Monthly Archives: February 2024

Had any good dreams lately? I mean “while you’re asleep” dreams, not “I dream of world peace,” which is definitely a good dream! Ahead of our sharing the preaching duties at church last Sunday, my wife dreamed that I kept trying to dance with her during the sermon! Happily her righteous anger quickly dissipated once she woke up!

While we might speculate on the origin of hers, dream interpretation and dreams in general, are not big in my stream of Christianity, practical protestants that we are! 

Not so with all Christians and definitely not so with Muslims. In fact, according to Nile Green, dreams and their interpretations have been a part of Muslim culture since the beginning. 

Sunnis believe that the adhan [call to prayer] was not written or said by the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, but rather by one of his companions, Abdullah ibn Zayd, who reportedly had a vision in his dream in which the adhan was revealed to him by God.

In his book, Dreams and Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?, Tom Doyle talks about how dreams of Jesus have led many Muslims to faith. 

In this unverified Facebook report, Dr. Mike Licona shares news from an underground Christian ministry in Palestine saying Jesus recently appeared to about 200 men in their dreams in one night! 

I have a dear Muslim background friend who began to follow Jesus after the Lord showed up to him in a vision. I believe it happens. 

I also suspect, with some data and good reason, that it happens more during Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting that starts soon. And what if it happens more if we ask God for it? 

If you’re up for trying, join with our friends at Pray4Movement.org to pray for Muslims during this coming Ramadan. And because the Muslim Connect tribe is all about inviting everyone to the party, please consider how you might share the prayer vision with others. 

Have you ever sensed something was up with your body, then welcomed the clarity of a clear diagnosis, even if it wasn’t what you’d hoped for? You may have dealt with that in a very serious manner, but I’m being cheeky with the following:

I’ve been diagnosed, courtesy of Dr. Benedict Beckeld and his article, Islam and the West: Culturally and Theologically Divided, in Merion West: 

I am oikophobic and allophilic, and it’s probably terminal. 

To be clear: Dr. Beckeld is smarter than me, probably by an order of magnitude. But, even though he’s much better looking, he’s also very wordy. I didn’t make it to the end of his article! 

If you’ve even dabbled in Greek, you can parse the words, right? Oiko and phobic = you’re afraid of your house. Allo and philic = you love the other. In common usage, oikophobics aren’t actually afraid of their literal houses, but are given to criticism and rejection of their home culture. Allophilics have an inordinate love for “the other,” those outside their culture or homeland. 

As you might imagine, Dr. Beckeld uses these terms pejoratively, and, with others, tends to equate oikophobia with academia, the liberal elite and political correctness. 

Me? I’m going to print stickers and fridge magnets!! 

I’m kidding. Fridge magnets are expensive. 

Two things I think (seriously, for a moment): 

We should consider these words and their popular use a warning to mobilizers. I can give the impression that I only care about people if they’re non-white and worship Allah. It’s a peculiar risk for people who care about Muslims, immigrants and refugees. But the label shouldn’t stick. 

Secondly, we must be critical of our own cultures, particularly in ways that will render them better. If doing that in biblical ways gets us labeled oikophobic and allophilic, so it goes. 

Finally, is it possible that Jesus by reaching out to Samaritans and sinners, not playing nicely with religious leaders and saying his kingdom was “not of this world” could have been allophonic and oikophobic? He was called worse! 

PS: If you’ve got 30 seconds, please hop over to Denison Forum and comment on the article I had published there today! I’d be big time grateful! Thank you. 

Did you watch the Super Bowl last Sunday? Over 200 million of us tuned in for at least part of it! That’s the most ever, including increased numbers of Hispanic viewers via Univision and more women than ever (via Taylor Swift?!). There was even a simulcast from Bikini Bottom, courtesy of Nickelodeon, which, due an internet issue, my buds and I enjoyed for a bit! 

If you did watch, maybe you saw the He Gets Us Foot-washing commercial. What did you think? Feel? What, if anything, did it stir in you? (I’d love to hear.)

You can guess what I thought, right? I loved it!! 

First off, it’s a counter-message to an idea which seems to be growing that Christians are best at not liking stuff: Sin, bad people, political opposition, whatever. Too many of us are too often pigeon-holed as haters and identified by what we’re against. But it’s what we’re for that really rocks: The fullness of the kingdom of God in our hearts, down the street and all over this beautiful world!

Secondly, the commercial reminds us of an aspect of Jesus that probably doesn’t get as much air time as it should: He came to serve. Similarly, Christians might not get reminded as often as would be good for us that essential to our calling is loving and serving people we wouldn’t naturally love and serve. 

Finally, a Muslim woman, sitting in the lawn chair of my Indiana youth, gets her feet washed. Yes. Yes. Yes. Those of us claiming the gift of life Jesus offers (and reading this silly email) can surely agree: Part of the way we (at least some of us) steward that gift of life is by demonstrating it through service to Muslims. Amen!

Now the hard part: Actually living out and living up to Jesus’s example! You grab a towel. I’ll go fill up a dish pan.

PS: Both the wash-ers and wash-ees have bare feet in the ad! Thoughts on that? 

One of the lasting joys of my life is that I was taught how to read. It didn’t necessarily have to have happened. And further, I was taught to enjoy books and live now in a day and age in which books are readily available. What a gift. 

I read something this past week that touched my heart and imagination and would like to share it with you:

Diaspora means scattering and fragmentation, exile and loss. It means being displaced and in search of a place that could be made home. For Israel it means life among the Gentiles. Danger and threat surround diaspora life. Diaspora life is life crowded with self-questioning and questions for God concerning the anger, hatred, and violence visited upon a people.

They also remember loss— of land and place, of life and hope, and even for some of faith. Yet diaspora is also power, the power of a conviction to survive and the power of a confession to never yield to the forces that would destroy them.*

Not every Muslim you meet is part of the diaspora, but many are. And a healthy measure of those probably live in some or all of the reality mentioned above. Jesus is there with them. At the right time, may he use us to extend empathy, welcome and life. 

*Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, by Willie James Jennings

I’m preaching about community this weekend. You know that weird, biblically mandated, annoyingly invasive, warm and beautiful tenant of Christianity that says we really need to do the Jesus things together. 

My wife, who’s scary smart, observed that Muslims are known for community. Indeed they are. The global community of Muslims is called the Ummah, and it feels like there’s a linkage among Muslims that’s deeper than the global connections among Christians. 

Of course for both of us there are lines in the (shifting) sands the crowds say mustn’t be overstepped. Just ask the Ahmadiyyas or Alistair Begg. 

What is it that holds Muslims together? I’m probably in error wondering if the motives are sickly or sinister. “We rule less of the world than we used to, so we’d better stick together.” Or worse, “We need to stick together so we can take over the world.” Maybe it’s the submission nature of Islam, maybe it’s the result of a more thorough integration of religion and life. 

One of God’s dear gifts to me over the years is connection to the Perspectives Course. In it I’ve been exposed the best Christians and congregations in a bunch of different denominations. As a result, I have reasons to appreciate many collections of believers with whom I likely disagree on several secondary issues. I feel a sense of community with a broad swath of Christendom. 

I don’t want to be arrogant here, but can we have more of that for us? Less sniping off people who disagree on secondary things and more, “That woman way over there, she’s got some weird ways of worship, but she’s my sister. She loves Jesus!” 

Maybe we could learn a thing or two from the, admittedly idealized, “Ummah over everything” approach of our Muslim cousins. 

If you prayed for my meetings last weekend, thank you! God heard and answered. We have fresh energy and direction to see Jesus people among the remaining unengaged people groups.