5 Minute Challenge – Iran

Ethnic Persians are by definition Muslim, so ethnic Christian converts are considered apostates. Almost all Christian activity is illegal – from evangelism to Bible training to publishing Christian books. Many church services are monitored by the secret police. The governor of Tehran has criticized Christian evangelicalism as a ‘corrupt and deviant movement’ and ‘a cultural invasion of the enemy’. More than 200 Christians were arrested in 2011.

Pray:

  • Thank God that despite the regime’s harsh treatment of Christians, the church is growing
  • For strength for Muslim-background believers who have been arrested, jailed and beaten
  • For justice and release for Christian prisoners.

“Little Ease”

In his book, Telling Secrets, Fredrick Buechner describes a white tower with two rooms. The first is a chapel on the second floor. It is a place of peace and respite — a silent and still place where one can breathe. The other room he calls, the Little Ease. The Little Ease is underneath the tower. It a tiny space measuring only four feet by four feet high. It is a dungeon created to press you in; designed so that you cannot fully sit, stand or lie down. There is little hope in the Little Ease.

“The Little Ease is a place of torment, but if you live there long enough, it eventually becomes home. If you manage to escape it, where do you go next, who do you become next? If after all those years you get well, what do you do with your wellness? The responsibility is staggering. The freedom is staggering.”

 

Freedom – the ability to make choices

 

For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for “people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.”

— 2 Peter 2:18-19

 

True freedom can only be found within the love for and desire to serve Jesus as Lord.

5 Minute Challenge – Maldives

 

Population: 320,000 (few Christians)

Every citizen has to be Muslim on these remote islands. The Maldivian government views itself as the protector and defender of Islam and enjoys full support by its citizens. Churches are forbidden, evangelism is banned and the import of Christian literature is prohibited. Believers hide their faith from their families and, when discovered, are pressured to convert to Islam. In October, a foreign Christian teacher was imprisoned for 15 days and then deported after police found a Bible in his house.

 

 

Pray:

  • For the few indigenous Christians to have courage amidst the secrecy
  • Many young people seek education outside the islands. Pray that they would have the opportunity to hear the gospel
  • Maldivian society contends with huge social problems of drug and alcohol abuse, marriage breakdown and child abuse. Pray that people will discover God’s forgiveness.

 

HUMOR: The Secret of Tech Support

Feb 12 – Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin

[from www.americanminute.com]

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the exact same day, FEBRUARY 12, 1809, but their lives had opposite effects.

Lincoln is best known for freeing millions of slaves by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, claiming all men are created equal.

Darwin’s theory of evolution claims men are not equal as some are more evolved, and has been used by totalitarian regimes to enslave millions.

Lincoln’s last act in office was to put on all National Coin the motto, “In God We Trust.”

Darwin’s theory has been used to deny of God.

Lincoln, the first Republican President, addressed the Indiana Regiment, March 17, 1865:

“Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.”

On April 6, 1859, Lincoln wrote to H.L. Pierce:

“This is a world of compensation; and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God, cannot long retain it.”

After the Battle of Antietam, Lincoln told his Cabinet, September 22, 1862, as reported Treasury Secretary Salmon Portland Chase:

“The time for the annunciation of the emancipation policy can no longer be delayed. Public sentiment will sustain it, many of my warmest friends and supporters demand it, and I have promised God that I will do it.”

When asked by Secretary Chase to explain, Lincoln replied:

“I made a solemn vow before God, that if General Lee were driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves.”

In his Second Inaugural, March 4, 1865, just 45 days before his assassination, Lincoln stated:

“If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove,

and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came,

shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?…

If God will that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsmen’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said

‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'”

Lincoln stated in his Second Annual Message, December 1, 1862:

“In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free…We shall nobly save – or meanly lose – the last, best hope of earth…The way is plain…which if followed the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless.”

In his Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863, Lincoln stated:

“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

In contrast, Darwin published his “Origin of Species,” 1859, and in 1871, his “Descent of Man,” in which he wrote:

“With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated…

We civilized men, on the other hand…build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick…Thus the weak members propagate their kind.

No one who had attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man…Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed…

Civilized races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world…

The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilized state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the gorilla.”

Darwin’s concept justified the racism of the Dred Scott v Sanford Decision, 1856, written by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, who was appointed by Democrat President Andrew Jackson:

“Slaves had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order…so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect; and that the Negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.”

Darwin’s theory influenced Margaret Sanger, who promoted “eugenics” and “forced sterilization” to eliminate inferior races. Sanger founded a 501(c)3 called Planned Parenthood.

Margaret Sanger, in her book Pivot of Civilization, 1922, called for the:

“Elimination of ‘human weeds’…overrunning the human garden; for the cessation of ‘charity’ because it prolonged the lives of the unfit; for the segregation of ‘morons, misfits, and the maladjusted’; and for the sterilization of genetically inferior races.”

Sanger advised Nazi Party member Ernst Rudin, father of “racial hygiene,” who educated on the dangers of hereditary defectives.

Nazi’s considered the German “Aryan” race as “ubermensch,” supermen, being more advanced in the supposed human evolution.

When Germany’s economy fell, Hitler’s national healthcare plan of socialized medicine had to cut expenses, such as keeping alive handicapped, insane, chronically ill, elderly and those with dementia. They were considered “lebensunwertes leben” – life unworthy of life, and sent to the gas chambers.

Soon criminals, convicts, street bums, beggars and gypsies, considered “leeches” on the State, met the same fate.

Eventually, in a perverted effort to rid the human gene pool of less evolved “untermensch”- under mankind, Hitler’s immoral plan sent 6 million Jews, along with millions of others, to the holocaust gas chambers and ovens.

Joseph Stalin followed suit in the Soviet Union, exterminating through intentional famines, forced labor and executions an estimated 27 million “inferior” Ukrainians.

Mao Zedong followed this example with his atheistic Communist Party policies causing an estimated 80 million deaths in China.

These not too distant genocides resemble the Islamic teaching that Jews are from apes, Christians are from swine, and Kafir infidels are inferior “dhimmi” – not equal to believing Muslim males, which led to a sharia political system that in 1,400 years contributed to an estimated 270 million deaths.

History reveals frightful consequences can occur if governments adopt Darwin’s utilitarian value of human life and departs from Lincoln’s belief, “that all men are created equal.”

NYC churches prohibited from meeting in schools

Starting tomorrow, churches who have been meeting in New York City schools will be locked out. It has been the decision of Mayor Bloomberg and the NYC Board of Education to prevent churches from meeting in schools. This affects approximately 70 churches in the NYC area. Read more about this issue.

A Prayer of St. Therese of Lisieux

May today there be peace within.
May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith.
May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content knowing you are a child of God.
Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love.
It is there for each and every one of us.

source

5 Minute Challenge – Uzbekistan

The strict monitoring of all Christian activities has intensified, even in the Orthodox Church. Outreach, training and youth activities are forbidden in unregistered churches – and in the last ten years only one new church was granted registration. Private Bible study meetings are always in danger of being closed down. Churches are raided and literature and other materials confiscated. Printing or importing Christian literature is prohibited. Christians are fined or given short-term prison sentences. When brought to court, fair treatment is not ensured.

“Two days ago the police raided our house,” Lazar said. “They took away all the Bibles and Christian books that we had in the house.” He is a Church leader in Uzbekistan, a country which does not often get mentioned in the news, but is known by Open Doors for the persecution of Christians. The roots of Communism have not seemed to wither yet. Uzbek Christians strive to live with faith in God’s promises, despite the fear of surveillance, intimidation and imprisonment.

Pray:

  • For pastors trying to lead their churches with limited resources
  • For courage for Muslim-background believers who experience great pressure from family and society
  • A 27-year-old convert from Islam is currently serving 10 years in prison on false charges. Pray for his release.

 

Hershey’s Petition

Ask Hershey to make ALL their chocolate fair trade!

Please sign this petition!

 

5 Minute Challenge – Yemen

In January of 2011, the people of Yemen joined numerous other Arab countries and began protesting. Initially Yemenis went peacefully to the streets to protest unemployment in the country, the economic conditions and corruption. Yemen is the poorest Arab country with a GDP per capita that is about one tenth of that in neighbouring Oman and Saudi Arabia. This is not only because of lack of oil, but more so because of widespread corruption, low education levels, violence and mismanagement. Right now the Yemeni’s are facing massive unemployment. Official statistics say that one out of every three Yemenis is unemployed, especially younger citizens. Almost half of the population lives under poverty line.

The country has four official churches, three Catholic and one Anglican, for the several hundreds of expat Christians living in the country. The number of Muslim background believers has increased from an estimated 500 to 1,000 Christians.

When a Muslim becomes a Christian, he or she often faces persecution from family and the government. They are not allowed to have their own gatherings, so th ey meet in secret locations. Christians are on both sides of the political spectrum in Yemen, but they keep their mutual peace and unity in Christ.

The Constitution of Yemen declares Islam as the State religion, and Shari’a, the Islamic law, as the source of all legislation. The Government forbids conversion from Islam and proselytizing of Muslims. Family and the government are the main sources of oppression and persecution.

The few hundred Christians from a Muslim background meet secretly as they face persecution from authorities, family and extremist Islamic groups. In the north, no church buildings are allowed. There is some religious freedom for foreigners, but evangelism is prohibited. There are four official churches in Aden for the several thousands of Christian expats and refugees living in the country, but large numbers have left as a result of the Arab Spring riots.

Pray:

  • Thank God that Christians, despite their political differences, have maintained unity in Christ
  • For four foreign Christians kidnapped in 2009 who remain missing
  • Presidential elections are due in February 2012. Pray for peace and stability for this deeply divided country.