On the 92nd episode of The Paul Cardall Podcast, Fouad Masri rejoins Paul to talk about Islam and Christianity. They discuss where the Bible is banned and how few have read the Quran. They talk about Ramadan, fasting, lent, and how his ministry is helping Muslims understanding more about Jesus. Paul shares his experience reading the Quran. They also discuss St. Paul and how his encounter with Christ was significantly poignant because he witnessed the resurrected Jesus, thus reinforcing the testimony of countless others who'd see the Christ.
Fouad Masri talks with Paul Cardall about Islam's Ramadan, Fasting, and how his ministry is helping Muslims understanding more about Jesus. They discuss where the Bible is banned and how few have read the Quran.
by Fouad Masri
THE SAHARA CHALLENGE
Engaging, in-depth training in ministry to Muslims, led by experienced leaders and Muslim-background believers.
Visit: https://www.crescentproject.org/sahara-challenge
Listen to past episodes with Fouad
Jesus' Connection to Israel, Hamas, and Palestine
Sharing Jesus with Muslims: A Step-by-Step Guide
ABOUT
Author and lecturer Fouad Masri…
Was born and raised in the war zone of Beirut, Lebanon. As a third generation ordained pastor, he has a passion for sharing the love of Christ with Muslims and has been reaching out to Muslims.
In 1993, he founded Crescent Project…
To nurture transformational relationships between Christians and Muslims and to rally the Church to reach out to Muslims to share the Good News of Christ.
Since then, through his work, more than 321,000 Christians have been trained to sensitively and purposefully share their faith with Muslims through many training experiences, including Bridges One-Day and Sahara Challenge. He has served as a guest instructor at several universities and Christian ministries and has been featured in several media publications including Christianity Today, Newsweek, and Mission Network News. He has appeared on CBN, TBN, the Janet Parshall Show, and Prime Time America.
He is the producer and teacher in the DVD study, Bridges: Christians Connecting with Muslims. In Bridges, he further exposes Christians to the urgent need for a deeper understanding about Islam and Muslims.
Fouad has authored 11 books…
Including Outreach Magazine’s 2015 Cross Cultural Resource of the Year Connecting with Muslims: A Guide to Communicating Effectively. He holds a bachelor's degree in Mass Communication and a master’s degree in Islamic Studies. Fouad lives in Franklin, Tennessee, where he directs the ministry of Crescent Project.
00:00:03 Announcer
Hello and welcome to the Paul Cardall podcast.
00:00:09 Paul Cardall
We have music that I've recently released. You might not be aware of.
00:00:16 Paul Cardall
A grief observed.
00:00:18 Paul Cardall
This is a piece that.
00:00:21 Paul Cardall
It's been appreciated by many critics. I am grateful that it is resonating with so many people. The grief observed. It's inspired by CS Lewis book.
00:00:33 Paul Cardall
A grief observed about his rustle with God in trying to understand grief.
00:00:39 Paul Cardall
So you can find that music by going on my website paulcardell.com course you can also find it on any music platform where you like to listen. The sheet music is also available. It's on my website. Awkward.
00:00:55 Paul Cardall
To come, I'm with my friend fraud monster and he's been on this podcast before. We've talked about your book, sharing Jesus with Muslims. And we also did a bonus episode where we talked about the conflict. We call it conflict or do we?
00:01:14 Paul Cardall
Call it a war.
00:01:15 Paul Cardall
In Israel.
00:01:15 Fouad Masri
It's now full-fledged war.
00:01:17 Paul Cardall
It's a full-fledged war and fraud was growing up in.
00:01:22 Paul Cardall
Lebanon. So just a quick review of previous podcasts you grew up in Lebanon and you were there during that that war time. Why? I don't know why they call them conflicts instead of just saying war.
00:01:37 Fouad Masri
I think because they never end.
00:01:39 Paul Cardall
Because they never.
00:01:40 Paul Cardall
It's an ongoing.
00:01:41 Paul Cardall
Like like like.
00:01:41 Fouad Masri
Conflict. They never finished it.
00:01:44 Paul Cardall
Like God's got two kids in the sandbox and keep fighting. He's like Jacob and Esau. Can you just figure that out? Quit stealing each other's birth throats. So, yeah, just catching up. So.
00:01:48 Fouad Masri
And then.
00:01:58 Paul Cardall
Ohh, how's the book doing? How's?
00:02:02 Fouad Masri
We're seeing more people using it to equip themselves, train themselves, sharing the hope was based on the idea of beginning a conversation. It wasn't about, you know, showing each other who's right, who's wrong, cause that's always an attitude. You know I'm right. You're
00:02:19 Fouad Masri
Wrong. Yeah, you.
00:02:20 Fouad Masri
Know I'm fasting the right way. You're fasting the wrong way.
00:02:23 Fouad Masri
Or, you know, I don't eat porky pork. It's not about that. It's about sharing. It's a conversation. It's sitting down with your Muslim friend, Muslim classmate Muslim neighbor and say, hey, you know, what did you say about fasting? What did you say about sin about salvation?
00:02:38 Fouad Masri
So that's why we wanted to call it sharing and it's Christ. It's about Jesus. Our savior. Yeah. His name is in Hebrew is Yeshua. Means God saves. Well, that's the biggest problem we're in today. The reason people kill each other. It's because of sin, sin of hate. Agreed, lying, stealing all that is at the core of it is a sin.
00:02:43 Announcer
Yes.
00:02:58 Fouad Masri
See, it's me making myself better than anyone else, even maybe better than God Almighty. So that's one of the things we do. Book sales is not, you know, we'd like to see them happen more, but the the point for us is we love how people respond.
00:03:09 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:03:13 Fouad Masri
Morning I was in San Jose, CA on Wednesday last week and people came to the conference cause many of them had read the book and one gentleman emails goes. I I read the book and loved it. I'm coming and have some questions for you and sharing with some of his classmates. Yeah. Or students. So it's exciting to see how the.
00:03:34 Fouad Masri
Which is helping give people from action to action from sitting in the chair. People saying, you know, I'm done just sitting in the Pew. I want to take action. I'm done saying who are the Muslims? What do they believe? But rather I wanna get involved.
00:03:35 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:03:49 Fouad Masri
In the harvest sharing the gospel with Muslims.
00:03:52 Paul Cardall
Yeah, and and just to kind of go back a little bit, the, the whole reason you're so passionate about sharing Jesus with Muslim is because during the the war.
00:04:09 Paul Cardall
In in Lebanon, you were trying to overcome hate and you told us the story of how.
00:04:18 Paul Cardall
You, you you tried different faiths. You read different books and you you got on your knees and you asked Jesus to help you. And through that entire process. Now, what's fascinating? I've, you know, I've been reading this book. I I keep it close by.
00:04:39 Paul Cardall
And the thing about this book, it's more than.
00:04:43 Paul Cardall
Just we're sharing a book.
00:04:45 Paul Cardall
This is.
00:04:47 Paul Cardall
Probably. I think one of the best.
00:04:50 Paul Cardall
Angles.
00:04:52 Paul Cardall
In explaining to our Muslim friends who Jesus is, because because most people that are writing those types of books, they've never lived in an Islamic state, they've never lived among the Muslim people you have.
00:04:55 Fouad Masri
OK.
00:05:09 Paul Cardall
Countless friends and the approach I guess has not been done very well in trying to help people understand Jesus, but but most people know that Jesus is a real person in the Quran.
00:05:28
M.
00:05:28
Mm-hmm.
00:05:30 Paul Cardall
But they do not accept Jesus as the.
00:05:35 Paul Cardall
The atoning son of God, they believe he's the son of God, but.
00:05:39 Fouad Masri
The atoning the word son of God. His problem for them. OK, but them. Can I agree with you? Let's put this in context a little bit for our listeners. If you live in Western country, let's say in North America or South America or Europe.
00:05:54 Fouad Masri
Your idea is everybody has been exposed to the Bible. Everybody may be medication priest or.
00:06:01 Fouad Masri
Non or or a pastor. Or maybe read the Bible. Well, that's not the case. We have to do what we call unreached people groups means all people group all language, have never even heard. Yeah, the words of Jesus. So that's number one. Number two, that's in a crisis for us, is out of the 3.3 billion. We're not talking about a million billion people.
00:06:23 Fouad Masri
1.9 of them are under this Muslim bloc, so the sad part today is 2024 is that many of these Muslim countries banned the Bible? It's illegal to have.
00:06:35 Fouad Masri
A Bible. Which country?
00:06:36 Paul Cardall
Countries.
00:06:37 Fouad Masri
Saudi Arabia, Yemen. Oman.
00:06:39 Paul Cardall
I didn't know that.
00:06:41 Fouad Masri
The South Sudan.
00:06:44 Fouad Masri
Egypt, they allow it in certain areas Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mauritania, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, brazan.
00:06:50
You gotta you.
00:06:51 Paul Cardall
Got there's so much.
00:06:54 Paul Cardall
So you gotta pretty much smuggle it in like drugs.
00:06:58 Fouad Masri
Iran to Afghanistan. So right now we are involved with the ministry and what you just said is through we smuggle the Bible through other areas.
00:07:02 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:07:06 Fouad Masri
Because the Iranian people, for example, they're so hungry, they're smuggling about 10,000 Bibles a month into that country because people are asking for the Bible now that maybe they're not becoming Christian. That's fine. But why ban the Bible?
00:07:20 Paul Cardall
What? But what happens if they get caught?
00:07:23 Fouad Masri
Well, in multiple ways you could lose their life. They could, they could be imprisoned, they could lose their job. So I'm glad. I mean we we need to know as people who live in Western countries where you know, I can go in a bookstore.
00:07:28 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:07:36 Fouad Masri
And buy a.
00:07:37 Fouad Masri
Quran or buy Bhagavad Gita or Mahabharata. I can buy any book? Yeah I I can choose to read the Bible.
00:07:43 Fouad Masri
Not read the big.
00:07:44 Fouad Masri
But in many of these countries, it's required. So today, like Pakistan, Pakistan, everybody's gonna first, even if they have a sizeable cushion, came in the flip side, take Pakistan. The cushions get their churches were burned, 100 churches were burned last year. We helped in helping the Christians because we believe in helping the persecuted.
00:08:05 Fouad Masri
That's Pakistan. Yesterday, United Kingdom announced they're spending 117 billion.
00:08:12 Fouad Masri
They're spending $117 billion to protect the mosques and the Muslim community. So here's Pakistan, a country in the 21st century and the United Kingdom 1 spends money to protect the the Muslim minority.
00:08:17 Paul Cardall
Really.
00:08:20
Yeah.
00:08:28 Fouad Masri
Majority of that country tests their Christian. Here's a country that's majority Muslim, and they're refusing to protect the Christian minority group.
00:08:35 Paul Cardall
Well, the, the, the we know that the the Mayor of London.
00:08:40 Paul Cardall
Then.
00:08:41 Fouad Masri
MHM.
00:08:41 Paul Cardall
Is Islamic, he is. He is a Muslim. The country loves him. They like the fact that there's rich diversity. There are a lot of people from the Middle East that have migrated to to England, which is not a bad thing. But in the concept of being a Christian.
00:08:55 Fouad Masri
England.
00:09:01 Paul Cardall
I'm trying to.
00:09:02 Paul Cardall
Get the Christian message into their lives. You see that as a roadblock.
00:09:09 Fouad Masri
I I think that coming to the West is great because we allow freedom, but why not freedom be everywhere? Why can't I live in the Muslim community and still choose to be a Christian or choose not to have religion? But the funny part today?
00:09:22 Announcer
Yeah.
00:09:24 Fouad Masri
Is we?
00:09:26 Fouad Masri
We push for equality in areas where majority of people are Christian, which they accept. Most Christians accept equality.
00:09:33 Fouad Masri
They don't, they don't.
00:09:34 Fouad Masri
Wanna fight? They feel Christians. Jesus teach us to be peaceful. It says the Bible says be at peace with everyone. So we want to be at peace with everyone, whether they believe like us or not. But why?
00:09:46 Fouad Masri
Muslim countries. So when we wrote the book was on purpose because many times when you meet a Muslim, they do not know what we believe. Right. So you and I think ohh he must have heard the words of Jesus love your enemies.
00:09:59 Fouad Masri
He's never heard.
00:10:02 Fouad Masri
I was talking to Khalid from Jordan.
00:10:04 Fouad Masri
He has a bachelor's degree. He had never read the whole Quran, so that was 1 issue. He had heard it chanted, but never read it and he's never read the angeled. When you test him, so you feel you are college educated, but you've never had the option. And for me, I I encourage every Christian to meet the Quran 1.
00:10:18 Paul Cardall
OK.
00:10:22 Paul Cardall
I read I read the Quran and yeah, I was in Jordan. I wanted to understand it. Our guide was wonderful.
00:10:24 Fouad Masri
But.
00:10:33 Paul Cardall
We went to so many of the Old Testament sites we went, you know, if if you're if you're going to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, you have to go to the Jordan side because it was on the Jordan side that Jesus was baptized. And he did that deliberately back then because it was the border.
00:10:46 Fouad Masri
He's got that.
00:10:54 Paul Cardall
Back then, and how interesting it is that it remains the border, but when I was reading the Koran, what I learned kind of in the beginning is that it's for me. It's a book of lamentations and it's a lot of lamentation. It's it's basically saying, you know, the Christian.
00:11:13 Paul Cardall
Goes out and they conquer by the sword and by the time the Quran is written, there is all that history of the abuse of the name of Jesus and slaughtering and murdering during the Crusades and into.
00:11:32 Paul Cardall
Those parts of the world. So with those stories passed down through the generations, of course, Muslim people are not going to take very kindly to Christianity.
00:11:45 Paul Cardall
Am I right?
00:11:46 Paul Cardall
With the fear.
00:11:48 Paul Cardall
That the the past crusade mentality, which is an unrighteous taking God's name in vain, sort of aware, is that still something?
00:12:00 Fouad Masri
That. Yeah. Well.
00:12:02 Paul Cardall
They think about is that could that be?
00:12:04 Fouad Masri
It's typical of politicians to always stir the pot. So right now we talk about stuff that happened 50 years ago, 100 years ago.
00:12:12 Fouad Masri
And with the Crusades, it's 1000 years ago. Yeah. The first battle was 1090. Five 1095. The the point, though, when you read the life of Muhammad, there are certain things he said that we agree on, like Mohammed, when he came to his people, he was awakened. His heart was awakened by the the Hate for Paganism.
00:12:33 Fouad Masri
Yeah, and the Liverpool, what unity of one got monotheism and that that he heard that from the Christians and the Jewish tribes.
00:12:36 Paul Cardall
Yes.
00:12:41 Fouad Masri
The struggle with Islam is not the beginning. The struggle is the conclusion. What does it mean? What does it mean that we worship one God? So in some chapters it says that the Christians and the Jews are the best friends for Muslims.
00:12:49 Announcer
OK.
00:12:55 Paul Cardall
Yes, there's so many contradictions it means.
00:12:57 Fouad Masri
That exactly. And then the reverse that says we're all both their enemies. So. So for me, though, for me, as a follower of Christ, I look at the person most people look at the group. I look at the person, Christ. So the Pharisees. But he talked to the chair.
00:13:01 Paul Cardall
Yes.
00:13:15 Fouad Masri
I'm saying that I focus on the case he saw the Romans and he spoke to Pilate. Yes. So in the book, it's not about taking somebody ohh. Muslims are fresh. Much great. Yeah. So if it's fasting, like, what does Jesus say about fasting? OK. So. But I have a friend who's Moroccan. The way we became good friends started talking.
00:13:24 Paul Cardall
It's not. Yeah, it's not generalizing.
00:13:34 Fouad Masri
Even took a Bible because we started talking about what does Jesus say when we fast? He didn't say to fast Ramadan. We can fast Ramadan. Can we fast land? Yeah, we can fast land. Jesus says when you fast no one should know.
00:13:51 Fouad Masri
This is very powerful when you fast. This is a discipline for you.
00:13:56 Fouad Masri
To communicate with with God and Jesus used words that father, because in the Council of the Christian faith it's a family. It's not the rules. Most people look at the gospel and the Bible as book of rules. It's not. There are rules and more mostly the things that we call rules are guidelines. So love your neighbour is not a rule.
00:14:16 Fouad Masri
It's a guideline which means I can love you by helping you move. I can love you by cutting the grass.
00:14:21 Fouad Masri
I can love you by inviting for.
00:14:23 Paul Cardall
A meal again. Love them by helping them move.
00:14:26 Fouad Masri
Yeah, you like that one like like move, move.
00:14:31 Paul Cardall
Get it? We're happy to let. We're happy to help you move. Do you know anything about the people we moved in?
00:14:40 Fouad Masri
One of the things we did for our Crescent project for our ministry was we did a four series called Let me Be Your Neighbor in this day and age where you know technology and social media still are people lonely because.
00:14:47 Paul Cardall
OK.
00:14:53 Fouad Masri
They never figured out how to be.
00:14:54 Fouad Masri
A neighbor. They don't go outside.
00:14:55 Paul Cardall
Go outside.
00:14:57 Paul Cardall
They have friends on Facebook.
00:14:58 Paul Cardall
But they they they don't know.
00:15:00 Paul Cardall
How to make friends next?
00:15:01 Fouad Masri
Door. And they did a study that one out of five or one out of six of your friends on Facebook. There's not even live in the same country. Yeah. So. So in a way that's nice. But another way that, you know you, they're in the same country and you think, yeah, I have a lot of friends. But but the push that.
00:15:17 Fouad Masri
We feel today, as followers of Christ may, to do is instead of looking at people as a.
00:15:21 Fouad Masri
Who?
00:15:22 Fouad Masri
You know all the, all Sunni or the Austria, all the all Palestinians. Look at them as individuals. My neighbor, for example, my my college classmate, my high school classmate, or maybe you, a mom or or a family, have neighbors who are most of the kids are playing together.
00:15:27 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:15:43 Fouad Masri
Great. What can we do to focus on them? To share with them. What does you say about fasting? Yeah. And the reason like that verse.
00:15:51 Fouad Masri
Is it says no one should know because it's a discipline between you and him. It is not earning points.
00:15:59 Paul Cardall
Or go into the closet and.
00:16:01 Paul Cardall
Pray is what Jesus said is.
00:16:02 Paul Cardall
Don't let your prayers be heard. Obviously there's public prayers for ritual and ordinances, but.
00:16:11 Paul Cardall
For the most part, yeah, we're to. It's to be done.
00:16:13 Paul Cardall
And.
00:16:14 Paul Cardall
Secret. But I like the word sacred when we it seems like we have sacred experiences spiritually and and then we'll go and we'll share that experience. And and I found in all the years of lecturing and speaking that I would I would share these spiritual experiences.
00:16:34 Paul Cardall
I had to help me get a testimony and that it I was sharing it so much it became less sacred.
00:16:44 Fouad Masri
Yeah, sure.
00:16:44 Paul Cardall
So I like what you're saying about.
00:16:48 Paul Cardall
Fasting and prayer is such a sacred.
00:16:54 Paul Cardall
Moment, moment and and and it was it was that the apostles were trying to bring a cast, a demon out, and they went to Jesus. We can't do it. Why can't we do it? And Jesus response was so simple. This kind comes out not.
00:17:14 Paul Cardall
By faith alone, but by fasting and by prayer. I don't think people.
00:17:17 Fouad Masri
And great.
00:17:22 Paul Cardall
And maybe I'm generalizing, but I don't. Do people really understand the power in fasting? It you know, why is it from?
00:17:31 Paul Cardall
Your own personal experiences. Why is fasting?
00:17:34 Paul Cardall
Been more.
00:17:36 Paul Cardall
Do I want to say more effective?
00:17:38 Fouad Masri
I mean, first time it hit me, I was a young believer and my classmate Kamal, who was a Shia. It was fasting time for a Ramadan time and I was just eating my sandwich and he looked at me, he goes.
00:17:52 Fouad Masri
Don't eat in front of me.
00:17:55 Fouad Masri
And I said, excuse me because I'm fasting Ramadan.
00:17:59 Fouad Masri
I said OK, but I'm not. And he goes well. Still, you shouldn't eat because you tempt me. And then for the first time, I said to myself, why is he controlling me? If it's about him? That's right. It's like me saying, you know, you can't drive because my car is in the shop. OK. Your car in the shop.
00:18:07 Paul Cardall
So interesting.
00:18:17 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:18:20 Fouad Masri
That so it hit me that the weight fasting is designed.
00:18:25 Fouad Masri
Is to show God how good you.
00:18:28 Fouad Masri
Are.
00:18:28 Fouad Masri
Look at me. I don't eat. So don't tempt me there. So I he was my classmates. My friend said, come on. I mean, hey, fasting, you're always tempted. If it's not by me eating, you might be driving by a restaurant. You smell the food and you're usually when you fast, you smell and your taste.
00:18:39 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:18:40 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:18:45 Paul Cardall
Yeah. Yeah, so.
00:18:47 Fouad Masri
Yes, so ohh.
00:18:49 Fouad Masri
It but it hit me that what does Jesus say about fasting? When I looked into scriptures young believer I found that fasting is something you do because out of focus and many times anybody. If you're a musician, if you're an artist, if you're, you know a businessman, you get so busy you never stop to eat just because you're busy, you prioritize something else.
00:19:10 Fouad Masri
You're not gonna sit there and you know fry an egg and cook, so to to make a understanding of the Christian cause of fasting. It's done as needed between you and God. Now some people like lent I I use lent as a way to discipline, but God is not measure.
00:19:28 Fouad Masri
I mean, how many times, you know, I swallowed. How many times I had water or he's not measuring that.
00:19:34 Paul Cardall
Because not an umpire.
00:19:35 Fouad Masri
Thank you very much. And and this is where I love the the text. My my response to follow Christ was not out of because everybody else is bad. It's I found something so beautiful in the relationship with the.
00:19:49 Fouad Masri
God almighty, many people misunderstand. When you talk about the divine.
00:19:53 Fouad Masri
They look at it from a human point of view or different religions. You know that divine is is always to be feared and and God saying no. Yeah, fear me, I am almighty. But I am the loving God. Yeah, the the, the the word. God is love is repeated multiple times in the teachings of Christ.
00:19:57
Yeah.
00:20:13 Fouad Masri
And the the verse do not fear I am with you from the genesis to revelation. Do not fear. I'm with you. It's repeated 365.
00:20:21 Paul Cardall
Times.
00:20:21 Paul Cardall
There is fear is in there so much.
00:20:25 Paul Cardall
And at the.
00:20:26 Paul Cardall
It is the root cause of why.
00:20:30 Paul Cardall
People commit sin. It's all.
00:20:33 Paul Cardall
Fear.
00:20:35 Fouad Masri
So you're afraid for the future. Afraid from you don't have enough money. You're afraid from somebody hating you or you know you're afraid somebody's gonna take your land. So you you you create this system where I'm better than others kill. And I'm glad we're focusing a little bit on the book, but the whole idea of the book is not we. I wanted to write a book.
00:20:42 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:20:54 Fouad Masri
What I want to do is is have my brothers and sisters who are believers.
00:20:57 Fouad Masri
Have tools you know, like you have a toolbox, you have a screwdriver hammer, you know a saw. So what? What happened is that the the the goal of it is here are tools for you to share with your Muslim friend. Now when you meet a Muslim you show respect and love. But at the same time you it's OK let's agree.
00:20:59 Paul Cardall
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:17 Fouad Masri
Yeah, I can. I can be your friend with someone and still disagree with.
00:21:21 Paul Cardall
Them, yeah.
00:21:21 Fouad Masri
So the the chapters are designed very short with practical ways that the other thing that is I wanted to say that they don't know.
00:21:30 Fouad Masri
I remember one of the people I met who was reading the Bible, he said. He said I went to show me an amount.
00:21:39 Fouad Masri
And I could not sleep. It was so beautiful, though convicting another Islamic teacher in Damascus, she decided, hey, I'm a Muslim teacher. Let me read the engine. Let me read the New Testament, just to know what the belief, what them Christians believe. She was shocked she got baptized 2 years later because she was overwhelmed with the love of Christ.
00:21:42 Announcer
Yeah.
00:22:00 Fouad Masri
The words of Christ, and the reason I'm sharing this, is that many Muslims are pious.
00:22:06 Fouad Masri
Many Muslims want to know they just not. It's not available for them and and so it's exciting to see how God uses us when we speak to them and exciting to see how people are coming to faith because they need the words.
00:22:22 Fouad Masri
Of Christ.
00:22:23 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:22:25 Paul Cardall
Well, you know, for example in your book, this is what's.
00:22:27 Paul Cardall
Great.
00:22:28 Paul Cardall
Is this is on page 160, abrogation and the life of Muhammad?
00:22:36 Paul Cardall
And then abrogation attacks the power of God. So you're basically laying out kind of the Islamic perspective and then the Christian perspective.
00:22:50 Paul Cardall
For example, let's go. Let's go to chapter 18, the Paul myth, St. Paul. I don't know why, but he's always been kind of a controversial.
00:23:00 Paul Cardall
Subject in Christianity because he came after the life of Jesus and after the apostles were authorized to go out and teach and cast demons out, Paul comes around and then the earliest writings.
00:23:16 Paul Cardall
That the that.
00:23:17 Paul Cardall
The Roman Empire could find come from Paul.
00:23:20 Paul Cardall
Everything else is oral tradition.
00:23:22 Paul Cardall
So and tell tell us about Chapter 18, the Paul myth, and how that relates, you know, to Islam.
00:23:33 Fouad Masri
Paul Paul is a great example for us on.
00:23:36 Fouad Masri
The power of.
00:23:37 Fouad Masri
God. Yeah. Because he was a terrorist, he wanted to kill the Christians.
00:23:42 Paul Cardall
Saying that you give him that name and.
00:23:43 Fouad Masri
Exactly. He was literally a terrorist one when they stoned Stephen. Yeah. He had no business being there. He just showed up and said, oh, yeah, you're right. Let's continue. Steven stone. Him because Steven was not talking to Paul. He was telling somebody else.
00:23:44 Paul Cardall
That he was a terrorist.
00:23:58 Fouad Masri
Saw.
00:23:59 Fouad Masri
So one he had no business there. Second, he took it.
00:24:01 Fouad Masri
On his on himself to chase the believers when even the Jewish leaders didn't have time, they were busy with the Romans. So yeah, we know the Jewish leaders said, you know, don't speak the words of Christ, you know? Yeah. And they thought it's over, you know, he's a rabbi who crucified him. And then the story was they stole the body. But no, there was resurrection.
00:24:22 Fouad Masri
And that's the proof that the gospel is true, because there is no reason human reason why the Christian faith could continue because there was 12/12 fishermen that were hiding. Why did it explode this way? It means the the founder.
00:24:36 Fouad Masri
Of the faith, the GS, the Messiah, is not dead anymore. He is alive. He is leading the church. It's not a human person that's leading the church.
00:24:46 Paul Cardall
Maybe because these guys I mean to the at the very end, they're all denying, they're all scattering, they're all running away. Yeah, the the church is not going to survive without some.
00:24:53 Fouad Masri
Yes.
00:24:59 Paul Cardall
Other massive miracle he couldn't even get them to fully believe and commit after after Lazarus was.
00:25:06 Paul Cardall
Right.
00:25:08 Paul Cardall
There was always convicted, but then at the very end you know, so yes, certainly it makes sense.
00:25:14 Fouad Masri
That there was.
00:25:15 Paul Cardall
A resurrection at Jesus not.
00:25:18 Paul Cardall
Been raised from the dead and witnessed by not just them, but hundreds of people. Yeah, it makes sense. Why there'd be no.
00:25:28 Paul Cardall
It's the icing on the cake.
00:25:30 Fouad Masri
You know, so and there's good. And the reason I say Paul was a terrorist because he got letters. He he went he initiated get the letters and he was going all the way as far as the masters and then the Risen Lord Jesus the Messiah appears to him and he turns his life around.
00:25:31 Paul Cardall
Sorry.
00:25:38 Paul Cardall
That's right.
00:25:48 Fouad Masri
The Paul.
00:25:50 Fouad Masri
Is for us a proof that not only God is moving, but he can take something so bad and make it so good. Wow, this is something no other religion has. Wow, only the Bible says I can take a Sinner and make him sing. He took somebody like Saul, who he says I'm the least.
00:26:10 Fouad Masri
And it gave him so much miracles. Salvations people were getting saved with them. He went all the way from Jerusalem to Illyricum and then from Jerusalem, all the way to Rome. We we don't think he made it to Spain. Tradition believes that he was executed in Rome.
00:26:28 Fouad Masri
But traditionally speaking, anytime people want to criticize the New Testament, they criticize Paul because they say the majority. The New Testament has these epistles and majority of these letters are from Paul, which means he is the one who.
00:26:42 Fouad Masri
Designed to share it.
00:26:43 Paul Cardall
And he's a Roman. And it was the Roman Empire that adopted Christianity and then started to organize a a church, and thus.
00:26:53 Paul Cardall
Out of that.
00:26:54 Fouad Masri
But but the sad part is there, there's a misunderstanding of how the the history happens.
00:26:55 Paul Cardall
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:01 Fouad Masri
So the the band of Christians did not have printing press. Now the band of Christians were not didn't have any legal status. They were they were being killed by the Jewish people, angry at that moment because they considered them atheists because they did not believe in the gods. So as Paul was writing, he was not writing any place where it was.
00:27:14 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:27:21 Fouad Masri
Easy. He was writing under persecution all the same with John, with Matthew. So these writings are are alongside now some scholars would like to be.
00:27:31 Fouad Masri
You know, you go in and say, OK, is it near 40 or the year 50, OK, in history, you're still dealing with about 10 year difference. Yeah, you can argue Revelation was maybe written 1980, but that's possibly maybe not because that's maybe what we have as as records. We can try to.
00:27:51 Fouad Masri
Is it a little bit, but we don't have these things #1 #2 with.
00:27:56 Fouad Masri
Paul most liberal theologians, they if they don't like something in the bio.
00:28:02 Fouad Masri
Well, you know which trash this is, what bugs me about someone. They spin it. So for example, if I read the Bible and it doesn't fit my perception, then the Bible is wrong. But if it fits my perception, then Bible.
00:28:05 Paul Cardall
They spent it.
00:28:14 Fouad Masri
Is right, it's.
00:28:14 Fouad Masri
About I tell people which we should change our lifestyle to fit the Bible, not change the Bible to fit our lifestyle, you know.
00:28:15 Fouad Masri
Yeah.
00:28:22 Paul Cardall
Yeah, because they're.
00:28:23 Paul Cardall
They're digging. They're like, well, maybe it's translated incorrectly. Maybe we need to look at the Hebrew. Maybe it's the Greek. Maybe it's their mic. The bottom line is, you know.
00:28:34 Paul Cardall
It these were stories about real people, real events.
00:28:39 Paul Cardall
They didn't write things down unless they were high up, you know, you know that Jesus would draw in the dirt, so we knew he he he was literate, but for the most. And he read the scrolls. But for the most part everybody else was not. You know, when Paul comes into it.
00:28:54 Fouad Masri
Listen.
00:28:57 Paul Cardall
As an educated.
00:28:58 Fouad Masri
M.
00:29:00 Paul Cardall
Intelligent, respected leader in Judaism, but also as part of the Roman Empire. This Romano's Paul as as a as a Jew he is.
00:29:10 Fouad Masri
By the 1st.
00:29:15 Fouad Masri
So.
00:29:16 Fouad Masri
Yeah.
00:29:17 Fouad Masri
The thing that Islam brings today.
00:29:20 Fouad Masri
Islam always says that Jesus taught that Muhammad is coming after.
00:29:25 Fouad Masri
Or less than than the Bible of nowhere. That's not even in the autistic that somebody called Mohammed is coming. But in the New Testament, it's clear Jesus says I am the door for the sheep, then no one else coming after me. I am the same chosen poor, but traditionally they tell their people and what I mean by their people, by their children. They always feed their children.
00:29:46 Fouad Masri
And wrong information about Islam, about kushari.
00:29:49 Paul Cardall
The data, they don't know that they're doing.
00:29:52 Fouad Masri
That, but they don't know do that because the.
00:29:53 Fouad Masri
Parents don't so.
00:29:54 Paul Cardall
It's it's cultural tradition.
00:29:56 Fouad Masri
That so so as a as a Muslim, I'm told that the reason Islam is best because they worship one God. Christians worship three. Well, that's not true. We don't worship 3, but you already put it like.
00:30:07 Paul Cardall
That's early in the that's very early on in the Quran.
00:30:08 Fouad Masri
Exactly.
00:30:10 Fouad Masri
Exactly. The other thing is they say that Jesus staying to prepare the way for Mommy.
00:30:16 Fouad Masri
The pole changed, so we're we're trying to answer is how to respond respectfully to your Muslim friend. But move the conversation. See you have to reach the mind so you can reach the heart. Sometimes you reach the heart and then you reach the mind. Yeah, but many times when you're talking to Muslims who already have wrong information.
00:30:36 Fouad Masri
You need to touch the mind first. Yes, you can just say ohh they have wrong information. I'm just.
00:30:40 Fouad Masri
Gonna move on.
00:30:41 Fouad Masri
Or I'm just gonna say, Salaam alaikum. And leave. No, no. You have to answer. So, Paul, for us, it's proof that God is alive. Jesus alive. And the God Incarnate is alive. This number one. Number two is that.
00:30:55 Fouad Masri
Hmm.
00:30:56 Fouad Masri
A Paul does not have to change the Christian faith. He has no reason to do that. He was in a good situation. He was a piracy. Yeah, he was Jewish. He was a Roman citizen. Why would he want to take a Christian faith and destroy it? It was. They had no power. So for him to join the movement.
00:31:16 Fouad Masri
That he was against does not have any reasonable sense, especially that he lost his life.
00:31:21 Paul Cardall
For him, he makes no sense.
00:31:23 Paul Cardall
Lost everything.
00:31:25 Fouad Masri
So if if if you say oh, he joined to become a St. One guy said to me one time, yeah, all these people follow GS because they knew they would be Saints in the future.
00:31:33 Fouad Masri
I'm like winning scenes in the future. The Roman Empire, the Roman Catholic Church, that exist till the 1000 and you know so.
00:31:41 Paul Cardall
That's right, people. People think the Catholic Church started from the beginning. There was a church, there was a church, and the politics got to the point where there were so many people who claimed to have leadership as the church got so much power over kings that, yeah, it got to this point.
00:32:02 Fouad Masri
So, so the beautiful.
00:32:03 Fouad Masri
About their character is how to respond to many times and many times we as believers think that the only tool in our toolbox is a hammer.
00:32:06
Yeah.
00:32:13 Fouad Masri
And that's not true. So I I pushed the idea to be like or savior Jesus, where he said he asked questions. Who do you?
00:32:21 Fouad Masri
Say that I am.
00:32:23 Fouad Masri
You know, and who is my neighbor? He answered that question. The other one is who? Who has loved more. The one who was was forgiven less, or was forgiven. More. Yeah. So many times when you talk to your Muslim friend, we ask questions. So for example, doesn't make sense for someone.
00:32:40 Fouad Masri
Was it religious leader? Any Jewish sect called the Pharisees to decide to lose their life talking about the the, the the team or their religion or the group that just came to say all the fulfillment has happened? The Messiah has come. Yeah. I mean, as a Jewish person.
00:33:00 Fouad Masri
Christ is an enigma because.
00:33:03 Fouad Masri
That Christ was from the tribe of Judah.
00:33:05
Oh.
00:33:06 Fouad Masri
The Jewish leader didn't accept him, but everything about him fulfills the prophecy. So you're you're. You're in this crossroads, this intersection. Either he's the Messiah or he's not. Mm-hmm. Yeah, you know, that's where the idea is. He's a Messiah or a lunatic because.
00:33:14 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:33:21 Paul Cardall
Well, this is this is the debate between Paul and Barnabas that you have. Barnabas was the one who said Christ did not.
00:33:24 Fouad Masri
Exactly.
00:33:29 Paul Cardall
Did not was not spread out or laid out on a cross.
00:33:32 Fouad Masri
No, that was the main thing about someone else. Yeah. Barnabas. No, Barnabas is the Barnabas. And Paul's thought on one thing she will bring John, Mark and Paul. Paul was disappointed with John Mark, cause John Mark left half way. So Paul wanted people to stay with them the whole trip.
00:33:34
Is.
00:33:40 Paul Cardall
OK.
00:33:51 Paul Cardall
Yeah, mark.
00:33:51 Fouad Masri
And Barnabas, which means the. Yeah. And the Barnabas, which means a son of.
00:33:57 Fouad Masri
Encouragement he had he his view was. No. No. Let's give the guy a second chance that we'll talk about John Mark, the one who wrote the book of Mark. Yeah. So John mark. Historians believe that he was related to the apostle Peter. OK. And probably they were all you.
00:33:58 Paul Cardall
OK.
00:34:14 Paul Cardall
They were all.
00:34:16 Paul Cardall
Know in.
00:34:16 Paul Cardall
They.
00:34:16 Paul Cardall
Were.
00:34:16 Fouad Masri
The village in the village.
00:34:17 Paul Cardall
And they were all.
00:34:18 Fouad Masri
Connected so. So they think that Jean Marc sat with Peter and wrote his memoirs like, because Mark's Gospel is very short. Yeah, Mark Gospels very quick and then mark.
00:34:24 Paul Cardall
Interesting.
00:34:29 Fouad Masri
Gospels could have been used as a as a drama because we know that in certain communities where the Christian faith was not being persecuted, they would do stuff in the.
00:34:45 Fouad Masri
In the public spaces. So some of the scenes or some of the writings where you know will say something it was night time and the sun was setting. Yeah, well, that's a redundancy. Well, maybe two people were reading so that the audience will listen. There's a church. I I was in a church building. Old old church building.
00:35:05 Fouad Masri
And them.
00:35:07 Fouad Masri
In Cyprus and it's beautiful, it's the the buildings built in front of this huge area where people can sit and listen. So it looks like before you entered the building, you had an area where you can hear the gospel and there was a Baptist baptistry where two people, only two people can stand. And it was designed.
00:35:24 Paul Cardall
OK.
00:35:28 Fouad Masri
A shape of.
00:35:28 Fouad Masri
A cross. So it looks like somebody will hear the the hearing of the book of Mark or. Yeah. And they say yes, I want to follow Christ. They baptize him.
00:35:29 Paul Cardall
Yes.
00:35:37 Fouad Masri
And they enter the church. And so it's it's exciting to see some of that ruins gonna add to the point that the Gospels were interactive. It wasn't that they read it on the book. It might have been read out loud.
00:35:49 Paul Cardall
They each have, they each have a different style. You know, Matthews more about the genealogical aspect of Jesus. And you know the son of David. Luke. It it feels like it's through the lens of Mary, the mother and the other women, because who else knows about the the, you know, the the the conception of Christ and all these.
00:36:09 Paul Cardall
Things. And then you have.
00:36:10 Paul Cardall
Mark, it's interesting you say that, Mark.
00:36:13 Paul Cardall
It may have been this, this play that was.
00:36:16 Paul Cardall
Put out into the.
00:36:17 Paul Cardall
Public that everybody observed and the greatest story ever told, but the chosen, which is the biblical series Dallas Jenkins, they use mark quite a bit.
00:36:29 Paul Cardall
If and marks an easy read.
00:36:32 Paul Cardall
And it's it's, yeah, if you have not.
00:36:35 Paul Cardall
Read the book of Mark. It's really.
00:36:38 Paul Cardall
And really easy and it's very concise.
00:36:40 Fouad Masri
Figs. And from the beginning it tells you what what is the goal of the book? Yeah, it says the beginning. It says Mark that right you read Mark. The first line is the beginning of the good news which we use Evangelion. The good news.
00:36:52 Fouad Masri
Of Jesus, the Messiah, son of God, for that term, son of God for the Romans, and for the Jewish people meant.
00:37:00 Fouad Masri
Sprint, but it meant special.
00:37:02 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:37:03 Fouad Masri
You know, no one else was given that type. Some of you mean this special. So if you were Roman, it means this God intervening. If you were Jewish, it means this is the Messiah. Because that's exactly what the high priest, as our savior, he.
00:37:16 Fouad Masri
Goes are you?
00:37:17 Fouad Masri
The son of the living God, you know.
00:37:20 Fouad Masri
And Jesus said yes, I am and and that's when he told, he says. We don't need any more witnesses. He just blasphemes and. And, you know, he told his garments and and the powerful thing about the text. That's why people should never read the Bible book is Christ had already proven.
00:37:25 Paul Cardall
There's his garments.
00:37:36 Fouad Masri
In his ministry that he is, he is the Messiah not only by fulfilling prophecies, by the way he spoke by the miracles he did so miracles. He proved he's different. And if you look at the history of the Old Testament, the, the, the, even the to being all the all the historians, there was no time of miracles.
00:37:39
MHM.
00:37:58 Fouad Masri
Has powerful terms of Jesus. You see them come up like Moses and Elijah, you know, come up. But then with Christ, they're raising the dead. Walking on water. Yeah.
00:37:59
Yeah.
00:38:02 Paul Cardall
And there's a couple.
00:38:04 Paul Cardall
So.
00:38:07 Paul Cardall
It's not just raising one, but many people.
00:38:11 Paul Cardall
Jerry's daughter, I mean the the son of a Roman soldier. It goes on and on, Lazarus.
00:38:18 Fouad Masri
And the one that strikes at the heart of the Jewish religion, with whose faith is leprosy when Christ.
00:38:26 Fouad Masri
Was able to heal leprosy.
00:38:27 Fouad Masri
Yeah. Which is the sign of God's punishment. Yeah. And so, you know, when you read the text.
00:38:27 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:38:33 Fouad Masri
If, oh, should Christ is proving to them, yes, I am the son of the living God and the word son is like the same like son of man. So Christ has different titles because he is God's will become flesh. So that's one thing now. So Mark kicks it off. Beginning of the good news. What is the good news? What is the good news?
00:38:54 Fouad Masri
Of Jesus, the Messiah, son of.
00:38:55 Fouad Masri
God. Ohh. I wanna hear that. Mm-hmm.
00:38:58 Fouad Masri
What is the good news that Christ?
00:39:00 Fouad Masri
Has come to save us, save us from our sin, from our weaknesses, from from what? What draws us to be in going ending our life and away from God.
00:39:09 Paul Cardall
Yeah, fills us with love. That conquers hate.
00:39:14 Fouad Masri
And the book of focus on one thing, because I like to pull it off subscription. The biggest focus is that.
00:39:21 Fouad Masri
Most people think that we love God because we're afraid of hell.
00:39:27 Fouad Masri
But the point is for God. He's welcoming us to family. Yeah, so hell is the presence of God to a.
00:39:35 Fouad Masri
Sinner.
00:39:36 Fouad Masri
Heaven is the presence of God to a believer, yes. And so for me, during Ramadan I I I fast and pray for my Muslim friends so they will know that.
00:39:47 Fouad Masri
God loves them. They don't have to prove they don't have to do that, and in Islam they have so many rules. Like when you when you fast.
00:39:56 Fouad Masri
You cannot swallow. You cannot smoke. And it's, it's so many weird stuff you cannot have other things. So. And then, yeah, after sunset once sunset happens, then all that we do. So one of the enigma in Islam today is that the month of fasting becomes the month.
00:40:15 Fouad Masri
That we eat the most food in the most expensive. So most emails tell you? Well, it's not about fasting. Ramadan is when.
00:40:23 Fouad Masri
The Quran was given. So we need to be happy. We need to feast. OK, So what is it? Is it are we fasting to discipline ourselves? Yeah, our feasting because we're happy that God is given. So most of us they have that question. Why am I fasting? Is it am I fasting enough in how the rules also how do you break the fast?
00:40:43 Fouad Masri
You start with the date or the bowl of soup, or you know all these rules, while when comes to the Christian faith, Jesus is very clear.
00:40:51 Fouad Masri
When you're fast, no one should know this between you and God, you could choose to not eat. You could choose to France from something specific. Some people fast from the news. It doesn't matter what you do, but the fast thing is for us to be disciplined and focus on God, not to say, OK, you know, I'm feasting.
00:40:57
Yeah.
00:41:12 Fouad Masri
Because the Quran was given for me, I'm I'm not eating because I want to show God. Look how disciplined I am in, in the Christian believers, those who call themselves followers of Christ. This is our time to show love. Listen, ask questions.
00:41:27 Fouad Masri
And even with this war in Gaza, what a great opportunity to listen to somebody. I'm praying for peace. We are here to pray for peace. God does not love people dying.
00:41:37 Paul Cardall
No, no, not at all.
00:41:40 Paul Cardall
You're talking about fasting and I do.
00:41:43 Paul Cardall
You know, I'm a big believer that it is something you do.
00:41:47 Paul Cardall
Definitely there are faiths where they do it collectively, but it's a sacred experience and the the the faith I grew up in was we would fast once a month, the first Sunday of the month. But what we would do is take the money that we would have spent on those meals.
00:42:08 Paul Cardall
And we put it in an.
00:42:09 Paul Cardall
Envelope and we give it off.
00:42:10 Paul Cardall
To the Bishop.
00:42:11 Paul Cardall
Who then uses that as a fun?
00:42:14 Paul Cardall
And to help those within the the jurisdiction of the Parish Award neighborhood to eliminate poverty. Right. So if there's a person who is struggling paying their electric bill instead of just handing them a check, they'll call the electric company and and pay it so.
00:42:35 Paul Cardall
And that's a collective that's beautiful, different and fasting where there's there's so many elements of the gospel there. But I also think of one big fat.
00:42:37 Fouad Masri
I'm gone.
00:42:48 Paul Cardall
Just that changed.
00:42:51 Paul Cardall
Dramatically, that part of the world went Gandhi fasted, you know, and Gandhi never, he said he was a Christian, a Muslim and Hindi and any other element of faith. That's not.
00:43:11 Paul Cardall
Pretty much not a jerk that brings goodness and kindness, but but he chose to fast, but he didn't send out a press release.
00:43:21 Paul Cardall
His people were like you don't understand everybody. He's fasting. We don't want gun. He's already a little thin man. We don't want him to die. And he got to the point where the entire nation that was divided.
00:43:38 Paul Cardall
In the Christian and Muslim that act alone of him choosing to to fast.
00:43:47 Paul Cardall
Changed and created India and the border of Pakistan and so that is that is 1.
00:43:57 Fouad Masri
And he yeah.
00:43:58 Paul Cardall
Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
00:43:59 Fouad Masri
And he did not want to split India. He believed it. Yeah. Everybody can live together, which is very much of A Christian teaching. Absolutely, because the concept is live at peace with everyone means it's OK if somebody doesn't agree with us.
00:44:16 Fouad Masri
You know, sure. But the idea of living at peace, I mean you you're my neighbour. I might disagree. But you cannot hurt me. And I hurt you. And sometimes.
00:44:25 Fouad Masri
That people fight over the minor.
00:44:27 Fouad Masri
Things.
00:44:28 Fouad Masri
You know they give.
00:44:29 Fouad Masri
For example, I might not like eating pork and somebody might like bacon for me to fight over that. It becomes a a reason to hurt each other instead of saying fine, you know, here you can eat your bacon. I don't need my bacon, OK?
00:44:44 Fouad Masri
The.
00:44:44 Paul Cardall
Same pork is not bacon, bacon is not.
00:44:48 Paul Cardall
A pork chop is.
00:44:48 Fouad Masri
What? What?
00:44:50 Paul Cardall
A pork chop is not a.
00:44:51 Fouad Masri
By the way, no, there was that Turkey bacon. It's like you remember. I'm like, I love.
00:44:54 Paul Cardall
Turkey bacon.
00:44:57 Fouad Masri
America, that's like.
00:44:58
OK.
00:44:58 Paul Cardall
That's like your five, you know, five Jewish.
00:45:00 Paul Cardall
I might be able to eat it because it's Turkey bacon. They just need to get rid of.
00:45:05 Paul Cardall
The word bacon.
00:45:06 Paul Cardall
And I'll feel comfortable having that in my house.
00:45:08 Fouad Masri
Well.
00:45:09
Yes, Sir.
00:45:09 Paul Cardall
Which reminds me of like.
00:45:11 Paul Cardall
I know this is random. My grandfather would never have a sucker in his mouth.
00:45:15 Fouad Masri
Hmm.
00:45:16 Paul Cardall
Because he didn't want anyone to think that he had a cigarette in his.
00:45:20 Paul Cardall
Mouth.
00:45:24 Paul Cardall
Perception. Yeah, perception. You know, the the even the appearance of evil. You know? So. So yeah, enough of the Turkey bacon people.
00:45:29
Wow.
00:45:34 Fouad Masri
But but the the thing that really unburden for this month of Ramadan and this it's kind.
00:45:41 Fouad Masri
Of.
00:45:41 Fouad Masri
Coinciding with land. Yeah. Is that what a great opportunity. Then we can break that.
00:45:48 Fouad Masri
Test.
00:45:49 Fouad Masri
With our Muslim neighbor, we're Muslim friend. Yeah. If they're breaking, they called iftar. If they're doing iftar, you go visit with them, say, sit down, eat with them, you ask him questions, you know why we're fasting, why we're breaking fast now.
00:46:02 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:46:03 Fouad Masri
A question I'd like to ask a question like will this help me go to heaven? How do I know I'm going to heaven, you know? Good question. How your Muslim friend think now sometimes you're gonna find out. Most Muslims are not fasting cause most Muslims are nominal. So they would say they're fasting but they're not following exact rules.
00:46:20 Paul Cardall
Well, that's like Catholics.
00:46:22
You know.
00:46:24 Paul Cardall
My mother-in-law.
00:46:26 Paul Cardall
She she for Lent? She gives up sweets, sweets, but then you know. Then we pile it on on Easter. You know, some good vino and some of the other things that she she likes. But she she gives that up. It is interesting. You you made a good point though. So often when we are with people of other faiths.
00:46:32 Fouad Masri
That's the word.
00:46:46 Paul Cardall
We want to tell them.
00:46:48 Paul Cardall
What we know because we love it with all our hearts and we see it as the reason we have joy. Well, it is. But you do something that I think people need to to understand. You ask questions before you tell them. You get their mind stimulated.
00:47:09 Paul Cardall
Because people love.
00:47:11 Paul Cardall
To share, it releases the dopamine people love to talk, and so, you know, having been a missionary, that process, slated to people of all faiths, I realized that it was not. We weren't going to get anywhere unless we just asked question.
00:47:31 Paul Cardall
You know, and that you know the number one question people got excited about. When I'd say tell me about.
00:47:38 Paul Cardall
Your ancestors.
00:47:42 Fouad Masri
Wow, everyone's talking about their family line.
00:47:44 Paul Cardall
Tell me your heritage. Where? Where are you from? Where's? Where's your? You know? And you do have to be careful in a politically correct society today, but we're we're and and and when you get people talking about their family, you know, like tell me about your son. Tell me about your daughter. You know which one's your favorite?
00:47:47 Fouad Masri
Mm-hmm.
00:48:06 Paul Cardall
But it stimulates. I really like.
00:48:09 Fouad Masri
Well, you don't know I'm.
00:48:11 Paul Cardall
Really going to attack concept and that principle of.
00:48:16 Paul Cardall
Asking intently and waiting for their response. You know, like you're coaching them through and I think we both learn.
00:48:29 Fouad Masri
Absolutely. And it's always good to listen. The other thing we notice that sometimes.
00:48:36 Fouad Masri
Things might not be said just sitting with someone.
00:48:40 Fouad Masri
Showing that you're a true friend, I asked. I asked our team. Our ministry, do you have a Jewish neighbor?
00:48:49 Fouad Masri
Sit down with them and just listen. Give a Palestinian neighbor. Yeah, you know, sit down and listen. Most people say, well, we, you know who's right was wrong, you know, sometimes.
00:48:59 Fouad Masri
You just here's what it listens and Jesus says to pray with those who are mourning, you know, maybe somebody lost a loved one, you know whether right or wrong. You, you know, that's not the point. Now the point is just sit, sit and listen. Maybe read some 23, maybe read some with them. The, the, the whole push for us.
00:49:14 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:49:16 Paul Cardall
Yeah.
00:49:20 Fouad Masri
Ensuring Jesus.
00:49:21 Fouad Masri
Is that this is our responsibility before I'm a teacher, I will present my savior before I'm a bus driver. I represent my savior before I'm a musician. I represent my savior before I'm even a minister of the Gospel. I represent Jesus before I represent my whatever denomination or theology. So Christ clearly says you are my ambassadors. Yeah.
00:49:37 Paul Cardall
Yeah, yeah.
00:49:44 Paul Cardall
Well, we're, you know, we already talked about it on another episode, but I think everyone ought to get this book sharing Jesus with Muslims. Do you?
00:49:52 Paul Cardall
Have any other?
00:49:54 Paul Cardall
You working?
00:49:54 Fouad Masri
And it shows us working.
00:49:55 Paul Cardall
Aren't you?
00:49:55 Paul Cardall
On a new book.
00:49:56 Fouad Masri
Buck. Yes. There's a new book called Grow. Grow in grace. Just came out on Kindle. OK. And they can find all my books that I wrote out on Amazon. Amazon.com just put fraud mastery. But cheering Jesus Muslims committing Muslims, ambassadors to Muslims, they're all.
00:50:14 Fouad Masri
I'm.
00:50:15 Paul Cardall
And then also the Crescent project now can tell us quickly what the Crescent project is and you know, I'd like to encourage people to show some support and somehow because you're ministering, you are going out, you are teaching.
00:50:35 Paul Cardall
That you're doing what Isaiah said. Come, let us reason together.
00:50:39 Paul Cardall
That we might have understanding and the greatest thing we can do is help support that and the Crescent.
00:50:46 Fouad Masri
Yeah, it's called the website CP hope Sorry Crescent project, hope so cphope.org, we are now in 107 countries as of December. Last year we had connected with 1,000,000.
00:50:53
Uh-huh.
00:50:56 Announcer
Wow.
00:51:00 Fouad Masri
360,000 seekers online just from the Muslim world, from countries like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and the the other thing that I think people would like to know is that a lot of our.
00:51:14 Fouad Masri
People who come to our digital websites, they are downloading the Bible. There's such a hunger to read the words of Jesus and I like that because we're not forcing anybody. We're just saying here it's available so ccphope.org they can get involved, they can be interns, they can support the work also. We have a big conference coming up April.
00:51:35 Fouad Masri
16 all online, called Sahara Challenge people can sign up. OK Sahara challenge is very intensive course and we're expecting thousands from multiple countries to be joining.
00:51:47 Paul Cardall
Us. Yeah. So that's I think that's the best.
00:51:50 Paul Cardall
Thing if you have.
00:51:51 Paul Cardall
Muslim friends, Muslim neighbors and you're passionate.
00:51:56 Paul Cardall
About sharing the gospel, the the good news of Jesus Christ. Go to to see the hope.
00:52:02 Paul Cardall
Dot org and then sign up for this this online solonar and I think you're going to really, you know, I I love it. You know, I love it. You know, I love these conversations and the Middle East is one of my favorite places, having been to Oman.
00:52:19 Paul Cardall
To buy Jordan, I love Jordan.
00:52:22 Paul Cardall
That's beautiful. OK. And one of my good friends is a pianist in Jordan, Zaid durani, and has performed with with the Queen. And so anyways, I have great love for the that those people. And that's why I started reading the.
00:52:31 Fouad Masri
None.
00:52:39 Paul Cardall
Look, because I realized they're now giving all these towards you know, to to Christians that are coming to Israel, they want these experiences. They're a little nervous to go into Jordan because of we like to the news, loves to focus on the accident on the.
00:52:59 Paul Cardall
Side of the freeway.
00:53:00 Paul Cardall
So we all have to stop and pause and watch. But but Jordan was so great that I was.
00:53:05 Paul Cardall
Like you know.
00:53:06 Paul Cardall
I I don't know.
00:53:08 Paul Cardall
I really don't know the Quran and how shameful that is because how dare I say anything about another person's faith without first investigating it myself. And you know what, I concluded.
00:53:27 Paul Cardall
From investigating the crime, it's a beautiful.
00:53:32 Paul Cardall
Uh.
00:53:33 Paul Cardall
Book of Lamentations and a reminder list that the Christians of the past.
00:53:39 Paul Cardall
Failed, they failed and and dramatically took the Lord's name in vain, a sort of a perdition state in the way that they corrupted and killed and. And so it makes me.
00:53:54 Paul Cardall
By reading the Crown, go never again.
00:53:58 Paul Cardall
Never again.
00:54:01 Fouad Masri
Love is the only approach. Yeah. Good friend. Thanks. Thanks, man. Good to see you again.
00:54:06 Paul Cardall
Yeah. Yeah, we'll have you back again.
00:54:08 Paul Cardall
That I love these conversations.
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