Today I would like to honour a great Christian apologist, Dr Nabeel Qureshi, who this weekend went to be with the Lord. After a long period of conversation with his friend, David Wood, he converted from Islam to Christianity, dedicating his life to defending the faith and engaging with Muslims in grace and truth. The Lord blessed him by reconciling him to his Muslim parents before his death, and it is my prayer that they will know the comfort and love of God in this time of grieving. He also leaves behind a wife and children.

The Lord is doing great things in the Muslim world at this time, and Dr Qureshi leaves behind a legacy that, I pray, will continue to bear fruit to salvation in the lives of earnest seekers. This man had credibility with his audience because he had seen both sides of the divide:  he knew what it was like to live as “an average Muslim”, and he could also testify to the changed life he had as a consequence of entering into a relationship with Jesus. He spoke to the sincere questions that many Muslims have in response to doctrines like the Incarnation and the Trinity, but he also addressed ethics: how we live our daily lives in a way that honours God and our fellow human beings.

Now is a time when such men are needed. The challenge of this age is to show the love of Jesus to our enemies and to recognise the work of His Spirit in the unlikeliest of places. Those who have a true conception of love, those who live it in all sincerity, day in, day out – these people honour God. But we all need Jesus.

What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; as it is written, “There is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.”

-Roman 3:9-11