I DARED TO CALL HIM FATHER BY BILQUIS SHEIK

I DARED TO CALL HIM FATHER by BILQUIS SHEIKis one of my most favourite books - right up there with FOOLISH TO BE WISE by Roy Peacock (see post June 2011) and APPOINTMENT IN JERUSALEM by Derek Prince (review posted February 2012). It is a wonderful book and one I have read and enjoyed many times. I was so glad to find a copy at a Christian bookshop recently when I was on holiday, as my original copy disappeared a while ago!
This is the story of Begum Bilquis Sheik, a wealthy Pakistani aristocrat who, after having two most unusual dreams, has a very real experience with the Lord Jesus. We see how, in her quest for the truth, she goes to see a young missionary wife, Synnove, who is led by the Spirit to explain the meaning of her dreams. She starts reading both the Bible and the Koran and is amazed when she find scriptures in the Bible that are in her dreams.
A nun, who is a doctor at the hospital where she takes her grandson, sees her reading the Bible. She explains her dilemma. After centuries of Muslim heritage, she sees,through reading both holy books, that Allah and the God of the Bible are not the same. She needs to know who she should follow. The nun shocks her by saying that she should speak to God as her Father! She asks herself which one is more like a father, and she sees that the God of the Bible is a loving Father to His children, and that we don't have to earn His approval by our works. Her close relationship with her own father draws her to the God of the Bible. Her earthly father loved her dearly and was never too busy for her.
She makes a decision to follow Christ that will change her life completely. As a Christian she will not only lose her elevated position and be looked down on as a sweeper, but she will be ostracized by everyone, including her own family. She also stands the risk of being murdered as an infidel.
Synnove Mitchell and her husband David, become her closest friends. We see the importance of meeting with fellow believers as she meets with them and the Olds' every week for fellowship. She is grateful to the Lord for giving her new friends to replace those she has lost.
This book teaches us so many things especially about the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The Lord becomes everything to her and she is prepared to lose everything to follow Him. She wants to please Him rather than man, and doesn't want to do anything that would take her out of His loving presence, which she first felt as a beautiful fragrance while walking in her garden. She has never been very brave, but feels she can go through anything with Jesus by her side.
One of the hardest things the Lord asks her to do is to forgive her ex-husband Khalid. When she feels the Lord's presence leave because of her refusal to forgive him for treating her so badly, she cries out to the Lord to help her forgive him. After this she finds she can feel love for him and even prays for him. She knows this has to be the Lord's doing - she couldn't have done this in her own strength.
Bilquis has become rather a recluse after her husband Khalid divorced her, and she spends hours in her garden, restoring it to a thing of beauty. Her grandson, Mahmoud, lives with her, as her daughter and her husband cannot resolve their differences. She has adopted Mahmoud and he, his mother Tooni, and Bilquis are very close. When she becomes a Christian she is afraid that Mahmoud's father will take him away from her.
She is obedient and is baptized, even though she could be signing her own death sentence. She is desperately lonely and tries to reach out to her family and friends. She loves them, is upset that she is hurting them and prays for them regularly. 
She reads about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and asks the Lord to baptize her in the Spirit while she is alone in her bedroom. She loves the Word of God and spends hours reading the Bible.
When she is warned by God at the age of sixty to leave Pakistan, she does so, and she and Mahmoud live in the United States where she preaches the Gospel in obedience to her Lord.
This new edition has an epilogue by Synnove Mitchell which tells us about Bilquis and her experiences from her side of the story and also about the end of Bilquis' life.
This book is very inspiring, especially being a true story, and I recommend it very highly.



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THE SCROLL BY GRANT R JEFFREY & ALTON GANSKY

 THE SCROLL by GRANT R JEFFREY & ALTON GANSKY
takes place in Israel in the near future.  It is a prophetic novel with a strong Christian message, fast-paced and full of action. 
David Chambers is professor of archeology at Harvard.  He has also written books, given lectures and become quite famous with his discovery of Herod's tunnel in Jerusalem.  He used to love biblical archeology, uncovering so much proof of the truth of God's word, but gave it up and gave up on God as well, blaming his father for his disillusionment.  His father was an archeologist who stayed on in Israel at a dig while David's mother was dying of cancer.  David was very angry and believed the worst of his father without knowing the truth. He also blamed God for his mother's death and his father's supposed insensitivity. David had been engaged to Amber, also a doctor of archeology, but she broke off the engagement when he changed.  He became difficult to be with, was very volatile, and gave up on the Truth and on biblical archeology.  Amber is a committed Christian and her faith is very important to her.
David and Amber are thrown together when their friend and mentor, Abram Ben-Judah, asks each of them, without letting the other know, to join in excavations funded by American billionaire Trent and backed by the prime minister of Israel and Israeli military, to find hidden treasure from the Second Temple.  They are to follow the rather well hidden clues found in the Copper Scroll.
Nuri Aumann is also part of the team.  Nuri is a real thorn in the flesh to David, especially because of his friendship with Amber Rodgers, which looks like more than friendship to him!  They work well together, in spite of everything, but keep taking digs at each other.
The first treasure is found in an Essene cave.  David leaves in a huff when he feels they are not following correct scientific procedure and are in too much of a hurry, but Hiram Landau, who is in charge of their security "persuades" him to stay on.  the team members are fed up with David's anger, self absorption and childish behaviour!
The work is dangerous, especially when it is leaked to the media that the Jews are looking to rebuild the Temple.  A Hebrew student is shot and there is an explosion in the tunnel where the first treasure is found.
It is thought that Hussein Al-Malik, a former Jordanian archeologist turned terrorist, who has ties with Hamas, is behind all the violence and that he has infiltrated the project by inserting one of his men in the crew.  There is an exciting discovery made in a natural tunnel leading off Herod's runnel.  The enemy does all it can to destroy David and to stop the excavations.  They are not after the treasure, they simply do not want the Temple to be rebuilt.  
Ben-Judah wants to find the ancient Temple artifacts so that the Jews can rebuild the Temple according to biblical prophecy.  He feels this will make a statement to the world that Israel is here to stay.  The building of the Third Temple has been a dream of the Jews since the first century AD and could radically change the world.
David feels responsible for the deaths as he is team leader and he wonders whether the project is worth it after all, however, when he sees his mentor on his knees worshiping God, overcome by the discovery of the Holy Table of Shewbread and the Temple Menorah, he is deeply moved.
Ben-Judah is a godly man with a passion for the God of the bible.  For him archeology is "an act of worship and service to God."  This used to be the case with David too, until he turned away from God and started to see it merely as a way to make an income and be successful.  He has become a little too proud of his achievements and is surly and unpleasant to be with.  Ben-Judah says David is a passionate man and a great archeologist, and as they get more involved in the work, David's excitement mounts and he is drawn back to his love of the Lord and of biblical archeology.  He now reads the bible in order to have a closer relationship with his God and not just to find archeological clues.
In this book we are reminded of the importance of forgiveness, of self-control, of unselfishness and of not losing faith in God.  As the suspense builds up we wonder who the mole is, if the project will succeed, whether Amber will choose the more charismatic Nuri or whether she and David will get back together again.  The characters are well portrayed and the setting in the ever volatile land of Israel makes this novel an exciting read.  I can highly recommend it.





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ALLAH'S FIRE BY CHUCK HOLTON & GAYLE ROPER

ALLAH'S FIRE takes place in Lebanon. It is part of the Task Force Valor series. It is a very exciting book and has a strong Christian message. I have read all three of the novels and enjoyed them all. They can each be read as stand alone books, but I feel you get more out of them if you read them one after the other.
Liz Fairchild was brought up in Lebanon by her free-thinking parents, Charles and Annabelle, and her sister Julie. They are American, but have a great love for Lebanon and her people. Liz is a journalist and she has come back to Lebanon to interview Palestinian women in the refugee camps.
Julie, while studying in England, falls in love with a handsome Lebanese called Khalil. While living in Britain all goes well with their marriage, but when they return to live in Lebanon, their differences pull them apart. She is not as radical a Christian as her sister, but she has made a commitment to the Lord. She is afraid of telling her parents that she is a Christian because of her father's criticism of Liz's faith. It is when she is alone and afraid during her imprisonment that she learns to really trust in the Lord as her Saviour, and promises to profess her faith instead of keeping it hidden, if she manages to escape.
Julie and Khalil are at a reception at the Hotel Rowena, which is blown up by a terrorist group using a new explosive called ITEB, a liquid which explodes on exposure to air. Julie manages to escape through a window in the ladies, restroom, but she is abducted by three Palestinians.
John Cooper and the rest of the Task Force Valor team are seconded to the CIA and sent to Lebanon to find where ITEB is being manufactured and to destroy it, as it poses a terrible security threat. It is stored in bottles and looks like water.
John has always been a committed Christian, but when his friend Doc Vernon James is blown up when he is trying to help a young Islam woman who he believes is giving birth, he doesn't know what he believes any more.
When Julie disappears Liz's faith is badly shaken.
Julie and John met three years previously and lost touch with one another. They meet up again at this stressful time, and Liz, who goes off on her own to find Julie, becomes part of Task Force Valor's mission.
John and Julie not only find one another again, but their faith in a faithful God is restored.



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HARVEST OF RUBIES BY TESSA AFSHAR

HARVEST OF RUBIES by TESSA AFSHAR takes place during the reign of King Artaxerxes in Persia.
Sarah is a young Jewish girl whose father is a scribe in the royal palace, and she is the niece of Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer.  She lost her mother when she was young and her father, who is a very shy man, doesn't show her any affection, although he loves her deeply.  This makes her feel that she is unlovable.  She teaches herself to read and write, and is amazed that her father is supportive of her in this, which is unheard of for women at the time, and she feels that her value as a person is only in proportion to her ability as a scribe.  
Sarah turned from God when her mother died.  She used to recite psalms to her mother when she was dying, and later on we see how Nehemiah's wedding gift scroll comes to mean a great deal to her and how God's word helps her when she is unhappy in her marriage.
Uncle Nehemiah feels that the Lord has given her this special talent for reading, writing and languages for a special purpose, even as He used Queen Esther's beauty for the saving of the Jews in Persia when Haman was trying to destroy them.  Nehemiah is a godly man and wants her to fulfill her God-ordained destiny.
Sarah becomes Queen Damaspia's chief scribe and lives at the palace.  She loves her work and is good at it.   Her world is shattered when the queen arranges a marriage for her with a royal relation, a nobleman called Darius.  Darius' mother was Jewish and he promised her that he would not marry a woman who wasn't Jewish so the queen feels she has found the ideal candidate in Sarah.  Damaspia arranges this marriage in gratitude for Sarah's work in uncovering the truth behind a conspiracy to discredit her and cause dissention between her and the queen mother.
Sarah feels that God has abandoned her and that she has to do everything in her own strength.  She is outspoken and not good with relationships.  She has great pride in her work as a scribe and feels she will be worth nothing without it.  She feels that she is ugly and has nothing to offer her noble husband.  
After the wedding, at which she makes a complete fool of him and of herself by looking hideous - she had no patience for the preparations that women went through to look beautiful - he abandons her at his palace.  
Here she humbles herself and enjoys the beauty around her, after spending some time lying in bed and feeling sorry for herself!  Once she sees how her husband's estate is being run into the ground by a wicked and dishonest steward, she takes an interest in what is going on and puts herself in danger to get proof of his dishonest activities. 
She makes friends with the few loyal servants that are there and she also has her beloved maidservant, Pari, who is sent with her.  She also comes to love Darius's dog, Caspian. 
She learns a lot from the elderly gardener, Bardia, who teaches her that vines need to be pruned drastically in order to bring forth fruit.  She takes this lesson to heart and longs to produce "good fruit", even as she is being "pruned" in this strange situation in which she finds herself.  He also tells her a lot about Darius, who he has known since he was a little boy and who he loves dearly.  She begins to understand her husband better.  She finds Darius angry and sarcastic and is unable to make him understand that she did not hurt him intentionally.  He thinks she is a liar.  The picture Bardia paints of him is very different.  His pride was badly hurt by the wedding.
When Darius comes back he is grateful to her and she feels that at last she can be of use to him in sorting out his accounts and working as his scribe. She realizes how selfish she was on their wedding day and wants to make it up to him.   She doesn't see herself as being pretty, and cannot believe that anyone could possibly love her for herself.    
Darius and Sarah are called to the court at Ecbatana and it is there that she falls in love with him. He doesn't trust her and is about to send her away, but when she is attacked when out hunting with the queen,  he realizes that he cannot live without her.  At last she sees that, not only do people love her for herself and not for her achievements, but that God also loves her for herself.  She decides that, even if Darius never comes to love her, she is loved by the Lord, and that is enough.  
Darius is kind and thoughtful and they start afresh with what they have and leave the past behind them.  He is touched by her love for his servants, who are more friends than servants, and for his favourite dog, Caspian.
This book is rich with descriptions of life in Persia and at the king's palace.  It is beautifully written and we learn a lot from the way in which the characters deal with the situations and circumstances in which they find themselves.  We see how the Lord never lets His children go, even when they turn away from Him, and how He lovingly draws them back.  How He can bring forth a "harvest of rubies", not only from the pruned grapevines, but also in the life of someone who has learnt to trust Him  and who has become stronger through the difficulties she has been through.  I can highly recommend this novel.