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
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 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
(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
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.
—F.B. Meyer
International Christian Concern has learned that 13 Christians remain imprisoned after Indian police arrested them on April 5 in Verajpet, Karnataka. They were arrested after Hindu extremists falsely accused them of forcefully converting Hindus to Christianity. Vijay, Lakhama, Philomina Raji, John K.O., Peter, Satish, Macho, Baby, Wilson Mathew, Abraham, Mathew K.J., Freddy, and Johny K.A. were all arrested while holding a prayer meeting at a Christian house. The imprisonment is taking a toll on the Christians and their families as most of the prisoners are heads of families. John K.O. is also suffering from heart disease. The Christians have sought release on bail, but their requests have been refused by authorities four times. The state of Karnataka is ruled by the BJP, a Hindu nationalist party that is infamous for persecuting Christians. Last year, the highest number of attacks against Indian Christians tool place in Karnataka.
Young men who are beginning life, it is well that you should be urged to be diligent, but it is better that you should be led to be righteous! Worldlings would have you industrious, but saints would have you righteous. You can be made righteous in state through faith in Jesus Christ, and righteous in character through the renewal of your heart by the Holy Ghost. Mind this.
The text leads us to make another observation which repeats its very words: namely, that a slothful man’s way is like a hedge of thorns. Here we enlarge. The idler’s way is not a desirable way. Unthinking persons suppose that the sluggard lives a happy life and travels an easy road. It is not so. Many believe in “the sweet doing of nothing,” but it is a sheer fiction. Surface appearances are not the truth: though it may seem that idleness is rest, it is not so: though sloth promises ease, it cheats its followers. Of all unrest there is none more wearisome than that of having nothing whatever to do. The severest toil is far more endurable than utter sloth. I have heard of retired business men going back to the counter from absolute weariness of idleness. It is far more desirable to be righteous than it is to be at ease. Labour of a holy sort has ten thousand times more joy in it than purposeless leisure.
—Charles H. Spurgeon
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Go about the world seeking the good of people. It does not always mean that you should give them a tract, or a little book. It is much easier to do this than to sacrifice your own good in order to seek theirs. You may be quite sure that some little act of self-sacrifice or thoughtfulness for a weary mother, or crying child, for a sick friend, or for some person who is always maligning and injuring you, would do a great deal in the way of preparing an entrance for the Gospel message. It is thus that the genial spring loosens the earth and prepares the way for the germination of multitudinous life. Count the day lost in which you have not sought to promote the good of some one. Adopt as your own the pious motto, “Do all the good you can, to all the people you can, in all the ways you can.”
Speak peace to people—soothe agitated and irritated souls. Throw oil on troubled waters. There are worried and anxious hearts all around us; a word of sympathy and earnest prayer with them will often remove the heavy load, and smooth out the wrinkles of care. Let the law of kindness be on your lip. Do not say sharp or unkind things of the absent, or allow your lips to utter words that will lead to bitterness or wrath. Seek peace and pursue it. And in order to this, let the peace of God that passeth all understanding keep your mind and heart.
—F.B. Meyer
April 11th 2010 Military officials on Saturday, March 27, 2010, arrested 17 young men gathered for prayer in a town called Segenaite in southern Eritrea, Africa. The men are apparently Christian soldiers doing their compulsory national military service. They belong to various churches. These arrests bring the number up to 28 reported number of Christians arrested since the beginning of March for their refusal to stop worshipping outside of the government sanctioned Eritrean Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran churches. Sources announced in February that approximately 2,200 Christian s remain in prison for their refusal to stop practicing their faith outside of the government sanctioned religious group.
Pray for the 17 men who just went into prison and for the thousands already there. Pray that those Christians would rejoice and share the gospel with all.
We find the reason as well as the power for self-denial in the little word Me. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and follow Me.” The old life is in ourselves. The new life is in Jesus. The new life cannot rule without driving out the old. Once one’s own self had everything to say, now it must be nothing. But it would rather not be this.
Because of this there must be denial of one’s self and imitation of Jesus all day long. He, with His teaching, His will, His honour, and His interests, must fill the heart. But he who has and knows Him willingly denies himself. Christ is so precious to him that he sacrifices everything, even himself, to win Him.
This is the true life of faith. Not according to what nature sees or thinks to be acceptable, do I live, but according to what Jesus says and would have. Every day and every hour I confirm the wonderful thought, “Not I, but Christ” (Galatians 2:20). I am nothing, Christ is everything. “You are dead,” and no longer have power, or will, or honour, “your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). Christ’s power and will alone prevail. Christians, cheerfully deny that sinful wretched self so that the glorious Christ may dwell in you.
—Andrew Murray
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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
