Li had been driving to his home in Shanxi Province and was forced to stop his car when a man who seemed to be intoxicated staggered into the road. He was then dragged into a black car which had pulled up alongside his car, tied up, blindfolded, and pinned down while three men beat him around his head and body. One man also threatened to kill Li and his family members, including his children. Li was then thrown out of the car.
Church leader Li Shuangping, a leader at Linfen church, was beaten and threatened by unknown assailants on the night of 13 August, according to reports from China Aid.
Li had been driving to his home in Shanxi Province and was forced to stop his car when a man who seemed to be intoxicated staggered into the road. He was then dragged into a black car which had pulled up alongside his car, tied up, blindfolded, and pinned down while three men beat him around his head and body. One man also threatened to kill Li and his family members, including his children. Li was then thrown out of the car.
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The religious cleric accused of damaging a Qur’an to falsify evidence in the blasphemy case of Rimsha Masih was acquitted of all charges on 17 August. The case against cleric, Khalid Jadoon Chishti, was dismissed after the court ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him. Witnesses had previously made statements alleging that he had planted burnt pages of the Qur’an in the rubbish bag used by Rimsha, before making blasphemy accusations against the girl over his mosque’s loudspeaker, inciting mob violence. The same witnesses later stated that they had been coerced by police and withdrew their statements. “You’re spinning out of control again / Your life feels like a sinking ship / You’re wondering how it came to this." The first few lines of Natalie Grant’s new single, “Hurricane,” aren’t just another set of lyrics; they tell the personal story of an inner battle Grant experienced for more than a year. “The hurricane started with the birth of my third child,” Grant told the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Already a mother of twin girls, Grant had a “surprise” pregnancy after being told she couldn’t have any more children. She loved her new baby daughter, Sadie, but found herself facing postpartum depression that pulled her into a dark and difficult season. Christians in the U.S. should support Nigerian believers with prayer and financial gifts to counter the Nigerian government's refusal to outlaw child marriage in the African country, a Southern Baptist expert on Nigerian relations said. The Nigerian government's refusal to set the legal marriage age at 18 will allow preteen Christian girls to be bought as the brides of Muslim men, automatically forcing them to convert to Islam, Adeniyi Ojutiku, a Southern Baptist working from Raleigh, N.C., to evangelize and serve Nigerians in his homeland, told Baptist Press. "We need the church to raise an altar on our [behalf], to go to God in prayer for our country Nigeria, to bring about a quick review of this law because [with] this law in place, the future is bleak for our daughters of 12 years, not to mention the one that is just 5 years old," said Ojutiku, who organized the grassroots group Lift Up Now, with an estimated 2,000 supporters in Nigeria. As reports come in of more than 40 Churches burning, hundreds of Christian homes torched and Christians being shot in the streets of Egypt, it is unconscionable for Western leaders to offer words of support for the attackers and not act to protect the innocent. We need to demand that President Barak Obama, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor Angela Merkel and other state leaders do everything in their power to protect Christians in Egypt and refrain from actions and words supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. As part of a deal brokered during the current peace talks, Israel has released twenty-six Palestinian prisoners. Most of these prisoners have committed acts of terrorism that have murdered innocent Israelis, and each has served close to 20 years in prison. The victims' families describe the act as "caving in to terror." These prisoners are the first of 104 that Israel has promised to release within the next year as part of the peace negotiations. (Ynet) Please pray for the victims' families as it is hard to witness the release of their loved ones’ killers. Pray also that those prisoners released would not return to terrorist activity. Their is great concern that continued Western support for the Muslim Brotherhood is directly responsible for the violent tactics they are now using against Coptic Christians and transitional authorities. The months following Mubarak's ouster prove that the Western cliché claiming the Muslim Brotherhood has renounced violence is unequivocally false. The transitional government moved to break up several pro-Morsi sit-ins on August 14th. Although depicted as peaceful political demonstrations by Western media, these protestors have been amassing weapons to perpetrate attacks against anti-Morsi individuals. Documentation also proves these protestors have kidnapped, tortured, and killed Egyptians merely for their political beliefs and religious affiliations. A pair of snake-handling Pentecostal preachers are getting their own reality television show. Snake Salvation is set to debut Sept. 10 on the National Geographic Channel. The series will feature Andrew Hamblin of Tabernacle Church of God in LaFollette, Tenn., and Jamie Coots of Full Gospel Tabernacle in Jesus Name church of Middlesboro, Ky. They are among a handful of believers in Appalachia who practice the so-called signs of the gospel found in Mark 16: “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” The Syrian Observation for Human Rights (SOHR) reported today that rebels linked with al-Qaeda have executed Italian Jesuit priest Fr. Paolo Dall'Oglio, 59. Fr. Dall'Oglio disappeared in the city of Raqqa, northeastern Syria, on July 29. The organization stated local activists said he was killed while being held by fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). The backlash against striving to be a “radical” follower of Jesus started earlier this year. Giving your all for Christ—including your life—goes back to the earliest Christian disciples and has been one of the marks of true faith throughout church history. “Radical” living, however, has a more specific meaning in this controversy, stoked by several articles in Christian publications. It refers to the commitment young evangelical leaders, particularly Southern Baptist pastor/author David Platt, have urged American Christians to make. In a popular series of books and teachings beginning with Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (2010), Platt has challenged American believers to forsake the comfortable, materialistic, watered-down Christianity many of us practice. In its place, he calls for the kind of sacrifice and obedience that might lead some to give up possessions, go to risky places to proclaim the gospel, maybe even suffer and die for Christ. He’s been joined by evangelical voices such as Francis Chan (Crazy Love), Kyle Idleman (Not a Fan) and others calling for a faith that looks more like the one found in the New Testament than the one commonly seen in suburban American churches. |
Walter Blackwood
Associate Pastor with The Bridge Community of Faith in Kelowna BC Canada. Archives
May 2017
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