PRAYER REQUESTS: ["To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the disorder of the world." - Karl Barth]
URGENT PRAYER REQUEST- Update on Kenneth Bae: "US Ready to Bargain with N. Korea for Bae's Release,"- CBNNews.com, Aug 14, 2013 http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/August/S-Ready-to-Bargain-with-N-Korea-for-Baes-Release/ - The United States is willing to engage North Korea to secure the release of imprisoned American Christian Kenneth Bae. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the United States is "willing to consider a number of different options" to bring him home.In a video recently released by a North Korean newspaper, Bae requested the United States send a high-ranking official to North Korea to seek his pardon. It is unclear if he spoke of his own volition in the video. Bae, 45, was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for sharing his faith. He suffers health problems such as diabetes and is currently hospitalized.[PRAY for 1) God's healing of and presence with Pastor Bae, 2) His earliest release by the North Korean government, and 3) God's comfort for his family and friends.]
“Abandoned” For Christ" - Graham Calls On White House To Support Abedini - By Dr. Tom Askew, Aug.8, http://www.presidentialprayerteam.com/opinion
Franklin Graham is the latest to join the chorus of voices calling for U.S. State Department and White House officials to take a more vocal role in protesting the Iranian imprisonment of American pastor Saeed Abedini. September 26 will mark the one year anniversary of Abedini’s imprisonment for allegedly “endangering the national security” of Iran.
Graham pointed out that, in contrast to Iranian accusations, “Pastor Saeed was in Iran trying to help children. With the permission of Iran’s government, he was working to build an orphanage. But his humanitarian mission led to an arrest on bogus charges and nearly a year of inhumane treatment, simply because he loves Jesus Christ.”...
Behind the scenes, more than 600,000 people around the world have signed a petition sponsored by ACLJ in support of pastor Abedini. A concerted movement this past May brought together Christians from many nations to set aside Pentecost to pray for Abedini. On June 13, demonstrations were held at Iranian embassies in at least six countries to protest Abedini’s treatment. And, on July 29, Arizona Republican Representative Trent Franks spoke on the floor of the House to urge other Congressmen to join him in “adopting” Pastor Abedini through the bipartisan Defending Freedoms Project.
Saeed’s response…and yours - Through his family living in Iran, Pastor Abedini has been made aware of these efforts on his behalf, and is grateful. “I heard that the persecution, my arrest and imprisonment has united churches from different denominations, from different cities and countries. That the churches have united together in prayer to put one request (my freedom) on one day (Pentecost) before God,” he wrote in a letter.
The story of Saeed Abedini, the jihad against Syrian Christians, the attacks on Coptic Christians in Egypt, and the ongoing desecration of churches in Nigeria and India should cause every American to reflect on the blessings of freedom still enjoyed in this nation.
PRAY: - For comfort and peace for Saeed’s wife and children here in the U.S.
- For a strong witness and testimony from Pastor Abedini in the prison where God has placed him
- For Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ
- BOLDly (Beside Our Leaders Daily) for leadership from the White House and State Department in defending the freedoms of Abedini and other Americans
Go to SaveSaeed.org to sign a petition over 600,000 others asking for his immediate release.
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Jihad Against Egypt's Christians - The U.S. Must Speak Out," - by John Stonestreet|Breakpoint.org; Aug 21, 2013 http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/breakpoint-commentaries-archive/entry/13/23148?spMailingID=6794656&spUserID=MTMyMjM2ODE5OQS2&spJobID=84649649&spReportId=ODQ2NDk2NDkS1
In the midst of the chaos, Islamic extremists in Egypt are burning churches and murdering Christians. The U.S. must speak out.
In his recent book, “Fleeing Herod,” the Australian writer James Cowan retraces the steps of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt following Joseph’s dream warning him about Herod’s intentions toward the infant Jesus. Cowan admits in the prologue that current events in Egypt made him even more conscious of Egypt’s history and “the millennia of knowledge embodied in its sands.”
Cowan’s guide on his journey is a fourth-century text written by a Coptic Pope, Theophilus of Alexandria, entitled “The Visions of Theophilus.” Along the way he meets monks, nuns, pilgrims and the then-Coptic Pope. Whether or not we believe the fourth century reference of Mary being under an Egyptian tree, one Coptic belief is undeniable: “Egypt [is] central to the birth of Christianity.” Thus, Christians must be concerned about what is happening to Coptic Christians today.
Since Matthew chapter 2’s quoting of Hosea – “out of Egypt I called my son” – Egypt was at the heart of the Christian story. It provided sanctuary for the Holy Family. And later produced some of the Church’s greatest minds: Tertullian, Origen and the great defender of orthodoxy, Athanasius.The father of monasticism, Anthony, was Egyptian, and, for much of the Church’s early history, Alexandria was the mind and soul of the faith.
Many don’t realize that Egypt was Christian for six centuries before the coming of Islam. We call the descendants of those Christians the Copts. For fourteen centuries they and their ancestors have kept the faith even when life would have been easier if they hadn’t.
Little has changed. Today, they face what Nina Shea has called a “Jihad.” The chaos in Egypt, like the chaos in Iraq and Syria, has made it “open season” on the country’s Christian minority. As Shea writes in National Review “The [Muslim] Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party has been inciting the anti-Christian pogroms on its web and Facebook pages.” For those unfamiliar with the term, “pogroms” were the anti-Jewish attacks in Tsarist Russia that killed thousands and led to the emigration of millions of Jews to the United States in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies.
The Brotherhood would love to see the Copts do likewise.If they succeed it will be in part because Christians in the West did nothing. Right now, the mainstream narrative about Egypt depicts the Brotherhood as the victims. It is far more concerned with the impact on Egyptian “democracy” than the fate of Egyptian Christians, or that of any Egyptian that doesn’t want to live in a theocracy.
The Brotherhood would love to see the Copts do likewise.If they succeed it will be in part because Christians in the West did nothing. Right now, the mainstream narrative about Egypt depicts the Brotherhood as the victims. It is far more concerned with the impact on Egyptian “democracy” than the fate of Egyptian Christians, or that of any Egyptian that doesn’t want to live in a theocracy.
They are not telling the story, so we have to.They are not urging our leaders to protect Egyptian Christians, so we have to. We cannot stand by in silence while yet another ancient Christian community is threatened with extinction.
Of course, that requires understanding that these are ancient Christian communities in the first place. Many American Christians knowledge of church history barely goes back a century. You might say we have evangelical Alzheimer’s. Because we are unfamiliar with the past, we are ignorant of our debt to those who went before and their descendants.
Of course, that requires understanding that these are ancient Christian communities in the first place. Many American Christians knowledge of church history barely goes back a century. You might say we have evangelical Alzheimer’s. Because we are unfamiliar with the past, we are ignorant of our debt to those who went before and their descendants.
In Cowan’s book, then-Pope Shenouda, who spent the early years of his papacy under house arrest, tells him that it “seemed that [Herod] feared the presence of a lowly peasant family in his kingdom more than he did his enemies.” Today’s tyrants fear the presence of Christians in their would-be kingdom.It’s time for us to repay an ancient debt.
Call or email your representative in Congress. Contact your Senators. And the White House. The U.S. must speak out and condemn the targeting and murder of Egyptian Christians. And of course, we must pray for our brothers and sisters in Egypt.
[bold and italics emphasis mine]
- Egypt’s Christians Are Facing a Jihad - Nina Shea | National Review Online | August 19, 2013; http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/356195/egypts-christians-are-facing-jihad-nina-shea
-Contact your representative, senators, and the White House. Urge them to condemn the war being waged on Egypt’s Christians. (See sample letter at bottom of page).
- Find your representative. http://house.gov/representatives/find/
- Find our senators. http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
- Contact the White House .http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment