your Bible… jot down some thoughts on the book of Ephesians to get you thinking about the place.

WHY Memorize Ephesians?

On By Mona SabahIn Bible9 Comments

When I was around 7-8 years old, I was taught how to pray by my grandmother. In Islam, children are taught at an early age to memorize verses from the Quran for when we go to sleep, awake, eat, wash hands, etc but usually around the age of 7, most families begin to teach children the full prayers for the day. One has to understand that this is not like Christian prayers which can be in any language. Daily prayers in Islam MUST BE done in Arabic. The problem is that about 84% of the Muslim world does not speak Arabic.

Not only is the child learning to memorize prayers, but they must memorize them (usually) in a language that is not their own mother tongue. That was my case. Being a very stubborn girl (still am, for those of you who don’t know me!), I refused to learn how to pray until my mother (who spoke Arabic because my parents worked in Saudi Arabia) translated them for me and put them in writing.

Given this background, I did not necessarily relish memorizing Scripture when I became a Christian. Lo and behold, no one was making me memorize either. When I began to study the Bible, I found the words to be like poetry and they filled my soul. I had a DEEP DESIRE to learn these words so that I may share them with others who were having a bad day or were struggling so I began memorizing snippets of Scripture like many in my Bible studies had done.

Last year, for Valentine’s Day, I wanted to give my husband a different gift. I memorized what is sometimes known as the “Love Chapter” from 1 Corinthians 13 (you know, “love is patient, love is kind…”). I memorized it and recited it to him on Valentines Day, except that I said “Stephen is patient, Stephen is kind…” I stumbled just a tad bit, but overall was able to remember it. I tried recalling the chapter over the summer and SURPRISE! It was still there! 🙂 I still pray the chapter out loud so I can continue to remember.

The reason to memorize is not to play a game to see who wins or to have a race. It is to commit the verses to your memory, to pray them over your family and friends or others God places into your life. It is to be a discipline to bring you closer to our Father, it is to help increase our prayer life and to study God’s living Word.

Will you prayerfully consider joining me? I will post the “plan” that I am going to use (borrow from Dr. Andrew Davis) and also how I modify that plan to fit how I learn.

These are my own reasons… now, what are yours?

Memorizing Ephesians 2019

On By Mona SabahIn Bible, Jesus Christ, Teaching

I will post a plan to get us started TOGETHER! Don’t be worried or discouraged… the Lord says in Deuteronomy 11:20:

Remember God’s Words
…19Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20Writethem onthe doorpostsof your housesand gates,21so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land the LORD swore to give your fathers.…