Monthly Archives: January 2024

As our church prepares to dive into Acts this Spring, my wife and I are searching for good ways to communicate the geography of Luke’s volume two. The Holy Spirit is the main character, but geography plays an important support role. If you’ve got ideas, I’d love to hear them. 

Clear data and information, like the geographical setting for Acts, helps us get beyond the sound bytes, first impressions and, let’s be honest, false assumptions that sometimes pepper our brains. 

Migration continues to be a challenging global reality. And if you live in the US, the deeper we descend into this election cycle, the more likely we are to hear true, mistaken and sensational claims about immigration. 

The following links come courtesy of the Dimitrov Research Center at the Continental Theological Seminary in Belgium. Their occasional email can’t come often enough for me. 

The Migration Policy Institute provides an interactive map of data on immigration to and emigration from every country based on the country of origin for immigrants and the destination country for emigrants.

. . . an interactive map of data on refugees and asylum seekers from every country based on country of origin and destination country.

. . .an interactive map of data on the net number of migrants for every country for the years 1950 to 2020 shown in five-year increments.

A snapshot of the totalnumber of people identifying as religious, as Christians, and as Muslims in each country. . .through an interactive map.

Finally, here’s a tool to help you explore unengaged peoples in areas where you have interest or burden. I’m on my way to Phoenix today to gather with the folks spearheading that website and broader effort. We’re asking God to show us how the number of unengaged peoples might be dropped to zero by the end of 2025. I’d deeply value your prayers for that meeting. (If you’re willing, shoot me a note to let me know you’re praying. Thank you.) 

A friend and I tried something this past week and I think it worked. 

Many of the people we do life with are thinking deeply about the grievous situation in the Middle East. What if we could help them with some background, practical guidance and maybe renewed hope for God’s purposes?

My friend Joseph and I hosted an event last Sunday night called, “Thinking Biblically about the Israel/Hamas War.” We gave people a bit of the biblical, historical and socio-politcal background that has led to the current situation. We built empathy for both Jews and Muslims. And finally, we all engaged in some powerful prayer. 

The agenda was pretty simple:

1. Welcome and opening prayer.
2. A ten minute video overviewing the history of the plot of land now called Israel.
3. A quick dive into the biblical history of the sons of Ishmael and the sons of Isaac. 
4. A healthy amount of time for question and response. 
5. Fifteen minutes of prayer

Components that made the effort succeed:

1. The people at my church are inclined toward graciousness.
2. We solicited written questions ahead of time. We requested them from the front on Sunday morning and by text blast. We also invited questions from the floor at the event. 
3. Video: We think the video is pretty balanced. Your view may vary, but the more objective it is, the better. 
4. We had tea and cookies! 
5. The X factor: My bud, Joseph. He has a good handle on the Old Testament, he’s lived in Israel, has been there several additional times and he wants abundant life for Jews and Muslims. You could probably personally fill the role I played, “The guy who knows a little bit about Muslims.” The “Joseph” part might be a tougher. Is there someone local who fits the bill? If not, bring him in to do it. 

This is a timely step. If we had the ability we’d resolve this war, wouldn’t we? Since we don’t, let’s take the opportunity to help and inspire the people of God to pray and take action. 

(If you’ve done something similar recently, I’d love to hear about it. Thanks.)

One of my kids, when asked what he wants to be when he grows up, used to reply, “Engineer.” Sometimes the impressed inquisitor probed further and inquired, “What kind of engineering do you want to do? Mechanical? Computer?” But their awe would fade when he clarified, “I want to drive trains!”

If we have kids, we want good stuff for them, right? We resonate with John, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” As Christians, we want them to become wholehearted followers of Jesus. 

Would you say you want them to be radicalized for Jesus?

Recent reports have indicated that ISIS, inspired by the Israel/Hamas war, have upped their recruitment efforts targeting younger people. The principals in several recently foiled terrorist plots have been 14 years old and even younger. 

Of course the appeal is complex, the blame multifaceted. As Christians we can say, “It’s the Devil’s handiwork.” Yeah, but through whose hands does he work? 

In addition to the grim conviction that no child deserves to be targeted by ISIS, two questions trouble me: 

1. To what degree is my country, by continuing to sell military equipment and ammunition to Israel, complicit in the creation of the next generation of radicalized Islamists?
2. To what end are my own kids being radicalized and what role do their mom and I play in that process? 

To be sure, there’s a part of me that wants them to become rich enough to happily and gratefully send my wife and I on wonderful, exotic trips. But more than that, I want them to rise up like, and with, Jesus as powerful, peaceful, loving and radical forces for the Kingdom of God. I see no other alternative if evil is to someday be overcome by good. 

Got kids? Got thoughts?

In case your church calendar is covered up by discarded wrapping paper or New Year’s confetti, can I remind you January 6th is Epiphany? 

No shame if you think, “Epipha-what-now?” In most of our church traditions, Epiphany is the shy middle child of holy days, sitting quietly in a corner between loud, first born Christmas and favored baby Easter. 

But for those of us who love Muslims and love the God who desires life for them and merits their deepest loyalty, Epiphany rocks. 

It celebrates, as you may know, the revelation of Messiah Jesus to the Gentiles (Which is super good news for most of us!). While some eastern traditions pin Epiphany to Jesus’s baptism, which is cool, most of us associate it with the Magi from the East finding and worshiping Jesus. 

Talking about this at youth group last night, my super smart wife said the Magi, “Traveled great distance at great cost with great expectation.”

I love that. 

It inspires a two-fold hope in me: 

1. That Muslims, including those who now live on the dirt from which the Magi journeyed, will find Jesus to be so compelling they’ll go great distances (of all sorts) and pay great costs (of all kinds) in order to bow before him. 
2. That you and I, and many others, would go great distances at great cost, empowered by the great expectation that Jesus came to bring abundant life to Muslims and God desires to be followed by some from every Muslim people group. 

Of course I don’t know what that specifically means for you. Heck, I often feel clueless about what it means for me! But as I write, I’m praying God will show us and give us grace and courage. None of us are as wise as we wish, but Jesus is worth the cost and the journey.