Wednesday, June 6, 2012

I Dared to Call Him Father by Richard A. Schneider and Bilquis Sheikh


Read on my Kindle!

Genre: Biography/Autobiography

Book Summary: Bilquis, a wealthy Muslim woman living in Pakistan in the 1960’s, has a spiritual crisis when she starts studying the Qur’an and the Bible alongside each other and realizes their differences and that they can’t both be true. She secretly meets with American missionaries, who share the gospel with her.  She is still skeptical until Jesus comes to her in a dream and reveals to her that He is the Messiah. She turns her life over to him, but is not immediately ready for the conflict that it causes in her life and family.

Indulgent Book Talk: After taking a short day-long course on basic Muslim beliefs, I was interested in this book and reading of God’s miraculous work in one Muslim woman’s life. This book is a quick read and very straight-forward, no literary show is put on here.

Glorifying Elements: This is a book about one woman’s journey of faith, there is little that is not glorifying. I think one of the main things that helps us grow as Christians, particularly if we have been in the faith for longer than a year or two, is to remind ourselves of God’s saving power and the beauty of the gospel. We should never “graduate” from the gospel, and testimonies like this one should remind us of Jesus’ work on the cross and infinite love for all who believe.

Worldly Elements: Sometimes Biliquis’s faith came across to me as somewhat mystical or too Pentecostal, but there was nothing overly alarming, and those elements may have been a result of cultural influence more than anything.

General Recommendation: A resounding yes, especially if you, like me, often feel the situation in the Middle East is hopeless. It’s not! God is moving everyday in countless lives. And this is just the story of one of them.

No comments:

Post a Comment