Trusting God Though Death

Posted on May 31, 2010 by thomas

Never shall I forget how it was with our Sister Claudia. Only thirty-five years old, bubbling over with life, never sick, filled with a contagious joy and a fervent love for Jesus, she was suddenly afflicted with a severe blood disease during her ministry in Italy. She returned to the Mother House and was then sent to a specialist clinic. A few days later we heard that there was nothing more the doctors could do for Sister Claudia. Her days were numbered. We were filled with apprehension at having to break the news to her. But what did Mother Martyria and I experience when we entered her sickroom? (Actually she already knew especially after a hint from the doctor.) She looked up at us with a radiant smile that was not of this world. The Lord Jesus had come to greet her and the glory of heaven rested on her features. It had happened during her return trip from Rome, as she recorded in her diary:

“The plane flew towards the sun. All at once it seemed to me as though the Lord Jesus were asking me, ‘And if this illness should lead to death?’ O Jesus, in this moment You have filled my heart with such infinite longing that I can scarcely restrain the surging joy, soon, to see You, soon, soon to embrace You! Will this flight home be a flight into the arms of my Lord? Will it be the bridal flight for me?”

It is incomprehensible that the suffering cause by fear of death can be changed into the most blissful and heavenly joy. What a wonderful God we have! What miracles He works, transforming deepest suffering into supreme joy! Death brings us home to God and His kingdom of everlasting happiness.

—Basilea Schlink

Egyptian Convert Endures Life at a Standstill

Posted on May 30, 2010 by jacob

For nearly two years, El-Gohary and his teenage daughter have been living in hiding because he abandoned Islam and embraced Christianity. He has had to endure death threats, poverty and crushing boredom. El-Gohary, 57, and his daughter were forced into hiding shortly after August 2008, when he sued the national government to allow him to change the religion listed on his state-issued ID from Islam to Christianity. The next month, the State Council, a consultative body of Egypt’s Administrative Court, provided the court with a report stating that El-Gohary’s change of faith violated Islamic law. They instructed that he should be subject to the death penalty. As bad as things have been for El-Gohary and his daughter, their dedication seems rock-solid. They said they have never regretted their decisions to become Christians. Whatever happens, both El-Gohary and his daughter said they are prepared to live in hiding indefinitely. Full Story

Pakistani Factory Workers Arrested

Posted on May 24, 2010 by jacob

Police illegally detained three Christians on false charges of alcohol possession in Sialkot last week. The men – garment factory workers Atif Masih, Kamran Masih and Naveed Gill – said they had objected to their boss demanding they work on Sundays. Factory owner Rana Ejaz promptly accused them of selling alcohol, which is forbidden to Muslims in Pakistan and illegal to sell without a permit. On May 4 the station house officer of Paka Garah, Sialkot, arrested the three Christians even though Ejaz had filed neither a First Information Report nor registered a written complaint, the Christians said. “We went to the factory for work at 9 a.m. on May 4, and at around 11 a.m. we were arrested by the SHO (station house officer),” Atif Masih said. “We were severely beaten and asked to give a false statement that we sold alcohol.” Authorities released them after three days when local human rights groups charged that they had been illegally detained. Full Story

Stay Here

Posted on May 23, 2010 by thomas

2 Kings 2:2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said, “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

Three times Elijah spoke to his friend and disciple Elisha, to test him. Perseverance, tenacity of purpose, a refusal to be content with anything short of the best, are indispensable conditions for the attainment of the highest possibilities of experience and service. And perpetually in our life’s discipline these words come back on us, stay here! Not that God desires us to stay, but because He desires each onward step to be the choice and act of our own will.

Stay here in Consecration. — “You have given so much; is it not time that you refrained from further sacrifices? Sit down and rest, forbear from this strenuous following after.”

Stay here in the Life of Prayer. — “It is a waste to spend so much time at the footstool of God. You have done more than most, desist from further intercession and supplication.”

Stay here in the attainment of the likeness of Christ. — “It will cost you so much, if all that is not Christ-like is to pass away from your life.”

Such voices are perpetually speaking to us all. And if we heed them, we are at once shut out of that crossing the Jordan, that rapturous joining with heaven, that reception of the double portion of the Spirit, which await those who have successfully stood the test. The law of the Christian life is always Advance; always leaving that which is behind; always reckoning that you have not attained; always following on to know the Lord, growing in grace and in the knowledge of the blessed Saviour. This as well as saying to the Spirit of God, as Elisha to Elijah, I will not leave you.

—F.B. Meyer

Vietnamese Police Torture House Church Christian

Posted on May 16, 2010 by jacob

On March 17, 2010, the Vietnamese security police summoned two members of a Christian House Church, Rmah Wi and Pan to their office in the commune of Ia Grang, Vietnam. When Wi and Pan, arrived at the police station, the police took Rmah Wi into custody but released Pan. In custody the police tortured Rmah Wi by beating him with batons all over his body. He was also punched on his face, repeatedly kicked and stomped on with police wearing military boots. Whilst on the ground the police continued beating and kicking him until he passed out unconscious. When he awoke they released him but threatened him with further torture if he continued involvement in house church activities. This arrest, torture and release policy is a tactic of the Vietnamese communist authorities to repress house church Christians. Rmah Wi was arrested because of his involvment with the house church and because he had a cell phone. Full Story

Reasoning and Understanding

Posted on May 9, 2010 by thomas

God has given to man some things in common with animals, such as: his outward senses, his bodily appetites, a capacity of bodily pleasure and pain, and other animal faculties: and some things he’s given him superior to the beasts, the chief of which is an ability of understanding and reason. Now God never gave man these capabilities to be subject to those which he has in common with the animals.

This would be great confusion, and equivalent to making man to be a servant to the beasts. On the contrary, he has given those inferior powers to be employed in subserviency to man’s understanding; and therefore it must be a great part of man’s principal business to improve his understanding by acquiring knowledge. If so, then it will follow, that it should be a main part of his business to improve his understanding in acquiring divine knowledge, or the knowledge of the things of divinity: for the knowledge of these things is the principal end of this capability. God gave man the faculty of understanding, chiefly, that he might understand divine things.

—Jonathan Edwards

Buddhist Extremists Beat, Take Christians Captive

Posted on May 9, 2010 by jacob

Buddhist members of an armed rebel group and their sympathizers are holding three tribal Christians captive in a pagoda in southeastern Bangladesh after severely beating them in an attempt to force them to return to Buddhism. Held captive since April 16 are Pastor Shushil Jibon Talukder, 55; Bimol Kanti Chakma, 50; and Laksmi Bilas Chakma, 40, of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church in the mountainous Khagrachari district. After taking the Christians captive on April 16, the sources said, the next day the armed Buddhist extremists forced other Christians of Maddha Lemuchari Baptist Church to demolish their church building by their own hands. The extremists first seized all blankets, Bibles and song books from the church building. The three Christians are being kept in a pagoda for 15 to 20 days as punishment for having left the Buddhist religion. “The pastor was beaten so seriously that he could not walk to the nearby pagoda,” said one source. Full Story

Vietnamese Christian Beaten to Death

Posted on May 3, 2010 by jacob

(ICC) has learned that an imprisoned Vietnamese Christian died on March 11 after a long period of abuse and torture. K’pa Lot was arrested on May 20th, 2007, for publicly expressing his Christian faith, and imprisoned in Phu Yen province. He was kept separate from other prisoners and relocated whenever community and international agencies visited to monitor prison conditions. On March 9th, 2010, K’Pa was taken from the prison to a hospital in Pleiku. In the past Vietnamese authorities have released prisoners just prior to death in order to keep it off the official record. His family could not recognize him. He was swollen and had bruises all over his body and face. He could not move or eat, and could barely speak. K’pa told his wife he was regularly tortured inside prison, beaten on a daily basis by the authorities. K’pa is survived by his wife and two children. Full Story

Craving for the Word

Posted on May 2, 2010 by thomas

The Philistines were in full flight. The Israelites followed hard at their heels through the wood. It was there that the honey dropped in rich abundance on the ground, and there Jonathan tasted a little, dipping the end of his rod into it. It made all the difference to him, warding off the excessive exhaustion which paralysed the rest of the army.

The Word of God is sweeter than the honeycomb. Luscious to the sanctified taste; enlightening to the dimming eyes; strength-giving to the weary. It drops in abundance to the ground, as though inviting the hand of the Christian warrior or wayfarer to take it freely. If there is no taste for the written Word, it may be assumed that the living Word has not been enthroned in the heart; for where He reigns supreme, there is a longing for the food which alone can fit us for the Christian life.

Where we cannot take much, let us take some. There was not time for Jonathan to sit down and take his fill. He could only catch up some as he hastily passed through the forest-glade; but that little made all the difference to him. So, in the early morning, or at mid-day, if we cannot fill our hearts with Scripture, we may catch up a morsel, which will minister untold refreshment, and clear our spiritual vision.