Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pr 17:4  The spirit in the evildoer which gives heed to false lips and spiteful tongue

Power over Nations

In the Book of Revelation, Jesus promises various rewards  to  people who do His works.

 “And he who overcomes and keeps My works to the end, to him I will give power over the nations”. Rev 2:26 

Those who keep His works till the end He promises the reward of Power, Power over nations.

Today everybody likes to have power. In order to gain political power, people and parties resort to various means even sub standard measures and are prepared to do anything. Any party even after  they win, can have power over only one nation or State. But Jesus promises power over many nations. How is it possible?

Three things are emphasized here.

1. They should do the work of Jesus (of making disciples- Mat 28:19). Very few people do this today. Forming disciples for Jesus needs professional training. Most of the denominations and Organizations are forming devotees or salesmen for the sale of their product “Church”. Disciples, if moulded, will turn the world upside down as they did in the early Christian times. A major part of the Christian denominations  has reconciled with the “World” today and are written off from the list of Churches.
2. They should keep the works to the end of their life. There is no retirement from ministry. Once power is given, it is given for ever. Doing the work of forming disciples for a few years and then taking rest will not qualify the candidate for reward.
3. They will have power over many nations. Recently we heard about the death of a servant of God who had power over many nations. He had travelled far and wide and had power over more than 100 nations in the world! A perfect example for this verse!

Sr. Angelica AJ

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  10:9  The spirit which makes one pervert his ways                     

One thing you lack

 “Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said to him, One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow Me.  And he was sad at that saying and went away grieved, for he had great possessions”. Mk 10:21,22. 

This rich man had great earthly possessions. Some have spiritual possessions. They are known as Bible scholars, preachers, evangelists, pastors etc. They are rich in the knowledge of the Word of God. They should be able to part with it  and give it free to the poor. Most of the believers lack this one thing; sharing their spiritual gifts with their fellow brethren.  If  all the believers had done it so far, India would have been an entirely different nation.  About 90% of the people  are starving for God. They walk miles together  bare foot in order to get a glimpse of God.

Here, the word “poor” means those who are spiritually poor; Those who are deprived of the knowledge of God; Those whose spiritual eyes are blinded by satan, who need deliverance, healing and those who are in captivity; Those who need enlightenment on Bible truths. They are blessed, Jesus said, even though they are poor.

Those who have spiritual riches should come forward to share it with their fellow brethren. The gifts of Deliverance, Healing, Prophecy and  Worship are to be taught to all the believers. Some of The Army of Jesus soldiers do that.  Those who are taught come forward  themselves in turn to organize and conduct such classes.  

In Troop Church, there are ample opportunities for this.  May Troop (House) Church flourish  in this nation.

Prominent Chinese Christian Lawyer Li Baiguang Dies Suddenly in a Military Hospital

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on February 26, prominent Chinese Christian lawyer Li Baiguang died suddenly due to liver failure in PLA Bayi Hospital, Nanjing. He died at the age of 49 and is survived by his wife, Xu Hanmei, and their eight-year-old son. According to his cousin, Liu Peifu, who is also his partner at their law firm, Li died of final stage liver cancer, though he appeared to be healthy beforehand.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia, Liu said, "He had never gone through a physical exam before, so he didn't know that he had the condition. He was sent to the hospital after he felt ill. He only learned of it (last stage liver cancer) these past two days."

Reuters reported that the hospital where he died declined to comment.

Liu also stated that Li was not detained by the authorities before his death. However, his longtime friend Bob Fu of China Aid finds his death suspicious given that Li was just in Washington D.C., attending the National Prayer Breakfast, at the beginning of the month. "He did not have liver related illness before and his death raises a lot of questions," Fu said."Chinese regime should be fully held accountable."

Last October, Li was kidnapped by more than 10 Public Security Bureau plainclothes officials in Zhejiang province when he was defending victims of land grabs. He was beaten severely and threatened with dismemberment should he refuse to leave. They abandoned him on the side of the road after leaving him with bruises and soft tissue contusions. Li Baiguang, a devoted Christian and human rights lawyer, took on hundreds of rights defense cases in the past decade. He was arrested multiple times for his work. He received the Democracy Award from the National Endowment for Democracy in 2008. His dedication to freedom and human rights was also recognized by former president George W. Bush. Last year, China Aid presented Li with the 2016 Courage Award for Defense of Religious Freedom in China. Other recipients include renowned Christian lawyers Zhang Kai, Gao Zhisheng, and Li Heping.

Gina Goh, ICC's Regional Manager, said, "We are saddened by the death of Mr. Li, a brother in Christ who stood up for persecuted Christians in China and became persecuted by the authorities himself. He will be remembered as a fighter for the oppressed and an advocate for freedom and democracy. While we keep his family in prayer, forget not those Christian lawyers who are still suffering at the hands of the communist regime."

Suspected Al Shabaab Militants Kill Three Christians in Northeast Kenya, Sources Say

Suspected members of Islamic extremist group Al Shabaab shot three Christians to death in northeastern Kenya at 1 a.m. on Friday (Feb. 16), sources said. Targeting Kenyans who came from other areas to work in predominantly Somali Wajir, some 100 miles from the Somali border, the suspected terrorists from the Somali rebel group entered the sleeping quarters of personnel at Qarsa Primary School and killed two Christian teachers and the wife of one of them, sources told Morning Star News.

After killing Seth Oluoch Odada, his wife Caroline and teacher Kevin Shari, one of the assailants said in the Somali language, “These infidels [non-Muslims] should be wiped out,” a teacher who survived the attack told a worker at Wajir Referral Hospital, the worker told Morning Star News.

The pastor of an area church, undisclosed for security reasons, told Morning Star News that Odada and his wife attended his church. “We are very concerned about this selective kind of attack on non-locals who are also Christians in this region,” the pastor said. “Our other church members are not safe. Many of the church members, including teachers, have started fleeing the area to their home villages, and some did not attend the church for the Sunday service.” It was not known if Shari belonged to a church. The bodies of those killed have been transferred to Chiromo Mortuary in Nairobi.
 
The hospital worker said that after shooting the couple, one of the assailants entered the house Shari shared with the surviving teacher. The gunman shot at Shari, and the same bullet struck the hand of the survivor, who fell down and pretended to be dead, the hospital source said, adding that the injured man said the shooter wore a mask typical of Al Shabaab militants. The area pastor said local people believe area residents have joined Al Shabaab.

“I think these are the people who killed the three Christians,” he said.

Wajir is becoming increasingly dangerous for Christians since Al Shabaab militants appear to have shifted from Mandera, where they have carried out attacks in the past few years before the government recently erected a 10-kilometer wall on the border there, the pastor said. Fear has shaken Christians in Wajir, he said. In Garissa, about 200 miles south of Wajir also near the Somali border, Al Shabaab has also been active. The pastors fellowship in Garissa reported several members did not appear for Sunday services. “We as the pastors fellowship do register our concern to the government to protect Christians living in this volatile northeastern country,” the chairman of the pastor’s fellowship said. The Wajir branch of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers called for the withdrawal of all non-local teachers in Wajir County if the government fails to increase security.  

“We cannot close our eyes as non-local teachers are being butchered,” a union official told Morning Star News. Education along Kenya’s border with Somalia has been hobbled after non-Muslim teachers inn 2014 began refusing to work in the region following frequent attacks by Al Shabaab and its sympathizers on non-Muslims. A Wajir police official reportedly said Al Shabaab also set an Improvised Explosive Device on the route to the school, which detonated and hit a security vehicle responding to the attack. No one was injured.

Rebels from Al Shabaab, which is allied with Al Qaeda, have launched several attacks in northeast Kenya since Kenyan forces led an African coalition into Somalia against the rebels in October 2011 in response to terrorist attacks on tourists and others on Kenya’s coast. The Islamic extremist militants have also recently attacked in Kenya’s coastal area, killing four Christians on Sept. 6, 2017. 

Kenya ranked 32^nd on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Persecuted Iraqi Christians Offer Forgiveness to ISIS

Iraqi Christians have endured so much at the hands of Islamic extremists. Since the militants took control over much of the Middle East in 2014 Iraqi Christians have faced discrimination, been forced to pay fines, been driven from their homes, and in some cases have even faced death.

Nevertheless, they have chosen the path of forgiveness. "We forgive those who murdered us, who tortured us, who raped us, who sought to destroy everything about us. We forgive them in the name of Christ," said Iraqi Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil. "While it is true that our numbers are small, the Apostles were much smaller,” he added. So many Iraqi Christians have either been killed or displaced that leaders worry their communities will never be restored. "So few of us are left, some estimate 200,000 Christians or less," Warda said of the total number of Christians in the country, which The Christian Post reports is down from 1.5 million in 2003.

In the midst of this dire situation, there are small rays of hope, however. Last week, ChristianHeadlines.com reported on Christian ministry Open Doors’ effort to restore nearly 700 Iraqi Christian homes which were destroyed by ISIS. Iraqi Christians are a resilient people. Still, they will need help from the international community if they are to weather this storm. "It is critical time for the Christians of Iraq — 'to be or not to be.' The Christians of Iraq are facing their biggest and greatest challenge" in post-IS Iraq, stated Ashur Sargon Eskrya, president of the Assyrian Aid Society branch in Iraq.

Christian in Pakistan Arrested for 'Blasphemy' to Appease Islamist Throng, Sources Say

Hundreds of Christian families fled their homes in a village near Lahore, Pakistan yesterday after Muslim protestors called for the death of a young Christian accused of blasphemy, sources said.

Patras Masih, an 18-year-old resident of Dher village in Shahdara Town area of Lahore, was taken into police custody late Monday night (Feb. 19) after a day of protests led by the Muslim extremist Tehreek Labbaik Ya Rasool Allah (TLYR) and other Islamist parties. The protestors threatened to burn down the homes of at least 700 poor Christian families, area residents said.

Several hundred protestors blocked a main highway, burned tires and chanted slogans calling for Masih’s death, they said. Telling police they would burn down Christians’ homes if Masih were not arrested, the protestors dispersed only after the local police chief assured them that the accused had been arrested and charged with blasphemy, sources said. The accused’s father, Indreyas Masih, told Morning Star News by phone from an undisclosed location that he was at his job as a driver with the Water and Sanitation Agency when he heard about the protests. “I was on duty when I received a phone call from my family that announcements are being made from mosque loudspeakers that my son Patras has committed blasphemy and should be punished for his crime,” he said. “I was shocked to hear this news and immediately asked my family members to leave the village.”

Indreyas Masih said he was unable to connect with other village Christians as most of them had turned off their phones and fled, fearing an attack by the protestors. “We handed Patras to the police late on Monday after a provincial Christian lawmaker, Tariq Gill, told us that the protestors won’t back down until we surrender my son,” he said, adding that he has not seen his son since.

Patras Masih was accused of posting a blasphemous image on a group Facebook page from his phone on Jan. 16, but his father said his son’s cell phone has been in a repair shop since December. His son told him that a friend had posted a sacrilegious photograph on a Facebook group from his ID a month ago, and that he had no intention of hurting religious sentiments, he said. Under Pakistan’s widely condemned blasphemy laws, intent must be shown for conviction. “My son is illiterate and works as sweeper at a private bank,” Masih said. “He has never been involved in any religious dispute with any Muslim in the village. I’m unable to understand why he has been trapped in this case.”

A member along with his family of Bethania Church, Masih said most of the Christian villagers had fled the area soon after the protests began. Police reported restoring calm by last night and urged residents to return home.

Accusation

According to the First Information Report (FIR No. 174/18) registered by Shahdara Town Police on a complaint by Hafiz Muhammad Awais under Section 295-C of the blasphemy statutes, Patras Masih allegedly posted a sacrilegious photo on a Facebook group called Paaglon Ki Basti, which is administered by Muslims.

Awais alleged that he learned of the photo from a friend, Muhammad Siddique. Awais told police he and Siddique telephoned Patras Masih and asked him to remove the objectionable post but that he refused, prompting the complainant to reach out to Muslim leaders.

Aneeqa Maria, an attorney at The Voice Society, told Morning Star News that the group will provide legal assistance to the family.

“The complainant has alleged in the FIR that Patras had uploaded the sacrilegious photograph from his mobile phone, whereas his father claims that the accused’s cell phone broke down two months ago and is still at the repair shop,” she said.

Maria said police had wrongly charged Patras under the harshest part of the blasphemy law, Section 295-C, which prohibits only derogatory remarks – spoken or written, directly or indirectly – defaming Muhammad the prophet of Islam. It carries a mandatory death penalty.

“Although it’s too early to comment on the case, I believe the police jumped the gun due to the pressure exerted by the religious parties and charged Patras under Section 295-C to placate the mobs,” she said.

Maria added that delay of over one month in the registration of the FIR also points to the complainant’s mala fide, “which the police has ignored.”

Superintendent of Police City Division Ali Raza declined to tell Morning Star News why Masih had been charged under Section 295-C for derogatory comments about Muhammad.

“The boy’s family helped us in arresting him, as they believe he has committed a grave mistake,’” he claimed, also asserting that Patras Masih had admitted to blasphemy.

“We have deployed some 400 police personnel in Dher village to protect the local Christian community,” he said. “The situation was brought under control late on Monday night when we informed the protest leaders that the accused boy has been arrested and charged with blasphemy.”
 
He said police had not asked Christians to leave the village.

“They should return to their homes now as the situation is under control,” Raza said. “I can assure all residents that the police will not allow anyone to take the law into their own hands.”
 
On Sept. 14, 2017 a Christian father of two in Pakistan was sentenced to death for blaspheming Islam’s prophet in a phone text even though he is illiterate. Christian mother of five Aasiya Noreen, commonly known as Asia Bibi, was convicted and sentenced to death by hanging in 2010 after an argument with a Muslim woman over a bowl of water. Although international attorneys note that lower courts did not consider which of three statements attributed to her were “blasphemous” nor prove the intent to blaspheme necessary for conviction, the courts upheld her conviction. She is awaiting a Supreme Court ruling on an appeal.
 
Pakistan ranked fifth on Christian support group Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian.

Announcements were reportedly made from village mosques today calling on Christians to return to their homes, as the “blasphemer” had been arrested, and they need not fear reprisals from Muslims. Emmanuel Masih confirmed this information, telling Morning Star News that Muslim neighbors had assured them that no Christian would be hurt, because “they could not be blamed for the wrong done by an individual.” “I just hope that the issue settles soon, so that all Christians can return to their homes,” he said.

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  20:19  The spirit which makes one flatter with his lips

Worship in vain

“However, they worship Me in vain, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.

Why Worship in vain? Because of teaching human commandments as doctrines." Mar 7:7

In Roman Catholic Church tradition is more important than the Word of God. Protestant Churches are concerned, more above following the commandments  of the  bishops and rulings of committees than the Word of God.

Pentecostal Churches also  do so by thrusting the rule of tithe, Contribution towards building, land etc. on the believers.

“Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.’ Human rules are  placed in the  place of the Word of God. Mat 15:9

Most of the people ask themselves , “What else does the Lord want us to do?” We obey all that our

 Church tells us!”

“Then they come to you as a group, sit down right in front of you as if they were my people, hear your words—and then they don't do what you say—because they're seeking only their own desires, they pursue ill-gotten profits, and they keep following their own self-interests. Eze 33:31 

Today about 90% of the Christians have placed their Church leaders in the place of God.  They have never heard the voice of God or the Holy Spirit. They are led by their human leaders. If at all the Holy Spirit tells them anything contrary to what their human leaders, they are not able to discern it. Hence the worship conducted in the hierarchical, institutional Churches is say in vain. It is a wast of time, energy and resource.

Sr. Angelica AJ

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  15:22  The spirit which makes one is plans go

Engaged in Father’s business

Kevin, a boy aged 12 was narrating his spiritual experiences in the last BFF, “During worship we were standing and singing. All of a sudden a thought came to me, ‘my dad cannot stand for long. Let me get a chair for dad and make him sit. When I did it, I was so happy and could continue the worship. Then the Holy Spirit led me into a flow of thoughts like this:

“If   I am concerned about my earthly father this much, how much I should be concerned about my Heavenly Father and His Kingdom?”

At the age of 12, an incident happened in boy Jesus’ life.

“When Jesus' parents saw him, they were shocked. His mother asked him, "Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been worried sick looking for you!" He asked them, "Why were you looking for me? Didn't you know that I had to be in my Father's house?" Luk 2:48-49

His parents did not understand what He said. Today some of the  parents do not understand how the Lord is using their children for His work. They compare their children either with their own brought  up or with the doctrines they are taught in the  false institutional  churches. We are living in a time when the Lord is filling  all the vessels which are surrendered  to  Him. If parents want to guide their children in the proper way, they themselves should become a new creation, walk in the newness of life, and  be led by the spirit every day. Parents! Come out of the old doctrines you have learned in the institutional churches, long to get the guidance each day from the Lord. When the Lord fills you with the Holy Spirit you will become a living fountain. The wineskins (hearts) should be filled up every day during personal prayer and ready for pouring out.

“Because I'm filled with things to say, and my spirit within me compels me to speak. My insides feel like unvented wine, like it's about to burst like a new wineskin. Job 32:18-19 

Am I ready to be poured out every day?

Authorities in Sudan Demolish Church Building in Khartoum

Authorities in Sudan yesterday demolished a church building in North Khartoum, sources said. The 64 members of the Evangelical Church in Al Haj Yousif in the Sudanese capital will have no place to worship next Sunday after land officials sent a bulldozer accompanied by police to tear down their building without prior notice, according to one of the church’s leaders. Police on three trucks arrived at the church compound accompanied by a bulldozer just a few hours after the end of Sunday worship, the leader said. “They took everything from the church,” she said.Officials told church leaders that the church was demolished because worship created public disturbances, but Christian leaders said the church sat on land that the government is helping a Muslim business interest to seize. “We urge all activists and human rights supporters around the world to denounce this move and demand for the return of the confiscated property of the church,” Christian activist Samaan Mahajoub wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday (Feb. 11).

A court dispute about ownership of the church site is still pending in court. The Rev. Yahia Abdelrahim Nalu of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC) confirmed the demolition. “These crazy actions will not stop us from praying and praising God!” he told Morning Star News. “God is Almighty.” The incident has attracted widespread outrage among Christians in Sudan, with many saying it directly shows hatred of Christians.In its campaign to rid the country of Christianity, Sudan has designated at least 25 church buildings for destruction, claiming they were built on government lands, Christian leaders said.

On Feb. 5 a court fined seven Christians for defending church properties. Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South Sudan in July 2011. The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population. Sudan since 2012 has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese. Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to find other Christians. Sudan fought a civil war with the south Sudanese from 1983 to 2005, and in June 2011, shortly before the secession of South Sudan the following month, the government began fighting a rebel group in the Nuba Mountains that has its roots in South Sudan. Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the country remain on the list in its 2017 report.Sudan ranked fourth on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians face most persecution.

Report: Christian Persecution is Worse Today Than Ever Before

When you think of the worst time in history for Christian persecution, perhaps you think of the Roman Coliseum or the Middle Ages and Reformation when Christians were burned at the stake for translating the Bible into the common language. There are countless time periods in history when Christians have faced persecution for their faith. Jesus warned that persecution would come (John 15:20). We know this as Christians. What may surprise you, however, (especially if you are a Christian living in the West), is that a new report has shown that Christian persecution is actually worse today than ever before in history. According to Relevant Magazine, this report comes from Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic persecution charity that “provides pastoral and humanitarian assistance to the persecuted Church around the world.” This increase in Christian persecution is in large part due to terrorist groups like ISIS in the Middle East and Boko Haram in Nigeria. These groups particularly target Christians. Of the 13 countries where Christian persecution has been most severe, none of them have shown improvement in the past year except Saudi Arabia, where, the report says, “the situation was already so bad, it could scarcely get worse.”

Persecuted Christians from Iran to Indonesia to North Korea often feel forgotten by those in the West, especially because Western governments are not doing enough to provide them with aid. David Curry, the CEO of Open Doors, another Christian persecution charity that releases an annual World Watch List of countries where Christian persecution is most severe, offered some hope in this situation: “One of the reasons we call ourselves Open Doors is we fundamentally think there are no doors closed to Jesus, and we know that the Church is everywhere. The body of Christ is everywhere. So we’re going to tackle them. There are no off-limits places to us.”

Woman Who Nearly Died in Cairo Bombing Saw Visions of Jesus

A woman who was injured and left disfigured from a church bombing in Cairo, Egypt in Dec. 2016 has not given in to discouragement and despair, and instead has said that Jesus sustained her and even appeared to her in visions. The Christian Post reports on Samiha Tawfiq Awad’s incredible story. Awad and her husband, Qalini, were attending St. Peter’s Church on the morning of Dec. 11 when the attack occurred. A wad was very near the explosion and was badly injured. Qalini rushed her to the hospital where she fought for her life and was very near death. She was so disfigured from the bombing that she was barely recognizable. Despite this horrific trial, Awad says Jesus allowed her to pull through. He even gave her the grace to forgive the perpetrators. "I remember that I saw Jesus on the ceiling when I was lying on the ground after the explosion," she recalls.
"I would have been willing to die for Jesus," she continued, "but the fact that He kept me alive so miraculously tells me that He wants me to live." Qalini echoed his wife’s faith: "The doctors might've given up on Samiha, but God had another plan!" 

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  17:11 The spirit in an  evil man which seeks only rebellion

Restrained from bringing any more

“……and told Moses, "The people are bringing much more than enough for the work that the LORD has commanded us to do."  Then Moses issued an order, and the message was taken throughout the camp, "Men and women, don't bring more offerings for the sanctuary." The people were restrained from bringing any more…. Exo 36:5,6 

When the Lord initiates a work, He Himself will inspire the hearts of those who should contribute towards it.  Today most of the ministries are continuously demanding for money. They run even contests and parades to collect offerings.

Because of foreign funds the ministries get competitions and splits exist among ministries today. When we started the ministry which the Lord to us,  the Lord commanded us never to request anyone for an offering. The Lord went on providing for the needs of the ministry miraculously. Now we are confident that whenever the Lord asks us to start a project, He will see that the needs are met with.

Then we had another problem of other ministries stealing personnel trained by us. This started from day 1 onwards. Since the Lord has entrusted us with the ministry of training people, the enemy wanted to provoke us by stealing the trained personnel  and using them for some other ministry which is in direct contradiction to the Lord’s purpose for while they are trained. Then I placed this complaint with the Lord. He satisfied me with a reply. “You need me or people?” which convinced me clearly of the enemy’s schemes. Of course I knew what reply I should give. Then He said, “Leave all these worries, I will be your cup and portion. Let whoever wants take away the money, ministry  or people don’t bother about it. Let nothing and no one steal “Me’ from  you. I will never leave you or forsake you. This gave me the conviction with which we are running.

Latin American Evangelicals vs "Gender Ideology"

Evangelicals are on the rise in Latin America. And at least one writer at the New York Times is very, very concerned. The explosive growth of Christianity in what is called the "Global South"--places like Africa, Asia, and Latin America--has been well-documented and reported, including by BreakPoint. While much attention has centered on Africa, the story in Latin America is no less dramatic and no less important. Someone who's noticed what's going on there is the New York Times but, to put it mildly, they're not very happy about it.

A recent op-ed piece, written by Javier Corrales, a political scientist at Amherst College, starts by describing the growth of Evangelicalism in Latin America. Corrales tells readers that "Evangelicals today account for almost 20 percent of the population in Latin America, up from 3 percent three decades ago."

These impressive numbers are only a prelude to the main point of his article: Evangelicals' growing impact on Latin American politics which, for Corrales, is bad news. While "Evangelical pastors embrace varied ideologies," he writes, "when it comes to gender and sexuality, their values are typically conservative, patriarchal and homophobic." Thus, "in every country in the region, [Evangelical pastors] have taken the strongest stands against gay rights." This makes the "rise of evangelicalism . . .politically worrisome," Corrales writes. He goes on to complain that evangelical voters "tend to be intransigent on issues of sexuality, which feeds cultural polarization."

You might ask, "Cultural polarization about what?" The principle example is what Latin American Christians call the "ideology of gender." In Corrales' words, "This term is used to [negatively] label any effort to promote acceptance of sexual and gender diversity," including the idea that "gender identity is a construct."

If this sounds familiar, it should. So-called "gender diversity," among other things, is what fuels our current cultural obsession with transgenderism, gender fluidity, and other rejections of biological reality. It's why, for instance, Britain's National Health Service does not routinely offer breast and cervical cancer screenings to women who self-identify as men. Latin American Christians, understandably, don't want to go down that road and that includes both Catholics and Protestants.  As Corrales tells us, "Politically, we may be witnessing a historic truce between Protestants and Catholics in the region."

Fighting the "ideology of gender" is the result of this cooperation. Another result is the phenomenon known as "Don't Mess With My Kids," which has spread across the region. The movement originated in Peru as Evangelical and Catholic parents objected to a school curriculum that, in their estimation, sought to indoctrinate their children into a new sexual ideology. They cited readers that made Little Red Riding Hood a boy and the use of a book entitled "Oliver Button is a Sissy." In response, 1.5 million Peruvians marched in the streets, telling their leaders that "the people 'refuse to surrender.'" The movement has spread to neighboring Ecuador and other parts of Latin America and everywhere it goes, it's primary objection is to "state meddling" as well as "the exclusion of parents in the sexual formation of their children."

For the New York Times, all of this might be "politically worrisome," but lost in all those worries is the fact that gender ideology is a prime example of what might be called "cultural imperialism." The ideology is being imposed on Latin America by its secular northern neighbors, and Christians there have said, "Basta! Don't mess with our kids!"

- By PNW Staff

Father’s House,

Brotherhood Missions,

4/364 E, Anna Salai 1st Cross Street,

ECR, Palavakkam, Chennai 600041.

 Tamil Nadu, India.

National Worship Centre is a centre where the Lord of hosts, the Lord God Almighty is worshipped in His majesty all the 24 hours. Per day 12 worship teams come to worship from different parts of the Nation. One slot consists of 2 hours. The opening of NWC also turns to be the trumpet sign to start the fatal war against satan to this Nation for Christ! Do you want to join this praising Army?

Book your slots

Tel : 7708505152

Email ID: worshipcentreindia@gmail.com

This Month in NWC we are worshipping for “Chennai”. Book your slot for worship. No doubt the nation is going to be shaken during our worship. Be ready and prepare for that.

Praise God for the successful completion of 16733 slots in National Worship Centre with a Non Stop Worship (24/7)

Did You Know You Can Send a Letter of Encouragement to a Persecuted Believer?

Open Doors USA, a Christian organization that monitors Christian persecution worldwide, is offering believers an opportunity to write notes of encouragement to fellow believers.

The letter-writing campaign is part of Open Doors' mission to extend extra love and compassion to persecuted Christians around the Valentine’s Day holiday.

“Today, we’d like to invite you to participate in a similar Valentine's Day opportunity. Would you pause for just a few minutes to write a brief message of love and encouragement for Open Doors to deliver to persecuted Christians living in other dangerous regions in our world?” Open Doors asks in their recent newsletter.

“Today, as we remember persecuted Christians, would you join us in following the example of the apostle Paul who often wrote letters to churches facing crisis or need? Your words today, just like Paul’s in the New Testament, could be an important encouragement to believers living out their faith in the world’s most difficult places,” the newsletter continues.

If you are interested in taking a few minutes out of your day to send a note of encouragement to a persecuted Christian, you can learn more here. Both physical and digital letters are accepted. Be sure to read Open Doors’ letter-writing guidelines before submitting your letter.

Muslim Herdsmen, Terrorists Kill Eight Christians in Central Nigeria, Sources Say

Attacks on villages in north-central Nigeria that killed eight Christians in the past two weeks were carried out by Muslim Fulani herdsmen aided by terrorists from Islamic extremist groups, a local pastor said. The Rev. Sunday Gado Biri told Morning Star News that the assailants also torched 50 houses belonging to Christians, including his own, and his church building was partially burned in the attacks on Zanwra, a suburb of Jebu-Miango near the city of Jos, Plateau state.

“A critical look at these attacks has revealed that it is not only the herdsmen who are attacking Christian communities, as there are terrorists collaborating with them to carry out these attacks,” said the 54-year-old pastor of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Zanwra.

He appealed to the Nigerian government to bring to an end unabated attacks on Christian communities. “It is unfortunate that the soldiers brought here are not taking decisive actions against the herdsmen,” he said. “When the herdsmen were burning down houses, the soldiers could not stop them. In spite of this, I still want to appeal to the Nigerian government that it should stop these killings.”

In attacks on Zanwra village between Jan. 22 and Jan. 25, the eight Christians were killed in four ambushes on different days, while the houses were destroyed in two separate attacks. Pastor Biri said one of his church elders, 60-year-old James Nengwe, was slain the evening of Jan. 24 as he tried to escape. “He was on his way to the military camp just about two kilometers from his house when he was ambushed, shot and killed by the herdsmen,” the pastor said. “In fact, he was just a few hundred meters from the military camp. He decided to take refuge at the military base camp when he saw the herdsmen attacking and burning houses close to his house.”

Zanwra resident Moses Chohu confirmed that armed herdsmen shot Nengwe to death as he fled for safety. Soldiers who were trying to repel the attackers ran out of bullets, and so the attackers succeeded in burning down houses.” A mini-van carrying persons from Jos to Kwall was ambushed near the ECWA church, Zanwra, and “the driver, the conductor, and one other Christian” were killed and about 20 others injured, Moses said. Police identified two of the Christians killed in the ambush as Danlami of Kwal District and Emmanuel Audu of Jebbu-Miango.
 
Zanwra resident Chohu said attacks on Christian communities in the area began on Jan. 14, when three Christians from Kimakpa village went to Maiyanga village, and herdsmen attacked them as they were returning to Kimakpa at about 6 p.m. “One of them was killed, the second was injured, while the third escaped unhurt,” Chohu said. Their names were not readily available. On Jan. 22 three Christians from Kpachudu and Kwall villages who had gone to a mining camp at Telma village were returning at about 6 p.m. when Muslim Fulani herdsmen ambushed them at Chuvo-Kpara village, Chohu said. The three died in the attack, with the herdsmen chopping off the head of one of them and taking it with them. Christians make up 51.3 percent of Nigeria’s population, while Muslims living primarily in the north and middle belt account for 45 percent.

Nigeria ranked 14^th on Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.

Fearing Deportation, a Third Indonesian Christian Seeks Sanctuary in a NJ Church

A third undocumented Indonesian has sought sanctuary in his New Jersey church, saying he fears deportation to his native country because Christians suffer persecution there. Harry Pangemanan joins two other Indonesian Christians now living in the Reformed Church of Highland Park, about 35 miles south of New York City. One man has lived in the church for more than three months and the other for more than two weeks.

On Sunday (Jan. 28), three days after Pangemanan sought sanctuary in the church, fleeing what he believes were Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside his home, supporters gathered for a vigil and march in support of the three men. The sanctuary seekers are backed by many in the local clergy and local government, as well as New Jersey’s new governor, Phil Murphy, who has visited the church and on Thursday tweeted his promise to fight on their behalf. “I just met with families torn apart, and others seeking sanctuary at Reformed Church of Highland Park. Our hearts go out to all New Jerseyans living in fear of deportation. I will fight for you,” he tweeted.

The Highland Park church is one of more than 30 congregations across the nation that are housing people at risk of deportation, according to Church World Service, which is tracking the development. Indonesia, the most populous Muslim-majority nation in the world, has come under intense criticism for the persecution of Christians within its borders. Last year the Christian governor of Jakarta, the nation’s capital, was sentenced to two years in jail for blasphemy against Islam, a development many deemed a serious setback for those trying to shore up religious tolerance in Indonesia.

Sunday’s vigil for the men, at the First Presbyterian Church of Metuchen, ended with a march to a rally at that town’s municipal hall. There participants called for the release of two other Indonesian men who belong to the Reformed Church of Highland Park and who are being detained by ICE, as well as legislation to protect immigrants. Melanie McDermott, a neighbor of one of the men seeking sanctuary in the church who attended the rally with her husband, said anti-immigrant policies should not target people who have established themselves as productive members of society.

“We feel that enough is enough. This has to stop. We want a path to citizenship for law-abiding people starting with asylum seekers who are part of our hardworking fabric of our nation,” she said. At the rally, activists linked arms and sang the civil rights movement anthem “We Shall Overcome.” “If it took this situation to wake us up, so be it,” Metuchen Mayor Jonathan Busch said of the sanctuary seekers as he addressed the crowd.

“But we’re woken up now and we’re going to do something about it.”

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro 17:19 The spirit which loves quarrel and  sin

Worshipping at a distance

“The LORD told Moses, "Come up to the LORD, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship at a distance.  Only Moses is to approach the LORD, but the others are not to approach; the people are not to come up with him." Ex 24:1,2

Our Hindu brothers still practise “Worshipping at a distance”. Roman Catholics worship through mediators even of dead persons.  But the living God Jehovah has sent His Son among us so that He can live inside of us. Jn 14:23, Jn 15:7

We, the children of God who have accepted Jesus as our Saviour and Lord should not worship the Lord ‘at a distance’.  This is what those who do not have the true knowledge of God and His Son know Jesus practise.  

In the Old Testament the privilege given to Moses alone, is given to all of us in New Testament. Approaching Him closer, touching Him, tasting Him, (Tree of life) through Jesus Christ. Eph 3:11-12

Worshipping Jehovah standing at a distance, or worshipping Him through mediators like Gurus, priests, Fathers, Pastors, whether dead or living, is not acceptable  because  He lives in us.

……….. "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. Then my Father will love him, and we will go to him and make our home within him”. Jn 14:23 

Duty of the soldiers of AOJ

"Tell the Israelis that when they have crossed the Jordan River to the land of Canaan, 

they are to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their idols and their molten images. You are to demolish all their high places,  take possession of the land, and live in it, because I've given you the land to inherit. ‘You are to divide the land among yourselves by lot according to your families. The larger the families are in number, the larger their inheritance is to be. The lesser the families are in number, the lesser their inheritance is to be. To whomever the lot falls, that inheritance goes to him. Divide it according to your ancestral tribes. (Num 33:51-54)

Num 33:55  "But if you fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, their survivors will become irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, to prick your sides and afflict you in the very land in which you'll be living. 

Num 33:56  Then, what I had planned to do to them, I'll start to do to you." 

Time given to them to drive out the enemies 

Sis. Angelica AJ

Sacrificing Children to Trans Ideology: An Unscientific Federal Study

BY JOHN

Don't be fooled by the scientific-sounding jargon. Transgender ideology is just that: an ideology--and it's one that's endangering lives. 

What do you do, as a Christian, when someone cites a "scientific study" allegedly proving that transgender kids do well with hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery? Well, you've got to ask questions.

That's certainly the right strategy for a  new $5.7 million study just commissioned by the National Institutes of Health.

Writing at Public Discourse, Jane Robbins and Erin Tuttle predict that this study, once completed, will become the go-to evidence for supporters of so-called "affirmation therapy." In other words, it will be used to support chemically and surgically altering the developing and healthy bodies of children, to make them look like those of the opposite sex. The study's methodology, authors, and stated purpose all make it clear that it's crafted to produce a predetermined conclusion: that "transgender affirmation therapy is safe and effective for gender-dysphoric youngsters." 

The study's authors all but admit this, writing in their abstract that their goal is "to use cross-sex hormones in order to induce development of desired secondary sexual characteristics that bring the body into closer alignment with the youth's internal sense of gender." Notice the appropriateness of altering a child's body to harmonize with his or her preferred gender is just assumed; it's not evaluated. And this assumption is destructive, even sometimes deadly. Let's be clear about what "affirmation therapy" really means: Children are given high doses of puberty-suppressing drugs. Doctors then flood their systems with testosterone or estrogen to induce the formation of opposite-sex characteristics like breasts in males and facial hair in females. Some patients, partway through this process, will undergo "sex-reassignment surgery" in which their internal and even external genitals are removed or remodeled.

This so-called "treatment" will render them infertile for life and can create a host of side-effects, like cancer, infections, gallbladder diseases, and spikes in blood pressure. There is also no long-term research on how these high doses of hormones affect bodies in the long run--bodies that weren't designed to handle them in the first place. There is, however, abundant data on the psychological damage of medically "transitioning." One study from Great Britain found that 20 percent of patients who'd undergone this procedure regretted it. Walt Heyer, a man who formerly lived as a transgender woman and now identifies with his biological sex once again, thinks that's a serious underestimation. He cites research showing that 41 percent of post-operative patients attempt suicide, 90 percent have a "significant form of psychopathology," and half have depressive symptoms. The NIH is apparently ignoring all this, and it's clear even at this early stage that they've got a conclusion in search of an argument. All four of the doctors and clinics selected to conduct the research are deeply invested in transgender ideology. 

Two already conduct irreversible hormonal transitions, sometimes on children as young as 14 years old. And one calls therapies aimed at reconciling kids with their biological sex "dangerous." But what's truly dangerous is that this deeply unscientific project will not only harm the children involved, it's largely unnecessary. Robbins and Tuttle cite research showing that 80 to 90 percent of gender dysphoric children will accept their biological sex by late adolescence. In other words, they often grow out of it. Yet the NIH is paying for research--with our tax dollars--to engrave these feelings irreversibly on children's bodies--all at a time when they're too young to fully understand the consequences.

Like almost everything, this comes down to worldview. Transgender activists believe that feelings define people. And if our feelings are out-of-sync with our bodies, then our bodies must change--through any chemical or surgical means necessary. But beginning with this conclusion and then crafting a study to prove it isn't science. In fact, it's more like a religion that's demanding child sacrifice.

-By PNW Staff

Christian Students Knifed, Beaten in High School Clash in Kenya

Muslim students at a high school in Nairobi on Tuesdaynight (Jan. 23) beat and stabbed Christians who refused to convert to Islam, a local source said.

Tensions had been growing for weeks at Jamhuri High School in northern Nairobi, with Muslims primarily of Somali, Boran and Oromo descent complaining of discrimination. Due to increasing hostilities, the boarding school had designated separate bathrooms and separate sections in the library for Christians and Muslims, a source told Morning Star News.

 “Some Muslim students forcefully tried to induct Christian students into their Islam faith, and those who refused were knifed, while others were physically beaten,” the source told Morning Star News by phone. “The knives and machetes used are alleged to have come from outside the school.”

At least 35 of the school’s 1,500 students were injured, including some Muslims when the Christian students tried to defend themselves, the source said. Some Christian students received hospital treatment for stab wounds and dislocated bones in their hands and joints, he said.

Police were investigating the cause of the attack at this writing. The school has been closed indefinitely.

School Principal Fred Awuor was reportedly injured in the attack and had received hospital treatment.

Overlap on Persecution Lists Reveals Danger for Christians

The week after the U.S. State Department redesignated 10 nations as countries of particular concern (CPCs) over “systemic, ongoing, and egregious religious freedom violations,” the Christian group Open Doors USA released its annual World Watch List of the 50 most dangerous countries for Christians.

Both lists include Myanmar (also known as Burma), China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, with Open Doors noting all 10 countries had extreme, very high, or high levels of persecution against Christians.

Totalitarian North Korea created the most danger, followed closely by Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan and Pakistan, according to Open Doors’ analysis. India jumped from 15 to 11 on the list due to Hindu nationalists’ increased persecution and the growing power of the nationalist political party.

Overall, 215 million Christians around the world face threats due to their faith. Open Doors called Islamic extremism the “dominant” driver of persecution against Christians in 35 of the 50 countries listed. That included attacks by Islamic extremist groups like the Taliban in Afghanistan, al-Shabaab in Somalia, and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Open Doors CEO David Curry said his team found a “shocking” escalation in attacks against Christian women. Researchers documented 2,260 separate cases of sexual harassment, rape, or forced marriage of Christian women in 2017—six women per day. Because of underreporting, Open Doors suspects many more cases likely happened.

Pakistan did not make the State Department’s list, but it was the fifth most dangerous country for Christians according to Open Doors, with the most recorded violence.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an advisory body to the State Department, also monitors religious freedom in dozens of countries and publishes findings and recommendations each April.

For many years, it urged the State Department to put Pakistan on the list of CPCs. Although State Department officials didn’t heed that advice, they took a new step in 2018 by placing Pakistan on a “Special Watch List” for severe violations of religious freedom.

USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark applauded the latest State Department redesignations on Jan. 4, but added that they don’t go far enough.

“Secretary [Rex] Tillerson should have also designated the Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam,” Mark said. He also called Pakistan’s absence a “surprise and disappointment.”

Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, appreciated the State Department’s inclusion of Myanmar, but wanted Vietnam added to the list, VOA News reported.

“The Vietnamese people continue to have their religious freedom and other human rights violated. The United States should never shrink from calling out countries for such abuses,” he said.

In its 2017 report, USCIRF also recommended Tier 2 CPC designations for Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia, and Turkey. Tier 2 status indicates systemic, ongoing, or egregious violations of religious freedom, rather than all three, as covered by a Tier 1 designation.

For the first time, USCIRF named “entities of particular concern” (EPCs) for non-government perpetrators of violations if they exerted a certain level of territorial control. It recommended terror groups Islamic State, the Taliban, and al-Shabaab be named EPCs. So far, the State Department has not followed suit.

USCIRF looks broadly at religious freedom violations for citizens of all religions, including atheists, while Open Doors specifically documents Christian persecution. But their findings are very similar.

All but two countries USCIRF named in 2017 also ranked on the 2018 World Watch List: Russia and Cuba. Curry said Open Doors will watch Russia closely due to the potential negative effects of recent religious laws banning evangelism, among other things.

“As yet, it does not rise to the level of the other countries on the list,” he said. “Likewise, Cuba is a country to watch, but currently is not on the list.”

Harassment at Messianic Jews' Center in Israel Begins Anew

After opposition shut down a meeting center for Messianic Jews in southern Israel last May, ultra-Orthodox Jews are harassing it again since it re-opened this month, sources said.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protested the presence of the center in Dimona, Israel on Tuesday (Jan. 23) and threatened some of the Messianic Jews, followers of Jesus, according to advocacy group Middle East Concern (MEC).
 
“Protests have taken place the last two weeks after the reopening of the center at the beginning of January,” according to a MEC press statement.

The center, where Messianic Jews meet for conversation, coffee and tea, had been temporarily closed last year due to protests by ultra-Orthodox Jews on May 4, 2017, after which they damaged Messianic Jewish leaders’ homes, breaking windows and traumatizing two children inside one home, one of the leaders told Messianic news outlet Kehila News Israel.

“Because we bent down at the right moment, we were not hit by stones thrown at us,” Albert Knoester, elder at a Messianic congregation in Beersheba, said of last year’s attacks in an interview published by Kehila News Israel. “Apart from this damage, there was also psychological trauma to one of the families in Dimona, due to the demonstrations and also because their house was damaged by stones. But also through bullying, etc., their two young daughters were traumatized by what had happened, and they needed psychological help.” 
Those incidents, however, led to townsfolk on the street inviting them for drinks to talk, he told Kehila News.
 
“Quite a number of ‘ordinary people’ are feeling ashamed of what is being done to us,” he told Kehila News. “We receive invitations from people to come over and have a coffee with them. We had at least six times an opportunity to explain to a rabbi why we believe that Jesus is the Messiah – as a result of the question to us, ‘Why do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah?’”

Local media have misrepresented the center as a “mission post,” and false reports including accusations of bribery for conversion to Christianity have also led Jews to talk with them, he told the news outlet. A group of rabbis showed up to interrogate them, he said, and when his wife Esther responded with verses from Psalm 23, they agreed to temporarily close the center while continuing to discuss what place the “Open House” should have in the community.

“One day later,” he told Kehila News, “one of the rabbis wrote in a local newspaper: ‘We went to that house in order to silence them by force, but that woman would not stop talking! She should know about that other verse of Psalm 23: about the valley of the shadow of death. Let her go through it, together with her husband.’”
 
In the following days local media began a slander campaign, he said. Besides the bribery accusation – that they would offer a car in exchange for converting to Christianity – they were accused of putting a powder in people’s coffee “to change Jews into Christians,” and of coercing Jews to convert by force, he told the news outlet.
 
“Because they are unable to charge us, and unable to find anything against us, another weapon is used instead: lies, gossip, changing facts and blackmail,” he told Kehila News. “There are pictures of us in the city center with severe warnings. Also, big posters on billboards with nasty texts have been put up. The people are warned to watch out and protect their children against us.”

Bible Society Threatened

In Tel Aviv, a Bible Society bookshop is under threat of being shut down.

The owner of the bookshop’s building alleges that the Bible Society is violating its commercial license by selling Christian literature other than Bibles and therefore should not have protected tenant status, according to MEC. The shop has been in the same location for 55 years.

Palestinian Territories

In Bethlehem, where two nuns and their convent in the Palestinian Territories were attacked last year, a policeman appeared to be altering the facts in his testimony at a hearing on the case on Monday (Jan. 22), according to MEC

On April 30, 2017, a woman identified as a member of the Mahatna family, which has taken over part of St. Mary’s Coptic Convent, broke into its storeroom and physically assaulted a nun identified only as Sister Maria, besides damaging the property. While the nuns were on the way to a police station to file a complaint, the alleged assailant’s brother, Rami, and a friend stopped their car and struck it with an iron bar, unaware that a police officer was inside the car, MEC reported

“According to Sister Maria, the police officer who had been in the car failed to give a true account of what happened” in testimony this week, MEC reported. “It is believed that the Mahatna family have close links to influential members of the Palestinian Authority and that, as a result, the course of justice is being obstructed.”
 
A lawyer representing the nuns has asked for damages to the car to be examined by an expert and presented as evidence. The next hearing is scheduled for April 9.

The Mahatna family has illegally taken up residence in part of the convent building, according to MEC.
 
At a prior hearing on Monday (Jan. 22) regarding the alleged assault on Sister Maria by the Mahatna family member, identified only as Rania, a judge appeared sympathetic to medical reports on the nun's injuries, according to MEC. A final hearing is scheduled for March 23.

“Prayer is requested that the judges will examine the cases fairly, and that justice will be seen to be promptly done; and that the Mahatna family members will stop harassing the nuns and move out of the convent premises,” MEC said in a statement.

Government, Police in India Thwart Threatened Attacks on Christians

The Rev. Shaju Devassy was quietly attending to his work as director of a Catholic graduate college in central India on Dec. 30 when police showed up and told him a mob of angry Hindu protestors was on its way. Police in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh state held the 70-strong mob outside the gate of St. Mary’s Post Graduate College as long as they could, but the protestors managed to jump a boundary wall, and soon they surrounded Devassy at his church presbytery.

Threatening and reviling him, they accused him of being anti-national for refusing to let them worship the Mother India goddess (Aarti of Bharat Mata) at the Catholic institution.

“In menacing tones, they warned him that should he refuse to do the Aarti, they would garland him with the ‘garland of shoes [juthe ki mala],’” Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, told Morning Star News.

Another protestor questioned Devassy as to whether he knew Indian culture, the bishop said. “He asked the director, ‘Who is the goddess of education? Why is Saraswati Vandana [worship of goddess Saraswati] not being done in the college?’”

The mob told him that the worship of the Mother India goddess was to be performed as a sign of patriotism, the bishop said.

“As Indians, the activists claimed that they did not require permission from anyone and would perform it anywhere without anybody’s permission,” Mascarenhas said. “The leaders of the mob made it clear that many more would come again to the college campus on Jan. 4 and would not only perform Aarti but would force the director, Father Shaju, to do the same. Having imparted this ominous warning, the mob left the compound.”
 
‘Anti-National’ Accusation

As might be expected at an institution for which worship of anything but the Holy Trinity is idolatrous, the  posters and the worship of the Mother India goddess are against school regulations.

This incident and the two large-scale, attempted attacks that followed came about after members of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party’s student union wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (All Indian Student Council, or ABVP), captured all the posts on the student council last November, the bishop said. The ABVP is affiliated with the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Soon Devassy, who as director of the college for the past three years has not otherwise had such conflicts, found the hard-line Hindu students displaying a poster on campus with photos of the student council members around a picture of the goddess Bharat Mata. The ABVP put up two posters with photos of council members and a picture that they called Bharat Mata.

Devassy pointed out that this was done without permission and was against university regulations, and he gently requested they take the two posters down, Mascarenhas said. The students promised to remove the posters within three days, but when they failed to do so, the college administration had them removed.

On Dec. 29 Devassy received a phone call informing him that the ABVP members were running a Facebook campaign under the tag “Bharat Mata Ki Aarti” (Worship of Mother India goddess) describing college officials as anti-national.

“In the social media campaign, hatred was being promoted against the college with regard to Bharat Mata ki Aarti, describing the college authorities as anti-national,” Bishop Mascarenhas said. “The demand was that the Aarti of Bharat Mata be allowed in the college as an expression of nationalism.”

After the mob verbally attacked him the next day, Devassy reported it to the college chairman, diocese authorities and the Madhya Pradesh Regional Bishops’ Council. With their suggestions, he drafted a letter about the incident, and he and other representatives met with the Inspector General (IG) of Law and Order and other security officials in Bhopal and submitted a memorandum to them.

First Attack

On Jan. 4, more than 800 protestors gathered at the gate of the college and began to pressure police stationed there, trying to break through the barricades and enter the campus.

More than 300 officers were deployed at three Catholic institutions on the campus – the college, St. Mary’s Senior Secondary School and Senior Secondary Trinity Convent School, Vidisha. The protestors shouted slogans, threw stones and broke the barricades before performing the worship of the Mother India goddess in a temple opposite the college gate on a national highway, sources said.

At the same time, another group broke a side boundary wall onto the college campus, and police rushed to the area and stopped them from entering. Officers reportedly were forced to resort to baton charges and tear gas. At least three policemen were reported injured.

Tensions remained high for two hours at the main gate, and the mob slowly moved away after about 2:30 p.m. Police security remained till late at night.

“A copy of the letter issued by the SDM [Sub-Divisional Magistrate] to the college council secretary denying the permission to perform the Aarti was also received by the college management on Jan. 4, thus confirming that Fr. Shaju’s decision in refusing permission to do the Aarti on the 30th of December was correct,” Mascarenhas said.
 
Second Attack

After Hindu nationalists, including members of the Vishwa Sanatan Sangh, issued more threats of a massive attack, however, the protestors returned on Jan. 16 with an even larger crowd.

When the threats grew a few days beforehand, Mascarenhas immediately got in touch with Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and appraised him of the highly volatile situation. The Madhya Pradesh Catholic Diocesan School’s Association filed a writ petition at the Jabalpur High Court seeking protection for their institutes in Vidisha.
 
With the federal home minister’s intervention and the state government’s action with the high court, the Madhya Pradesh government provided heavy security. A huge police force was deployed in and around the college, and several Hindu nationalist leaders were arrested as a precautionary measure on Jan. 15-16.

The Additional Attorney General of Madhya Pradesh on Jan. 15 gave assurance at the Jabalpur High Court that complete protection would be given to the college against the threatened Jan. 16 attack.

“It must be said that they kept their word,” Mascarenhas told Morning Star News. “More than 500 fully equipped police personnel were deployed for the protection of the college.”

The Superintendent of Police reportedly said 30 Hindu nationalists, including Updesh Rana, leader of Vishwa Sanatan Sangh, were arrested as they were heading for the college to perform the Hindu worship.

“With no leaders to coordinate, the action fizzled out and the situation went on peacefully,” said Mascarenhas, who was also grateful to the Union Home Minister and the Madhya Pradesh administration for intervening.
 
The security was a rare instance of federal and state help in a country increasingly marked by local officials colluding with Hindu extremists to persecute Christians. The 1,800-student college, where most students are Hindus, falls in the Assembly constituency of Vidisha, which was once represented by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The Parliamentary representative is the current Union Minister of External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj. Thus Vidisha is considered a place of political significance, with events there deemed to have serious state and national level significance.

“I think the college has sent a signal to the whole of India that with the good will of the government and our political leaders, this country can maintain its tradition of peace and harmony and protect and strengthen its secular fabric,” Mascarenhas said.

The government intervention came in striking contrast to the hostile tone of the National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist BJP, against non-Hindus, which has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, religious rights advocates say.

India ranked 11^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15^th the previous year, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt.

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro 17:19 The spirit which loves quarrel and  sin

Sojourned many days

I was meditating on Gen 21:34.

“And Abraham sojourned many days in the land of the Philistines”

Abraham lived as a foreigner and sojourner without any rights or claims in the land of Philistines.  But his descendants, we know, occupied  lot of lands and acquired the same.  

I remember one incident in our life.  We were holding prominent positions in an institution. But when the Lord called us,  we came out bare handed. When we went to a bank to open an  account in order  to  collect a meager amount of pension due to one of us, the bank authorities asked for the names of two persons as  references who can vouch for us. We did not have any, since we were new to that village and even the few who knew us did not favour us since our institution had circulated a letter against us. We felt very low.

After three years when we left that village, we had many  friends there. Even the same bank employee became a good friend of us since they used to attend our prayers.

Now I understand how Abraham’s descendants could inherit the whole land  and subdue it.

Brethren, don’t hesitate to go to the place where you are called to. You may be a sojourner there. But the one who called you is faithful. If you remain faithful to your calling, your descendants will surely multiply and  inherit the land.

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Gen 1:28 

Duty of the soldiers of AOJ

"Tell the Israelis that when they have crossed the Jordan River to the land of Canaan, 

they are to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their idols and their molten images. You are to demolish all their high places,  take possession of the land, and live in it, because I've given you the land to inherit. ‘You are to divide the land among yourselves by lot according to your families. The larger the families are in number, the larger their inheritance is to be. The lesser the families are in number, the lesser their inheritance is to be. To whomever the lot falls, that inheritance goes to him. Divide it according to your ancestral tribes. (Num 33:51-54)

Num 33:55  "But if you fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, their survivors will become irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, to prick your sides and afflict you in the very land in which you'll be living. 

Num 33:56  Then, what I had planned to do to them, I'll start to do to you." 

Time given to them to drive out the enemies 

Sis. Angelica AJ

Creeping fear: Not just Muslims, India is also failing its Christian minority

Christians protest against attacks on churches in Delhi in 2015 | AFP

On the bare floor of a police lock-up in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, 32 priests and seminarians were forced to sit through a winter night last month, like criminals. They were detained after a Bajrang Dal mob attacked them, apparently for singing Christmas carols, burnt their car and thrashed them even at the police station. After their sleepless night, the police arrested one of the priests, charging him with “forced conversions”. The attackers were barely touched, in what has become the norm in such hate crimes. Around the same time, the Hindu Jagran Manch threatened the managements of Christian schools in Aligarh that if they celebrated Christmas with their students, they would do so at their “own risk”. Similar threats have been reported from other towns in Uttar Pradesh.

Like many Indians, my family has always celebrated Christmas for its message of cheer, goodwill and compassion with mistletoe and plum cake. But in these troubled times, even wishing Merry Christmas has become an intimation of protest. In a fast-mutating India where hatred and fear are being rapidly normalised, even singing carols and celebrating Christmas have become high-risk undertakings. So in December, I attended Christmas Mass as a token of both protest and solidarity.

India is becoming increasingly unsafe for its Muslim and Christian minorities. The World Watch List 2017 ranked India as the 15th most dangerous place to practise one’s minority faith, a sharp fall from the 31st place four years earlier. Muslims are facing vigilante attacks and targeted killings by the police. The even smaller Christian minority is enduring attacks on its places of worship, shrines, prayer services, priests and nuns. The United Christian Forum has recorded 216 such attacks in 2017, but the police have registered complaints in less than a quarter of the cases; the attackers have been arrested in even fewer. The four states of Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh account for over half of these cases. There have also been reports of social and economic boycott of Christian communities, and of them being denied work and access to water and electricity.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and other affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, in India and around the world, have long propagated the noxious canard of a powerful foreign-funded evangelist campaign to convert low caste and impoverished Hindus and Adivasis to Christianity. This is used to manufacture popular resentment, even hatred, against this small, peaceable and progressive community, which erupts in hate attacks on missionaries, priests, nuns and shrines. By way of example, here is an extract from a pamphlet published by the Global Hindu Heritage Foundation in Texas, US, in 2015:

“In India, not only Christians celebrate, but many Hindus also participate or celebrate the Christmas without knowing what Christianity is all about, what the Christians think about Hindus, what the Bible says about the ‘idol worship’, how they destroyed so many civilizations, how they are converting Hindus and making them enemies of their own religion, how the money is flowing from foreign countries, how the Hindus were mercilessly tortured in Goa…They believe that Jesus gave them the right to deceive, convert, subjugate, conquer, and proselytize any nation or religion, by any and all possible means. They are entitled to such methods as allurement, fraud, coercion and violence in converting but they criticize Hindus even if they to talk about their atrocities of conversion…This is more evident in Southern States and especially in the Andhra Pradesh are. They convert the Hindus and make them their foot soldiers to destroy Hindu deities, step on them, and also tear up the pictures of Hindu Gods and Goddesses. According to unofficial statistics, as many as 30 percent of Hindus in villages have got converted…” 

Cultivating hatred

Hate propaganda, of course, has nothing to do with facts. India’s Christian population has not risen beyond 2.5% in the past several decades. How could this be the case if there was a concerted evangelist campaign to convert Hindus? It is instructive that Christians constitute such a tiny minority despite the fact that Christianity came to India nearly a thousand years before it spread in Europe and the country lived through two hundred years of British colonial rule.

In the words of the senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, the “entire conversion debate is dominated by the Hindu right whose political agenda is: (a) to declare the country and Indian civilisation as primarily, if not solely, a Hindu civilisation, (b) to insist that all past conversions over the centuries were induced by fear, fraud and opportunism, (c) to regard all past conversion as essentially suspect and (d) to pursue an intimidating policy to try and ensure that future conversions from Hinduism should not take place, and in any event, be minimised”.

Dhavan argues that the controversy over conversion is inextricably linked to the rise of political Hindutva, which he describes as “belligerent, apprehensive, uncompromising and vicious in its attitude…with plans, policies and programmes to attack and discipline all other faiths”.

He cites the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the murder of the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his young children, and the intimidation and killings of Christians and Muslims as part of the “policy of disciplining other faiths”, which includes “both a programme to impose fear on others as well as a legal policy to intimidate non-Hindu minorities through the processes of the law”. Thirty two priests and seminarians were detained in Satna after they were attacked by a Bajrang Dal mob, apparently for singing Christmas carols. The attackers were barely touched. Photo credit: HT

In the bitter discussions about religious conversion, it is often forgotten that the Constitution took care to guarantee the rights of every individual to not just practise but also propagate their faith. As Dhavan points out, “Historically, India is a country of converts. There were conversions from Hinduism to Jainism, to Buddhism and to Islam and Christianity. Over time, all this had added a richness and uniqueness to India. Today, a Muslim or a Christian is a Muslim or a Christian, not a past Hindu. If people want to convert, they have the right to do so – without requiring the permission of the state or setting up a system whereby police officials and magistrates will be watching conversions under a system of conversion by surveillance.”

Denying freedom

The Constitution guards our right to follow any faith, including the right to abjure the faith. In the Constituent Assembly, M Rathnaswamy had suggested adding the word “propagate” to Article 25, which guarantees the right to practise and propagate religion. KM Munshi declared unambiguously that “under freedom of speech which the Constitution guarantees, it will be open to any religious community to persuade other people to join their faith”.

However, the Sangh Parivar never acquiesced to this Constitution guarantee. In their imagination, Hindus were being stolen from their community through money, fraud and coercion. Therefore, they and the devious missionaries who misled them needed to be continuously policed by a hawk-eyed state. Accordingly, anti-conversion laws were legislated in many states even though they run counter to the constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. It is interesting that anti-conversion laws have mostly been passed by non-Congress governments. (Laws banning cow slaughter, in contrast, have been legislated mostly by Congress-ruled states despite the opposition of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to such laws.) Odisha passed an anti-conversion law under the Swatantra Party government in 1967; Madhya Pradesh under the Samyukta Vidhayak Dal coalition, which included the BJP’s forerunner Jan Sangh, in 1968; Gujarat and Chhattisgarh under the BJP in 2003 and 2006, respectively. In Tamil Nadu, the J Jayalalithaa government passed an anti-conversion law in 2002 but repealed it two years later. The only Congress government to pass such a law was in Himachal Pradesh in 2006. Rajasthan passed an anti-conversion law in 2006, again under the BJP, but the governor refused to sign it. Arunachal Pradesh passed such a law in 1978 under the People’s Party of Arunachal, but it was never enforced. Most recently, the BJP government in Jharkhand passed a stringent anti-conversion law in 2017.

Although anti-conversion laws exist in many states, they are more actively used in states ruled by the BJP. Even though there have been few convictions under these laws, cases are registered almost every month. Clearly, the purpose is to punish by process. In today’s shrill anti-minority climate, these laws are used mainly to intimidate, stigmatise and, in some cases, criminalise the local Christian communities and clergy. In August last year, the Jharkhand government published full-page newspaper advertisements, with pictures of the chief minister and a misquote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi, attacking religious conversion. On three occasions in 2017, Christian children travelling by train to Christian camps were taken into custody by the Railway Police in Madhya Pradesh on the grounds that they were being “kidnapped to be converted”. On May 22 and 23, at least 71 children travelling to a summer Bible camp in Nagpur were detained with their adult caretakers; on June 3, a Catholic nun and four girls were detained at Satna railway station; on October 21, two adults and seven children going for Bible studies were detained, and not even allowed to meet their parents.

The Sangh considers Islam and Christianity to be foreign religions and their practitioners wanting in loyalty to both Hinduism and India, which for them are one. But as Gandhi pointed out, Islam and Christianity are as much Indian faiths as Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Jainism. In the homes for former street girls and boys that my colleagues run, our children look forward to Christmas as they do to every festival, with equal fervour and anticipation. We tell them that Jesus was born a homeless child, yet grew to spread the message of compassion and love around the world. I am not a person of faith. But even so, Christmas and Eid are as much my festivals as Diwali, Holi and Gurpurab. I won’t allow anyone to take this away from me. I will fight for my right.

Over 80 Killed in Benue State, Nigeria in January

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that more than 80 Christians have been killed in Benue State, Nigeria by Fulani militants since January 1. These attacks have mainly taken place in two locations within the state, Logo and Guma Counties. Logo saw more than 50 deaths in just the first week of the new year by Fulani attacks, while Guma suffered more than 30.

These attacks took place less than two months after the state of Benue enacted an anti-open grazing bill, which prevents the Fulani from nomadically moving their cattle throughout all of Nigeria. Benue passed this law in an attempt to end the violence that has been plaguing its people, but it has failed thus far. In an interview with the Punch, the Secretary-General of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Usman Ngelzerma, said that the new bill is the reason for these attacks. "We don't wish for the crisis to continue but let us give it (the law) another look. We don't like the killings; we will never condone the killing of people. Give the farmers their rights, but consider the pastoralists too."

However, even those who were not from the area, but who were just trying to help others escape, were at the mercy of the Fulani attackers. A local from Makurdi, named Vershima, stated that he "had been called upon by some of the people fleeing Guma to come help convey them to Makurdi on Wednesday, January 3. I obliged. On our way out of Guma at about 7:00 p.m., we were ambushed by a company of armed Fulani herdsmen who opened fire on us, killing three of the people I was conveying and injuring me." Vershima was shot in the chest and left for dead by the Fulani, who accosted him and his vehicle.

Many of these people even know each other. Peter, a local cattle guard, said, "[The people who attacked me] were people I had interfaced with in that community. I got up and called them by their names and tried to wrestle the machete they had out of their hands, but to no avail. I was overpowered and they began to cut me." However, this relationship did him no good. He has been in the hospital recovering from his wounds ever since.

ICC's Regional Manager, Nathan Johnson, stated, "This ongoing crisis is devastating the Christian communities of Nigeria. They are unfairly being targeted for their land and faith. The government must do more to ensure the community's safety, property, and welfare. They must put an end to the Fulani scourge and hold those in charge of these attacks accountable."

Pastor Found Dead in Tamil Nadu, India

The body of a pastor in southern India was found hung from the thatched roof of his house early Saturday morning (Jan. 20), a week after he complained to police about opposition from Hindu extremists, sources said.

Congregation members said they found the body of pastor Gideon Periyaswamy of Maknayeem Church hanging from a rope in his one-room house beside the church building in Adayachery village, Kanchipuram District, but that his knees were bent stiff, as if others had placed him in the noose after his death. He was 43.

A convert from Hinduism 25 years ago, Pastor Periyaswamy was single and served as pastor in Adayachery for more than 12 years, his close friend, pastor Azariah Reuben, told Morning Star News.

“The local Hindus were not happy with growing Christianity,” Pastor Reuben said. “They had several times tried to stop the ministry.”

At pastors’ meetings and on other occasions, Pastor Periyaswamy spoke of Hindu hostilities to his church services and requested prayer, he said. Pastor Reuben said that Pastor Periyaswamy once remarked, “I have no problem – if needed, if the Lord permits it, I would die as martyr for Christ, but the ministry should not stop.” A deputy superintendent of police identified only as Rajendiran told Morning Star News that a week before his death, Pastor Periyaswamy had filed a complaint with police “on some village people troubling him.” “Our investigation was underway, and now we found him dead,” Rajendiran said. A congregation member identified only as Indira said that the previous Sunday (Jan. 14), Hindu extremists were upset about a car sitting outside the area designated for church parking.

“They pelted stones at the car, and the pastor made an announcement requesting the church members to park their vehicles within the church premises only,” she said. For the past six months, the local hard-line Hindus have harassed the pastor every Sunday, Indira said.

“When they see the pastor, they laugh, giggle and crack humiliating jokes at him,” she said. “They would always look for something to pick a fight over. But pastor told us, ‘We should be at peace with our neighbors – let’s not give them a reason to fight.” Last year local Hindu extremists kicked and beat him, Regina said. She and Indira found the pastor’s body. “On Friday night [Jan. 19], our pastor visited the church families,” Regina said. “He told me and other sisters that there will be a fasting prayer on Saturday morning at 10 a.m., so please come early and clean the church hall.” When they arrived on Saturday morning at 5 a.m. to clean the church building, they were surprised to find the pastor’s room bolted shut.

“We opened the door and were shocked to find Pastor Gideon Periyaswamy hanged,” Regina said. “A rope was fastened to the roof and tied to pastor’s neck, but his knees were slumped towards the ground. When the police came to unhang the pastor’s body, we saw a cut in his neck area. There was blood clotted.” Police initially refused to file a complaint from congregation members, sources said. After church members and pastors from neighboring villages blocked a road in protest, his body was transported to Chengalpattu Government Hospital, where it has been placed in the hospital mortuary, Pastor Reuben told Morning Star News. The Vanniyar community and other upper castes in Adayachery hate the lower caste of the pastor and his congregation, said pastor Immanuel Prabhakaran, who worked with the deceased leader of the church, which belongs to the Synod of Pentecostal Churches. “They threatened the pastor, ‘How dare you set up a church in our locality? This area is of upper castes. Stop running church here. Stop inviting schedule castes to our area. You leave this village else we will make life difficult for you,’” Pastor Prabhakaran told Morning Star News.

Church members suspect Vanniyar and village leaders were behind the killing of the pastor. “These people had cut the church’s water supply by disconnecting the pipeline,” said one church member. Originally Pastor Periyaswamy had led the congregation as a house church, and before the current structure was built, they met in a shed. In 2016, area Hindu nationalists demolished the shed, church members told Morning Star News. “We filed a complaint at Kalapakkam police station, but no action was taken,” one member said.

Pastor Periyaswamy’s cousin, Shiv Shankar, told Morning Star News that Pastor Periyaswamy was involved in many charity activities and led a simple life. “We come from a Hindu family, and he was the first to convert to Christianity at the age of 18,” Shankar said. “He boldly professed his faith. I can never think my cousin would commit suicide. He was murdered.”

Two weeks ago, he invited all relatives to the church’s anniversary celebrations, he said. “He was elated. My other cousin and her husband, Gideon’s sister and brother-in-law, gifted him a gold ring,” Shankar said. “He refused, but they forced him to accept. He did. Even that ring is missing.” Nehemiah Christie, director of legislations and regulations for the Synod of Pentecostal Churches, urged police officials and government to conduct a fair investigation.“There is urgent need for an autopsy in the presence of a judicial magistrate,” Christie told Morning Star News. “Pastor Gideon Periyaswamy’s death can’t be ruled out as suicide.”

The deputy inspector general of police of Kanchipuram Range, identified only as Thenmozhi, told Morning Star News that officers would carry out a fair investigation. “There is no doubt in that – we will ensure a fair investigation,” Thenmozhi said. “If there is any troublemaker involved, we are looking at all angles regarding this. We ensure fair investigation. The post-mortem begins once the enquiry starts. Let the family and relatives come out with the facts they have; once we are given the witnesses statements and some supportive material, we will ensure post-mortem.”

Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, the hostile tone of his National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians, religious rights advocates say. India ranked 11th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15th the previous year, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt.

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  20:6   The spirit which makes one  proclaim his own goodness

Lifted her voice and wept

This week’s  Bible reading and reflection corrected my understanding about Hagar who comes in Genesis. Let me share. 

Hagar never prayed to any God while she was in the wilderness.. It is said, “She  lifted up her voice and wept” 21:16

“And God heard the voice of the boy” Gen 21:17

Hagar,  a lady forsaken by everybody, driven away by the father of the child of whom she bore to him, lifted up her voice and wept. At the same time, her child, who was also forsaken by his father, given up to  death by his mother,  cried. It is not mentioned in the Bible,  to whom both of them  cried. There was nobody in the wilderness to hear their cry. But the Almighty God, creator of all human beings, heard the cry of the  child who was forsaken by everybody, even by his father and mother.  God heard the boy’s voice. Every cry which rises from the earth is heard in heaven by the heavenly Father, because He is the Father of all human beings. He is obliged to answer.

Immediately He answered.

Hagar is given a promise directly by God, not through any prophet or mediator. She didn’t have any either since she did not belong to any religion. She received promises directly from God for thousands of generations of  her son. I could not believe for a moment the fact that, being a pagan, who has not accepted the Lord God, received the blessings for generations.  We, readers of the Bible have to be enlightened about so many truths which are  hidden in between the verses of the Bible.

Media Continues To Ignore Worldwide Christian Persecution

While Christianity traces its birthplace to the Middle East, that region has been arguably the most hostile area for the religion in recent years. A new report by the Christian charity group Open Doors has found that most of Israel's neighbors, including Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the Palestinian territories, are among the world's most dangerous places for Christians.

Susan Michael, U.S. director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), told JNS that "Islamic extremism originated in the Middle East and is the main cause of persecution of Christians in the world today. It is a dangerous and violent ideology that must be stopped."

Egypt

Egypt's embattled Christian minority, which comprises roughly 10 percent of the country's population and stands as the largest Christian community in the region, has been the frequent target of Islamic terrorism. Coptic churches in Alexandria and Tanta were struck by suicide bombers last April, killing 45 people on Palm Sunday. Last December, at least eight Christians were killed in a terror attack on a Coptic church south of Cairo.

According to the Open Doors report, Egyptian Christians suffer in "various ways" such as pressure on Christian converts to return to Islam, severe restrictions on building places of worship and congregating, and violence.  "Egyptian Christians have had significant attacks and pressure from extremist elements seeking to impose sharia standards on minority faiths, as well as from ISIS factions that want to use Christians as a useful target to undermine the Egyptian government and economy," David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, told JNS. He added that the report "shows that people who want to make a decision to explore or practice the Christian faith face great cultural pressure, if not violence."

Adel Guindy, the former president of Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based human rights organization that promotes equality for Coptic Christians in Egypt, told JNS that the situation for the Copts has worsened considerably under President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi--despite his rhetoric in support of Christians and against radical Islam--and has reached "an all-time high."

"El-Sisi is quick to blame it on 'external forces,' [but] it is in fact homegrown. It's a direct result of a permeating hate culture that dominates the entire public space," Guindy said.

"Furthermore, the 'big violence' events that attract international media's attention are in fact a mere tip of an iceberg of systemic and systematic discrimination and persecution that amount to a state-sanctioned 'war of attrition,'" he said.

The rest of the Middle East

Elsewhere, the Open Doors report noted that Christian converts in Jordan face "a great deal of persecution, Christians in the Palestinian territories (Gaza Strip and West Bank) are "caught in the middle of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict," and that "Islamic militant groups are the clear threat" to Syrian Christians.

"The persecution of Christians in Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian territories does not necessarily come from their governments, but from their populations who have been indoctrinated with Islamic theological teachings that are hostile to non-Muslims. It will take a significant amount of years of intentional education to change that attitude," said ICEJ's Michael. The report identified North Korea as the country where Christians face the highest level of discrimination, followed by Afghanistan and Somalia. More than 3,000 Christians were killed worldwide due to their faith last year. Other Middle Eastern and North African countries that were ranked among the top 10 most dangerous places for Christians were Libya, Iraq, Iran and Yemen. 

"Whether in North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran, the Palestinian territories or elsewhere, the persecution of Christians has reached near-epidemic levels," said Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. 

"We urge world leaders and international organizations like the U.N. to bring this crisis to the top of their collective agenda and seek to protect endangered Christian minorities and all people of faith."

The persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority countries presents a stark contrast to the world's only Jewish state, where the Christian population has steadily increased in recent years to about 170,000, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics. Israeli Christians enjoy freedom of worship, and even regularly outperform their Jewish and Muslim counterparts in high school matriculation exams. 

"The Arab-Christian minority in Israel is a minority within a minority and faces some challenges, but they are citizens of a democracy that protects their freedom of speech and freedom of religion," Michael said. "This is in such contrast to the Muslim countries around them, where Christians and their places of worship are regularly attacked. 

There is a growing number of Christians voluntarily serving in the Israel Defense Forces in order to protect their country and their freedoms from the forces of Islamic militants wanting to destroy Israel."

Pence's trip

Vice President Mike Pence is slated to visit Israel, Egypt and Jordan from Jan. 19-23. According to his spokesperson, Alyssa Farah, Pence is expected "to reaffirm our commitment to work with the U.S.'s allies in the region to defeat radicalism that threatens future generations."

Coptic Solidarity's Guindy said that Pence, who is a devout evangelical Christian, should take the opportunity to press Egypt's El-Sisi on human rights and the protection of Christians.

"It's certainly important to engage Egypt as a partner in the war against Islamic terrorism. But this should not come at the expense of human rights, civil society and upholding equal citizenship rights for all--including, and especially, Christians and others who do not belong to the Sunni-Muslim majority," he said.

Michael said that Pence "should require that [countries where Christians are widely persecuted] educate their people to be peaceful and respectful of religious minorities by placing controls on their imams, school textbooks and the media; and make future U.S. financial assistance contingent upon them doing so."

The future for Mideast Christians

Guindy said that recent trends "make it difficult to predict" whether Mideast Christians can survive "the current tsunami" of persecution.

"The picture is rather gloomy, and the fact that Christians' presence in the Middle East has shrunk from one-fifth of the population a century ago to barely 3 percent today speaks volumes....Islamist pressure, coupled with the West's lack of action beyond hollow words of sympathy, make it difficult to be realistically optimistic," he said.

-By PNW Staff

Indian Pastor is Severely Beaten for Refusing to Deny Christ

When Hindu extremists in India told pastor Karma Oraon they would not stop beating him until he worshipped the monkey god, he felt Christ close to him, he said. “In those moments when they were kicking and beating me, I felt that even if I die now, the Lord will make the ministry I leave behind fruitful,” Pastor Oraon told Morning Star News. “We are just a few gathering in the name of Jesus. He is our strength.” His small flock of eight people was meditating on Scripture on Christmas Eve at 10:30 a.m. in Harmu village of Ranchi District, Jharkhand state, when twice as many Hindu nationalists brandishing wooden stick intruded, shouting, “Praise Bajrang Bali.” Bajrang Bali is another name for the popular monkey god Hanuman.
 
“They forcefully dragged me outside when we were in the middle of meditating on the Word of God,” Pastor Oraon said. “They spewed many words in extreme foul language and beat me on my chest repeatedly.” As he was dragged out by the collar, one of the Hindu extremists video-recorded the scene, also asking his accomplices to record, forward and circulate the video, sources said. The Hindu extremists repeatedly asked the pastor his name, refusing to believe him, as his name is typical of area tribal people who practice indigenous religions, not Christianity, he said. They called him an idiot, slapped him and told him to stop lying, and when he showed them his national identification card, they tore the original document to pieces, Pastor Oraon said.
 
“They slapped me and said, ‘You are Oraon? Tell us what you must do, being an Oraon? Should you should follow the Adivasi [indigenous] religion or this foreign religion?’” he told Morning Star News. “They told me, ‘Immediately you should give up Christianity and embrace Sarnaism/Sarna[indigenous religions) – if you don’t, you will be brutally murdered.” Pastor Oraon said they told the congregation, “All the Christians in this area beware! There is no place for Christianity here. All of you must embrace Sarna. If anybody goes against this rule, their houses will be set on fire and they will be killed along with their families.” They kicked him and expelled him from the village, he said.
 
Chotu Munda, 21, said he was beaten when he tried rescue the 34-year-old pastor and female church members who had also tried to separate the assailants from Pastor Oraon. The pastor noted, “They scolded the sisters in very vulgar language for coming to help rescue me.” That night at 10 p.m., he went to a police station, but officers refused to register a case against the assailants or even receive his complaint, he said. “I never had an experience of opposition when I preached gospel or visited families to pray for the sick. But I seek inspiration from my Lord; people have crossed every limit to humiliate Him and crucify Him, but He patiently bore their torture for my sake, for my sins,” Pastor Oraon said. “I strongly feel the presence of my Lord Jesus in all this. Had He not granted the strength to endure, I could have never overcome from what happened.”
 
Worship Anything but Christ

In a separate incident in Jharkhand state, another group of Hindu extremists beat tribal Christians while they worshipped – also reviling them for leaving their indigenous religion for Christianity. About 60 Hindu nationalists stormed into a house church on Christmas Day in Behratoli village, Ranchi District, where 16 Christians had gathered to celebrate Christmas. “They rushed inside and held me by collar – it was sudden,” said pastor Rakesh Tirkey. “They were at least 60 people, and we were just 16. They shouted at us and asked us to stop the singing.” They arrived on 25 motorcycles, slapped him and asked him his name to determine his indigenous heritage, he said. “They abused me in extreme foul language, saying, “Idiot, if you are a Tirkey, then how did you become a Christian?’” the 35-year-old father of three told Morning Star News. “They beat me with wooden sticks; the blows got heavier after they got to know that I am a Tirkey.” Initially they accused him of stealing a motorcycle, and when he showed them the ownership and insurance papers, they told him they didn’t want to see any Christians in the area, he said, adding that they snatched away his Bible, tore the pages to pieces, spit on it, kicked it, and told him, “Stop converting Adivasis – we will slash your neck off.” When they tried to light a match to set the torn Bible on fire, they were unable to ignite it, he said. Jeevan Munda, at whose house the worship service was held, was also injured in the attack. That night Pastor Tirkey went to a police station to file a report, but officers refused to accept his complaint, the pastor said.
 
“After the attack, I invited the believers to my house in Khunti District and urged them to pray in their houses,” he said. “I told we must stand firm in Christ no matter how severe the opposition.” He became a Christian eight years ago. Then an alcoholic with declining health that no doctor was able to relieve, he was healed after putting his faith in Christ, he said. “It was then I decided that the Lord has given me good health, so I will dedicate it to my Lord’s work, and as long as I live, I will serve Him,” he said. “Now I am leading a life full of joy.”
 
Endangered Religious Freedom

Pastors Oraon and Tirkey belong to the Believers Eastern Church. The Rev. Somnath Honhaga, Believers Eastern Church secretary of the Diocese of Chakradharpur, told Morning Star News that religious freedom in Jharkhand is in danger. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi took power in May 2014, the hostile tone of his National Democratic Alliance government, led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), against non-Hindus has emboldened Hindu extremists in several parts of the country to attack Christians, religious rights advocates say. The growth of Christianity in Jharkhand state has also brought increasing attacks by Hindu nationalist groups, Honhaga said. Unable to get police to register their cases, the two pastors have filed First Information Reports online, though there has been no progress in the investigations, Honhaga told Morning Star News. “The police did not make any arrests,” he said. “Instead, we have been told that since the pastors cannot identify the assailants, it is difficult to catch the culprits.”
 
Politicizing Conversion

Indigenous leaders on Dec. 24 raised black flags in parts of Jharkhand in protest of rising Christianity and “Western culture,” and Christian leaders suspect indigenous Sarna advocates supported by the Hindu extremist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were behind the attacks.The Central Sarna Committee (Kendriya Sarna Samiti) of Jharkhand state issued a press release demanding the government enforce the state’s “anti-conversion” law. The law passed last year bans forcible or fraudulent conversion, though comments by Hindu nationalists indicate they mistakenly take it to mean it bans any conversion from Hinduism. People convicted of fraudulent or forcible conversion can be punished by prison terms of up to three years in Jharkhand state, or up to four years if the person fraudulently or forcibly converted is an indigenous tribal known as Adivasi. Adivasis are entitled to government benefits. “Christian missionaries are forcefully taking away the rights of Adivasis by converting them,” the Central Sarna Committee statement read, labelling as “Westernization” people converting to Christianity. “People from other faiths representing themselves as Adivasi are rising to the positions of village president, ward members and government employees.”
 
Phulchand Tirkey, director of Sarna Samiti, demanded the government stop considering Christians as Adivasi, saying, “Christians must not be given the status of Adivasi. The Constitution of India recognizes tribal populations who are original inhabitants of a given region as Adivasi regardless of their religious beliefs, a constitutional expert who requested anonymity told Morning Star News. “There is potential threat to the Christian converts from those who believe in the deep-rooted casteism,” the source said.

During the Dec. 24 protest, Sarna activists were reported to have taken an oath to disrupt Christmas celebrations, according to local media reports. “Standing in the middle of the main road in the state capital, Ranchi, they shouted these words,” Honhaga said. “They raised slogans against Christianity.” The smaller churches were attacked, he noted. “It was a pre-planned attack by the Sarna committee supported by the RSS,” Honhaga said. “They are trying to divide the aboriginal people of this state. The Christian missionaries have played a vital role in bringing education to the Adivasis. They have reached even the remotest parts of Jharkhand, started good schools and propagated the love of God through various activities.” The Hindu nationalists cannot abide tribal people rising to higher positions, he said. “The word Adivasi means native of the region, and they want to use tribals as their vote bank by creating divisions among them,” Honhaga told Morning Star News. “If an Adivasi converts to Christianity, how can he lose the status of being an Adivasi? He is the native, and he will remain so. They have left behind the pointless beliefs and myths, idol worship and have come to the Light. Instead of encouraging their progress, they are creating rifts among them. It is pathetic.” Adivasi Christians in Jharkhand requested prayers for freedom to worship.

India ranked 11^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2018 World Watch List of countries where Christians experience the most persecution, up from 15^th the previous year, and ahead of Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Egypt.

El-Arish Copt Gunned Down by Three Gunmen Looking for Christians

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that on the evening of January 13, 2018, three armed men killed a Coptic Christian named Bassem Attala as he was returning home from work. Bassem and his family were among the hundreds of Christian families who originally fled el-Arish last year after the Islamic State killed seven Copts. Bassem and his family had returned to el-Arish in August 2017 because they could not find employment elsewhere.  According to a priest at Mar Girgis Coptic Church in el-Arish, "On Saturday evening at about 9:00 p.m., Bassem and his brother finished work in their mobile maintenance shop, closed it, and headed home. While they were on their way, they walked with their Muslim friend; three armed men then forced them at gunpoint. First, the armed men asked Bassem to show the wrist of his hand to see if he was a Christian or not. When they saw a cross tattooed on his wrist, they said to him, 'Are you Christian?' He replied, 'Yes, I'm Christian.' They then shot him in the head, instantly killing him. After killing Bassem, they asked the Muslim friend and his brother to show them their wrists. When they saw nothing tattooed, they thought they were Muslim. They then asked them to leave " Many of Egypt's Coptic Christians have a small cross tattooed on their wrist or hand, a public symbol of their faith. Additionally, Christians dress differently and often live in their own neighborhoods, further increasing their vulnerability to targeted attacks by Islamic extremists.

"The situation in el-Arish has become so dangerous after killing Bassem. There is a state of terror and panic after this incident. Those militants... want to remove Christians from el-Arish. Killing Bassem was a threatening message from them to intimidate Christians... and to say to anyone from the displaced families who are thinking of returning back to el-Arish [that] 'your fate will be the fate of Bassem when you return.' After killing Bassem, all the displaced Christian families lost hope to return back to their homes," the priest continued.   

From January to February 2017, a series of targeted murders against Christians took place in el-Arish, forcing hundreds of Christians to flee the area. Many of the displaced families have since struggled to provide for themselves. In May 2017, another Christian named Nabeel Saber Fawzi had returned to el-Arish because he was seeking to meet the physical needs of his family. He was also gunned down by militants shortly after his return.

Claire Evans, ICC's Regional Manager, said, "Nearly one year after ISIS displaced the Christians from el-Arish, extremists are once again sending a strong message that Christians are not welcome in Egypt. Bassem was singled out by the gunmen for no other reason than his faith, showing the dark intentionality of the gunmen's actions. El-Arish Christians long to return to their homes, and they have greatly struggled to make new lives elsewhere in Egypt. The authorities need to secure the safety of Christians across Egypt. Otherwise, the militants will continue in their efforts to eliminate Christianity from Egypt."

Church Closures Spur Fear of Crackdown in Algeria

Algerian Christians fear government officials may be coordinating intensified persecution against them following arrests, inspections, and church closures in recent months.

Middle East Concern and World Watch Monitor reported that police arrested three people on Dec. 19 in a cafe in Chlef after finding they had Christian literature. A newspaper hostile to Christians called it a “foiled evangelism attempt.” Although released, the three Christians could face criminal charges of proselytizing. Punishment can include fines up to 1 million dinars and five years’ imprisonment, according to the U.S. State Department. That same week, intelligence, police, religious affairs, and fire brigade authorities showed up and inspected two Protestant churches in Bejaia, a northern province, for safety compliance. The buildings host eight congregations. In southern Algeria, a provincial governor ordered a church to cease all religious activities at their facility after a decade of use. Officials there accused church leaders of failing to comply with safety regulations and obtain government permission. They were told they cannot reconvene until three months after obtaining a permit. Other churches and Christian facilities were targeted recently. The churches are all part of the L’Eglise Protestante d’Algeria. Although the Algerian Constitution allows for freedom of conscience and worship, groups must be registered, and religious services can only be held in buildings set aside exclusively for that use. Acts like insulting any religion or proselytizing a Muslim remain illegal.

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  11:2  The spirit of  pride which brings  shame 

Workman worthy of his food 

Jesus while sending His disciples for preaching, gave them a lot of instructions. The list of items not to be taken with

• Gold
• Silver
• Copper

This shows extra money or  long time savings.

Bag for the journey, sandals or staff – shows extra dresses or materials

Then He adds- The workman is worthy of his food.

The minimum need - food is guaranteed. Extra clothing, bags, sandals, staff, gold, silver, copper, luxury nothing is guaranteed.

No bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff, for the laborer deserves his food. Mat 10:10 

Wherever a missionary is sent, only his food, nothing else  is guaranteed by Jesus. If any other  need in ministry arises, the Lord provides  it.  

A sister 77 years old, was in charge of 24 hours prayer in an area. She was so sincere and faithful in doing it. She used to collect all the news about the nation from the newspaper, T.V. and prepare prayer points over that, teach others how to prophesy over them, bind the activities of satan and release the heavenly blessings over the nation and the people. Her contacts started increasing. She started doing it through a simple mobile. When the work expanded, contacts increased and she had to resort to email. Since she was not familiar with the technology, she had to approach others for it. Sometimes she had to wait patiently for others’ timings. In this process,  she  learned how to send  mail by herself. Still she had to approach others since her mobile did not have the facility. All of a sudden, one day, an unknown man came to her and gave her a gift. When she unwrapped it, to her surprise, it was a hi tech mobile with all the facilities. This gift was sent from heaven through an unknown man! How faithful our Lord is!

Duty of the soldiers of AOJ - Drive out the enemies

"Tell the Israelis that when they have crossed the Jordan River to the land of Canaan, 

they are to drive out all the inhabitants of the land and destroy all their idols and their molten images. You are to demolish all their high places,  take possession of the land, and live in it, because I've given you the land to inherit. ‘You are to divide the land among yourselves by lot according to your families. The larger the families are in number, the larger their inheritance is to be. The lesser the families are in number, the lesser their inheritance is to be. To whomever the lot falls, that inheritance goes to him. Divide it according to your ancestral tribes. (Num 33:51-54)

• Num 33:55  "But if you fail to drive out the inhabitants of the land before you, their survivors will become irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, to prick your sides and afflict you in the very land in which you'll be living. 
• Num 33:56  Then, what I had planned to do to them, I'll start to do to you." 
• Time given to them to drive out the enemies

Sis. Angelica AJ

Police foil Hindu students' bid to storm Catholic college

India(Madhya Pradesh):Right-wing group wanted to conduct religious rite in what Madhya Pradesh Christians said was an act of intimidation. Hundreds of right-wing Hindu students clashed with police in central India Jan. 4 after they tried to storm a Catholic-run college to conduct a Hindu religious rite, church sources said. Police were forced to charge about 800 students from the group Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parisahd (ABVP) when they tried to gain access to St. Mary’s College in Vidisha, in Madhya Pradesh state to conduct the Aarati, a Hindu ritual prayer hailing Bharat Mata (Mother India). “They did seek prior permission, but it was refused,” college director Father Shaju Devassy said. Student leader Ankit Garg, told ucanews.com that all they wanted to do was to promote patriotism among students. Father Devassy said the attempt to storm the college was not about prayer or patriotism, but was a symbolic attempt to impose Hindu dominance over minorities.

It challenged the constitutional right of religious and ethnic minorities to own and manage institutions to help their communities, he added. Madhya Pradesh is run by the pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party and has witnessed many incidents targeting Christians, who form less than one percent of state’s 72 million people, Christian leaders say. The state witnessed 21 violent attacks on Christians and hundreds of cases of harassment, threats and intimidation at the hands of Hindu groups from January to November 2017, according to data published by voluntary group Alliance Defending Freedom. Critics accuse the ABVP, the student wing of the BJP, of supporting the idea of making India a Hindu nation.

New Report Shows Countries Where Christian Persecution is Expected to Increase in 2018

A new report highlighting the countries where persecution and attacks on Christians is expected to increase has been released. The annual Persecution Trends Report, from the U.K.-based group Release International, said that those countries include China, India and Nigeria. In China, a “key country of concern for 2018,” Christians could face stricter restrictions. In some districts, Santa Claus and Christmas hats have already been banned. The country is expected to impose more restrictions in February, when the community country takes control over some places of worship.

"Those new rules will mean unregistered house churches will face increasingly tough measures to control their activities,” the report says. Under the regulations, anyone who organizes unapproved religious activities will be fined up to $45,000. Anyone providing a place to host those unapproved activities could face a fine up to $30,100. In 2017, 13 Chinese Christians were imprisoned for attending a Sunday service at a house church. A pastor was tortured and sentenced to 12 years in prison, and some Christians who owned devotionals were sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing the books. In Nigeria, the Fulani herdsmen, who are trying to drive Christians away, have attacked Christian villages. In India, militants believe that every Indian should be Hindu and there is pressure on the government to close Christian churches.

Christians are Killed on Christmas Eve in Burma

Government military operations in northern Burma (Myanmar) escalated in December, culminating in civilian casualties on Christmas Eve that left Christians feeling attacked in part for their faith. Offensives against rebel groups in Kachin state, where predominantly Christian, ethnic Kachin live, displaced dozens of villagers and seriously injured two civilians on Christmas Eve, local sources said. Burma army artillery fire on Dec. 24 struck a village near Laiza, headquarters of the rebel Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), seriously injuring a schoolteacher and a student, according to the local sources. Sin Gau, assistant pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention in northern Kachin state, said fighting should have halted on Christmas Eve, when many celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. “They launched attacks when Christmas approached – it happens almost every year,” Sin Gau told Morning Star News. “So, we even felt as if they deliberately did it.”

Area Christians felt the fighting disrespected their religious rights, he said. “As we are Christian, Christmas Eve is the most important thing for us, but we couldn’t fully enjoy Christmas as fighting continued,” Sin Gua said. The Burma army and KIO’s military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), have been fighting since 2011 following the breakdown of a bilateral ceasefire. Clashes also broke out on Dec. 22 and 23 between KIA and the Burma army in Mansi Township, northern Kachin state, forcing more than 100 villagers to flee their homes. They are now staying in Man Wing Gyi village tract, according to local humanitarian organizations.

Thang Zua, a Kachin refugee in Tanai township, northern Kachin state, said he was saddened as the fighting continued into Christmas Eve. “We as Christians should have had celebrated Christmas without fear, but we couldn’t fully enjoy Christmas,” Thang Zua said.The Burma army has intensified offensives on KIA military outposts in Hpa-Kant, Tanai and Mansi townships since early December. Local sources said the Burma army wanted to gain control of those areas, which are rich in natural resources such as jade and other precious gems. The fighting that escalated in early December in Kachin state has spread to Shan state, in northeastern Burma, where the Burma army reportedly also used helicopters and jets, according to rebel sources. Shelling further spread in Shan state on New Year’s Eve, forcing more than 900 local villagers in Kyaukme Township and Namhsan Township to flee, according to the Relief and Resettlement Department in Kyaukme.

KIA is one of some 20 ethnic rebel groups that have fought for self-determination, autonomy, freedom and other fundamental rights since Burma gained independence from the British in 1948. The Burmese government and ethnic rebels have been in peace talk since 2011, and eight rebel groups have signed bilateral ceasefire agreements and a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the Burmese government. More than 10 ethnic rebel groups, including the powerful KIO and ethnic Wa, Kokang and Palaung peoples, haven’t signed the agreements.

Ethnic groups believe the fighting in Kachin state is meant to pressure the KIO to sign the ceasefire agreement.  Christian ethnic minorities have long suffered in Burma, where the government has recognized the special status of Buddhism and promoted it as a means to consolidate support. Burma is about 80 percent Buddhist and 9 percent Christian. The Burma military routinely occupies churches and summons entire congregations for interrogation, according to a report the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released in December 2016. “The Tatmadaw [Burmese armed forces] occupied Chin, Naga, and Kachin areas and routinely occupied, desecrated, or destroyed places of worship, Christian crosses, and other sacred sites,” the report states. “This practice continues today in active armed conflict zones.” The military continues to perpetrate grave human rights violations with near total impunity, including sexual violence in church compounds and the torture of pastors, church workers, and ordinary civilians, according to the report, “Hidden Plight: Christian Minorities in Burma.” After more than five years of intensified conflict since Burma violated the 17-year cease-fire in 2011, many Kachin face protracted displacement and are desperate to return home, according to the report.

Warfare prayer of the soldiers of the Army of Jesus to bind and destroy the works of the devil

Let us bind and destroy the works of the devil in the name of Jesus Christ who has conquered sin, satan, curse and death on the cross

Pro  13:2  The spirit of  the  unfaithful which feeds on violence 

Fell on face

During the  preparatory works of the National Worship Centre, an officer gave me an advice,  “While arranging seating facilities, please leave some space in front for the people who love to worship the Lord prostrating, falling on their faces”. It seemed to be a good advice. So it was done.

Falling on face in Eastern culture is a sign of showing respect. It is humbling oneself and at the same time submitting  fully  to the authority of the other. While showing respect to superiors and elders,  Indians  fall on face. Our Hindu, Muslim  brethren do the same in worshipping the Lord. In Lk 5:12, we see the Jewish people having the same culture.

“One day while Jesus was in one of the cities, a man covered with leprosy saw Jesus and fell on his face, begging him, "Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean." Lk. 5:12

Jesus healed him.  "I do want to. Be clean! Instantly the leprosy left him”.  Lk. 5.13

We can fall on face  while worshipping the Lord. We seldom see Christians doing it. In the new year  we can make a decision regarding this in  worshipping  the Lord. Ample examples are there in the Bible for this. Joseph’s brothers prostrated in front of Joseph, the Israelites prostrated  when they saw the presence of the Lord in the  pillar of cloud, Ruth prostrated in front of Boaz, People with Ezra prostrated while reading the word of God,  etc… Peter when he saw the big catch, fell at the feet of Jesus prostrated. Peter received His calling then and there.

Every Christian,  in the beginning of faith life,  would have such an experience of falling at the feet of Jesus.  It is marvellous to have this experience!  Let us yearn to prostrate and worship the Lord Almighty every day ! He is  worthy to receive honour, praise reverence and worship.

Why Study Bible Prophecy In 2018?

Why study bible prophecy?

Is it really important?

And if so, how important? And aren't people who expend more than a passing moment examining bible prophecy simply uneducated crackpots and lunatics yearning for the destruction of the world?

These are just a few of the questions bombarding today's Christians when it comes to the study of bible prophecy.

That bible prophecy is irrelevant to the Gospel or a mere playground for the mentally unstable is a message we constantly receive from the media, pop culture, and many so-called church leaders. It's unfortunate, because this false image of bible prophecy has succeeded in turning many Christians away from the Gospel.

Although recent history is marked by an untold number of date setters and false prophets claiming to speak for God, this is no reason to ignore bible prophecy. Such people were never true Christians, but rather enemies of God in disguise.

So instead of relying on the words of ministers, priests, journalists, and other humans, let?s examine the primary source. Here's what the bible says about prophecy, including every verse of God's Holy Word:"All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God?s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do." 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT)

The word "all" includes bible prophecy, and that's good, considering more than 25% of the bible is fulfilled or yet to be fulfilled prophecy.

Why is so much of the bible dedicated to prophecy?

There are many reasons, but in the end, there is only one purpose: to direct the attention of the human race to Jesus Christ.

"For the essence of prophecy is to give a clear witness for Jesus." Revelation 19:10 (NLT)

Previously fulfilled prophecies lend unprecedented credibility to the bible's claim to be the Word of God, and the Messianic prophecies fulfilled by the birth, ministry, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus of Nazareth authenticate his claim to be the one true Christ.

In essence, bible prophecy is the most powerful witness to the divinity of Christ. So don't listen to those who claim that bible prophecy distracts us from the true Christian mission. Quite to the contrary, all bible prophecy points to Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus Instructs Us

Despite its many detractors, the study of bible prophecy is an essential aspect of proper Christian living. The Lord Himself expected his disciples to carefully examine the Word of God and to be prepared for His return:

"So be prepared, because you don't know what day your Lord is coming." Matthew 24:42 (NLT)

In fact, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not recognizing the signs of the times, for the religious leaders of His day had full knowledge of the prophecies of the Messiah, yet they still chose not to believe in Him.

"One day the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test Jesus' claims by asking him to show them a miraculous sign from heaven. He replied, 'You know the saying, 'Red sky at night means fair weather tomorrow, red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.' You are good at reading the weather signs in the sky, but you can't read the obvious signs of the times!'" Matthew 16:1-3 (NLT)

Jesus expected the people of His day to fully recognize and eagerly await the time of His first coming. As we patiently await His second coming, he holds our generation to the same standard of accountability.

There are many reasons for the Lord's repeated command to study bible prophecy, but three of the most significant are found below:

1) Authentication of the Bible

Bible prophecy offers the clearest indication that the bible is the verifiable Word of God.

Yet despite the millions of people who attend church and synagogue every week and the existence of countless books on the subject, most people are simply unaware of these prophecies.

They feverishly search through the writings of Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, the Koran, and countless other "sacred texts" in hope of finding a profound truth or revelation concerning the future, only to be disappointed time and again.

Somehow, the most credible source of information on future events, the Bible, escapes notice. Yet the fulfilled prophecies of the bible are backed by mountains of historical data, archaeological evidence, and the staggering mathematical probability of their occurrence merely being the result of chance

No other source of historical knowledge can make the same claims, and for good reason. No other source is the inspired Word of God.

"And do not forget the things I have done throughout history. For I am God - I alone! I am God, and there is no one else like me. Only I can tell you what is going to happen even before it happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish." Isaiah 46:9-11 (NLT)

The very definition of God includes His unique ability to see from the distant past to the distant future, from the beginning to the end. He alone can foresee world events with 100% accuracy centuries in advance.

The apostle Peter testified to this fact:

"Above all, you must understand that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophets themselves or because they wanted to prophesy. It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God." 2 Peter 1:20 (NLT)

Unlike other sacred texts that claim divine origin, the bible can point to its unprecedented track record in foreseeing future events. This is because the bible is not the product of imaginative men, but rather the testimony of prophets who were moved by the Holy Spirit to speak from God.

Fulfilled prophecy authenticates the bible, proving it to be the Word of God. For this reason alone, bible prophecy is worth every iota of our attention.

However, when it comes to spreading the Word of God, there is no greater tool of evangelism than bible prophecy.

2) Assistance in Spreading the Gospel

One of the easiest and most natural methods for spreading the Gospel is the sharing of bible prophecy.

In fact, in the early days of the Church, sharing of fulfilled bible prophecy was the primary method for spreading the Gospel. On the day of Pentecost, Peter gave a rousing speech in Jerusalem in which he cited fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies as clear proof that Jesus was the long awaited Messiah (Acts 2:14-42). This speech led to three thousand people devoting their lives to Jesus Christ.

Later in the same book, we learn the story of Philip and the Eunuch, in which Philip uses a fulfilled prophecy from the Book of Isaiah in order to explain the Gospel to an Ethiopian traveler (Acts 8:26-39). These are just two of many instances in which the early church emphasized bible prophecy as a tool for evangelism.

In one of the New Testament books which bear his name, Peter underscores the important role of bible prophecy:

"For we were not making up clever stories when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and his coming again. We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes. And he received honor and glory from God the Father when God's glorious, majestic voice called down from heaven, 'This is my beloved Son; I am fully pleased with him.'

We ourselves heard the voice when we were there with him on the holy mountain. Because of that, we have even greater confidence in the message proclaimed by the prophets. Pay close attention to what they wrote, for their words are like a light shining in a dark place - until the day Christ appears and his brilliant light shines in your hearts." 2 Peter 1:16-19 (NLT)

In Peter's words, bible prophecy is "like a light shining in a dark place."

Bible prophecy provides us with confidence in the coming glory of Christ and the necessary hope to see us through the daily rigors of life until that day appears. He further proclaims his confidence in the words of the prophets, both fulfilled and unfulfilled, because he has witnessed firsthand the authenticity of the scriptures.

Therefore, we should afford the utmost respect for the words of the prophets, and rejoice in the fact that we are able to understand their fulfillment in the life of Christ:

"This salvation was something the prophets wanted to know more about. They prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, even though they had many questions as to what it all could mean. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ?s suffering and his great glory afterward.

They wondered when and to whom all this would happen. They were told that these things would not happen during their lifetime, but many years later, during yours. And now this Good News has been announced by those who preached to you in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.? 1 Peter 1:10-12 (NLT)

The prophets yearned to know more about bible prophecy, and the Spirit of Christ was within them. Even the angels are eagerly awaiting the fulfillment of bible prophecy. If this is true, then how can we say bible prophecy is insignificant or of secondary importance?

-By PNW Staff

Gunmen Kill 16 Christians Leaving New Year"s Day Church Service in Nigeria

Unidentified gunmen shot and killed at least 16 Christians following a New Year's Day church service in Nigeria.

BBC News reported Tuesday that the attack occurred in the oil-rich region of Rivers state, which has seen heightened tensions between rival gangs. The Nigerian Independent reported that the gunmen opened fire at random early Monday morning on people leaving the church who had gone to welcome in the New Year, though there were conflicting reports on the number of casualties. At least 12 others are believed to have been hospitalized following the shootings. The public relations officer of the command, DSP Nnamdi Omoni, responded to the incident, stating, "The deputy commissioner of police in charge of operation and other tactical heads have been mobilized there to restore peace." Omoni added, "The Commissioner of Police (Ahmed Zaki) has launched a manhunt for the bandits to ensure they are arrested and prosecuted. 

"When the DCP and the teams there conclude we will know the total number of people involved." BBC noted that at first, residents in Omuku town had difficulty distinguishing the gunshots from the firework celebrations. The town is known for its violent crimes, and has seen an increase of violence this past year, with militants aiming to control a greater share of the oil-producing region. While it is not yet clear whether the attack on the church was connected to the oil conflict, Christians in Nigeria suffered violently at the hands of different groups in 2017.

Four Christians taking part in Christmas carols were killed just two days before Christmas, with another 10 critically injured. The suspects were identified as Fulani herdsmen, who've slaughtered hundreds of believers over the year. Southern Kaduna People's Union responded to the killing during Christmas, with national public relations officer Yakubu Kuzamani stating, "This has left us wondering why people who had gathered peacefully for joyful Christmas carols in their village should be gunned down for no reasons." Southern Kaduna Progressive Youth Forum National Chairman Andrew Kure called the act "barbaric, wicked, and inhuman" and one that "should be condemned by all people of good conscience." Stephen Mamza, chairman of the local Christian Association of Nigeria, said that at least 100 people were killed by the Fulani on attacks on several villages in December alone, with many others missing. Islamic terror group Boko Haram has also separately been waging a war on Christians, government officials, and Muslims who do not support it for years, seeking to drive out all followers of Jesus Christ from the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Takes Stand for Persecuted Iranian Christians

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he stands with Christians in Iran. “We stand with you, brothers and sisters,” he said. “The world stands with you.” The supportive statement comes after Iran’s foreign minister tweeted a “hypocritical” tweet days before Christmas. "A very happy and peaceful Christmas to all. May Christ's universal message of peace be embraced in the coming year,” he said. Netanyahu says, however, that the Christmas greeting is hypocritical because Iran has been ranked as one of the world’s harshest persecutors of Christians. "I wonder what the Christians jailed this month in Iran would think about that tweet," he said in a taped message posted on his Facebook and Twitter pages. In Iran, house churches are considered illegal and government security raid the churches regularly. Many of the worshippers and leaders are imprisoned, while bibles are confiscated. "Imagine praying quietly in your home, surrounded by your family—and all of the sudden, armed thugs burst in and drag you away to prison. They torture you merely for practicing your Christian faith. Welcome to Iran. Saying 'Merry Christmas' while jailing Christians in your own country is the height of hypocrisy," Netanyahu said. This is not the first time that Netanyahu has brought awareness to the persecution of Christians in Iran.

In October, he told Christian journalists to investigate Iran’s treatment of Christians. "Profile the brave Christian leaders jailed for practicing their faith. Sit with the families, the school teachers jailed for years merely for converting to Christianity... Call out the lies of President (Hassan) Rouhani, who promised in 2013 that all religions would 'feel justice' in Iran while so many Christians live there in constant terror," he said. "Some world leaders are willing to ignore this repression and seek to appease Iran, but I am not one of them," Netanyahu added. "I think that how a country treats religious minorities is a very good indicator of how it will treat its fellow citizens and its neighbors." 

Extremists Attack Egyptian Church as Worshipers Leave Mass

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that following today's conclusion of mass at Mar Mina Church in Helwan City, terrorists attacked the church as congregants were exiting to attend Sunday School. One of the attackers was wearing a suicide vest and attempted to enter the church, but was prevented by police. One of the Sunday School teachers, Ihab, shared with ICC, "Following the end of the church mass, as the congregation of the church began to leave and I began to collect the children to start Sunday School, we heard shooting outside the church. There was a situation of terror among all the people inside the yard: they all were screaming and running. The situation was terrible, the sound of the shooting was very dense and lasted more than 20 minutes. Many of the congregation who were in the church yard preparing to leave hurried inside when they heard the shooting. They hid inside the church and closed its inside door." He continued, "The situation was very terrible, it was like war against the church, the sound of the shooting was very terrifying. Those terrorists used automatic weapons."

A member of the congregation, Abanoub, added, "These terrorists arranged the attack of the church with precision. They knew everything about the church and the time of the ending the mass...One of them was wearing [a] suicide vest under his clothes and tried to enter the church while the worshippers were leaving the church to explode himself and kill many of them.

Abanoub elaborated, "First, the terrorists attacked the security men (police) who were assigned to guard the church and they exchanged fire with them. The terrorist wearing the suicide vest tried to storm the church during the exchange of fire to explode himself inside, but the police managed to shoot him and prevent him from storming the church."

During the exchange of shots between the police and terrorists, five Christians were killed and more than seven others injured. One of the security forces, a Muslim, was also killed.

Claire Evans, ICC's Regional Manager, said, "This brutal attack further demonstrates the ruthlessness with which extremists target Egypt's Christians. Thankfully, the attack was not as violent as the terrorists intended. But our hearts are heavy with the news of the lives lost during this assault. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families who lost a loved one today, and we pray for the speedy healing of all those who were injured during this terrible attack."

Indonesia: 9,000 Jailed Christians Receive Reduced Sentences

Indonesia reduced the sentences of more than 9,000 Christian prisoners on Christmas Day, according to reports. According to Jakarta Post, Indonesia’s Law and Human Rights Ministry cut down the sentences of 9,333 Christian prisoners. “Of the total, 175 inmates were freed upon receiving remissions,” a Law and Human Rights Ministry official told reporters. The changes in sentences came because of administration considerations and consideration for the type of crimes jailed for. “If an embezzler wants a remission, for instance, they must first obtain justice collaborator status,” the official said.

The length of sentence reduction received depended on how much time had already been served. Reductions varied from 15 days to a maximum of two months, with the month-long reduction mostly given to prisoners who had already served from one to three years. One of the Christians whose sentence was reduced was former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who was sentenced to two years in prison after he was falsely accused of blasphemy in 2016. The former governor was used in an edited Facebook video that showed him allegedly blaspheming the Quran, although Purnama had really issued a warning against politicians who used the Quran for political advancement. The video led to protests of Purnama and a call for punishment. A man named Buni Yani admitted to editing the video and was convicted. Meanwhile, Purnama was sentenced to jail.