truth talk_012224

Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Truth Talk Live. All right, let's talk. A daily program powered by the Truth Network.

This is kind of a great thing, I'll tell you why. Where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. You know, I shared the gospel on the basketball court, and sometimes the eyes roll, sometimes the ankles roll, but very few times have I been physically threatened. I don't think any time I've been physically threatened because I'm a Christian, but I'm sitting with brothers in Christ who, where they live and parts where they minister, if you share the gospel, you might be killed. In fact, we had lunch today, and brother Kaleem mentioned a dear brother in Christ in a whole other country, but not even the one we're talking about today, who was shot or killed because of his faith in Christ.

It's real. When's the last time you were persecuted because of your faith in Christ, and what is God doing in the Middle East? We have two men of God in the studio who are serving Christ with a wonderful Middle East Bible outreach, Bible college, and they're here to talk about what that's about.

We would love to take your calls if you want to call and encourage them. These guys are my heroes, and when we get to heaven, we're going to discover that it's not maybe what we pictured, that we will be with people that may not look like us or talk like us, or have the same accents, appetites, the same habits, or the same customs, but they very much love Jesus. And so with me today are two brothers in Christ. Now, gentlemen, put the mic on your chin.

Put it on your chin. There you go. And welcome to the show, We Sam and Nabil. God bless you, and good to have you on Truth Talk Live. Great to be here. Thank you for having us. Thank you.

It's good to have a Monday, it's like a Monday missions moment. We're going to get Nabil, you're mic working better there. And if you've got a question about Lebanon, wow, where is it? What's going on there? What's God doing there?

It's really at the heart, and we talk about Jerusalem as being in the heart of the Middle East, but Lebanon, there's so many things happening in Lebanon, thousands of Syrian refugees pouring in, and a whole lot is happening with the Middle East. You guys call it MOBU, I love that little acronym, the Middle East Bible Outreach. That is something.

Did I say it right? MIBU. MIBU, okay, very good.

Yeah, Nabil, tell us a little bit about MIBU and how it started. MIBU, it is Middle East Bible Outreach. It is the extended arm of our ministries in Lebanon. MIBU is a 501c3 and registered in Atlanta and in many different states, and they have done us, and they have done the ministry very good, and they have supported the ministries in Lebanon and in the Middle East. Wow, so this is going to blow you away, listeners, what we, Sam, is about to tell you. You go to a seminary, your Bible college there in Lebanon, now most seminaries you think that we would promote here on Truth Talk Live are, you know, they're all Christians.

They're going to get trained in the Bible to go pastor, plant churches, go to mission field, whatever, council, other things. You go to the seminary in Lebanon, and it's 100% Christian, right? Wrong. What? Now hold on a second, you're not supposed to disagree with your host in America.

What are you doing? I'm just kidding. But tell us, this is amazing, but it's thoroughly biblical. You're teaching the Bible, right?

Right. But tell us about the makeup of this seminary and why you have Muslims attending a Christian seminary. So we have people that are from a Muslim background, but they are believers in Jesus, and they come to the seminary to be trained to go back to their own countries and to their own communities and bring the good news to people there. Wow, and Nabil, if someone is a Muslim and they believe in the five pillars and they're not even born again, they're still allowed to come to seminary school to learn about the Bible, right? Yes, we're very grateful because Lebanon is an open country in the Middle East. It is a Lebanon practice democracy, it's an open country for different religions, and we Christians and our brothers and sisters with different faiths, Muslims, we have, if I might say, a very good combination. We respect each other, and if they would like to come, if they know Christ and they like to come and attend our seminary, they have the right to do this.

The government has no problem at all. Wow, and so they have students that come from all over that may not even be Christian, but they come in, we saw them to learn and to find out about who Jesus is and the Bible and the Holy Spirit and all these things, right? Right, so they come from North Africa, from the Levant, and even today from the Gulf States. Okay, now we may get some calls on this. Should you allow a Muslim to come to a Christian seminary? And the answer here is yes. What about you, listeners?

866-34-TRUTH. I mean, we, you know, this may be bad for ratings, guys. This may be, you know, this may be the end of Truth Talk Live after we figured this out, but you have Muslims that are coming to Christ. Absolutely. Talk about that.

Like, give me an example. What has happened? So the Middle East is going through a major change, and people are thirsty for the truth, they're thirsty to hear the Word of God. This has been, the change has been brewing for some time, and so people are, through the internet, through different radio programs, through Faithful Men of God and missionaries, they're being exposed to God's Word, and a lot of them want to know more and come and profess the name of Jesus.

And Nabil, we had lunch with Kalim and some other brothers in Christ, John Mark and some other guys, and you shared about how the hearts are tender, like, never forward the Gospel over there. Unfortunately, the reputation of Middle East is terrorism. It's very unfortunate, and I'm happy to tell you this is not true. Muslims are tired of terrorism as much as Christians are, and when you, when you meet a Muslim, not every Muslim is a terrorist or every Muslim is a bad guy. On the contrary, few are terrorists, like maybe in different religions you have some few terrorists as well, but Muslims in Lebanon and Christians in Lebanon are tired of this terrorism. This is why we pray that Lebanon will not pay the price for what's happening in the Middle East and different countries and this reputation. Okay, wow.

Now we got a whole hour with you guys. I want to hear some about your testimonies. You want to hear some about the Middle East Bible outreach and what God's doing there. You're working on a program that we're going to try to launch all over Truth Network to invite people to support and get involved.

How can our listeners getting involved? It's a special Missions Monday, Monday Missions Moment on Truth Talk Live. We are stamping passports to Lebanon today, so you can't go there. You never thought about going on a missions trip to Lebanon.

Maybe you would never consider sending your youngster there. Well, you're going there with us today. You guys are going to take us on an all-expense-paid trip right here on this radio show slash podcast slash best of with the Middle East Bible Outreach, Nabil and Wissam, right? The good news, it's a round trip. It's round trip.

You're going to be home at the end of the hour. 866-34-TRUTH. Ever been to Lebanon? Should they change their policy and not allow Muslims to go to the seminary? What are they thinking? Talk them out of it right now. Call me. Tell me I'm wrong at 866-348-7884. Our trip to Lebanon continues after this quick break.

Don't touch that dial. All right. Thank God for wise guests. They got me straightened out during the break, and also I'll clarify a couple of those things. This is Truth Talk Live.

I'm Stu Epperson. To get you guys through the hour, I have a special gift from our friends at Vine-tastic, longtime partners of the Truth Network, underwriters of this segment of Truth Talk Live. That's their new beverage. The folks that give us the mighty muscadine, and it's not the state fruit of Lebanon, but it is the state fruit of North Carolina, okay? And they also give us La Blue Water. They made this amazing beverage, and we're thankful for them. They offer a drink that has no calorie, no carbs, no sugar, but a lot of really healthy antioxidants from the muscadine grape, so we're so grateful. And now these might be some of the first Lebanese to drink. Vine-tastic.

What do you think, guys? All right. You're going to need that to get through this hour, because we're rolling hard. We're stamping our passport to Lebanon all hour long on Truth Talk Live. I stand corrected. They don't allow... They allow Muslims who've converted to Christ into the seminary, I guess, right? You go through the faith with them. That's right. Or genuinely wanting to, like in that pursuit.

So anyway, so that was a good clarification. But two gentlemen with me, if you just joined us, from Lebanon, and they are serving Christ through the Middle Eastern Bible Outreach, a Bible college seminary in Lebanon that trains students. What's the objective?

Speak right in the mic. What's the objective of the seminary? The objective is to give an opportunity for everyone who knows Jesus Christ to study more and understand more the depth of Christianity. Christianity is not to be a fanatic Christian.

Christianity is to accept Jesus Christ into your heart and learn more about it and then reflect the love of Jesus Christ to the people around you. Okay, that's Brother Nabil, and I've got Brother Wissam with me also. And Brother Wissam, you've spent some time in France studying economics and things, and now you're full-time in Lebanon with the ministry.

That's right. Tell us about this outreach to Muslims. I really want to talk about, because I feel like we've created barriers, almost like political parties, and instead of like reaching out, embracing, loving, and winning Muslims to Christ, we almost see like this is us against them kind of thing. Talk about that, will you?

Speak right in the mic. The importance of missions in the heart of the school, your Christian ministry to Muslims. Right. If you want to reach out to people, we have to love them first. We have to know them first. We have to understand where they come from, what is their culture, what do they believe in. And sometimes, to start with, we have to do more listening than talking so that we know where they come from.

They need to tell us where they are instead of us. As Christians, we sometimes want people to sit and we want to preach at them. We've realized that starting by listening and loving and serving was a much more efficient way, and building a relationship, building trust, and serving one another is definitely the entry point to an effective outreach. Well, what is the biggest issue that keeps a Muslim from coming to faith in Christ? As you're in Lebanon, surrounded by Muslim folks.

Yes, you will be surprised. Muslims in Lebanon and Christians, basically Muslims, they grow up learning about Christianity and Islam. So sometimes, some people would like to learn more about Christians, and we help them if they express their will to learn more about Christians. We help them and we tell them the message of Christ, then they are able to learn more about it. After they hear it and they accept it, they want to study more, they are free to come to our seminary.

Wow, yeah, go ahead. Let me just challenge our listeners this afternoon. One of the main objections or one of the main obstacles for Muslims to know Christ is Christians. It's because we don't live the teachings of Jesus Christ as we're supposed to be living. They see us and they don't see Jesus in us or through us. They see us just like another group with its own culture and identity, but we're not better than anybody else.

So this is one area. And people, they mix, when they think when they see Hollywood, they see Christianity. In Islam, you don't separate religion from society and culture. For them, what they see on TV, this is Christianity and they want nothing to do with it. Wow, okay. The West hasn't helped in that. 866-342 is our phone number. If you have a question about Lebanon, about these gentlemen and their ministry there, if you have a question about reaching a Muslim with a gospel, how do you effectively witness?

What about that? Have Christians been an impediment, a blockade for non-believers, particularly Muslims, you know, for coming to Christ? Any testimonies out there? If you are a Muslim and you want to call in, we'd love to talk to you and talk about the differences and the truth about Jesus and how to know him in a personal way. And if you have a difficult question or comment, we'd love to hear from you.

The number is 866-348-7884, 866-344-TRUTH. Nabil and me, Sam, are special guests from the Middle East Bible Outreach based in Lebanon, but they really serve all over the Middle East. And now you have all these refugees flooding in. How does that work, and what's God doing there to reach them?

Nothing is by chance. We have two million refugees. Unfortunately, they left Syria due to the war, and we have two million now in Lebanon, and it creates some problems for us.

But we as Christians, we have a duty to love everyone and to care for everyone. This is why we are extending all kinds of hospitality and care to the Syrian refugees. Many of the refugees, when they come to our churches and see how we love them, they want to accept Jesus Christ as a savior for them. And we have many Syrian refugees, of course, non-Christian background, that they are coming to know Jesus Christ.

Wow, probably one good just for people to have an idea about proportions. It's two million refugees for a population of four million Lebanese. So that's half of the Lebanese population is a refugee. So just in terms of proportions, this is huge.

It's remarkable. And you know what I love about this, and I think people listening will resonate with this, is someone, you know, a refugee, let's define that. I mean, give me the profile of a refugee. In our case, a refugee in what's happening in our area is a victim of their regimes. He did not decide to be a refugee. The refugee did not decide to bring three or four plastic bags and put some clothes in it and escape to Lebanon and live in a tent. No one, Syrian or Lebanese or whatever nationality it is, no one would make this decision. So when they come to us, we do not look at them as Christians from the political point of view.

I wouldn't argue with Syrian refugees why this happened and who bombed you and is it your fault and all what I have to do, because it's not his mistake, I have to take care of him. And as a Christian, I have to reflect the love of Jesus Christ to him. What about, we know those verses, you and I are long-time Christians.

What is the theology of loving enemies? When would we practice it? If I consider them enemies, although they are not, when would I practice it with Syrian refugees? Now it's the right time. It's right here, it's right now, they're right there.

Exactly. And it's interesting that the whole Muslim thing's out the door when you, when you literally, you and your children are starving, you're living out of a plastic bag in a tent in the cold, and there's nothing. And then who shows up?

Believers in Jesus with their arms open with food. And I want you to tell us more how you do that after this break. We're going to take another quick break. We'll come back on our journey to and through Lebanon. Some cool facts about the country you may not know when we return. More about the Middle East Bible outreach on this show, Truth Talk Live.

Hang on. Okay, we're drilling deep here on Truth Talk Live on our trip and our journey to Lebanon. What's the language they speak? What about the cedars of Lebanon? How many times is Lebanon referred to in the Bible?

Where do these people come from? Why haven't you been there? Why haven't Stu been there? I need to go there with my basketball. I know that, do they play basketball there, by the way? Oh yeah, we have a very good national team there.

Okay, this is a very important question. We gotta play some ball. So if I get some guys together, we can play some hoops. Absolutely.

I'll get a good team, we'll play the national team. Absolutely. And then share the gospel at halftime. Amen to that. That's what compels us. Yeah. That's why we do it.

We have good teams in Lebanon. I like that. Well, I just need to feed me the pill and I'll put it in the hole. You know what I'm saying? We gotta play some ball and share the Lord.

I love that. I'm even more motivated to go. A lot of Christians go there on missions trips.

It's a little bit crazy right now, though. Give everyone a current event, up-to-date status report on Lebanon, if you would please, for our listeners. Nabil is our special guest and we see him from Lebanon with the Bible Outreach missions. Middle East Bible Outreach. Middle East Bible Outreach. MiddleEastBibleOutreach.com, I believe, is the website, right?

And.org. But be sure you learn more, support them, go on a trip with them. But it's now a safe time to go on a trip, you know, because this whole thing in Israel broke out, right? There's a lot going on. So you wanted a brief now, the situation in Lebanon. Yes, sir.

First up to date. Number one, we thank God that Lebanon is not involved in the war. Okay. So we're still, if I might say, we are still safe and God is protecting our country and our prayers to continue having it a safe now, safe country, in spite of what's happening around it. We have some issues on southern Lebanon, which is at the border of Israel, but I think it will be controlled and countries and leaders are working hard to keep Lebanon away from this war that's happening, unfortunately, between Israel and Gaza. Okay, but Amisham, it's a beautiful country to travel.

Absolutely. Lots of history. Lots of history, beautiful food, beautiful people. The culture is amazing. The scenery is just incredible. It's a mountainous country. Lots of beautiful hiking trails. We have it. Yeah, Khaleem sends me pictures and he's got a jacket on and sometimes there's snow.

I'm like, wait a second. I thought Lebanon was like camels and sand and all that stuff, but it's very... So fun fact, Lebanon... Beautiful trees and everything.

Absolutely. Lebanon is the only Arab country without a desert and the word Lebanon comes from the root leban, which means yogurt and people, merchants, when they would cross the Levantine coast, they would look at Lebanese mountains and see the snow-capped mountains and they would say, oh, yogurt. So yogurt, Lebanon. So no deserts, but lots of desserts, right?

I like that. Absolutely. Nabil, what say you? Of course, you would have the best food in Lebanon and best dessert, whatever you need. Well, I go to Khaleem's house and Paula's house and it's unbelievable, the food. I mean, I need to take you somewhere that drew my attention right now.

Yes, sir. You said Lebanon, you associated it with camels and deserts. This is the generalization of the Middle East. Lebanon is a unique country. Cedars of the Lord are in Lebanon. Okay, now the Cedars that built Solomon's temple from Lebanon. Talk to us about Lebanon, the Bible. Give us a little biblical track real quick. Here we go, guys. We're going to sit at the feet of Professor Nabil from Lebanon. You're going to hear some substantial from the horse's mouth, as it were, right there.

I will ask Professor Wissam to help me. Lebanon is mentioned 75 times. Yes, and what I like to read, it's always nice to read, Cedars of the Lord, which they used to build the temple. And a lot of these trees are still standing today.

You can go and see them and visit them. It's just a very beautiful sight. And it's a land of, there's lots of agriculture, figs, fruit, produce. As a matter of fact, where Cedars are, the altitude is around 2,000 meters.

Oh, wow. And this is where we have snow now. You see the mountain of the Cedars and the snow. Okay, now when people talk about going to the land of the Bible, they actually say, well, I got to go to Jerusalem. I got to go to the temple, you know, to the, you know, the temple mount.

I got to go to the tomb, the empty tomb, of course. I've got to go to Bethlehem and whatnot. But there's a connection with Lebanon, right? And Tyre and these other, talk about that. Tyre and Sidon.

Yes, sir. Places where Paul and Peter, and go ahead. Jesus has been to Tyre and Sidon. He ministered there for quite some time. So there are a lot of ancient churches to visit from the second and third century, especially in the city of Sidon. So it's very rich in history, and early Christianity was very active in this area. So lots of history there. So when you say the lands of the Bible, when you say traveling back there, I mean, you're, you cannot, you cannot divorce Lebanon from that equation. It's all part of that, right?

Exactly. And the other countries adjacent, talk about your neighbors. You got Jordan, right? And others?

Of course. We, neighbors of Jordan's and as well, neighbors are Israel, where Jesus has been. But we have many biblical sites in that part of the world. Before there was Air Jordan, there was Jordan Air, right? And there's the Jordan River.

As a matter of fact, in the Middle East, he was born. Well, no kidding. That's right.

That's right. And the greatest duck of all time, what had to do with Jordan, but not Michael Jordan, but in the Jordan River, when John the Baptist baptized Jesus, right? Powerful, powerful story when Christ, you know, entered his public ministry and all three members of Trinity were represented there. The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.

Beautiful imagery. But this all happened in the Middle East, and it's really significant. And it's significant for everyone to listen to my voice right now, because I don't know a believer, as long as I've lived, who hasn't prayed for revival, who hasn't prayed for a movement of God. Can you talk about the movement of God in the Middle East? Can you just wake us up? Just wet our taste buds for what God is doing through radical salvations among our Muslim friends who are coming to Christ.

Talk about it. Movement of God doesn't have limitations. So when God has a plan, it might be for any country, and Middle East is one of those regions where God has a plan. And through different ways and different methods, people are listening to the message of salvation, whether in the Gulf or in Lebanon or in any different area. And I have to tell you that Christians, they need to listen to the message of God as well, like Muslims. So as you know, as you and I know, Christians, we did not reflect the best image of Christianity. So Christians as well, we need to know Jesus Christ.

And because it's an open country, Muslims can know the message of Jesus Christ, and they are free to choose it, or they do not. But God is talking, if I might say, God is talking to many people, whether they are Muslims or Christians, especially in those difficult days. You know, now we have a crisis of hope. People, they see that they have hope with nothing. Corona, COVID-19 came and the wars came and so on. And people are seeing that Jesus Christ is their only hope.

Our message is to distribute this message. If you want hope, come to Jesus Christ. Nothing earthly can help us, especially in Lebanon. People depended on their financial resources. They ended up without it. And this happened four years ago. All the savings of people were taken out, finished, disappeared.

Wow. And plus you have these buildings blow up as well, like catastrophe, not too long ago, right? This massive explosion in the country. This is August 4, the blast, where half of Beirut was destroyed.

And then all the unrest in the neighboring countries with those October attacks and whatnot. And so it's just remarkable how hungry and how open Muslims are like never before to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the question is, as a believer, am I going to be mad and say, oh no, you're sworn enemies of Christ and you deny the Bible and you follow Muhammad and you're the Quran, blah, blah, blah. Or am I going to say, hey, let's have a conversation.

Let's have coffee. Let me share a quick story of a pastor we work with in the Bika. He ministers in a church not very far from the Syrian border. And it's a predominantly Muslim town. And for years and years, this church has been praying for a revival for their Muslim brothers and sisters to come and know Jesus Christ.

And when suddenly the refugees came and were all around the church, folks at church started saying, oh no, Lord, not these Muslims. They're not like us. They're different. They dress differently. They behave differently.

They smell differently. And so sometimes we are a hindrance for the spirit of God to be working amongst a certain people. But God changed their hearts. They went back to scripture and saw that God needed to change them, needed to work through them, sorry, in them, so that he might work through them and bring about people to know him. So we need to be transformed and we need to take God's teachings and God's word seriously in our daily life so that we may be effective tools that God can use for his glory. Wow, and I want to get to the big picture in the final segment of what some really powerful things you all are doing to reach these folks through the seminary, the school, through local church. You said something about the local church earlier at lunch that was powerful. I want you to repeat that as best you can.

We had a great lunch earlier, but I got to give you an update. I'm getting rapid fire text from friends like Val with these amazing pictures of Lebanon. Just look at that right there.

I mean unbelievable. I got Kaleem. It's like they're ganging up on me. Like they all got my cell number. Now Kaleem's sending me these beautiful pictures. I'm like, I want to go there. Like resorts. This is what Val sent.

He said Lebanon offers plenty from ancient Roman ruins to well-preserved castles, limestone caves, historic churches, beautiful beaches nestled on the Mediterranean Sea, world-renowned Lebanese cuisine to mountainous ski resorts. Is that true? Yes.

All true. You guys have been, you've been holding back on me, man. Why are you just now coming on Truth Talk Live? We're gonna come back. You got a question about Lebanon, you can phone in toll free at 866-344-TRUTH, and how a revival among Muslims will continue with your help after this.

Hang on. What a beautiful country. What a place to go to share Jesus. And you may not be able to go, and you may not be able to have an update passport in time to go soon, but you can support and pray for the men of God in the studio right now, all the way from Lebanon, just to be on Truth Talk Live. Nabil and Wissam, thank you for being here. You guys have been a blessing. Thanks for having us. Thank you for putting up with this crazy western host with all my false blemished prejudices, you know, and clueless, you know, we kind of all just lump it all together. All Middle Easterners are the same, but there's so many unique and really beautiful ethnicities and cultures and customs that are special, and what we do know this is every soul in the Middle East is created in the image of God, and created with a deep need for the Savior.

And that's why you guys are doing all this with your amazing, you know, Bible ministry, and we're so glad to be promoting that today on Truth Talk Live. We don't have a whole lot of time, but I want to get into the Lebanon. We talked a little bit about the customs, the food.

We talked a little bit about the look. It's very safe, I guess, isn't it, too? I mean, relatively. There are some terrorist attacks and things from time to time though, right? Yeah, but it's on the borders, but in Beirut and the suburbs there, it's a safe place.

Yeah. What is God doing all over the Middle East? You know, talking about the Middle East Bible outreach, because you guys are working, you talked about being in other countries, too. You talked about, you know, today at lunch being in other different countries, and I know there's different dynamics in Egypt that may not be in Lebanon and that may not be in Jordan or Israel or others, but talk about what is the Lord doing there. Give our, kind of bring us in to this thing.

This is kind of a really fun way for all of us to kind of, you know, perk our ears toward the radio and listen. So, the Middle East is undergoing severe changes. We've had, as you might recall, the Arab Spring that reshuffled a lot of the cards and regional politics in the Middle East, and as a result of that, a lot of states became failed states or frail states, and we've had ISIS for a couple of years, and people in the Middle East are just tired. They're tired from war. They're tired from terrorism. They want peace. They want a better future for their kids and for themselves, and so people are looking, they're hungry and thirsty for truth.

That's one element. When you go to the Gulf, to the Arabian Gulf, society there is changing at an amazing pace. Saudi Arabia is going through one of the fastest social changes you could ever imagine. In a span of just 10 years, women can now drive.

They work. They don't have to be veiled, and so there is a lot of societal changes, and with every process of change, there is an opportunity for the Gospel. That's something. Yeah, you mentioned earlier and even at lunch today that often Christians and even folks in the West just accuse Muslims of terror acts constantly, but you talk about how it's Muslims who are getting tired of it, right? Exactly, and if I might say, I'm very grateful for our brothers and sisters, Muslims in Lebanon, because if there is no political effect on them and political influence, we live in peace with Muslims in Lebanon, and they celebrate our Christmas. We celebrate with them their feast as well, and we have very good relations. Many of our neighbors are Muslims, and that's fine, but again, as maybe I said this, the labeling and generalization does not help at all.

In our schools and institutions, my kids, my relatives, and so on, they are all always together, so it is not what you hear. The media, I like the name of your media, is truth, but usually the secular media that we know it does not know the truth, so we need the right media to help people how to think. People are tired of war, people are tired of terrorism, whether Muslims or Christians, they just need to have peace, and we're taking advantage now in Lebanon and helping as much as we need, especially through education, especially people with special needs. We're trying to help them and help their parents and see how we can use them and they use their talents to the best.

So we have all kinds of therapists, all kinds of assessment, and so on, because they are created like our master, so we need to help them. This is how we can show our Christian love and care. We cannot claim that we are Christians and we do not act like Jesus Christ. When he met with a Samaritan woman, he did not label her that you are Samaritan and I am not. On the contrary, he helped her, he built on one thing she said right, she told him the truth about her husbands and so on, and he congratulated her. So when he met the Samaritan woman, he treated her royally. In our case, this is our job. We do not have to keep differentiating between who loves us and who do not, and I'm a Christian and he's a Muslim and so on.

Not at all. And this is why, if I might say, as Christians, we're enjoying this privilege that we have. Yeah, and Sam, you're not saying the Muslim is right, you're not saying they're going to heaven, you're not agreeing with their doctrine, but you're loving them as a person in order to bring them to Jesus, right?

And then they end up meeting you. Tell us about Muslims' conversions. I mean, have you had testimonies of Muslims who have come to Jesus Christ through the ministry of the Middle East Bible Outreach? There are plenty of examples, and I go to a Baptist church, so we're not very comfortable with the workings of the Holy Spirit, right? But God is working in ways that are outside my comfort zone. God appears to people in dreams, in visions, and they come knocking on the door of the church, asking questions.

Can you explain this to us? After the church has served them well, has loved them, has preserved their dignity. Because sometimes when we help people, and we have a box of food and a hand, and, okay, take a Bible, we're cheapening the Gospel, all right? So we need to love them genuinely, and they need to see Jesus in us. And in a tribal mentality, people don't expect that you help people from the other tribe. But when you're doing this, they ask you, why are you helping us?

Don't you know that we're Muslims or that we're Syrians? And when we answer, because Jesus loved us freely first, we can therefore love freely back. And this is when we get the question, who is your God?

We want to know. So preserving dignity and not cheapening the Gospel is of essence. Wow, that's so encouraging. That was the voice of we, Sam. And the other gentleman here is Nabil.

Dr. Costa has been an educator for many years, and you've helped establish this beautiful Bible college through the Middle East Bible Outreach in Lebanon, in the Middle East, and God's really working there, to the point where now you, the government, someone complains to the government that says, hey, we have some special needs people that need help. They send them to skill, they send them our side. They send them to you? Yeah.

How about that? They send them to our side to skill smart kids with individual learning differences. Yeah. We have very good relations with our government, basically with everyone. And we try to help as much as we can. Yeah, and Robbie Dilmore's in the studio for years. He's been serving in special needs ministries at the church. He and I both have kind of grown up in Calvary Baptist. Robbie, I mean, who would have thought, I mean, you've been on special needs mission trips. Maybe we need to take a special needs mission strip to Lebanon to share the Gospel alongside these brothers who are like, hey, we're going to care about everybody in Christ. That's really fun.

And it was, it's been my dream for many years, right? Because they're very gifted at, you know, special needs individuals are also have great dignity and also are loving, wonderful people. So to actually take them on a mission trip to Lebanon, you know, to, to, uh, you know, minister to other people.

That's awesome. You know, and even obviously the Muslim population as well, you know, that's how they can relate to somebody else with Down syndrome or somebody else with autism better than I can. Yeah. And you think about the Muslim, you know, the Muslim mom and dad that you show love, they can't get any love for their kid. Who's got a special needs. In fact, they're called, they're called bad.

They're, you know, they're called taboo if they have special needs. Right. And suddenly the Christians love them. Yeah.

Big time. And we have a special as well, a ministry called parent to parent, where we deal with the, the parents of special needs and it's helping us a lot because when we help the parents, the parents, they can help their kids more. They are more at peace, more with joy. So we encourage them. We help them. We educate them and we learn from them as well. We pray with them and then they can help their special need children more. Wow. And that's something.

So we saw him, you mentioned at lunch today that the needs special needs comes up. They said, go call the Baptist about that. They didn't send them to a Muslim mosque. They sent them to the, to the Baptist church.

And this is a predominantly Muslim government doing that. So you've seen that the Lord used that your final call for people to pray for you right now. I want to get you, I want to give you a final word. And then brother Nabil, I want to give you a final word because we're almost out of time.

That clock is ticking here on truth talk live all hour long. We have traveled all the way to Lebanon. We've got a lot more traveling to do, but thank you for painting the picture for us, giving us what's going on, you know, geo politically, but more importantly, spiritually, and the great need for the gospel there population of the country real quick, how many, 4 million Lebanese, 2 million refugees, 2 million refugees, 4 million Lebanese percentage Christian versus Muslim, all that 30% Christian, 60% Muslim. Okay.

Wow. And the need is great. And the heart of the Muslim is softening to the gospel through your ministry, through other crises that have happened. How can we pray for your ministry? What's your final call to Western Americans real quick? Pray that we're able to stay in the Middle East. There has been a massive Exodus of Christians outside the Middle East. Pray that we can stay, serve and love people there. And please pray that every Christian may fulfill his mandate to be salt and light wherever they are, whether in Lebanon or here, but if the church, if every member of the church completes this mandate, it will be a different ball game.

Every, just every believer that truly professes Christ would just share the gospel. Absolutely. With someone, we've talked about, you know, Islam a lot today, but with anybody that doesn't have Christ because a Baptist person without Jesus who just plays the game and poses is just as lost as a Muslim.

Okay. Your final call, Nabil, as we get out of here, just 10 seconds. I pray that people can understand that Middle East is in need of peace. Middle Easterns, Muslims and Christians are tired of what's happening. We want peace. Help us Christians to stay in the Middle East to be a good example for Jesus Christ. MiddleEastBibleOutreach.com. Thank you guys for being on. God bless you and God bless Lebanon. This is the Truth Network. Our prayers are with you and we'll see you next time.