Monthly Archives: December 2023

Is your family feeling it? The post-Christmas let down? The “pretty soon we’ve got to get back to normal life” realization? Maybe toss in some tenacious germs and you’ve got a recipe for a malicious mid-winter malaise. 

Well, you’ve come to the right place because I’ve got a prescription to kill the Boxing Day Blues. 

Peace: Ask God to grow your understanding of shalom. This baby we’ve been celebrating actually is the Prince of Peace. The day will come (In our day? Who knows.) when peace will reign, when the way it was made to be will be the way it actually is. Hope is the light, the antiseptic, in which malaise can hardly hang on. 

To grow hope for peace, marinate in Isaiah 2.2-4 (praying for piles of plowshares in the Middle East), Isaiah 11.6-9 and Revelation 21.1-5. The wait is always longer than the waiters wish, but peace is out there. (Level up the hope: Click here and let Peace Train be the soundtrack as you ponder those prophecies!) 

Purpose: Kevin Kelly says, “Experiences are fun, and having influence is rewarding, but only mattering makes us happy. Do stuff that matters.” Jesus says, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We matter and we have great purpose!

We can be a voice of love and balance as Muslims take the blows they’re gonna take in the coming year’s election cycle. We can band together and invite a certified refugee family into new life in the U.S. We can, some of us “for reals,” go and live among the most underserved Muslim populations from Catania out to Kolkata. 

So much good stuff is ahead for you, your family, your involvement with Muslims. May God grow in your life both the hope for and reality of great peace and purpose. 

This is the last week of my semiannual funding campaign. If you’ve considered giving, now is the time. If Muslim Connect is a blessing to you and God gives you grace to give, do so here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you very much.

As I write, it’s the shortest day of the year where I live and tonight will be the longest night. If you look around right now, it feels like the night is long.

How are you dealing with the situation in Gaza? Over 20,000 dead. It seems so wrong to be in celebration mode while so many are wondering if the next hour will be their last. It’s not just Gaza. It’s Ukraine and South Sudan and other places I don’t even know about. 

Longfellow famously wrote in U.S. Civil War days: 

“Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
“There is no peace on earth,” I said;
“For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

Though I’ve suffered nothing like Longfellow, I get it. Hate is strong, both far and near, and it mocks the song of peace. 

I wonder how much time passed between writing that stanza to the final one: 

“Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

Sometimes it’s a quick transition for me. Other times it takes prayer, will and a white-knuckled grip on the promise that the little boy we celebrate this week actually changes things, that someday justice will flow like a river, evil will be destroyed, God will be praised by all and peace will reign on the Earth. The sooner the better, don’t you agree? 

I’d like to ask you to consider two things in response to this:

1. Join me in watching this Christmas Eve livestream from Bethlehem on Saturday morning. Let’s open our hearts to our sisters and brothers in these tough days. 
2. Please consider a year end donation to the Muslim Connect effort. As we near the seven year anniversary of Muslim Connect, I’m honored to reach out to you each week. If this is a blessing to you and God gives you grace, make a gift here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you.

I know, I know, Christmas is supposed to be a time of peace, calm and joy. I just want to invite you to calmly, peacefully wrestle afresh with one of the questions that has knotted knickers since the dawn of time: Fate vs. Free Will? Destiny or I Decide?

Do we have a choice, and as followers of Jesus, how do we come to answer that question?

Turns out, Muslims have debated this within the ummah for a long time as well. (Not as long as us, since they’re younger overall, and us not as long as our Jewish forebears.) 

If you’ve hung out with Muslims much, you’ve heard, “Inshallah.” (If God wills.) Maybe you have on rare occasion dropped to my level and thought, “Oh, don’t blame God. Just decide to show up!” Similarly, Christians will sometimes add to prayers, “If it’s your will. . .” 

According to Justin Parrot, the debate for Muslims goes back to their early days, “This question led to one of the earliest sectarian schisms in the Muslim community, between the Qadarites, who believed in absolute human free will, and the Jabarites, who believed in absolute determinism and fatalism. Each of these groups developed an extreme and misguided theology.”

On our side of the divide, we have Calvinists and Arminians. Do you identify with one or the other?

Maybe as Justin tries to show in the article referenced above there is a middle, or multiple middle, ways. At any rate, it’s a fun debate that gives me opportunity to examine my assumptions. 

Sitting here by the fire and the tree and in the midst of my family, I’m happy that however God actually orders reality in reference to this debate, we are assured that when, “the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman. . . .” (Galatians 4:4)

If you’d like to kick this challenge around on Facebook (and can be nice!), join in here. 

A couple times a year, I invite Muslim Connect readers to contribute to keep the email going and growing. If you’ve found value in the weekly offering, and God gives you grace to do so, I’d be honored to have you make a gift here (Scroll down to the “Select Designation” drop down and choose me). Thank you.

You know those things you wish you could do, but can’t? Bring down inflation. A pull up. Get a woman on a major Bible translation committee. Find a new hiding place for the Elf on the Shelf. Life’s hard that way. 

But in the first of three pre-Christmas Muslim Connect editions I’m going to give you one thing you might be able to do, one you can do in the minute following reading this email and one you could do if you get a green light from your spouse, bank account and Jesus.

1. One of the challenges with reaching out to Muslims is actually reaching out. You know, crawling over or pushing through the barrier of culture, language and habit. Here’s an idea for the next month: Ask a Muslim what their family thinks of Christmas and if they celebrate it at all. If a door opens, you can chat about how great Jesus is or maybe open another door and invite them over for some Christmas cheer. It’s a dumb question last summer, but it might work right now. 
2. A dear friend of mine has been walking a tough road with a Pakistani family from a Muslim background. It’s a bit of a story, but right now they’re desperately in need of expedited asylum in Canada. I’m hoping you’ll sign this petition to help them. I have.
3. Finally, I’d like to invite you to give a gift to keep Muslim Connect going and growing. You can give the gift of attention by inviting your friends, your church and your pickle ball club to subscribe. Simply copy and past this link. You can also help with a financial gift. Muslim Connect goes out to 3300 people. With your help we can push for 5000 or even 10,000. Should God lead you to contribute, you can do so here. (Simply scroll down to the “Staff” drop down and choose me.) Thank you.