Monthly Archives: February 2025

There are lots of good dates: Your baby’s due date! The date you finally graduated or finally killed your student debt. The date you came to Christ. 

There are the second kind of dates: Like when my wife-to-be took me for a hot air balloon ride. Or tonight when we celebrate our fifth anniversary! 

And then the best dates: The fruit of the God-blessed date palm tree! Two episodes loom large in my memory: When visiting a short term team in Tunisia, I bought a bag of dates from a street vendor, planning to share them with the team. When I offered, however, they responded with, “Ooooh, ick, yucky, gross. We don’t like dates.” (Apparently this team went straight from 2nd grade to North Africa!) But I got to eat the whole bag! 

The second was earlier in my career during a summer in Jordan. I’d gone for dinner at a new friend’s house. After eating he sneakily beckoned me into his parents’ bedroom, reached high up on a dresser and brought down an ornate box. I assumed this contained the heirloom knife he would use to ceremonially kill me. (I was not long out of Indiana!) Instead the box contained the family’s “good dates.” And, oh my, were they delicious! 

Why am I making you drool over dates? Because dates are big in Islam and particularly during Ramadan. They are mentioned 22 times in the Quran and Muhammad himself is said to have cultivated them. Dates are used to break the daily fast during Ramadan, paired with a cup of tea. 

Here’s the challenge for this week: Make your way to a halal grocery and buy some dates! Ask the proprietor about the significance of dates for Islam. Big time bonus points if you take a selfie with your new friend or simply yourself enjoying dates, and post it for the rest of us to see. Ramadan Mubarak! 

In case you missed it, here’s a brand new weekly prayer guide for Ramadan. I’d love for you to join me in making this available at your church this weekend. (Ramadan begins tomorrow!)

Two weeks ago I shaved my head! I’ve always wanted to do so. Nope, good guess, but I didn’t have lice. My mother-in-law reached the point in her chemo therapy in which her hair began to fall out. She opted for a buzz and my younger son and I joined her in solidarity. 

If I were Muslim, I’m pretty sure this would be frowned upon. Muslims shave their heads when they’re seven days old and when they go on Hajj. Otherwise, they pretty much don’t.

According to a Hadith, “the 117th major sin [is] shaving the head at times of calamity. . . .Because that is showing discontent and a lack of acceptance of the divine decree.” 

While I shaved my head to help Deborah not feel so alone in it, I am discontent with her situation and not inclined to to consider her cancer decreed by God. So, if I were a Muslim, my shaved noggin would be out of bounds. 

On the other hand, if the hair you don’t shave tends toward a “whiter shade of pale,” a friend of mine is looking for you! 

Aaron, the Director of Digital Outreach at Crescent Project, pilots a program called Embassy. He says, “We run Facebook ads in Muslim majority countries that ask, ‘Do you want to practice English by reading and discussing the Bible?’ We connect [vetted respondents] with a volunteer. They meet once a week on an instant messaging app where they work through a creation to Christ Bible curriculum we’ve created.”

The Embassy guys are finding older, retired people to be exceptional “ambassadors.” In fact, Rick, a volunteer from Florida, said, “I’m excited to work with Embassy to reach Muslims online! I find this perfect for me, at almost 80, since I can easily share my faith with Muslim men in Iran and Iraq using my iPhone.”

Do you have the gray hair Aaron is looking for? Check out Embassy. 

In case you missed it last week, here’s a brand new weekly prayer guide for Ramadan. I’d love for you to join me in putting it in our church bulletins this weekend. (Ramadan begins next Friday!)

If you’re the pastor of the church you attend, this will not be very challenging. If you’re not, well, get ready. 

1. Ramadan starts at the end of February. 
2. Prayer is one of the best ways most of us can engage this important time.
3. We can add to our prayers by using our influence to invite others to pray as well.

Here’s the challenge: Download this brand new one week prayer guide for Ramadan, then print and magnet it to your fridge. So far, so good. 

Now the hard part: Ask the responsible party at your church to publish the flyer for the whole congregation! This may mean printing and putting it in the bulletin, passing it out on Sunday morning or emailing it to the whole crew.

Could God use you to multiply your prayers 100 fold? Absolutely. Share this email (or the prayer guide) far and wide. And may God hear and answer our prayers beyond our imagination.

One of the world’s richest people died two days ago. While rich and poor people die everyday, what makes this guy unique is that he was the leader of upwards of 15 million Muslims knows as Ismailis. 

The Ismailis are unusual in the Muslim world in a variety of ways: They tend to approach the religion from a more intellectual angle. They view God as beyond description and comprehension. And though they revere Muhammad, they pledge allegiance and give up to 12.5% of their income to a dude in France who, among many other things, raises race horses! 

Their leader is known as the Aga Khan. The recently deceased one, Karim, reigned for 67 years as the spiritual leader of the globally scattered Ismaili community, while at the same time overseeing a vast international portfolio of businesses and charitable works. Sort of like a CEO/Pope! 

Upon his death, Prince Karim handed the empire over to his oldest son, Rahim. (Many think Rahim’s sister, Princess Zahra would do a better job, but alas, she’s a woman.) 

Prince Rahim is now the 50th Aga Khan and I assume the mantle rests heavily on his shoulders. The Aga Khan Development Network which his father set up oversees billions of dollars, thousands of staff and many dozens of global partnerships and projects. 

And there is also the family fortune, including estates, a yacht club and of course, the horses! 

Would you join me for just a moment and pray a thoroughly bonkers prayer? Let’s ask God to bring Prince Rahim to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. He ranks high on my list of “that ain’t never gonna happen,” but the God we’re petitioning is the one who got Saul the persecutor and transformed him into Paul the Apostle, the church planter and author of a good chunk of The Book. The Aga Khan V is not beyond his reach.