On the Persecution of Christians Today

In my 57 years, I don't remember ever seeing, until this week, a top news media item, written by a minister of the gospel.  Considering the details, how could (Anglican) Canon Andrew White do any less than bear witness to the truth. People are dying simply because they refuse to give up their faith in Jesus. Sound the alarm! Pray! God help both them and us to react according to our means and God's direction. I have recently donated and recommend the frrme.org website.

 (Please read this link  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2720983/Vicar-Baghdad-We-need-military-actions-NOW.html )
 

Pray for God's people and their persecutors. Pray for all innocents caught in the snares of the wicked. Iraq and Syria are merely two peaks on the top of the iceberg. From Liberia and Nigeria, to Sudan and Egypt, to Saudi Arabia and Chechnya, to Gaza and Israel, to Iran and Pakistan, to China and North Korea, to Brazil and East Timor, to Russia and the Ukraine, to Europe and Scandinavia and indeed to Britain and the Americas, our enemy, the devil, prowls the whole earth like a roaring lion seeking to devour. He is the sower of division and confusion. He is the Father of Lies, and for a time, the god of this world, of ISIS or DA'ISH, of FASCISM, of MORAL RELATIVISM, of HAMAS, of REBELLION, of HERESY, of SCHISM and of all other forms of SIN.

In the spiritual battles which rage believers are given both armor and guidance. Put on the gospel armor: the helmet of Salvation, the breastplate of Righteousness and the belt of Truth. Don't take it off. Make sure it's tight as it needs to be and put it right back in place when the enemy knocks it off. Don't forget that on your feet you wear the Preparation of the Good News of God's Peace and that in your hands and your mouth you are equipped with a Mighty Spiritual Sword, The Word of God.

Stand firm and remember that Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is infinitely Greater than any other pretender. His Merciful Love is Everlasting. He is the Sun of Righteousness, the all-consuming Fire. March Forth. Don't give up. God's will shall prevail.

Even so, Come Lord, JESUS...YESHUA!

Pray for the people of Iraq

http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/the-christian-centre-of-iraq-has-been.html

A plea from Canon Andrew White, Vicar of Baghdad:

'Dear Friends,

Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled. We urgently need help and support.

The area is the heartland of the Christian community. Most of our people come from Nineveh and still see that as their home. It is there that they return to regularly. Many Christian’s fled from back to Nineveh from Baghdad, as things got so bad there. Now the Christian centre of Iraq has been totally ransacked. The tanks are moving into the Christian villages destroying them and causing total carnage. The ISIS militants are now moving towards Kirkuk, major areas to the Oil fields that provide the lifeblood of Iraq. We are faced with total war that all the Iraqi military have now retreated from.'

BEN HUBBARD on AUG. 23, 2014 commented in his New York Times article

that 'Sunnis and Shiites tend to view many of the country’s most pressing issues through profoundly different lenses, making compromise difficult. Shiite leaders speak of ISIS as a terrorist threat that must be battled with all available means. Some have even accused Sunni leaders of providing political cover for the extremists.'

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)— ¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Pray and act as the Holy Spirit leads You.
Click on the above link for more info.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/world/middleeast/response-to-attack-reflects-iraqs-sectarian-divide.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news