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Days 1-10
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Days 11-20
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Days 21-30
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Days 31-40
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Reading for Day 35 Press here for the HOME PAGE to view some in-depth pictures Brethren Believe In Religious Freedom, Please Don’t Stand in Silence. |
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Luke 21 10) Then, ( Jesus), said to them: "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom...There will be fearful events and great signs from heaven. 12) "But before all this, they will lay hands on you and persecute you. They will deliver you to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. 13) This will result in your being witnesses to them. 14) But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. 15) For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 16) You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. 17) All men will hate you because of me. 18) But not a hair of your head will perish. 19) By standing firm you will gain life. |
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It’s 2004, and we better be aware and alert to the type of intense warfare we are involved in, in this present age, the 21st century, it’s kingdom against kingdom. In the late1960s, a priest read this particular story to me. It’s still imbedded in my memory. Here is the story: There were seven brothers who were arrested with their mother. The king tried to force them to taste pig’s flesh, which the Law forbids, by torturing them with whips and scourges. But the mother was especially admirable and worthy of honourable memory: for when she saw her seven sons slain within the space of one day, she endured it resolutely because of her hopes in the Lord. Indeed she exhorted every one of them in her own language, filled with courageous spirits; she reinforced her womanly arguments with manly courage, she said unto them, “I cannot tell how you came into my womb: for I neither gave you breath nor life, I had not the shaping of your every part. But doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the generation of man, and found out the beginning of all things, will also of his own mercy give you breath and life again, seeing that you now despise your own existence for the sake of his laws.” Now Antiochus, thinking himself despised, and suspecting it to be a reproachful speech, whilst the youngest was yet alive, did not only exhort him by words, but also assured him with oaths, that he would make him both a rich and a happy man, if he would turn from the laws of his fathers; and that also he would take him for his friend, and trust him with his affairs. But when the young man would in no case hearken unto him, the king called his mother, and exhorted her that she would counsel the young man to save his life. And when he had exhorted her with many words, she promised him that she would counsel her son. But she bowing herself toward him, laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, spoke in her country language on this manner; “O my son, have pity upon me; I carried you nine months in my womb and suckled you three years, fed you and reared you to the age you are now( and cherished you) I beseech thee, my son, look upon the heaven and the earth, and all that is therein, and consider that God made them of things that were not; and so was mankind made likewise. Do not fear this executioner, but prove yourself worthy of your brothers, and make death welcome, so that in the day of mercy I may receive you back in your brother’s company.” She had scarcely ended when the young man said to the ruler, “what are you waiting for? I will not comply with the king’s ordinance. I obey the ordinance of the Law given to our ancestors through Moses. As for you sir, who have contrived every kind of evil against the Hebrews, you will certainly not escape the hands of God.” |
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Now please read the below mentioned stories. On the 6th of November 2004, we as a family went to Westminster Chapel in London, SW1 to attend the Christian Human Rights Conference entitled, Don’t Stand in Silence. There were at least about 1000 delegates attending this conference. One of the speakers during the afternoon session was called, Peter Xu Yongze, The “ Billy Graham” of China. The founder of one of the largest Christians movements in China, aged 61 years old. He described his treatment during one of his five jail sentences, for holding a solid Christian conviction in this manner. "They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours." We noticed that the interpreter was actually crying whilst she was interpreting. "They say you can believe, but you cannot evangelize," Mr. Peter Xu said. "But that is a natural act for Christians. The bible commands us to preach the gospel." According to Mr. Xu, who has now left China and lives in the United States, it is against regulations to worship in groups. He said that one of his arresting officers even told him he could only avoid breaking the law if he prayed under the covers in bed, Peter Xu said that while he was in jail, he saw several people even being killed for their faith. "A believer was praying, so a jailer made other prisoners lift him up to the ceiling and drop him to the ground many times until he died," Mr. Xu said. But government crackdowns -- and even torture -- may not make people like Peter Xu give up their faith, "Despite all the persecution and suffering, God The Father is calling more and more people in China," said Xu. Research reports states there are an estimated 20 million,( I believe this is just a conservative figure), Chinese Christian Believers nearly twice the size of the registered church, which was re-established in 1979. |
We need to pray aggressively and bombard by petitions, e-mail and faxes to highlight the plight of over 250 million Christians worldwide who are suffering horrible persecution because of their Faith in Christ Jesus.
We also did meet Mr. Godfrey Yogarajah from Sri Lanka, he is the General Secretary of the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. He has a Godly burden to renew his beloved country Sri Lanka, through missions and evangelism, paying a particular attention to human rights, addressing the social concerns and to raise up the economic prosperity of the country. He also told the gathered audience that in Sri Lanka about 60 Christian churches have been burnt down. Can we imagine what the consequences would have been and how the English Media would have covered the story if 60 Christian churches were burnt in the United Kingdom?
March 23, 2004
Please take note that Pressure, Protest, Sending Faxes, Despatching E-Mails does Work, Brethren, Be Encouraged.
We thank God that the Chinese Government has succumbed to intense International pressure, for the authorities recently released a prominent house church leader, Xu "Deborah" Yongling, who is 58 years old. She was released last Monday and is under house arrest for an indefinite period of time. The United States, State Department officials discussed her case to the Chinese government recently.
Deborah Yongling was asleep at the home of a church member in Nanyang, located in Henan Province, China when police raided the home and detained her on Jan. 25. Deborah Yongling is the sister of prominent house-church leader Peter Xu Yongze. Peter now lives in the United States. Deborah has been arrested many times in the past for her Christian faith.
Thank God for this news, coming in from the Islamic Republic of Iran
Glory Be To God for this further wonderful news. This speaks of definite intervention of God The Holy Ghost. An Islamic court has acquitted an Assemblies of God lay pastor on apostasy and proselytizing charges. During a court hearing last Saturday in Bandar-i Bushehr, a judge reportedly declared he was acquitting Hamid Pourmand because he had "done nothing wrong" based on Islamic law. Hamid Pourmand had faced execution by hanging under Muslim law for leaving the faith for Christianity 25 years ago. The judge apparently told him that he does not know him and has never heard of Hamid Pourmand and than the judge added these precious words, but the, “ world seems to know you well.” Thank God for all your prayers, faxes, e-mails and letters.
Please continue to pray. Despite the acquittal, the pastor remains imprisoned, serving out a three-year jail sentence for a separate military court conviction also linked to his religious conversion. For he has been accused of "deceiving the Iranian armed forces" by not reporting his conversion to Christianity. Despite clear-cut evidence to the contrary, he was ruled guilty, dishonourably discharged and handed down the maximum three-year prison sentence for his "crime."
For the past nine months, he has been subjected to repeated pressures to deny his Christian faith and return to Islam in order to escape execution for apostasy, as required under the theocratic laws of Iran. Please do remember Pastor Pourmand and his wife Arlet, who is an Assyrian Christian. They have two teenage sons, Immanuel and David.
27th January - is marked as 'Holocaust Memorial Day' -
( Even today in the year 2009 this memorial day is still a very sad day for me.)
This is surely a solemn day when we recall those dark years in the 1930s and 1940s when the precious Jewish Diaspora were persecuted, assassinated, tortured and massacred in vast numbers. Whenever the Jewish Rabbis sing aloud the very sad lamentations to remind the world of this horrible holocaust, our tears are unstoppable.
May God The Father have mercy on us all!
Read the comments of a Prisoner of Conscience
Pen mightier than the sword
The Experience one man who languished in prison until someone from a far away country organised a letter writing campaign.
When the first 200 letters came, the guards gave me back my clothes.
When the next 200 letters came, the Prison Director came to see me.
The letters kept arriving and the President was informed.
The letters still kept arriving. The President called the prison and told them to let me go.