World Impact Ministries / Peter Youngren

Well said, Pastor Peter! Thank you for tackling this hot issue with the Truth. May your book become a best seller! I encourage everyone to get copies of the book for themselves and their friends. I’m sure it will open a healthy dialogue for the Love of Jesus to flow through. May each one of us do our part to be informed and then to engage our neighbours (of all cultures) into taking another look at Jesus. God Bless You!

Pastor Youngren:
Being born into an Islamic household, it saddens me to know that the people of Islamic faith are constantly attacked by western civilization - Gentiles - rather than to help them see the love of Christ through us. The Apostle Paul warns us in II Timothy 4: 2 and says ‘2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction.
The irony of it all is that the Gentiles share this type of hostility, hence to know it hurts. Nevertheless, teach the Muslims how to learn that Jesus has done everything for us as Apostle Paul informs us in Ephesians 2: 11 - 22. First for the Jews, then the Gentiles… Muslims plus many others. Looking at verse 15 -16, the Word tells us that ‘15His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.’ We must remember that, for even us, it is by grace we have been saved.
When we say we love God, we must love and pray for not just ours in Christ, likewise our brothers in Islam and others. In so doing, it is needless to defend our faith. The Lord reveals to me that it is always His plan that certain people come into our lives. They are there for, whether good or bad, them to help us set our hearts right with Him. The only way we ourselves including others shall know Christ does live in us is when we can express our faith in Jesus Christ whilst this faith is expressing itself through love; Galatians 5: 6. Jesus has raised the bar to love even those who we think do us wrong and not to be quick to judge. For as quickly as we judge others, He shall judge us. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Love 2 Love!
With Much Love,
Moji

I appreciate this commentary on this scandalous situation! When I see stuff like this going on my first natural response is to try and fix it or think how I could get both groups to get along. But in myself I can’t do it. Without Jesus being at the center of peoples lives, there will be no lasting peace. I like a poster I saw once that said. ‘NO JESUS, NO PEACE.(and then under that it said) KNOW JESUS, KNOW PEACE.’ One of the least known teaching of the bible is that God is for relationships, NOT religion! This is sad since the message of the cross of Jesus (the main message from GOD in the bible and all of history) is all about this.

Trying to please God through religious systems or our own efforts, being ‘good enough’, being ‘as gods, knowing good and evil’(Gen 3:5) for ourselves in order to command our own destiny and do it ourselves - the bible shows these religious ways of being as rejected by God from the start! A couple small examples of this Adam and Eve were the first religionists trying to be ‘as gods’ for themselves. Then look at their children, Cains offering to God was essentially the work of his hands (a vegetable offering) while Ables offering is by faith and it’s an animal sacrifice that points to the coming redeemer, The Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice of himself for us. Hebrews 10:10 says ‘...we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ Since he has been raised from the dead as well we can have God’s own Holy Spirit living in us right now!

This pattern of people looking to something other than ‘Jesus Christ, and him crucified’ is all through the bible and life, and we see the tragic and frustrating results. You can read in Genesis chapter 4 of how Cain has a murderous anger in his life that causes him to kill his own brother!

God has paid the price for the sin of the whole world, which is a lot since ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’(rom 3:23). This of course also includes all of the sin we see in this conflict of religions. Thankfully we don’t have to wait until we’re ‘good enough’ to come to God since he alone is good and has paid for us to have a relationship with him with his own blood shed on the cross where he died. That’s how merciful and humble and loving the living God is! He doesn’t make us jump through hoops to get to him. We don’t need other people to help us get to God either, as 1 Timothy 2:5 says ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;’ Since Jesus is God and Man he is qualified to pay the death price for us on our behalf and rise from the dead conquering death forever! With man it’s impossible but with GOD all things are possible!

Thank God! We can change our direction of our lives and look to the living Jesus for forgiveness and have real freedom and a real personal relationship with God. Turning from the way of the law of sin and death to the law of life by God’s Holy Spirit. Even as we travel through this frightening and dark world, we can say with confidence as Jesus did on the cross ‘It is finished’ - the battle is already won, thank God! He loves you so much more than you may know. You don’t have to produce perfect faith or works or have all the answers…does a loving parent require that of their children for them to be loved??? He won’t force a relationship on you, but you can let him in to your heart today and share in his life of love.

Hi Everyone,
Well said! Indeed Jesus has made an overpayment at the Cross to redeem us all!
For God so loved the world (Jews and Gentiles- including our Muslim friends and unsaved loved ones) that HE gave His only begotten Son, Jesus! That is how much our GOD loves us!
I read with sadness that the current pope is not exercising wisdom in his words. I pray that our Beloved Daddy will speak to him about the love of Jesus and the wonderful Grace of God. May he seek to know Jesus and Jesus’ love for us all - the pope and muslims included.

Thank you for explaining all that for me. I have been so busy with work, that I’ve only seen clips of this on the news here and there and just haven’t had the time to examine it! I wanted to…but ya know.
I’m not too suprised by this kind of things on the television. This kind of ‘shocking’ things are becoming quite the norm. Things seem to be escalating, and tensions rising. I have a feeling that Christ’s return is getting closer and closer. I’m sure that everyone can feel it. It’s an excitement, and kind of a feeling of the unknown. We work and strive to preach the good news and before you know it He’ll be here. All we can do is pray for peace.

That is well put Pastor Peter
Thank you for sharing this with us for my eyes have now been open to many truths… I look forward to reading more and learning more…
You are truely a Blessed man of God.

Well I believe when Jesus was hanging on the cross, He didn’t see the Jews, Romans, Gentiles, soldiers, uniforms, and etc. He saw people that He loves so much.
He didn’t hear the voice of the people that were mocking at Him, crying for Him, or yelling His name. He just knows that those people need salvation.
So are the people in this world. People who are Jews or gentiles, people who are wearing this uniforms or that uniforms, people who hate or love Him, people who have different beliefs. He only sees people that He loves so much and they need salvation.
Can you see what Jesus see and can you hear what Jesus hear? Yes, they are all people that Jesus love so much

It seems as if you, Peter, and everyone who has commnented thus far are conveniently forgetting the fact that the crusades were, first and foremost, a reaction to Islam’s spreading by the sword practices. Secondly, you are conveniently forgetting the fact that whatever diabolical things the crusaders (who were mostly Catholic and mostly inspired by the Pope) did were done in spite of the Christian principles that are based on the teachings of the Jesus of the canonical New Testament (which, pretty much, settles all disputes between Catholics and Protestants).
Also, it seems as if you are mostly unaware of the overwhelming evidence against the position that just a few extremists are behind the nighmare scenario that is unfolding right before our eyes involving Muslims. You owe it to yourself and everyone else who is influenced by everything you do to at least carefully examine the evidences you will discover at the following websites:
http://www.faithfreedom.org (an ex-Muslim’s website); http://www.prophetofdoom.net; and http://www.6thcolumnagainstjihad.com/index.htm

Hi Bob, have you read Pastor Peter’s books or listen to his sermons before?
Do you know that Muslim like Christians, or free-thinkers or Buddhists or other religions or you and me are all the lovely creation of God?
I hope you can find the time to know the real Jesus, to know His Grace and His love for you.
Regarding your entry,
1) I know the history and development of Islam and Christianity. Though I am not an expert, I agree with you that the crusades were launched on the pretext of stopping the Islamic invasion and taking back the city of Jerusalem, the ‘Holy city of God’. Does it mean that it was the only reason the crusaders went to war? I am not being sarcastic. One main reason was motivated by greed, the protection of vested interests of the ruling class then.
Do you not see the crusades are exactly what Pastor Peter describes as human performance and acting out of legalism?
2)As for the Christian principles that the Crusaders believe in, can you please show the principles in the New Testament that tell the crusaders to do those murderous and diabolical deeds? Do you know that bibles were not accessible or read by the crusaders then? So what principles in the bible were they believing in?
The crusaders might have claimed to be Catholics but did they really know the Jesus that the present Christians (Catholics and Protestants alike) know as their Lord and Saviour? Cause if they did, they would have known that the blood of Christ Jesus alone qualifies them for salvation. No amount of human effort can save man.
3)The Protestant movement first came through the gospel reformation in 1517. The last historical crusades were before 1450.
So please do not mention about the settling of disputes between Catholism and Protestanism. I wonder where the link between this and crusades is?
Lastly, the websites you have mentioned are sincere in their presentation of the information. I do not doubt their sincerity.
But our Christ Jesus is the Hope of God’s glory. He came to give us life and life abundantly and He is more than able and willing to save.
I think you must be wondering if Christ is so great why He doesn’t strike the terrorists to death before they hurt others.
A difficult question to answer? May be.
But before giving you an explanation, I will like to ask you:
Do you know Jesus? Do you know Jesus loves you? If you can sense His presence and His love for you, accept Him as your Saviour now.
If you are a believer then, I will like to ask you: do you know of any Muslim friend?
I have a number of Muslim friends who like many of us are fun-loving and peace-loving too. They have families too.
Do you think by attacking any religion it will help to bring people to know Jesus?
Like what Pastor Peter says, unveiling the loveliness of Jesus in His Grace and truth is the answer. I salute Pastor Peter for his courage in following after Christ and His truth on this stance.

Aren’t we supposed to think about the future not the past? The time will go into the future but won’t change anything in the past. I think this is the time to let go the past and step into the future.
If I slap my neighboor’s face, does it mean my family and his family have to slap each other’s face and my next generations and his next generations have to slap each other because what I did last time? Even me and my neighboor have solved the problem, but his kids say to my kids, ‘I have to slap you because your dad slapped my dad’s face’ or ‘Because your dad slapped my dad’s face, according to my family rules, I have to slap your face and your whole family’s faces and that’s I call justice’ it just doesn’t make sense. right?
What done is done, I was persecuted before by some religions and some races, I have reasons to say to all of my kids so that they hate those people, but I don’t. Why? It’s because the love of Christ has made me free from bondages. I’ve forgiven them and I love them too. I’m free from the bondages of the past