The Man dressed in glowing white

"Jesus is moving in these Middle East nations. Many there are disillusioned and broken and just want to know the truth. Now more than ever there is a harvest among Muslims that has not been seen in history."

So says Tyler Connell, a young American who travels to faraway countries, like countries in the Middle East, then visits American universities like Harvard, Iowa State, Clemson and the University of Georgia to tell what he has seen.

He tells the story of a young man named Daniel* who works among Syrian refugees in Jordan. One day he visited a family of eight. The father was a devout Muslim. "I'm Daniel and I'm here to tell you about Jesus," he said. The family turned almost white and looked at each other. The father was yelling.

Daniel's interpreter explained that the previous night a Man dressed in glowing white opened the door of their tent and stood in the entrance. "My name is Jesus and I am sending a man tomorrow named Daniel to tell you more about Me," He said. Then He disappeared.

When Daniel arrived at their doorway and told them his name they were undone. The whole family gave their lives to Jesus and are now planting underground churches in Jordan.

The father got a large mobile phone bill and asked his 15-year-old daughter about it. "It's because I'm telling all our relatives in Saudi Arabia about Jesus," she said.

You can see more here.

*Name changed for security reasons.
          

Muslims 'sick of Islam'

A 21-year-old Iraqi woman who escaped after being tortured and kept as a sex slave by ISIS, speaking in London, appealed for the world to "come on board" in fighting the terrorist group. ISIS were  criminals, she said, and needed to be tackled by the world community.

Nadia Murad said her mother saw ISIS fighters kill six of Nadia's brothers, then they took her mother and killed her. "I was already orphaned because I didn't have a father. All I had was my mother."

Nadia was taken as a sex slave along with 5,000 other Yazidi girls and women. "When they took me to Mosul and raped me, I forgot my mother and brothers, because what they were doing to the women was more difficult than death.

"Until now girls as young as nine are being rented and sold out. A year and a half has passed and the genocide against the Yazidis is continuous. We die every day because we see the world silent in face of our plight."

A hundred women who escaped ISIS when their mountain stronghold was attacked in 2014 are now fighting alongside Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Another 500 are waiting to be trained. "We will do whatever is asked of us," they said.

Christian Aid Mission reports that more and more Muslims in Iraq are hungry to know about Christ after witnessing the brutality of groups like ISIS. "They're just sick of Islam," said one ministry leader.
        

Lessons learned in prison

Daniel Waheli, with his wife and children, was serving as a missionary in a predominantly Muslim country in Africa. One night, six men came. Four of them had guns. They took him and put him in a small cell with a thin mattress.

He had been questioned by authorities before. He would tell them that he loved their country and he had started a successful business there. Then he noticed the writing on the wall of the cell: "Oh God, it has been more than five months. Please, help me to get out of here." He realised this might take longer than he had thought.

Work had kept him busy. Here, he had time to listen to God's voice. He prayed for hours at a time. God began to speak to his heart. He could barely keep up with all the things God told him. After they gave him his Bible back, he pulled strings from the mattress to serve as bookmarks. He looked at the places he had marked each day to remember the things God had told him. Eventually, he had more than 120 bookmarks.

He was released after almost three months. The presence and the voice of Jesus were clearer to him than ever they had been before. 

Waheli says God taught him five principles about suffering that every follower of Jesus should remember:

1.  Be ready for persecution. Suffering is promised for every person who seeks to live a holy life before God, regardless of calling (2 Tim 3:12).

2.  Rejoice in your sufferings. Suffering can help us develop character which can lead to a hope that does not disappoint (Rom 5;3 - 5).

3.  You are blessed by God in your suffering (1 Pet 4:14; Matt 5:11).

4.  Seek to "bless those who persecute you" (Rom 12:14). The power of love and forgiveness in action helps suffering Christians to bless their persecutors. Pray that God gives you eyes to see your persecutors as people who know not what they are doing and who deeply need Jesus.

5.  Suffering will help you comfort others. God often allows something to happen to you so that you can learn and "be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Cor 1:4).

God intends to build our character to help us better serve Him in love and perseverance. Waheli says his suffering induced indescribable peace, joy and hope in God and in His promises that with and through Him, we will lack nothing.

May we endure hardship with joy and perseverance.
               

Preparing for battle

If, as Barnabas Fund suggests, 2016 will be remarkable for the battle for religious freedom, what's to be done about it?

It's worth mentioning that the religious freedoms we have long enjoyed in this nation were won - and maintained - in a Christian culture. Religions who want to impose alternatives by force are no friends of freedom. And atheistic organisations who want to prevent Christians from practising their beliefs are no friends of freedom either.

John 8:36 says "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." Gal 5:1 says "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free."

(Freedom is not freedom to do as you please. That's not freedom. Freedom is freedom to do the right thing. That's freedom.)

There are two things that a Christian can do here. He can compromise, pretending that any religion will do, accepting any sort of sexual lifestyle, or believing that there is more than one way to heaven. (There isn't.) Or he can stand.

Ephesians 6 says:

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.

And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

Not just words of comfort. Not just words of encouragement. But words of detailed instruction in preparation for the battle.
           

The battle for religious freedom

Political Islam, an increasingly intolerant humanism and the development of a new civic religion will be the major battleground in 2016 for the future of religious freedom, says Christian charity Barnabas Fund. 

Political Islam in much of the world is the greatest threat in its attempts to enforce sharia law, either through the political process or through violence. Last year ISIS extended to new areas of Syria and Northern Iraq. Boko Haram spread its attacks on Christians from Nigeria to Niger and Chad.

Acer province in Indonesia began enforcing sharia; in Tanzania the government attempted to introduce sharia courts to the mainland, where Muslims are a minority. Brunei and Somalia banned the public celebration of Christmas.

Humanists have campaigned against Christian moral standards, attempting to enforce their own secular version of morality. They have tried to prevent parents from sending their  children to Christian schools, wanting children to attend entirely secular schools that reflect humanists' own belief system. They have sought to prevent schools from including any Christian aspect in Christmas celebrations.

We are seeing, says Barnabas, the emergence of a new civic religion in the West in which all beliefs and lifestyle choices are equally valid, and no one, including churches, is allowed to discriminate against them. It claims to be based on tolerance, but is in fact profoundly intolerant of anyone holding historic biblical Christian beliefs.

One of the results is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to hold public office as a teacher, social worker, judge or politician without at least nominally subscribing to a particular set of beliefs. Freedom of speech is being undermined, with attempts even being made to prosecute pastors for comments made from the pulpit deemed to be offensive to such as Muslims, as evidenced in a recent court case in Northern Ireland. 
        

Veteran Belfast preacher cleared

There's still some hope for free speech.

James McConnell, 78-year-old former senior pastor at Belfast Metropolitan Tabernacle, was yesterday found not guilty of making "grossly offensive" remarks about Islam.

District Judge Liam McNally said at the court in Belfast that while the words on which the charges were based were offensive, they did mot reach the high threshold of being "grossly offensive."

"The courts need to be very careful not to criminalise speech which, however contemptible, is no worse than offensive," he said. "It is not the task of the criminal law to censor offensive utterances."

Mr McConnell described Islam as "satanic" and "a doctrine spawned in hell" in a sermon at the church. A video of his sermon was streamed on the church website. 

He made a public apology to anyone he might have unintentionally offended, but refused to accept a caution from the police. "The police tried to shut me up and tell me what to preach," he said. "It's ridiculous."

He was charged with improper use of a public electronic communications network and causing a grossly offensive message to be sent by means of a public electronic communications network. He denied the charges. "I didn't mean to offend anyone," he said. "I believe in free speech."

Mr McConnell had a Roman Catholic priest, a Muslim cleric and an MP lined up as defence witnesses. After several  preliminary hearings, the case was eventually heard in December, but the judge reserved his judgment until yesterday.

 In a separate matter, the Government is proposing registration and inspection by Ofsted of "intensive education" in out-of-school settings for more than six hours a week. This could affect churches, Christian holiday clubs and Christian camps. 

It could involve censorship of teaching which did not agree with "British values," such as the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, sexual ethics and the sanctity of human life.

Organisations and individuals are invited to send observations to the Department for Education by post or e-mail by next Monday, January 11. You will find details at the website of Christian Concern (www.christianconcern.com).
        

The day Tass became a Christian

Taysir Abu Saada - Tass to his friends - was a Muslim. He was born in Gaza and grew up in Saudi Arabia. He hated Jews. He joined the PLO, trained as a Fatah sniper, and was Yasser Arafat's personal driver.

Seeking a better life, he moved to the United States and got a job as a waiter in a restaurant. He dreamed of poisoning Jewish customers. One customer, an American named Charlie Sharpe, was the first to say "Thank you" for taking away his empty plate. Tass decided to look after him, and the two became friends.

One day Charlie spoke about a "spiritual connection" he had, which brought him peace and wonderful blessings. For weeks Tass wondered what it might be. He decided to ask.

"Tass," said Charlie, "to have the peace I have you need to love a Jew."

"I hate these people. You know how I feel about them," said Tass.

"What do you know about Jesus Christ?" asked Charlie.

"I know Jesus - he's a prophet. As Muslims we believe in him." 

"He's more than that. He's the Son of God. He is God," said Charlie.

"No way!" said Tass, and started to leave. Charlie told him to hold on, grabbed a Bible and placed it between them.

"The minute he put the Bible between the two of us it was like something powerful just took me and threw me away from it," says Tass.

"Why did you jump?" asked Charlie.

"I can't touch that."

"Why? It's just a piece of paper."

"No, it's the word of God and it's God and the name of God is in it."

"Do you believe this is the word of God?"

"Yes."   

 Charlie began to read about Jesus from John 1. "In the beginning was the 
 Word. . ."

"When he started reading," says Tass, "I started shaking and I lost control and the next I know I'm on my knees on the floor with my hands lifted up, inviting Christ to be my Saviour. I felt like a mountain lifted off my shoulder and a joy and peace came into my heart I never experienced before." 

 "Do you know what happened?"

"No."

"You've become a Christian," said Charlie.

The next day Tass had an unusual burden to pray, and found himself praying for the Jewish people. "Oh God, bless your people Israel. Gather them to the Promised Land." He shut his mouth with his hand to stop himself.

He told his wife and children. They were converted too. They founded two ministries, Hope for Ishmael and Seeds of Hope. They opened a kindergarten in Jericho, where the children learn to be kind to each other and treat each other with love and respect. Enrolment is doubling, and there's a waiting list of over 200. 

They're planning a cultural centre and a youth centre. Young people can play games and watch soccer and basketball - an alternative to hanging about the streets, where they can be seduced by groups like Hamas.

It's amazing how the Lord Jesus continues to work in these days.
         

How to pray for ISIS

Those belonging to ISIS have sworn by Allah to rid the world of other religious groups, even at the price of their own lives, and to restore the glory of Islam as they understand it. They use rape, beheadings, shootings, crucifixions and sexual slavery as weapons against their enemies. They are prepared to fight for several generations to see their aims fulfilled.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who says Britain is in the top tier of ISIS's overseas targets, is seeking approval in Parliament for British air strikes in Syria as well as in Iraq.

Decisions are not only in the hands of politicians. If you are a Christian, there is something you can do. If we are Christians, there is something we must do. Pray. Prayer can make a difference.

Click here for an article on how to pray for ISIS, and here for a first-rate 30-day prayer programme.
       

Christianity 'Europe's only hope'

Ten days since the so-called Islamic State loosed its terror on Paris. People are still holding their own private inquests, with all their whys and wherefores.

Since 9/11, Western political leaders have been hiding their heads in the sand. They seem unable to understand Islamist jihadi ideology. Warnings from ISIS that it would flood Europe with Muslim immigrants, with ISIS operatives among them, seem to have been ignored.

After 9/11, Western leaders said "This has nothing to do with Islam." Strange, we thought, since everyone responsible for it was Muslim and did what they did precisely because they were Muslims. Then came the London bombings of 7/7. Western leaders came up with a reason that was a model of political correctness. "This has nothing to do with Islam," they said. We thought differently. After the recent Paris attacks, they said "This has nothing to do with Islam." They are wrong. This has everything to do with the violent tradition of Islam, considered every bit as valid as others consider the peaceful tradition.

Mark Durie, a Christian who is an accepted expert on Islam, says it is irresponsible and dangerous to claim that a tenacious enemy is insane and incomprehensible. To refuse to  acknowledge the ideology of ISIS and to deny its relevance is tantamount to a death wish.

"To combat this ideology," he says, "it is necessary for Europe to prove ISIS wrong on all counts. It must show strength, not weakness. It must have confidence in its cultural and spiritual identity. It must be willing to fight for its survival.

"It must show that it believes in itself enough to fight for its future. It must defend its borders. It must act like someone who intends to win in an intrinsically long war against an implacable foe."

A wave of secular humanism has swept across Europe: "I don't need God. I can manage quite well by myself." For the man in the street, when the Paris attacks came, there was surprise, for sure. There was shock, without doubt. But what seemed quite obvious was a spirit of fear: where will they strike next?  Liberal humanism - call it what you will - is a religion without a heart.
 
Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali, who resigned his post as an Anglican bishop in 2009 to become director of an organisation preparing Christians for ministry in areas where the church is being persecuted because of religious extremism and ideological secularism, suggests that only Christianity  can save Europe.

It is quite astounding, he says, that some, instead of seeing Christianity as part of the answer, take the opportunity to smear all religion by association. "The truth of the matter is that Europe needs to recover its grand narrative by which to live, by which to determine what is true, good and beneficial for its people. The nostrums of Marxism and Fascism have brought frightful suffering for its people. Now another totalitarian ideology threatens.

"A truly plural space can only be guaranteed by intrinsically Christian ideas of the dignity of the human person, respect for conscience, equality of persons and freedom not only to believe but to manifest our belief in the public space, without discrimination against or violence to those who do not share them. 

"Instant self-gratification and endless entertainment will no more contribute to contemporary European survival than they did to ancient Roman. What is needed is an ethic of service, selflessness and sacrifice for the sake of the common good. Many will recognise this as the teaching of the Galilean Master, not of any paganism, ancient or modern, nor of any ideology, secular or religious.
 . . 
"The extremists have decided what their values are and from whence they come. Have we anything to counter with? The institutions, culture, achievements and values of Europe can most readily be understood with reference to the Judaeo-Christian tradition. . . It is time to reappropriate it."

He's right.

Will there be enough active Christianity to meet the need?

One thing is certain. Western Christians need to waken up from their slumbers and become the people God called them to be.
     

Is this the end of free speech?

Extremism disruption orders (also known as EDOs), which the UK Government is to include in a counter terrorism bill in the next month or two, are a cause for real concern.

Their premier target, of course, is Islamic terrorists. But they don't stop at attempting to deal with people planning to commit murder and wanton destruction.

The orders will allow courts to take action against people considered "on the balance of probabilities" to be "preaching, inciting, or justifying hatred on the grounds of disability, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and/or transgender identity." Innocent people could be caught up. Like people who disagree with same-sex marriage, or Christian street preachers. The mere risk of "causing distress" would be enough to trigger the new powers.

One MP said EDOs would deal with racists, religious fundamentalists and homophobes. They would "in some circumstances" be applied to a teacher teaching that homosexual marriage is wrong. George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is reported to have said in a letter to a constituent that EDOs would go "beyond terrorism" and "eliminate extremism in all its forms."

In a typical Christian response, Voice for Justice UK says people who fall foul of these orders would include mild-mannered Christians who oppose same-sex marriage or gender reassignments, or who say that homosexuals unhappy with their sexuality have a right to therapy.

"How can Bible-believing Christians possibly be equated with Islamic hate-preachers inciting violent jihad?" they ask. "Christianity is a religion of love and of obedience to God - it is not part of a jihadist culture that will brook no alternative to its own value system and converts at the point of a gun.

"Mr Cameron is entirely wrong to manipulate the proposed legislation in order to ensure compliance with secular and LGBT ideology. It is not just wrong, but unnecessary. Christians are not the enemy."

This week the Christian Institute, which is well aware of the dangers, became unlikely partners with the National Secular Society and Peter Tatchell in launching Defend Free Speech - defendfreespeech.org.uk -  at the Houses of Parliament. They will challenge the Government to identify legitimate targets that are not already covered by existing law - like the Public Order Act 1986, the Terrorism Act of 2000, the Terrorism Act of 2006, the Serious Crime Act of 2007 and the Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act of 2014.

The Government has already done its best to make everyone agree with what it thinks are "British values."

The Government must not tell the church what to believe. And if it attempts to prevent someone expressing an opinion in public, we are on our way to a totalitarian state.
       

'This is genocide - and it must end'

A report presented to the House of Lords on Tuesday says Christianity is on course to disappear from Iraq, where Christians have lived for centuries, possibly within five years - unless emergency help is provided on a massively increased level.

The report, Persecuted and forgotten?, by the Roman Catholic group Aid to the Church in Need, says the church's survival in parts of Africa and the Middle East is threatened by religiously motivated ethnic cleansing by extremist Islamic groups.

Jean-Clement Jeanbart, Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Syria, writes: "My own cathedral has been bombed six times and is now unusable. My home has been hit more than 10 times.

"We are facing the rage of an extremist jihad; we may disappear soon. Truly we are 'reckoned as sheep for the slaughter.'"

The report says Christians are the world's worst persecuted faith group. Of 10 nations where persecution is extreme, persecution in nine of them has worsened in the past two years.

You can see details of the report here, and a report by Sheila Liaugminas here.

 The Pope has said that Christians in the Middle East are facing genocide - "and I stress the word genocide" - and it must end. 
            

Jewish Holocaust survivor saves Christian refugees

Publisher Lord Weidenfeld, who is Jewish, is spending a fair portion of his fortune rescuing Christian refugees from ISIS. Born in Vienna, he was fed and clothed and helped to reach Britain to escape the Nazis shortly before the Second World War by Quakers and Plymouth Brethren. "I had a debt to repay," he said.

"The primary objective," he told the Times, "is to bring the Christians to safe havens. ISIS is unprecedented in its primitive savagery compared with the more sophisticated Nazis. When it comes to pure lust for horror and sadism, they are unprecedented."

A chartered plane has already flown 150 Syrian Christians to a new life in Poland. They will be supported with living costs until they are settled. With the help of other Jewish philanthropists, Lord Weidenfeld, who is 96, hopes to have up to 2,000 Christians airlifted from war zones in the next 12 to 18 months.

Lord Weidenfeld has been criticised in certain quarters for rescuing Christians and not Muslims. To ensure Britain is taking genuine refugees and not economic migrants purely seeking a better life, Prime Minister David Cameron is taking refugees direct from refugee camps, but, in common with the UN and the EU, without reference to their religion. Christians often do not go to refugee camps for fear of intimidation by the Muslim majority, but prefer to congregate in church halls, meaning they would otherwise again miss out.
      

Few answers as chaos increases

A fair number of European countries closed their borders yesterday as Europe's "open borders" policy collapsed under the weight of thousands of migrants. Politicians warned that millions are set to follow them.

Political leaders appear to be saying what they find politically acceptable. British Prime Minister David Cameron was saying that Britain had enough immigrants. Then Britons were moved by a photograph of a dead Syrian child lying in the surf. He announced that Britain would take 20,000 immigrants over a period of five years.

Giles Fraser says we should take them all. Dig up the green belt, create new cities, turn Downton Abbeys into flats and church halls into temporary dormitories. Peter Hitchens says we can't do what we like with the country. We inherited it from our parents and grandparents, and have a duty to pass it on to our children and grandchildren. We can't just give it away to complete strangers because it makes us feel good.

Serbian police say 90 per cent of the migrants say they are Syrian, but they have no documents to prove it. Discarded documents are found in bushes yards from the border. While many have suffered the ravages of war, a good proportion are believed to be economic migrants, fleeing not war, but poverty, attracted by talk of free housing, welfare benefits and a better standard of living. Almost all are Muslim. No one knows how many of them are fanatical Islamists.

One commentator says political Islam is the cause of their problems, and it is unfair to blame the West or to project themselves on to the West. Another has a good idea: let those fleeing war in Syria migrate to Muslim countries around them, and leave Europe with its Christian heritage. There is one problem with that. Oil-rich Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain refuse to accept any migrants.

So chaos increases as the world gets darker.

A Christian minister used to say that one of the things that kept him going was the sure knowledge that he belonged to an unshakeable kingdom. Since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, says Hebrews, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall. But there's something to hold on to.
       

Pastor's 'hate crime' prosecution drags on

The "hate crime" prosecution of Belfast Metropolitan Tabernacle pastor James McConnell, who called Islam "satanic" in a sermon, drags on.

A video of the sermon was placed on the internet. Belfast Islamic Centre complained to police, and Mr McConnell was charged under the 2003 Communications Act with sending a message by means of a public electronic communications network that was "grossly offensive."

Critics say the decision to prosecute him while routinely ignoring extremist Muslim preachers showed Christians are being persecuted.

Something like a thousand people turned up to show support for Mr McConnell at his first appearance at Belfast Magistrates' Court in August. He told them: "They are spending thousands. It is ridiculous. It is absolutely stupid."

Defending solicitor Mr Joe Rice told the court: "This is one of the most bizarre and peculiar cases I have ever seen before the court. The pastor. . . did not incite hatred or encourage violence against Muslims. He expressed views about another religion, not in a personalised manner but in a generalised way. This is not the PPS's finest hour." 

The case was adjourned for four weeks.

Atheist Suzanne Breen wrote in the Belfast Telegraph: "I carry no candle for Christian fundamentalists, but there is something seriously wrong in hauling a pensioner pastor in ill health through the courts for simply expressing an opinion. In the face of a draconian response from the state, the pastor's reaction has been inspirational."

Hundreds of supporters turned up when Mr McConnell again appeared at court last week. "I will stand firm for the gospel," he told them. "I will not relent one inch. This is, I believe, a test case."

Mr Rice told the court: "We have not lost sight of a possible abuse of process application." A request for a further four-week adjournment was granted to allow the Public Prosecution Service to review the case.

So in view of talk of a possible abuse of process application and a case review, will the pastor get to testify in court? Time will tell. 
           

Christian preacher on trial for 'hate crime'

On May 18, 2014, James McConnell, pastor of Whitewell Metropolitan Tabernacle in Belfast, preached a sermon on 1 Tim 2:5: "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

"There is one God. But what God is Paul referring to?" he asked. It was not, he said, Allah, the god of the Muslims. He went on to talk about the errors of Islam. "Islam," he said. "is heathen, Islam is satanic, Islam is a doctrine spawned in hell."

A video of the sermon, like the videos of lots of sermons these days, was loaded on the internet. The Belfast Islamic Centre complained to police. Police began to investigate a possible hate crime.

McConnell issued a public apology to anyone he had unintentionally offended, but refused to accept an "informed warning" from the police. The prosecution service decided he should be charged under the 2003 Communications Act with sending, or causing to be sent, by means of a public electronic communications network, a message or other matter that was grossly offensive.

McConnell said the decision to prosecute him and not extremist Muslim preachers in Britain showed that Christians were being persecuted.

"I have no hatred in my heart for Muslims. My church funds medical care for 1,200 Muslim children in Kenya and Ethiopia. I have never hated Muslims. I have never hated anyone. The police tried to shut me up and tell me what to preach. It's ridiculous.

"I believe in freedom of speech. I defend the right of any Muslim cleric to preach against me or Christianity. I most certainly don't want any Muslim cleric prosecuted, but I find it very unfair that I'm the only preacher facing prosecution."

These facts are not new. They have been well publicised, on both sides of the Atlantic. So why do I mention them now? Because later this week is the date scheduled for Mr McConnell's first day in court.

The Crown plans to call eight witnesses for the prosecution. Mr McConnell's solicitor plans to turn it into a landmark trial with a range of political, religious and academic witnesses from across the UK to give evidence regarding freedom of speech and freedom of religion.

Hate crime or freedom of speech? It looks like being an interesting case.
       

Last, but not least

When ISIS published a video in February of men being beheaded for their faith in Christ, it was assumed that all were Coptic Christians from Egypt.

In Egypt they had no work. They had gone to Libya to find work to earn money for their families. There they were kidnapped.

Most were quickly identified from the video. But one, a black man, was not identified until later. His name was Mathew Avairga, and he was from Chad.

According to Voice of the Martyrs, Mathew was not a Christian. In common with each of the others, he was asked on camera by one of his persecutors: "Do you reject Christ?"

Having seen the quiet faith of the others, Mathew decided that he too would be a follower of Jesus. "Their God is my God," he said. Moments later, he was dead.

We are not called to witness, but to be witnesses. May each one of us be as faithful as those young men.
        

UK treatment of Christians 'unbelievable'

The British Government is being slated for its callousness towards Christians in the Middle East.

The charity Barnabas Fund has compared the way Britain has treated refugees from Syria and Iraq with the way Jewish refugees were turned back to Europe before the Second World War.

"Britain has exercised a level of callousness in terms of refugees from Syria and Iraq that is unbelievable," it says. "Given the historical connection between the UK and Northern Iraq, whose Assyrian Christians fought for Britain in two world wars and in the interim period, and given that the Iraqi Christians have suffered intensely because of Britain's illegal intervention in Iraq, the British Government has shown them scant regard, compassion or mercy."

The charity says the situation is reminiscent of the US refusal to allow entry to 907 Jewish refugees who sailed from Germany in May, 1939. Forced to return to Europe, many died in the Holocaust.

Church leaders have appealed to David Cameron for Britain to carry out its "moral responsibility" to shelter more refugees from Syria.

Andrew Carey wrote in last week's Church of England Newspaper: "last weekend 50 Syrian Christian families flew into Warsaw, having been chased out of their homes in areas of the country controlled by so-called Islamic State. The Polish and Belgium governments have been among the first in Europe to accept such significant communities en masse. The Christian relief agency, the Barnabas Fund, has indicated that a further 200 families will be settled in Poland. The agency is openly seeking further governments to offer welcome to these vulnerable, persecuted people, but Western European governments, including our own, are resisting doing what is right.

"There are many thousands of displaced Christians in the Middle East. ISIL now has a policy of destroying Christian homes, in addition to its policy of torture, slavery, rape, killing and crucifixion.

"It is a disgrace that the British government will not even consider the case for treating Christians as a particularly vulnerable group of people and offering them asylum. One day we will look back and wonder how we could have observed the attempted extermination of a whole community in the Middle East and done nothing."

Doing the right thing needs to come before political expediency. 

Refugee status is not certain for Christians facing death at the hands of Muslims in the Middle East. The criterion is contained in Statute 6B of the UN High Commission for Refugees, which requires refugees to have "a well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his race, religion, nationality or political opinion." Unfortunately the UN believes Islam is a religion of peace, and takes no account of the penalties for apostasy.

American activists claim Christians are not being allowed into the US, while Muslims, who do not suffer the same degree of religious persecution, are allowed to immigrate unimpeded.
          

Muslim thousands turn to Christ

More Muslims have come to faith in Christ in the 13 years since 9/11 than in the entire previous 14 centuries of Islamic history, according to missionaries in the Islamic world. They say many Muslims are questioning their faith.

In his book A Wind in the House of Islam,* David Garrison says we are living in the midst of the greatest turning of Muslims to Christ in history. Because converts to Christianity can face the death penalty, it is impossible to know how many new believers in Christ there are in the Islamic world, but he estimates there are currently between two and seven million.

The book, the result of two-and-a-half years of research, involved travelling more than 250,000 miles to conduct interviews with more than 1,000 people.

Whereas Muslims once came to faith in Christ one at a time, he claims to have found 69 movements - a movement is defined as a group of more than 1,000 baptised believers or 100 new churches within a Muslim community - started in the first 12 years of this century. This compares with virtually no movements of converts to Christianity in the first 12 centuries of Islam.

The converts he met included many senior religious leaders. In 2011 he met with 20 leaders from a fundamentalist Muslim people group. Nineteen of them had been baptised. Seventeen of them were imams. Three were women.

He asked why they had not left their community to form a church. One of the women said: "When God wanted to reach men, He became a man. If God had wanted to reach hyenas, He would have become a hyena. If we want to reach our own people, we've got to stay in our community to reach them." They were willing to pay the price, even if it meant death, to bring others to Christ.

The following day he met a sheikh who had led 400 other sheikhs to Christ; 300 of them had been baptised.

Lucinda Borkett-Jones, writing in Christian Today, quotes Garrison as saying that violence in Islam is not new. What is new is that when believers experience this violence they can turn to the internet or turn on the television and see the alternative: Christian evangelism in their own language. Bible translation, multimedia evengelism and the growth of international travel have facilitated the change.

One man found Christ after reading a translation of the Koran in his own language. He went on to see 33,000 people come to faith in Christ by encouraging them to read the Koran in their own language.

A group of converts in Central Asia tell each other: "If you're persecuted, just thank God you haven't been beaten; if you've been beaten, thank God you haven't been thrown into prison; if you're in prison, thank God you haven't been killed; if you've been killed, thank God that you're with Jesus in heaven."

Christians need to stop fearing Muslims, says Garrison. "This is not the day to fear, fight, hate or kill Muslims. This is the day of their salvation. If you want to be on God's side this day, be a part of what God is doing."

*A Wind in the House of Islam, by David Garrison. Monument, Colorado: WIGTake Resources, 2014.
         

Equality and diversity? Not in the NHS

Victoria Wasteney was a senior occupational health therapist in the NHS for eight years and had an exemplary record. She is also a Christian.

A Muslim colleague often initiated conversations about Victoria's faith. She willingly agreed that Victoria could pray for her when she was upset, and accepted an invitation to a church charity event.

Victoria gave her a book about a Muslim woman who had an encounter with the Christian God. The woman made a formal complaint, alleging Victoria had tried to convert her. Victoria was suspended for nine months pending an internal investigation, then given a written warning for "bullying and harassment." She also had to accept conditions designed to stop her discussing her faith with colleagues.

She took her employer to an employment tribunal partly because she felt it was an issue that needed to be discussed. The tribunal agreed with her employer.

Victoria is now waiting for an appeal.

You may think that a Christian has a right to talk about her faith. Not, apparently, in the NHS.
       

ISIS barbarism: 'Why is the church silent?'

Islamic State militants cut off women's hands and publicly flogged men in Mosul, Iraq's second largest city, for using mobile phones, allegedly a violation of sharia law. Thirteen teenage youths caught watching a football match on television were publicly machine-gunned to death.

Fifteen Iraqi women in Mosul had their faces severely disfigured by having acid poured on them after the women were caught not wearing a nijab, covering the full face apart from slits for the eyes. Five Iraqi men were executed in Mosul because their wives did not wear the nijab.

In Syria, ISIS fighters took nine villages, capturing 90 Christians. Some 3,000 fled. Judging by past actions, the men will be beheaded and the women used as sex slaves.

It was reported that the women were sobbing, and asking "Why is the West silent? Why is the church not talking about our persecution?"