Pray for Anjem Choudary - he needs Jesus.

I note that today's newspapers have given full vent to the fate of one Anjem Choudary.  He is a man who holds to a particularly extreme brand of Islam and has been convicted of inciting people to join ISIS.  Over the years he has just managed to stay within the law despite making many comments that have caused great offence to most people in this country including many Muslims.

However, the law has finally caught up with him and he faces a lengthy prison term when sentenced next month.

Personally, I find it difficult to be swept up in the mob-hysteria surrounding this man, and the hatred for him that the press seem to be encouraging.  As I think of Anjem Choudary, I do not think of an Islamist who incited violence, but rather of a poor, deluded creature who desperately needs Jesus in his life.

It is my fervent prayer that someone will give him a Bible, or at least a New Testament, and that he will read it.  Having read it may the Lord be pleased to open his eyes and implant the gift of faith, granting him repentance unto life.  The power of the Gospel is such that even a man full of such vile hatred can be transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit in his life. 

As Christians we are under constant temptation to think and behave as the people of the world, the unsaved, think and behave.  When we read of people who have been guilty of inciting, or committing, acts of violence we may easily be drawn along with the crowd in pouring out bile against them.  However, whenever I read of such people I think of how God, in His sovereign mercy, converted some of the Nazis at Nuremberg  (you can read about it in Tim Townsend's book - "Mission at Nuremberg") or how God converted the Jap pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor (Mitsuo Fuchida - google his name alongside the words "Christian conversion").  In more recent years there have been well documented accounts of criminals, who have been involved in the most appalling acts of wickedness, coming to know Christ as their personal Saviour.

Do we believe in the power of the Gospel to transform the worst of sinners?  Do we really believe in the truths of Romans 1 v 16 - ("I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone who believes")?  Do we really believe the Word of God when it says that God is able to save "to the uttermost" all who come unto Him through Christ? (see Hebrews 7 v 25).

If your answer to these 3 questions is "yes" then I trust that you will join with me in praying for Anjem Choudary, that God's grace will be revealed to him, and that he will be turned "from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God" - Acts 26 v 18.