VijayKumar Singh, from the India Bible Publishers and the Delhi Bible Fellowship, has launched an appeal to the Christians of India and the world to pray and express their support for Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity who were convicted on conversion charges and sentenced to death on 31 May. Speaking to AsiaNews, Sing said, We need Christians help all over the world to stop the Afghan government from arresting Dari-speaking Afghan Christians and condemning them to death by public execution.Afghans consider their country to be 100 per cent Muslim. A local TV station, Noorin TV, recently broadcast a documentary showing photos and videos of secret Afghan Christian Converts, which revealed names and showed the faces of alleged Afghan Christian converts. ...read more: http://wwrn.org/articles/33634/?place=india
_________________SI Moderator - Greg Gordon
We certainly need to take this to heart. Thank you for sharing it. We who are not persecuted need to understand when one part of the body suffers, it all suffers, or should.
_________________KLC
Here on SI we often talk about death to self as a goal of our faith but it appears that there is a gap between what we say and what we actually believe. We say we believe everything in the Word of God but when death to self becomes literal we baulk and claim it doesn't apply to us by not accepting it for the other party. What we are saying by this is that we ourselves are unwilling to lay down our lives for Christ even though He gave the example laying down His life for us. I know that personally I lean towards facing death directly but the Word of God also instructs that we are to flee to another place if our witness is not accepted and our lives are threatened. When we consider teaching the whole council of God we should be sure to talk about fleeing to another city when facing persecution but also laying down our lives when the providence of God demands it. I don't want my brothers and sisters to die and will pray that the bring them through this and complete trust in God will bear witness to their Muslim neighbors that God may bring more sons to glory. So the question remains, are you truly willing to die so that God will be glorified on earth as He is in Heaven?
What we are saying by this is that we ourselves are unwilling to lay down our lives for Christ even though He gave the example laying down His life for us.
Thanks for your honest reply snuf. The Lord had me listening to this message by Art Katz today and I feel I should share it with you and all who will read this thread. I know that often I see things far too simply and often physically.The message is given to a German Swiss fellowship and deals with the fundamental facet of the Christian life that deals with the Powers and Principalities in the Heavenly Realms.Blessings brother. GER-10 The Principalities and Powers of Darkness by Art Katzhttps://www.sermonindex.net/modules/mydownloads/singlefile.php?lid=14031&commentView=itemComments
Lord strengthen your people to endure.
When I was a young mother with five children still at home, I cringed when we sang this song at church "Faith of Our Fathers". The second verse says: "Faith of our fathers chained in prisons darkWere still in heart and conscience free;How sweet would be their children's fateIf they like them could die for Thee!Faith of our fathers, holy faith!We will be true to thee till death."Whenever this song was sung, I refused to sing this verse because I believed I would be lying: I did NOT want to see my children suffer persecution that brought death - after all, I was well familiar what was happening in the USSR.Anyhow, my children grew up, left home. One ended up dying, going to glory. Two others are living for self and the world. This changed my tune one hundred eighty degrees! I have grieved more for our two sons living away from God then I ever did for the daughter that died and went to be with the LORD!Yet, when faced with torture, I am sure one would have to depend 100% on the grace of God to be able to withstand it, without giving in.
_________________Sandra Miller
