IRAQ Islamist Extremists Want To Drive Out All Christians

Many believers have fled to Jordan and Lebanon or to the northern Kurdish region of Iraq.

Iraqi Kurds (Wikipedia.org)

SANTA ANA, Calif. (April 23, 2013) – Islamist extremists want Iraq to be a “Muslim only” country. As a result, Christians in Iraq remain continuous targets of violent attacks.

Each month Open Doors field workers receive sad phone calls and emails of Christian acquaintances who report attacks against the Christians near them. While most of them are part of the general violence, such as bomb attacks and mortar fire which intensified during provincial elections last Saturday, a part of the violence can be labeled as specifically targeted against Christians.

“If these attacks take place in a Christian neighborhood or a Christian village, you can assume they are targeted, especially against the Christian population of the neighborhoods and villages,” said an Open Doors field worker. “Since the fall of Saddam Hussein 10 years ago, an estimated 1,000 Christians have been killed, a relatively high number compared with percentages killed from other groups in Iraqi society.”

A Christian in Mosul was the target of two attacks in one week last March. After the first bomb exploded in his house on a Wednesday, a second one was thrown over his fence on Sunday. The Christian saw two young men running away. The second bomb, wrapped in a black bag and a women’s t-shirt, was deactivated by a military engineering team.

In early April, Adbuljabar Khidher Toza, another Christian from Mosul, wasn’t so fortunate. Armed men shot him to death in front of his house.

All these targeted attacks serve only one purpose, shares the field worker:

“We received documents and threats stating that the aim of the Islamist Insurgents is to make Iraq a ‘Muslim only’ country; they want the Christians out.”

Louis Raphael Sako, the newly-elected Chaldean Catholic patriarch of Iraq and Syria, says he is afraid of what Islamist rule would mean for Christians. “People are afraid of a kind of Islamic state as it was in the seventh century where Christians would be considered second-class citizens,” he said.

According to Open Doors’ 2013 World Watch List materials, there are only an estimated 330,000 to 350,000 Christians left in Iraq. There were more than 1.2 million Christians in the early 1990’s. Many of the believers have fled to Jordan and Lebanon or to the northern Kurdish region of Iraq. Iraq is ranked No. 4 on the list of the worst persecutors around the globe.

Sako urges Christians to stay: “We must stay. This is our history. This is our cultural heritage. When we leave, everything will leave with us.”

Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for Open Doors USA, adds that “since the start of war in Iraq 10 years ago, the situation for Christians has deteriorated each year. Christians have faced church attacks, kidnappings, threats and death for their faith. They have no faith in the government providing security for them. Please keep Iraqi Christians in your prayers. Many feel they are alone and forgotten.”

The Open Doors ministry in Iraq includes trauma counseling, biblical training for church leaders and Muslim Background Believers, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature, community development projects and working with Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) in Kurdistan.

For almost 60 years Open Doors has worked in the world's most oppressive and restrictive countries, strengthening Christians to stand strong in the face of persecution and equipping them to shine Christ's light in these places. Open Doors empowers persecuted Christians by supplying Bibles and Christian literature, training Christian leaders, facilitating social/economic projects and uniting believers in the West in prayer for Christians, who are the most persecuted religious group in the world and are oppressed in at least 60 countries. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.

Christians Evangelizing Muslims

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Evangelizing Muslims is a Calling God will Honor.

 

“Behold, a sower went forth to sow.”

(ChristiansUnite.com)

 

The Cross and the Crescent (excerpt): For all kinds of reasons, evangelizing the Islamic world presents a tough challenge. But it is no more impossible than evangelizing the Roman world was for the first disciples. The apostle Peter tells us that evangelism is the main reason for the establishment of the Church (1 Peter 2:9-10). A glance at the book of Acts will show that the early believers evangelized fearlessly (Acts 2:8, 4:20,29; 8:4, 13:1-4). Every Christian sharing in the Lord's Supper is reminded that “as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes” (1 Cor 11:26).

God never orders the impossible. When he commands the Church to evangelize to the ends the earth, He equips believers with what it takes to obey. This is why He must be obeyed without reservation. You cannot call Him “Lord,” and say “no” to Him. The Lord does not take a “no” from His followers; to call God “Lord” and then say “no” to Him is a contradiction in terms.

When the Lord orders, He empowers His people to obey.

“Who ever goes to War at his own expense?” asked Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:7. What is more, when we obey Him, He guarantees the results. He is always on the throne. Before Jesus delegated his disciples to witness for Him, He told them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). To those who obey and go, He says, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Also, remember that you are not the one doing the conversion work. You are sowing the seed of the word of God. In the parable Jesus told in Matthew 13:1-9, nobody asked the sower to check if the ground was good or thorny or stony. His job was to scatter grain. In the same way, the conversion of the heart is something only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.

Paul had no delusions about this. He asked the Corinthians, “What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you come to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building” (1 Corinthians 3:5-9).

-- Abdul Hadi

International Bible scholar,

apologist and evangelist

Special Visit (OneWithThem.com). You will meet true Christians in the Persecuted Church from around the World. Glimpse their lives each day on the "Devotional." Walk as early Christians walked with Jesus in the New Testament. Know the real church is not a building, but God's love power among people. To read, sign free for the“Devotional.”

Blessings,

Bill

North Korean Church Leaders Ask for Prayer Amid War Preparations

Underground Christians Report Ratcheting Up of Combat

Readiness.

SANTA ANA, Calif. (April 4, 2013) – North Korean church leaders are asking Christians worldwide to pray for their country amid increased war threats and combat preparation by North Korean military officials.

Prayer for beleaguered believers in North Korea is more important than ever, says Open Doors, an organization that supports persecuted Christians in 60 countries.

According to underground Christians, there is a war-like atmosphere in the country:

“We are to meet the decisive battle with a gun in one hand and a hammer in the other,” summarized a Christian leader about the message the North Korean people recently received from the “high command.”

“The military army, navy, air force troops, strategic rocket troops, the red guards and the red youth guards are already in combat mode. Urgent meetings are being held everywhere, regardless if it is day or night. At those meetings, officials make decisions on what needs to happen in case war breaks out and everyone, including women, needs to be combat ready.”

According to Open Doors sources, many cars on the roads are covered with camouflage nets. Also, soldiers are wearing hats with camouflage dried branches and carry guns. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un released a statement to his people, saying that “If war breaks out because of the actions of the U.S. and puppet South Korea’s unpardonable behavior, they will end up with a disgraceful downfall, and our people will greet a brilliant new day of reunification. The day has come to show off the power of ‘Military First’ and our great nation to the whole world.”

However, Christians and other citizens fear war and its consequences.

“Many people are in a hurry to purchase emergency food supplies and daily goods just in case. The prices of goods, including food, are skyrocketing,” tells one believer in North Korea.

North Korean Christians are grateful for their fellow believers in the West and request their urgent prayers.

“I would like to thank the many brothers and sisters around the world for their continuous love and support,” says the Christian believer. “We know that our journey will not be an easy one, but we are sure that our faith, desperate hope and passionate desire will some day bear many fruit. No matter how difficult life is for us, we never blame or complain about our circumstances. God has promised us in the Bible that if we seek His Kingdom first, all other things will be given to us as well. Please pray for us.”

Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for Open Doors USA, adds:

“Beneath the surface of the all the rhetoric of war and the possible launch of nuclear missiles are the suffering and persecution of the estimated 200,000 to 400,000 Christians in North Korea. Also, an estimated 60,000 to 80,000 Christians are in harsh political prison camps. The government has been the No. 1 persecutor of Christians for 11 years in a row, according to the Open Doors 2013 World Watch List (www.worldwatchlist.us).

“We must respond now to the Christian leaders’ request to pray for them. Pray for Kim Jong-Un; that God will work in his heart and he will pursue peace and not war. Pray for wisdom for leaders in the United States, South Korea and China. Pray for Christians who are put in even more danger due to war preparations. Pray families will find food to feed their families. Finally, pray that no matter what happens Christians will remain strong in their faith.”

For almost 60 years Open Doors has worked in the world's most oppressive and restrictive countries, strengthening Christians to stand strong in the face of persecution and equipping them to shine Christ's light in these places. Open Doors empowers persecuted Christians by supplying Bibles and Christian literature, training Christian leaders, facilitating social/economic projects and uniting believers in the West in prayer for Christians, who are the most persecuted religious group in the world and are oppressed in at least 60 countries. To partner with Open Doors USA, call toll free at 888-5-BIBLE-5 (888-524-2535) or go to our website at www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.