Remember Ambassadors

We met Brother J in Jordan, a soft-spoken man whose gentle demeanor belied the incredible story that he told us.

His father was kidnapped first, a terrible, but not uncommon, situation for Christians in their home nation of Iraq.  The kidnappers called Brother J, pretending that they wanted him to go pick up his father for rescue from their evil.  When he went, though, they kidnapped him as well - and that was only the beginning.  They subjected him to unbelievable torture.  Masked militants held a knife to his throat and threatened him with death.  They strapped him down, attached wires to his bare flesh, and ran electric shocks through his body.

These kidnappers held him for three weeks, subjecting him to this brutality.  While all human expectation would be for him to give up, or to become bitter and angry, Brother J did none of those.  In fact, as he  showed us pictures taken shortly after the experience - legs covered with massive bruises from the beatings and electricity - and explained that he still could not walk without pain, he constantly referenced his gratefulness for the love and faithfulness of our God.

All of this torture, he told us, actually brought him closer to God, and taught him to truly pray.  Even more than that, he said, he even had a chance to witness to his kidnappers!  Imagine that - being chained to a chair, being brutally tortured, and witnessing to those evildoers of the eternal plan of salvation!

What a testimony.

Sharia law is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, causes of Christian persecution in today’s world.  Sharia is the system of law based on Islamic holy writings - the system of law that governs, to one extent or another, in every Muslim country.

But Sharia is not just a system of law with Muslim underpinnings or a general Islamic worldview.  It is an imposition of Islamic values on everyone it controls - Muslim and  Christian alike.  In fact, Sharia puts a very real and overt pressure on any non-Muslim, and stringently denies anyone but a Muslim the freedom of religion.  While Sharia does not make it a de facto crime to simply be a Christian, it makes it a crime to convert from Islam, or to evangelize among Muslims.  In some cases, these “crimes” of converting and witnessing are punishable by death.

But Sharia law is not a static force.  As Islam expands, so does the impact of Sharia’s persecution - and hardline Islamic fundamentalists are determined to spread Islam by any means possible, including violence.  We’ve talked about Nigeria before (link goes to PDF document), where in recent years the Islamic incursion has brought very real terror and destruction to the Christians.  In other places, too, Islamic influence is growing - Indonesia and Malaysia, central Europe, even western China.

The latest stories are coming out of Somalia, where fundamentalist Islamic rebels are taking over the country piece by piece.  Wherever they go, they impose a drastic, almost unimaginable version of Sharia law.  They’ve made recent news by stoning a teenager to death for the crime of “adultery” after she was forcibly raped, and for murdering aid workers.

As the world kind of looks on at this growing persecution of Christians, let us pray.

Last week, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) released its report on displaced persons in Iraq.  Millions of Iraqis have lost their homes in the past couple of years, but perhaps the most striking aspect has been the displacement of Christians.  An astronomical percentage of Iraqi Christians have been forced to flee their homes, many being forced to seek refuge in foreign nations.

And aside from being the hardest hit, these Christians are not able to go home.

Returnees mostly go to neighbourhoods/districts/ governorates where their communities represent the majority and which often are not their original homes. To date, only a few families returned to areas under control of other communities. No members of minority groups (e.g., Christians, Sabaean-Mandaeans and Yazidis) have been reported to be among the returnees.

Read the full story from UNHCR.

Remember ministered to a number of these refugees last year in our Middle East Survey Trip.  From their stories, it is obvious why the Christians are not returning to their homes–they can't.  They cannot return without risking their lives.

This woman, for instance, is a widow that we met in Amman, Jordan.  She and her four children came to know Jesus Christ, and were forced to leave their homes to avoid persecution.  When living in Amman, however, the learned that three times the Jordanian authorities had refused entry to a man who was coming to the country with the intention of killing all of them for their faith.  This wasn't just any man, though, not just some Islamic radical bent on violence…

It was her brother. 

That is the kind of persecution faced by our brothers and sisters in Iraq.  They have lost their homes, been abandoned by their families, and they often have nowhere to turn.  Will you lift them up in your prayers? 

When I wrote my last post about praying through Ramadan, I thought that it would be great to provide a whole series of prayer requests throughout the month to encourage believers to pray.  With banquet preparation in full swing, I don't have the time to do that, but today I found a terrific resource that I encourage all Christians to use to guide their prayers.  30 Days Fire provides daily stories on different areas of Islam that need prayers.

Please visit!

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  (Ephesians 6:12)

Tomorrow is the first day of Ramadan, Islam’s holiest month, which is devoted to religious observances.  Pious Muslims will abstain from eating throughout the day, and will pray for their salvation.  All across the world, men, women, and children in spiritual darkness will seek eternal security.

What a time for us to pray for them!  They are seeking salvation where it cannot be found, combating darkness with more darkness.  Let us pray for the light of the gospel to break forth.

And let us remember those that are the lights—Christians who have chosen Jesus Christ instead of safety, families, and sometimes their lives.  Courageously standing, they are the epitome of Philippians 2:15: “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.”  Because of that light, they are the beacons of eternal hope, but that light also marks them as targets of persecution.

The real enemy is not the club-wielding mob, the corrupt government official, or the scorning family member.  These agents of persecution are in bondage to the spiritual wickedness in high places, and they need our prayers, too.  The real enemy is spiritual, and that is why your prayers make a difference.

"At least 7 Islamic countries apply the death penalty to those who convert from Islam: Sudan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Mauritania.  But in other states, like Egypt, converts are condemned to prison, not as apostates but for contempt of Islam, as Hossam Bahgat, a member of the Egyptian Initiative for personal rights, explains."

(Read the full story from AsiaNews here.  There is also an excellent op-ed piece on this subject in the Washington Times, available here.)