• In Nigeria alone, 300 Christians were martyred last year.

• 200,000 to 400,000 in North Korea suffer extreme brutality; 50,000 to 70,000 are held in ghastly prison camps.

• Many churches are still denied worship privileges and pastors are jailed in China, the largest population of persecuted Christians — 80 million.

• Fellow believers in India watch helplessly as churches are demolished and Christians are beaten by Hindu extremists.

However, through all of these trials, they report that there is also good news: Many are coming to Christ, in spite of or even because of persecution.

The freedom to worship is eroding, but as Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors, USA, saidThe I wrote in The Privilege of Persecution, “Trials come to test our root system, to see if we can stand up to the withering heat of the hot sun.”

Our brothers and sisters are using all their strength to stand up and share the love of Christ, even in the hottest spots on earth… but they need our prayers!

For more information about Open Doors, USA, visit their Web site at: www.OpenDoorsUSA.org

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Letter from a Birmingham Jail

As we commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we reflect on his letter that he wrote from jail, when he was unjustly imprisoned, in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 16, 1963.

…I am in Birmingham because injustice is here. Just as the prophets of the eighth century B.C. left their villages and carried their “thus saith the Lord” far beyond the boundaries of their home towns, and just as the Apostle Paul left his village of Tarsus and carried the gospel of Jesus Christ to the far corners of the Greco-Roman world, so am I compelled to carry the gospel of freedom beyond my own home town. Like Paul, I must constantly respond to the Macedonian call for aid…..

He concludes his letter by saying:

There will be the young high school and college students, the young ministers of the gospel and a host of their elders, courageously and nonviolently sitting in at lunch counters and willingly going to jail for conscience’ sake. One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters, they were in reality standing up for what is best in the American dream and for the most sacred values in our Judaeo-Christian heritage, thereby bringing our nation back to those great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the founding fathers in their formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Never before have I written so long a letter. I’m afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, is a holiday marking King’s birthday. He was born on January 15, 1929, with this year marking his 83rd birthday. The holiday is observed on the third Monday of January each year. Dr. King was a Baptist minister, and the chief spokesman for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law.

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More than 1600 children and families rescued from trafficking, forced labor slavery, illegal detention and other forms of violent oppression.

More than 100 traffickers, rapists and other criminals convicted for their crimes. Nearly 1000 members of Thailand’s hill tribes received the citizenship documentation critical to protecting them from trafficking and other violence.

More than 4000 people given help and hope by IJM aftercare. To name some of the areas of God’s victory and success!

So, as we enter 2012, there are still many more people throughout the world in need of rescue and help, as our Lord uses organizations such as IJM.

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems.

So, we thank and praise God for these victory’s in using ministries like IJM in so many ways to serve Him! Pray for their work, that our Lord would protect those who are on the front lines of confronting terror, and evil perpetrators, as well as, those who are being rescued and helped!

For more information about IJM’s mission, visit their Web site at: www.ijm.org

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The people who walked in darkness Have seen a great light; Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death, Upon them a light has shined. Isaiah 9:2

Dear Heavenly Father — As we enter another new year, may Your light shine brightly through us, each day, week, and month — throughout the entire year — so that we would be faithful witnesses for You, that many will see You illuminated and glorified! Give us the strength and courage to never hide, or conceal, Your light within us, but let it shine for all to see! We praise and honor You, thanking You for Your precious gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, our Lord! May many be drawn to Your eternal light this year. Amen.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:14 -16

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Loving Father,
Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift
and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing
which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning
make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds
with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven,
for Jesus’ sake.

Amen.

Robert Louis Stevenson (November 13, 1850 – December 3, 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

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In all that you do, ask this question: Is this pleasing to God? Or am I doing it to please me?

What you do for God will have eternal value. What you do for yourself will fade away.

As a human being, you were created to please and glorify God. You were created by Him and for Him!

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. Colossians 1:16

May Hebrews 13:20 &21 be our prayer:

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

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Unto Thee, O God, do we give thanks, unto Thee do we give thanks: for that Thy name is near Thy wondrous works declare.

We would like to thank God for you, our friends and listeners!

May we together be in thankful adoration of God, our Creator, for His provision of salvation through Christ Jesus, our Lord! May God’s Spirit continue to lead and guide us, as we seek to serve Him, to His glory and honor.

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Lift up your eyes on high, And see who has created these things, Who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, By the greatness of His might And the strength of His power; Not one is missing. Why do you say, O Jacob, And speak, O Israel: “My way is hidden from the LORD, And my just claim is passed over by my God”? Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

Here we are told to wait on the Lord who shall renew our strength. Don’t rush ahead mounting up your problems in your mind, worrying yourself in discouragement. Wait on God who knows everything about you and what you are experiencing, for “His understanding is unsearchable.”

So, don’t allow the enemy to lie to you saying, God is not interested in my particular problem and my concerns and trials are not important enough for Him to deal with. God who has numbered the stars and calls each of them by name, surely He sees and knows your struggles. God indeed, knows you by name and He knows your circumstances. He will, in His time, for His purposes that you can’t even imagine or begin to understand now, bring the understanding you need for faith and strength to get through difficult times if you will cry out ti Him. This problem or season of your life may look like a mountain filled with discouragement and despair that can easily crush you with all of its falling rocks. But it is nothing in God’s sight. Stay united with Him and His ways and He will cause you to triumph over all your enemies and concerns.

God has given you a promise – if you will wait upon Him, He will come through for you and give you increased strength!

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Ephesians 2:4 & 5: But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).

1 John 4:16, 19: And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him… We love Him, because He first loved us.

Psalm 70:4: Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee: and let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.

Matthew 22:37-40: Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

John 3:16-18: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

1Peter 5:6 & 7: Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

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“If I represent the Muslim world to you then my friends let me tell you that we are a burdened people. As Christians we have hope, but those who do not have Christ, the hope of Glory in their lives, are torn and broken. Their faith in the Holy Man is dwindling and their hungry bellies are rumbling. Their tired heads are heavy from thinking too much and their weeping has endured for a very, very, long night. When will their morning come. Our Day Star shines bright and dispels the darkness and the physical toil of this life, and we know why nature and time groans. But my friends, what about those who do not know what it is to enter and intercede in an eternal place?

What about those people? Nothing is more important than healing their souls and leading them to the only Physician who can heal their wounds – Jesus.

Please pray for us. Bombs, in fact, another one in Peshawar, went off just as I began to type this to you. Floods, hunger, malaria, dengue fever, are every where. Every time I write about this I feel like a dripping tap. But, believe me, this is no dripping — this is an outpouring of trials on our people and our lands. Pray for us to be the light of Christ in the midst of so much suffering.”

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