Muslim Student Alliance & the Service of Shadows

[rccservantofgod]

Wow. *sigh* Today's been a really emotional and deep thought-filled day. This afternoon I attended the Muslim Student Alliance's event. It was a "lecture" given by Colin (I didn't catch his last name, but he's a student at DVC) and then Q & A. I'm not really sure why but a few minutes before the event, as I was walking towards the room, I just felt more and more nervous the closer I got. But I kept praying basically the same prayer over and over again and God certainly answered. It was a very interesting and enlightening (I guess) speech. He said a lot of things that were true (he went through the events of Jesus Passion Week); for example: that we need to look at books, particularly Scripture, with the mindset of the writer and the audience of that day in age and culture. But he also talked about some things I had never heard before, like the Jewish idea that a person was not clinically dead until the fourth day. This seems very strange to me, but apparently things happened back then where people would come back to life within the first three days of "death". I need to do some research on this topic and maybe get some advice from people. But anyways, that was one of his main points or reasons why he believed Jesus never actually died, but was just raised into Heaven by God. There is so much more I could write, but I am a terribly lazy person and I could just look at my notes which, at the moment, still lie in my backpack. I was the first one to ask a question afterwards (luckily I had done a little research beforehand so as to be able to ask such a question and have a response or comment). www.christiananswers.net is like the best resource ever! Anyways, the comment I made/question I asked was about a quote from the Quran dealing with Jesus death and resurrection/ascension comparing it to Philippians 2:6-11 and also about the Jews not being the ones who killed Jesus. After all of this and many other questions by Abraham and Linda (who came late) and others (Muslim and non-Muslim), I had to leave early so I could eat dinner before going to the Service of Shadows at church. But luckily not before I could write down Colin's Utube name and blog address. I hope to be able to talk to him via email or whatever in the future about stuff in the New Testament, particularly John. Because he thinks the whole book of John is just damage control/cover up for the other Gospels, as well as the last 11 verses in Mark that are not in the earliest manuscripts. I hope that God will touch his heart and through me be able to convince him that the whole Bible is absolutely true and historically accurate and sufficient to save. But even if I do not get that opportunity, God allowed me and Abraham (and Linda too) to be terrific witnesses to His name. Even just by going to the event and having an open mind, we had an impact on them (not to mention that we were the first two people there, even before the speaker himself and the co-chair of the club, Fatimeh).

*Sigh* The Service of Shadows, which was new to me, was really amazing and informative. I learned something totally new about the Passover celebration and how it applies directly to Jesus as well as Christians. There are four cups used, the first is the cup of Sanctification, the second is the cup of (something I forgot), the third is the cup of Redemption. This is the cup Jesus took in the New Testament saying it is the new covenant in his blood. And the fourth cup, the cup of praise or acceptance, is the one Jesus said he will not drink until he does so anew with us in Heaven. What a great picture! He did not drink of the cup of Acceptance that night (before) he had to be condemned and separated from the Father. I was practically crying at certain parts of the service, either during the music with words that rang so true or during communion when I dwell on all that Christ went through to save me. His love is truly amazing. Inexpressible.