Monthly Archives: April 2026

If you’re reading this when it drops (roughly 7-ish am Eastern time) and can spare 15 seconds to breathe a prayer to our Father, please do. This morning, in a small hearing room in an imposing judicial building in southern Colorado, I’ll petition the court to allow me to adopt the three little munchkins I’ve been step-dadding the past six years. 

You might wonder if three more Bennetts in the land is a good thing. Fair question. 

You might ask, “Don’t you already have five kids?” Indeed, five amazing, brilliant, well-adjusted and both physically and socially attractive adult children. 

But this is the step before us: To legally ordain what has become true these past years. And I am thrilled. (Mom, too!)

The concept of adoption flows through scripture and history. We’re told in Ephesians 1.5 that, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

“Great pleasure” indeed. I can relate to God!

I share this with you because good news should go forth. Also to remind us Gentiles that we’ve been grafted into the things of God. And further, to fan the flames of your desire to see our Muslim cousins adopted as full-fledged, daughters and sons of the king. 

Surely they were designed for this and will find fresh joy and fulfillment in such status. Just as will our three in a nondescript, but consecrated courtroom this morning. 

PS. If you’re within range of southern Colorado, join us to celebrate Saturday noon at 6154 Boulder Ave. Rye, CO. 

If there’s one thing Muslim Connect readers are big on it’s soccer (Football for the cultural semantics snobs. You know who you are!). Personally, I’m a soccer fanatic. Well, at least once every four years for five weeks! And this summer it’s time to go crazy again. It’s the World Cup! And get this: The tournament is in North America. 

Through some dark witchery, games were parceled out to various Canadian, American and Mexican cities. Denver (the closest possibility to me) was egregiously over looked. Kansas City has six matches and we have none! No offense to readers who love Arrowhead Stadium, but some money changed hands somewhere, probably over a big plate of saucy, KC smoked brisket.

Pouting aside, the World Cup is a big deal for those of us who care about Muslims. Fourteen of the 48 countries who’ve qualified are Muslim-majority nations. Some marketing experts say, “The 2026 tournament is expected to reach around 5.8 billion viewers worldwide, meaning most of the planet will watch at least part of the competition.” 

Of course relatively few will see matches in person! That means we’ve got multiple opportunities to host watch parties and invite Muslim neighbors, friends and co-workers. (More on this to come.)

We can also join up with an outreach effort at a match venue. If you’re in Kansas City (and still reading this!) check out Chapel Oaks Church’s water evangelism effort. Click here for a collecting spot for outreach efforts across all World Cup cities. 

Finally, here’s something I just recently learned, but should have expected: Muslims are gearing up to reach out as well. The AI in this video is goofy, but the spirit of the invitation shines through. May the young evangelists who respond to this call find Jesus, even in the midst of their outreach for Islam. 

I sometimes think the differences between Muslims and Christians are not too many, but are very significant. It’s like a chasm you think you could jump across, although wide enough to be a little scary. But if you don’t make it to the other side, the fall down the crevasse is way farther than you’d like. 

On this Good Friday, I suppose most Muslim Connect readers are thinking of the crucifixion. And that’s where we find the chasm-deep division between us and our Abrahamic cousins. The Quran portrays Jesus as a prophet and a good guy, but someone who probably didn’t die. 

Divine? Nope. 

Crucified? Close, but not quite.

Resurrection? Not needed. Didn’t die.

You might be surprised to learn the beginning of Muslims’ “Jesus-didn’t-die-on-the-cross” conviction rests unsteadily on just one verse of the Quran. Here’s the verse, “That they said (in boast), ‘We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah’; – but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not.” Q4:157

As Gregory Lanier brilliantly unfolds, that verse is probably talking more about the Jews looking bad than about Jesus dying or not. At the very least, the exegesis is tricky, the idea is mentioned only once in the Quran and it only shows up lightly in the Shia (not Sunni) Hadith. 

The alternative idea that Jesus was swept up to Heaven supports both Shia and Sunni eschatology. Denying the crucifixion makes the Resurrection a moot point, which serves your case when you want to view Jesus as just a guy, a really good guy. 

But if he was crucified. . . and he did rise from that death. Well now, that changes everything, doesn’t it?