Tuesday 15 April 2008

The Love Languages of God

Tonight I was at the AWARE centre to listen to the Love Languages of God. The speaker was an American called Kevin Stodos and he was sooooooooo good. I was very impressed with his powerpoint presentation and he was a first class example of Christian Muslim Relations at work.

Firstly he has been going regularly to the Diwaniya at the AWARE centre and they have gotten to know him and trust him. Secondly he was willing to offer his skills as a teacher to talk on this subject.

His presentation was essentially based on the work by an Amerian Christian author -Gary Chapman , who outlines 5 love languages. These are 1) Words of Affirmation 2) Quality time 3) Gifts 4) Acts of Service 5) Physical Touch.

He went on to give Biblical examples of how God has revealed His love to us in these different love languages. Although I am familiar with the concept of Love Languages this was the first time I have seen it applied to the religious context.

Kevin got the Muslims there to apply this model to the five pillars of Islam and it made for a stimulating evening.

Great job Kevin! I was inspired by your example. Your presentation deserves to have a bigger audience. Kevin also writes a thought provoking blog with essays online with his views on life in Kuwait and Christian Muslim issues. It is worth a visit. Check out http://alone.gnn.tv/users/blogs.php

Kevin worships at the Internatonal Church of Christ in Kuwait city. Thanks too to the AWARE centre for their creative diwaniyas and excellent hospitality. I was blessed.

Friday 4 April 2008

Scripture Reasoning


Well, they are doing it in USA, UK, Europe and in some countries in the Middle East. Scripture Reasoning is rapidly becoming the way to do inter faith dialogue. So what is it?


Scriptural Reasoning is a text study between Christians and Muslims and Jews. It is a practice where members of these faiths in small groups, study together, their own and each other's religious texts. The act of engaging openly and honestly with each scripture and allowing the texts to speak for themselves has proved to be a winning strategy.


Selected scriptures from each text are laid side by side and each member of the group is invited to read the text and feed back to their group what they think the text is saying. This is done after someone presents what their own scripture means to them coming from their faith tradition.


The beauty of this approach is that it allows the scriptures to speak for themselves. At the heart of each monotheisitc faith are the scriptures which all belive conveys God's message to the world. Scripture Reasoning allows God to speak to each person through the sacred books without compromising one's own faith.


I wonder if this could ever work in Kuwait? Obviously the number of Jews here would be minimal, so I guess it would have to be just Christians and Muslims.


If I can find six Christians and six Muslims willing to have a go at this then I would love to make it happen. Any takers?


For more information on Scripture Reasoning check out the related websites on the blog list.


Blessings