All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Are you ready? Have you prepared your heart? What will you do?
Christians in the west have had it pretty easy for a while. Mostly, we feel we are persecuted when the government tries to infringe on our constitutional guarantees of liberty. Sometimes people threaten us or malign us for our beliefs. Atheists try to shout us down. Yet, we have little persecution, compared to history. Even Russia is now friendly to Christianity... as long as you stay out of the way of the government's totalitarian leanings.
However, in the rest of the world, such as in the Middle East, Central Asia, Africa and the Far East, Christianity is on the run. Sort of...
* Chaldean Christians in Iraq and Syria, the Chaldean church who have been part of the faith since the first century, are fleeing their cities with nowhere to go. Because they refuse to convert to Islam.
* Egyptian Christians have had their churches bombed, burned and their leaders stoned or shot by the Muslim Brotherhood. Because they refuse to deny Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
* Christians in India are very careful not to rile the police or government authorities who are primarily Hindu and who occasionally have pastors and church leaders beaten and arrested for evangelizing. Because they refuse to keep inside the walls of their churches, they keep preaching and teaching Jesus as the Risen Savior.
* Pakistani Christians have their churches and homes fire-bombed routinely. Because they will not deny Christ and become Muslim.
* African Christians have their children kidnapped, their women raped and their leaders shot at random intervals. Because they refuse to accept Muhammad as "Gods only prophet".
* In China, the government bull dozes churches without notice and arrests Bible believers as "dissidents". Because they refuse to stop evangelizing in the name of Jesus.
All of this by the zealous Anti-Christ forces of radical Islamists or other governments that feel threatened by Jesus. But, we in the west sit comfortably in our homes while Christians in other parts of the world are martyred, harassed, tortured and forced out of their homes.
In this generation, we have seen the faithful stand their ground against an onslaught of attack by real forces who will do anything to destroy "the Faith that was once and for all time delivered to the Saints". We have seen Godly missionaries, pastors, churches remain faithful to the Lord Jesus through unspeakable horrors. While we often debate what dogma is better and while we argue who is right about this point or another, we have witnessed millions of Christians stand for the name of Jesus and endure incredible hardship, or be killed, for His name.
Will you?
As for me and my house, I pray we have the courage of Pastor Saieed.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard L. Broch, Sr. on
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Scribe D., my Brother,
Thank you for posting this relevant realism in general.....and the USA in particular.
You guys have hit on some excellent material so far.
In recent years, events are unraveling at record-braking speeds in our country.......we have not been blessing Israel - we have been cursing them ( Genesis 12: 1-3)........major nature and weather challenges, plus other calamities around the nation.....not to mention what's going on in our government.......
But, what's happening in the churches..........homosexuals and same-sex marriage are being blessed, condoned, and homosexuals (I refuse to call them "gay") named to church offices.
Last time I noticed - this is an abomination with Almighty God. Has the Bible been revised???
The policy at our little independent Christian church is: we welcome them to services.......Bible study, and social activities.
But it's made clear we follow God's Word in our official position.
I haven't been asked to marry any of the same sex yet.....but it's coming. I'll probably be charged with some kind of hate crime.
Seems that the two major kingpins some of the bending churches subscribe to are = "Love your neighbor" and "Do not judge". IMO a big split between the major brands of Christian churches is just over the horizon.
That's all I have time for now.
Grace and Peace.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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You are so right Richard. We gotta show this LOVE LOVE LOVE. This is an inside joke with me & watchman. Don't hurt their feelings. Don't offend them. Now, I'm not one that says go out & call them names & tell them they're going to hell. But, the gospel needs to be braided in those strands to produce the works of Christ.
Are you the pastor of your church?
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Permalink Reply by ribbon on
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But, the gospel needs to be braided in those strands to produce the works of Christ.
I agree
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You were mentioning Pastor Saieed. I received this email yesterday:
Yesterday, just as Meriam – the Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death for her Christian faith – was boarding a flight out of Sudan with her family, on the verge of freedom, the Sudanese secret police re-arrested Meriam and detained her American husband and her two American children.
Some reports say they were literally taken out of the hands of American diplomats.
Now, there are conflicting reports out of Sudan, with some outlets reporting that they’re still in custody, and some reporting that they’re out but unable to leave the country.
One thing is clear: Now is the time for a maximum effort by the Obama Administration to secure safe passage to America for Meriam and her American family.
Detaining Meriam and her American husband and American kids is intolerable. We must take a stand today. Demand safe passage for Meriam and her family to American soil.
We should definitely prepare ourselves as well as our families for such a time as this. I'm not sure I've ever talked with my children about these happenings but I should definitely do this. Thank you so much for the reminder. May we all stand for the Lord. Me & my husband use to sing a song called I Stand For the Lord. May we all stand strong in the face of persecution.
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This video is sad. It isn't here in the states but I have heard that some US preachers are wanting to remove the cross from churches and maybe calling the people chrislam instead of Christians. To me this is the church helping to persecute their own.
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Permalink Reply by thewatchman on
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Janie,
Reminds me of this:
A.W. Tozer wrote about this a half century ago in Man: The Dwelling Place of God: “A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads ‘Thou shalt not disagree;’ and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins ‘Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything.’ It is now the accepted thing to talk over religious differences in public with the understanding that no one will try to convert another or point out errors in his belief. . . . Imagine Moses agreeing to take part in a panel discussion with Israel over the golden calf; or Elijah engaging in a gentlemanly dialogue with the prophets of Baal. Or try to picture our Lord Jesus Christ seeking a meeting of minds with the Pharisees to iron out differences.”
Thank You for posting the video.
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Watchman, Thank you for the AW Tozer quote. I still need to order his book. I thought I saw a book here the other day by him but just looked and no longer see it. I did find a book called When The crosses are Gone, restoring a world gone mad by Michael Yousef PhD. I am not sure if I had ordered that or where it came from. . I just listened to part of the news and the showed a song video clip and I think they were saying Jesus is ok sin. They had signs up about Jesus and in the back ground they were showing things that were not anywhere close to godliness. It was sad. These things remind me of closer to endtimes. I am not ready nowhere near it.
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Chrislam is a "religion" that Rick Warren is behind from what I've read. Now I may be speaking ignorant facts cause I've only read a few things on it, so if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. But he's combining Christianity & Islam. Chrislam is the result.
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I read several years ago that mixing religions like this is against God not good. I cant remember where I read it but they showed bible verses. I also heard that this is part of endtimes.
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Permalink Reply by Amanda on
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Light has no fellowship with darkness. The blending should be rejected. Verse 3 of Jude says, "Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" (ESV). It's more about the issue of how we who have light are to relate to people who are still spiritually dead.
We read this in Ephesians 5:
"8For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9(for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10and find out what pleases the Lord. 11Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14This is why it is said:
“Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.” (NIV)
We are all only awakened sleepers. It isn't that we are exposing a people or any individual, but that we expose the "deeds of darkness" while remembering what it is that helps us "see"-- light. People change when they see a reason to change, the key word being "see" and it looks like light wakes people, wakes the spiritually dead. Fighting darkness with more darkness, such as this blending, isn't the answer. Exposing deeds of darkness is the answer, and, ironically, seeing that these things are going on is, in and of itself, an exposure. Now, it's in the light. -
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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on
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My purpose for bringing this forum up to discussion is that I don't think most Christians in America have thought about what it would mean if Muslims gained control of our legal-justice system. I'm confident that the average Joe on the street has no clue. But this is what they are actively working to do every day.
There are three major lobbying groups who are actively making efforts to bring Shari'a law to our courts. the UK has already conceded that Shari'a law is part of the future of their legal justice system and that a Muslim may defy UK law if he does so within the bounds of what is considered legal under Shari'a.
You may think that is no big deal. So what? But understand that under Shari'a a husband may mercilessly beat his own wife, if he has "cause". The cause for beating her could be a simple as "she shows no respect". Respect is subjective, according to what the husband believes she should give him, because under Shari'a a wife is not on the same level as a husband, from neither a theological nor from a civil point of view. At best she may be considered completely subordinate, but in many cases their law is interpreted that a wife is a slave of the husband. This is just one of the insane and un-Godly, anti-Christian ideals of Islamic law.
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Scribe,
There is a link that I think you will find an enormous amount of information regarding this and many other things. Many of the articles are long and in depth, but they are very informative. There is a lot going on at this juncture in the world & it's very hard to isolate one thing from another. In fact, sometimes I feel as if I'm getting whip lash from it all.
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