Monthly Archives: June 2018

Please see the special note at the end of this email. 

Ever feel like you’re running dry? You know, a little ding breaks in on your reverie and it’s the low fuel light. Then you remember seeing a sign a couple minutes back that the next gas is 40 miles down the interstate? Just for example, not that this has ever happened to me!

It’s hard to love Muslims. Heck, it’s pretty hard to love people pretty much like you. Step across the divide of language, culture, religion and it gets tough, draining. The weight of our flesh and our culture lean heavily on us.

If you’ve ever thought, “I’m tired of caring for these people,” whoever “these” are for you, I get it. I’m with you. Actually, we’re all in this together. It’s hard. . . but there is some hope. (Tweet this.)

Paul asks his friends in I Corinthians 4.7, “What do you have that God hasn’t given you?” It’s a humbling, but easy question, isn’t it? Nothing. So what we give to others, what we give to God, comes out of a storehouse of what we’ve been given.

If we’re tired and feel like we’ve nothing to give, we can ask for more. “Dad, I’m empty. I’m skint. Give me the love you want passed on to the people you’ve brought into my life.” It’s his project before it was ever ours, right?

The refill might not come instantly or simply. But remember with me that we can only give out what God has poured in. And be reminded with me, that this God we serve, oh man, is he rich and generous, loves his kids so much. And he is dead set on his purposes to bring life to all the families of the earth.

If you could use a refill, and would like me to join you in prayer for that, I’d be happy to. Shoot me an email and let me know.
 

Special Note: Muslim Connect is free. Always has been. Always will be. But twice a year I invite you to participate by donating to offset the costs and push it forward to more people. Together we can encourage many, inform some, and by God’s grace, invite Muslims to enjoy the abundant life Jesus offers. If you find value in Muslim Connect and would like to see it go forward, please make a gift here. As a thank you, if you’ll let me know you gave, I’ll send you a brand new, sharable infographic called, Making Sense of the Muslim World. Thank you.

I love good news! Don’t you? I realize it doesn’t sell papers, so most of what we read, see and hear represents various combinations of alarming, distressing and heart breaking. But Proverbs says, “Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.”

If you’re feeling a little weary, drink up:
The distant land is France. And the good news swirls around a remarkable young Muslim man from Mali named Mamoudou (mama-doo) Gassama. On Saturday night, May 26th, Mamoudou was hanging with friends in Paris when everyone began shouting and pointing across the street where a four year old boy dangled from a fourth floor balcony!

After a stunning scramble up the side of the building to rescue the boy, Mamoudou humbly said, “There were people shouting and honking their horns … I didn’t think of anything, I ran across the road directly to save him. Thank God I saved him.”

If you haven’t seen the video of Mamoudou’s climb and rescue, I think you’ll agree it’s worth the thirty seconds! (Tweet this.)

As a reward for his bravery, Mamoudou met with French president Macron who promised to give the “sans papers” migrant legal residency and citizenship as soon as possible.

Without making this a bigger deal than it is or drawing conclusions that aren’t really there, let’s just drop a pin on this and say thank you. Thank you, God, for a young boy who’s getting hugged today and not buried. And thank you, Mamoudou, for countless hours of working out to build your strength, for being sober on a Saturday night and for deciding at a critical time to lay down your life for another.

I drink my Perrier in your honor!