CHRISTIAN CHARACTER SAVES A MUSLIM
From Betty Lukens--Nabil Kareen was a truck driver in the army of his country. But Nabil was more than a truck driver; he used his truck for smuggling, which was against Army rules. Nabil carried watches and quinine pills wrapped in bundles and hid them under the springs of his truck and, even though his truck was searched carefully by Army police, they were not found.
Time and time again Nabil was stopped, and time and time again he was not found out. From the Army, Nabil always went home to his Muslim family where his gambling, abusive parents and uncle lived. Nabil resented the severity of his father and the unrest of family life. He hated the shouting, the cursing and the blows that landed so often on his face.
By this time the money had had been paid for smuggling was gone, and he must find a job. Nabil and many friends heard of a strange group of people who were doing a lot of building. They were Christians and surely, Nabil thought, this must be a government concern and there should be lots of jobs and lots of money to be had. He found a lot of people, 250 of them, building a road, putting in water pipes and building a College. But, instead of being a government project, he found out this group was religious. He was impressed by them and attended their church to see just what was going on in there. The sermon on the Word of God impressed him so much that he went into the town and bought a Bible, and then he found shade under a pine tree and began to read.
Nabil secured a job helping them with the construction and noticed that these peculiar people never cursed each other. Their language was pure. They loved and respected one another. All of this fit in with his reading of the Bible. God began to speak to him. Deep down in his heart, he knew he was a sinner. His first act of dedication was to throw away his pack of cigarettes. He told his family about Jesus but they cursed him. He heard of some local Christian meetings and in spite of the warnings of his father that he would be cast out of his home if he was ever baptized, he came up out of the water happier than he had ever been in his life.
(From a sermon by Davon Huss, Armor of God #2, 10/26/2009)