ISIS announced the execution of 21 Copts but only 20 names were confirmed, most of them were from the province of Minya(Upper Egypt). There was an inaccuracy in the number of Egyptian Hostages; there were only 20 Egyptians(Copts). Then who was this remaining one non-Coptic victim?
Ahram-Canadian News was able to gather information about this man. He was a Chadian Citizen (Darker skin shown in picture) who accepted Christianity after seeing the immense faith of his fellow Coptic Christians to die for Christ. When Terrorist forced him to reject Jesus Christ as God, looking at his Christian friends he replied, “their God is my God“ so the terrorist beheaded him also.
Think about the faith, shining through those 20 Christians who made a non believer, a true believer in Christ, even at the point of death. In Bible, Gospel of Luke describes about two thieves, being on either side of Jesus as they were crucified. At that very point of death by Crucifixion, one of the thief accepted Christ saying, ‘LORD, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.’ Here this Chadian citizen showed the same faith in Christ. Can we put ourselves into his place? The faith he showed was not a mean faith, at such a moment, he could believe in Jesus as Lord and King.
May God help us to strength our faith so that the world may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. (Mathew 5:16) (News referred from Ahram-Canadian news)
Picture this scene: it is the middle of the night, and the doorbell rings. A weary man stumbles to the door and opens it. There is no one standing on the front step. But when he looks down, he sees a small bundle in a cardboard box. Instinctively, he brings it inside and opens it. Wrapped inside a blanket is a tiny newborn baby, almost frozen by the mid-December cold.
This is the scenario that played out in a poor urban neighborhood of Seoul, South Korea several years ago—on the doorstep of a pastor named Lee Jong-rak. The baby, which suffered from physical disabilities, had been surrendered by a desperate unwed mother, under the cover of night, in the hope that the child would find a safe refuge in Pastor Lee’s home.
As gripping as this story is, it actually begins many years earlier, with the birth of Pastor Lee’s own son, Eun-man. The child was born with crippling cerebral palsy, leaving his body deformed and making him dependent upon his parents for constant care. His condition was so serious that Pastor Lee, along with his wife and their young daughter, essentially spent the first 14 years of Eun-man’s life in the hospital with him, waiting for the day when they could take him home.
During those years in the hospital, in addition to caring for Eun-man, Pastor Lee reached out to many other physically challenged kids. Over time, he took in several orphans from the hospital. By the time he was able to move Eun-man and the rest of his growing family back home, his reputation as a loving and compassionate shepherd was firmly established. It was this reputation that compelled a frightened young mother to surrender her baby on his front step on that cold December night.
With the problem of child abandonment growing throughout Seoul (on average, more than 200 babies are abandoned on the streets there every year), Pastor Lee knew something had to be done. So he installed a “baby box” on the side of his home as a way for desperate young mothers to anonymously and safely surrender their children. A sign posted above the box bears Psalm 27:10: “For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.” Since installing the box in 2009, more than 600 babies have been surrendered into Pastor Lee’s care.
Can you relate to Pastor Lee’s story? As a pastor, you provide that same level of love and care. Your circumstances might look different, but you nevertheless invest in the lives of those around you with the same spirit of Christ-like love.
Like Pastor Lee, you’ve probably received one of those midnight knocks on your front door, or maybe a phone call or a text, from someone in crisis. Perhaps the issue isn’t an abandoned baby. It might be someone who has just discovered their spouse is having an affair, or who has lost their job, or been diagnosed with cancer, or experienced the sudden death of a loved one.
And like Pastor Lee, you have challenges of your own at home. Maybe not a child with cerebral palsy, but challenges nonetheless—things that require your love and time and attention, and that have the potential to drain your already dwindling reserves of energy. Even so, when a member of your congregation has a need, you make time, you make room. You sacrifice.
As a pastor, you are available—to care, to admonish, to shepherd, to teach, to listen. This is a gift to your flock and a powerful example to a watching world of authentic, Christ-like love and service. There are likely days when you feel overlooked and unappreciated, but please know that we here at Focus are praying for you as you minister the love of Christ in your community. Thank you! May we never take you and your work for granted.
If you want to learn more about Pastor Lee, I hope you and your congregation will make plans to attend The Drop Box, Focus on the Family’s new documentary film appearing in movie theaters nationwide for three nights only, March 3, 4, and 5. The power of this story is such that the director of The Drop Box, Brian Ivie, actually committed his life to Christ during the making of the film!
Watch this video clip to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of how we plan to share Pastor Lee’s story: http://youtu.be/TA-G9kQMzJY.
For theaters and showtimes, as well as resources to help you promote this important movie at your church, visit www.TheDropBoxFilm.com.
From Christianity Today comes this awesome account of how Christians and Muslims are reacting to the murder of 21 christians by ISIS.
How Libya’s Martyrs Are Witnessing to Egypt
Murders spark largest outreach ever amid new freedoms and new threats.
Jayson Casper in Cairo/ FEBRUARY 23, 2015
Image: Bible Society of Egypt
Covers of the English and Arabic tracts.
Undaunted by the slaughter of 21 Christians in Libya, the director of the Bible Society of Egypt saw a golden gospel opportunity.
“We must have a Scripture tract ready to distribute to the nation as soon as possible,” Ramez Atallah told his staff the evening an ISIS-linked group released its gruesome propaganda video. Less than 36 hours later, Two Rows by the Seawas sent to the printer.
One week later, 1.65 million copies have been distributed in the Bible Society’s largest campaign ever. It eclipses even the 1 million tracts distributed after the 2012 death of Shenouda, the Coptic “Pope of the Bible.” [A full English translation is posted at bottom.]
Image: Bible Society of Egypt
Arabic tract (outside)
The tract contains biblical quotations about the promise of blessing amid suffering, alongside a poignant poem in colloquial Arabic:
Who fears the other? The row in orange, watching paradise open? Or the row in black, with minds evil and broken?
“The design is meant so that it can be given to any Egyptian without causing offense,” said Atallah. “To comfort the mourning and challenge people to commit to Christ.”
The Bible Society distributed the tract through Egypt’s churches, but one congregation went a step further.
Image: Jayson Casper
Poster at Isaaf Evangelical Church
Isaaf Evangelical Church, located on one of downtown Cairo’s busiest streets, hung a poster on its wall at eye-level with pedestrians. “We learn from what the Messiah has said,” it read over the background of an Egyptian flag. “‘Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you….’”
Pastor Francis Fahim said the poster was meant to express comfort to all Egyptians, Muslim and Christian.
As CT reported on Thursday, the beheadings by the Islamic State in Libya have resulted in unprecedented sympathy for Egypt’s Christians, who are increasingly finding common identity across denominational lines. The martyrdoms have also allowed Copts a platform to witness to the realities of their faith, as they publicly forgave the terrorists.
Terror and Fear: The Largest Denominations of Islam’s Currency
Islamic State fighters walk 21 Coptic Christians to their execution spot. (FTD News/YouTube)
ISIS apparently chose the tallest butchers for the photo-op, to project intense fear and horror to their targeted audience: America, The Great Satan.
The Philistines were the ISIS of the Gaza Strip in 1000 B.C. Their champion, 9-foot-6 Goliath of Gath, daily summoned, “‘Why are you all coming out to fight? … I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul.
“‘Choose one man to come down here and fight me! If he kills me, then we will be your slaves. But if I kill him, you will be our slaves! I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!’ When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken.”1
Terror and fear are the largest denominations in the adversary’s currency.
Most interesting, “Goliath’s armour is given unusually detailed attention. We never learn anything about David’s armor after he became king. 1 Samuel 17:5 says that the Philistine giant was wearing ‘scale armour’, and the Hebrew word simply means ‘scales.’ This sort of armour is attested throughout the ancient Near East, but the fact that he is described as wearing ‘scales’ indicates that Goliath was a serpent.”2 Once again, a serpent is using fear in the Middle East, history repeats itself.
Although green, David, the son of Jesse, had discovered the secret to battling 9-foot-6 giants, “For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.”3
The predicament in America, we lack those handy with the Sword, therefore, no punitive angles are being dispatched to punish the rebels by the living God. Proverbs 17:11, “A rebel truly seeks evil, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him.”
The denial of the existence of evil, that God actually has enemies, is part of the fallout of a biblically illiterate nation.
Our previous president was conned, “Mr. President, when you talk about peace in the Middle East, you’ve often said that freedom is granted by the Almighty. Some people who share your beliefs don’t believe that Muslims worship the same Almighty. I wonder about your views on that.”
President George W. Bush said, “I do say that freedom is the Almighty’s gift to every person. I also condition it by saying freedom is not America’s gift to the world. It’s much greater than that, of course. And I believe we worship the same God [Islam and Christianity].” (11/20/03)
“Syncretism”—combining of different, often seemingly contradictory beliefs, while melding practices of various schools of thought—is well-behaved against serpents, for there is no fear of God. “[B]ut did not God’s smile make Belshazzar to tremble at the handwriting on the wall? Oh, what are His frowns, if His smiles be so terrible?”4
Americans want God’s help, but not His holiness. We cry out to God in crisis, but not in our daily lives. We have acclimated to the false religion of secularism, “There are many people who think it’s useful to have God on their side. In a way they want to honour God.
They will go to church. They will say prayers. They will ask a pastor to bless a marriage or their new house. The kind of God they want is simply a God who will help them get their own way and win their own battles. They want God to be a servant to help them get things done, but at the same time they want to have their own views and live their own lives.”5
“What work, think you, was Daniel doing in the lion’s den? Or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace? Their work was glorious, ‘laudable, and honourable,’ they were glorifying God in suffering.”6
“Christian capitulation to secular politics—more the rule than the exception in the modern church—is nothing less than apostasy, a denial of the gospel that announces Jesus as Lord.”7
We need a Gideon or Rahab the Harlot to stand.
1 1 Samuel 17:8-11
2 Peter J. Leithart, A Son To Me, An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
It should go without saying that this over-hyped movie is pornographic, hostile to women and damaging to relationships and therefore christians should avoid it. But many people seem to get sucked in by the spirit of the age so easily.
Please do not see this movie.
From “Eternity”
Fifty Shades of Grey a “no-go” for Christians: sexologist
NEWS | Kaley Payne
Hype over the film version Fifty Shades of Grey, adapted from the wildly popular book series by E. L. James is reaching fever pitch in Australia ahead of the film’s premiere on February 12. But Christian sex therapist and doctor, Patricia Weerakoon is warning Christians to stay away.
“If you’re a Christian, you shouldn’t see this movie,” Patricia toldEternity.
When Fifty Shades of Grey was first released as a novel in 2012, Patricia read it to be able to identify with more and more women turning up in her sex therapy office talking about it.
“I’ve read it superficially, but it was so badly written it was actually painful to go through it – even apart from the sex context,” she said. And while Patricia does not intend to see the movie, she says she knows enough about the content – and the impact of pornography – to feel comfortable advising against it for others.
“Pornography is about intent: an intention to elicit sexual thoughts and feelings. So there’s no question this film is pornography, just as the book before it. It is fantasy sex.”
Last Sunday I preached about Jesus’ ministry of healing. At the end of the sermon I asked people to stand if they wanted to receive prayer for healing. I then asked for other people to lay hands on them while I prayed for healing for those standing.
I didn’t do a check up to see if anyone was healed, but I will be asking for testimonies next Sunday, and I’m hoping to hear some good stories!
Something happened during the week to make me wonder if more people should have asked for prayer. I’ve been thinking about the thought processes that sometimes hold us back from seeking healing. I’m not even thinking about people who deny that God is involved in miracles these days.
Some people think their problem is too small for God to consider. These people never heard the words of Jesus about our Father caring even for sparrows. (see Matthew 10:29)
Some people think their problem is too big for God. They think God could raise Jesus and Lazarus from the dead but can’t heal cancer. (see John 20)
Some people are embarrassed about their conditions and don’t want other to know about them. I’m sure the lady with the problem with bleeding overcame her embarrassment and the religious declaration that she was unclean and anyone she touched would be unclean. (Mark 5:24-34)
Some people think deep down that God really does not love them because they are unimportant or because of shame about some sin that they feel unworthy to ask Him for anything.
I was praying this afternoon and I felt that God put this into my head:
If you mothers know how to put Band-Aids on your children’s imaginary injuries because you love your children, how much more will your heavenly Father heal your real injuries because He loves you?
It is so hard to really believe that God loves us extravagantly and wants to heal every wound- physical, emotional and spiritual- but it’s true. And when we start to take that risky step of thinking “What if it is true?” then we start to see healing and miracles and joy and love and peace abounding in our lives.
Many people think of God as being a Law-giver proclaiming “Thou shalt not” and “Thou shalt”.
Others think of God as handing down propositions about himself in big words.
But, as Jared Wilson points out, God is a story-telling God.
In this book Wilson looks at the parables of Jesus showing how these often simple stories show us God’s ways in surprising revelations. It is as if the stories allow reality to break into our consciousness.
This is an excellent book about the parables. It is easy to read, inspiring and encourages us to look carefully at the stories with a new attitude.
In November of 1996 First Things hosted a symposium titled “The Judicial Usurpation of Politics” in which contributors discussed the threat to American democracy posed by the Supreme Court instated imposition of abortion on America. Nothing rivals the sheer volume of innocent human beings killed by abortion and yet First Things saw fit to focus not on the babies themselves or the mothers and fathers, but on the threat to democracy and the American experiment posed by the judicial over-reach that legalized abortion.
The legalization of same-sex “marriage” does not bring with it the innocent blood which cries to heaven, though it is perhaps the single most audacious social engineering initiative in American history. But the way in which it has been imposed in state after state, as courts have seen fit to ignore ballot initiatives, sets the stage for a United States Supreme Court ruling on par with Roe vs. Wade. The Supreme Court has announced it will rule on same-sex “marriage” in this sitting—exactly ten years after Canada legalized same-sex “marriage.” It is important for Americans to look at what has happened in Canada.
On July 20, 2005, Canada became the fourth country in the world to legalize same-sex “marriage.” On that day the sun rose as it always does, people went to work, daily Mass was celebrated in Catholic Churches and daily life continued to unfold as it normally does. In the days and months following there was no massive spike in the numbers of same-sex couples getting “married” (it had already been legal in 8 of 10 provinces since 2003), the speculated upon possibility of same-sex “marriage” tourism from the United States never really materialized and the Canadian flag was not changed from the maple leaf to the LGBT rainbow. But something very significant happened with the legalization of same-sex “marriage” in Canada and it wasn’t about the freedom of gay people to marry, and it wasn’t really about marriage.
July 20, 2005 marked a very significant step towards totalitarianism in Canada.
Free speech, the rights of parents, the right to preach and practise one’s religion and the worn and tattered fibers of normative decency were all deeply damaged. With the legalization of same-sex “marriage” what had been aberrant only a few years earlier became entrenched as a legal right, and what had been a normal and natural view of sexuality had been reduced to the retrograde thinking of hate crime dinosaurs.
In the English language today we are blessed with dozens of translations of the Scriptures all aiming to convey the meaning of the original texts in our world in our language.
It’s not as easy as it sounds because it’s not just a matter of plugging equivalent words from Greek or Hebrew into their closest English meaning. That’s before you even start to consider underlying meanings and assumptions people in a given place and time make. For example how would you translate the expression “I’m flat out like a lizard on a rock” into normal English let alone another language? Just imagine the lep you have to make across 2000 years or more of history and life experience.
What made me think about this was a reading that Margaret Baxter shared on Sunday morning from Acts 2:42-47 from the New Living Translation:
42 All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper[a]), and to prayer.
43 A deep sense of awe came over them all, and the apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders.44 And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.45 They sold their property and possessions and shared the money with those in need.46 They worshipped together at the Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord’s Supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity[b]—47 all the while praising God and enjoying the goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved.
What tripped me up there was the mentioning of the Lord’s Supper twice. I was looking at it and thinking “that’s not there” even as I was reading the words.
The New International Version puts it this way:
42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles.44 All the believers were together and had everything in common.45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts,47 praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.
The NIV doesn’t mention the Lord’s Supper or Communion at all. The Greek merely talks about breaking bread, which means sharing a meal together, but in the Christian context also means sharing Communion together. So the NIV is closer to the literal meaning, but the NLT is perhaps closer to what the first christians understood by the phrase.
I think what Luke is trying to convey here is the wonderful sense of community amongst the church. They were always hanging out together, doing ordinary things but also worshipping, listening to the apostles teaching and so on. There was no distinction between “church” and “secular” or “home” stuff.
I like the way the Contemporary English Version expresses it:
42 They spent their time learning from the apostles, and they were like family to each other. They also broke bread and prayed together. 43 Everyone was amazed by the many miracles and wonders that the apostles worked. 44 All the Lord’s followers often met together, and they shared everything they had. 45 They would sell their property and possessions and give the money to whoever needed it. 46 Day after day they met together in the temple. They broke bread together in different homes and shared their food happily and freely, 47 while praising God. Everyone liked them, and each day the Lord added to their group others who were being saved.
Both the NLT and the CEV have footnotes to indicate that the term “breaking bread” means sharing a meal and Holy Communion, but how many read the footnotes?
Does it matter that much? I don’t know.
I am sometimes frustrated when I realise that a particular verse in a particular version doesn’t mean what it seems to say. I guess we need to be thankful that we have so many translations to choose from and get on with the job of reading one of them and living out all that God shows us in His word.
By Jim Daly
When Fifty Shades of Grey was first released as a novel in 2012, Patricia read it to be able to identify with more and more women turning up in her sex therapy office talking about it.
I was praying this afternoon and I felt that God put this into my head:
Many people think of God as being a Law-giver proclaiming “Thou shalt not” and “Thou shalt”.
New Life Narrabri 