Hamlet on life (via Shakespeare)

...without Christ

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th'oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of dispriz'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th'unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovere'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
 

Islam and prayer -- Yeshua's prayer?

If 'Yeshua is God who is he praying to when he prays?

Another misunderstanding based on Islam's monistic beliefs. This leads to inability to understand both the Trinity (yes, a word not in the Bible, but neither is the Muslim word 'Tawhid' or 'tawheed' or the one-ness of allah in the Quran!).

But put that aside; how can God pray to God?

The incarnation of Yeshua as the 'God-man' was the incarnate creator entered into his creation. Yet he maintained the communing intimacy of the God-head (the Trinity) by continuing to speak to the Father.

Part of the confusion may be that for Muslims prayer is a formulaic ritual of 'worship'. Not the means of our communion with the Father. Yeshua was also reflecting the life of the un-fallen sinless man: to be in constant communion with the Father.

The foundation of un-fallen communion is given in Genesis 2:8a, where God walked in the garden with Adam and Eve: in perfect communion until they rejected life with God. Yeshua demonstrates the united-with-God life which we can have through him and in him.  

The irony of this challenge is that Muslims are encouraged to pray to the not-allah Muhammad. See this article by Shamoun.

But it gets worse.

Allah also prays; to whom we are not told; a 'greater' god perhaps? This idea is perhaps a remnant of the paganism that underlies Islam (also suggested in the so-called Satanic Verses). Shamoun also deals with this absurdity. 

See

They are those on whom are the prayers (salawatun) from their Lord and mercy (rahmatun), and it is they who are the guided-ones. S. 2:157

He it is who prays (yusallee) for you and His angels too, to bring you forth out of the darkness into the light, for He is merciful to the believers. S. 33:43 Palmer

Verily, God and His angels pray (yusalloona) for the prophet. O ye who believe! pray for him (salloo) and salute him with a salutation! S. 33:56 Palmer

From Answering Islam.

Surah 33:56 

God and His Angels Send blessings on the Prophet : O ye that believe ! Send ye blessings on him, And salute him With all respect. -- Yusuf Ali

surely Allah and his angels pray over the prophet O ye who believed pray over
him and submit submissively ﴾56) -- Murad's Literal Translation 

This chapter examines the problem of the God and the angels' ṣallāt for Muhammad described in Sūrah 33:56 of the Qurān. Specifically, it addresses the question of whether God, whose transcendence Islam describes as inconceivable, and who cannot be limited, really “prays for” the Prophet, one of his own creatures. It argues that two elements support and ratify, rather than undermine, a literal interpretation of Sūrah 33:56—“God prays for the Prophet”— which is the phrase's most obvious and at the same time its deepest meaning. The first is one of the most essential metaphysical qualities of God (ṣifāt Allāh) as defined by Islam—his self-sufficiency, embodied in the names of al-qayyūm (the self-subsisting) and al-ghanī (the self-sufficing). Second is his reciprocal relationship to the cultic life of Islam, both directly and as mediated by the Prophet.

From 

“God and His Angels Pray for the Prophet”: A Qurʾānic Paradigm

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Kimberley Christine Patton

 

So, you (Christians) can sin all you like

This is the last in this series of Muslim misunderstanding (feigned or genuine?) of Christian teaching.

It is supposed that forgiveness of sin we have through Yeshua's death and resurrection now gives us liberty to sin with complete abandon.

A fundamental confusion in applying Islamic categories and thinking to Christian faith without understanding Christian faith.

Islam is a practice of 'doing'. Do the 5 pillars (6 in some versions) of Shahada (faith), Salah (prayer), and Zakat (almsgiving), along with Sawm (fasting) and Hajj (pilgrimage to the black stone); some add Jihad 

The confusion seems to imagine Christian faith as a game of 'works'.

It fails to understand that in Christ we have new life and as those seeking transformation of our thoughts and lives (Romans 12:1-2) and who seek to show the fruit of the Spirit by his indwelling of our new life (Galatians 5:22-23) and in following Yeshua (Philippians 2:1-4).

It also fails to understand sin. Sin is what is anti-God, that which repudiates our relationship with god and reflects proud selfish disregard -- hate -- of others. We know we are not perfect and do this, but we constantly repent and seek the (willing and loving) forgiveness of our Lord as we continue to grow in our transformed lives.

Ponder on Romans 6; invite your Muslim friend to read it with you. 

What's your job?

A clergy person I met confided that he had trouble telling the members of his cricket club what his job was: as a 'minister' of religion.

I suggested he not give them the title but the function.

For example:

I do a lot of community counseling. I work with groups usually to think through their future, their past; dealing with both loss and opportunities to crystalize their real selves.

You might get a lot of reactions from disbelief to curiosity...but if its too long skip the first 'title' sounding sentence and describe the work in general terms.