Happened to listen to a YouTube featuring a Muslim speaker using the NT to deride the fact that Jesus is God. He reeled off the normal scriptures from John's gospel account that the cults use against the deity of Christ which I found ironic.
Got into discussion with a Muslim after I commented and we exchanged a few points of difference. But he (she?) started to become more aggressive and scornful. Faced with such a response one can either not reply, assertively reply in kind or do something else.
I did something else. I was enabled to do something else.
It was as if God's Spirit said to me, 'Deal gently with this person for My sake'. I can't remember feeling quite like that before but am convinced that the Spirit of gentleness overcame any wish on my part to retaliate.
I told him that he wasn't dealing fairly with me but also said that according to Jesus he was my neighbour and hence I wished him the best in his life.
He responded positively saying that he had been testing (!) me because other Christians had become 'violent' with him in discussion so he was trying to determine what type of person I was.
Only God's grace enabled me to respond the way I did. Only grace so that the love of God was shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us all (Rom 5.5).
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