Inter-Varsity Fellowship - A Crisis is a new Opportunity

Inter-Varsity Fellowship is going to develop new styles of ministry in universities that prohibit Christian groups from meeting on campus locations in California. This crisis is a new Opportunity. Apparently, there is no room in USC administration for faith based groups, but this may open up new doors for campus-style ministries.

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Countless wars in Europe - 100 years of maps in three minutes

Modern technology permits us to watch the map changing year by year, since 1144 AD - countless wars, millions of soldiers lost in the endless lust for control of territory and power. Viewing this three minute "Review of European History" one wonders how it could be said that Europe has been "Christian"? Far from it, the deceitfulness of riches and the viciousness of "Christian powers" shows how far away from the words of Jesus have been the savage push to always control "more".
 View here

Turkish Minister of Culture: "Christianity is no longer a Religion"

"Fruit" comes in many forms; Jesus Christ in many languages

According to Turkish Environment and Urbanism Minister, Erdogan Bayraktar, "Christianity has ceased to be a religion and has now become a culture".

He is dismayed that "Christianity has 2.5 billion followers", with Christianity being important in India and China, and not ju
st in the United States.

Many strange statements seem to be emerging from the "New Turkey". For the rest of Minister Bayraktar's logic, concept of the world and fresh insight, read more here.

In the Land of Boko Haram: "An Ongoing Miracle for Orphans"

"Some of the seed multiplied 30 fold, others 60 and other 90."

Recently, Cathie and I had the chance to talk with two "saints of the land", and we came away from a four hour encounter with hearts a-glow.

Part of the responsibilities assumed by this African couple takes them back and forth from Nigeria. This specific story is taking place in the area where Boko Haram has declared the Northeastern Region to be an "Islamic State". This is only one of many stories we heard - (hint: you won't hear these stories on CBB, CBC or BBC.)

In one of the cities in that area (I cannot mention specifics) a kind hearted African looked around several years ago,  discovering that Christian parents had been killed in large numbers while attending worship services. (They were killed en masse while singing praises to the Lord.)

Children hid from danger and gradually more than 100 of them were gathered into a very small street.

Question Number 1: how to provide for these children when resources are so scarce, and the dangers so ever-present and compelling real?

Question Number 2: If large houses or school buildings would call too much attention to the children, then how to house the orphaned children?

A school in rural Sierra Leone, where needs are also great.

As the Lord provided through other kind-hearted persons, a number of buildings were built, providing small group homes with eight children in each house, and with an older "grandmother".

At the same time, one of the men who had been in the military in another region of Nigeria faced retirement and decided to give his life to help homeless children. He was impacted by the saying of Jesus Christ: "Do not forbid them - let the little children come to me."

How he became involved with these children and has protected them during the clashes that took place is a wonderful story - only the Lord knows all the details.

Boko Haram means (believe it or not) "Western Education is Evil".

This tiny light house in a large African city that sits in the middle of a conflict zone stands for (believe it or not) compassion extended to widows and orphans where the deepest conflict involves spiritual warfare.

This is not the place to tell more details. Suffice it to say, with the Psalmist who had many centuries earlier faced danger, " The Lord will keep you from all harm - he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore." Psalm 121:7,8

Rejoice in your hearts for this, and many other stories from this troubled part of the world. The Lord has not abandoned his people.

"Islam is Canadian and Canada is Islam" - Delic - A Bosnian Canadian Imam

Delic is no stranger to criticism. Having been shunned by the Canadian government, he has written a new book that attempts to reform Islam in Canada.

Delic writies, " When I look into the so-called Muslim world, nothing is there. Countries that claim to serve Allah as a rule lack honesty, decency, integrity, good management. But in Canada a Muslim is free to live his faith fully, not as some crooked sheikh believes his distant ancestors did, but as the modern Muslim knows he should.

"Islam is Canadian, and Canada is Muslim", he said. “One only complements the other. There is no contradiction.”

This is the thesis of his new book, Canadian Islam: Belonging and Loyalty, which is published at yet another crisis moment for the ancient global faith.

Once it was 9/11 and the resulting panic, much of it justified, over terrorism and the broader fears of extremist preachers advocating domestic attacks."

The quotation above comes from the National Post and the whole article can be read here.

Zijad Delic sees himself as a reformer of Islam, not a "radical", and his writings are going to cause a lot of confusion, and people going down an erroneous path of error, if they don't understand the fundamental nature of Islam.

Some major errors exist in Delic's line of thinking. 1) He is not willing to suggest changes to any of the internal teachings / doctrine of Islam; 2) He trys the substitute the "Five Pillars of Islam" with "The Four Pillars of Canadian culture"; 3) He downplays the aspect of Islam that calls perhaps 5% of the followers of this religion to follow the radical / militant / lead of terrorism. 4) Canadian culture is built upon more than four centuries of Judeo / Christian thought constantly intersecting with secularist thought, resulting in our present system of laws based upon the "Charter of Human Rights"; 5) The legal and social position of women in the home and Canadian society is one of equality, whereas in Islam the role of women must be revised, which would go against the Quran.

 

Syria and Iraq: the 1,400 year-long Decline of Christians in the Middle East

Photo courtesy of Turkish Daily News

For years, this book was "not to be sold" in Turkey. Today, a small act of protest takes place as Turkish Daily News publishes a book review.

"From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East", by William Dalrymple, (Knopf Doubleday, $13, and 512 pages) had the boldness to go where few had gone before.

 The journey taken by Dalrymple in the late 1990's took him through Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Israel and then Egypt. These were the lands where ancient Christian churches flourished. A 6th Century Byzantine Monk, John Moschos, took this same journey 1,500 years ago.  

“I wanted to do what no future generation would be able to do,” Dalrymple, a prize winning British writer, says, “To see wherever possible what Moschos had seen, to sleep in the same monasteries, to pray under the same frescoes and mosaics ... to witness what was in effect the last ebbing twilight of Byzantium.”

Dalrymple weaves together his encyclopedic knowledge of obscure early Christian heresies with his knack for ingratiating himself with their modern day descendants; the result is an elegiac masterpiece, often amusing but ultimately very sad.

William Armstrong, in Turkish Daily News, writes, "Dalrymple carried with him a volume of Moshcos’s masterpiece, “The Spiritual Meadow,” describing the eccentric monk’s own journey across the decaying Byzantine East. Moschos traveled at a time of destruction, when Byzantium was under assault from all sides and the great cities of the East Mediterranean were in fast decay; within 100 years, the Arabs would be capturing swathes of Byzantine territory under the banner of Islam.

"He sensed that he was witnessing the shattering of a fragile world, and his writings make clear the horrifying, almost apocalyptic disintegration that he witnessed around him. This crumbling 6th century landscape has obvious parallels with Dalrymple’s journey 1,400 years later, and even greater parallels today.

"As the author writes at one point: “The ever-accelerating exodus of the last Christians from the Middle East today meant that The Spiritual Meadow could be read less as a dead history book than as a prologue to an unfolding tragedy, whose final chapter is still being written.”

In Beirut, a professor at one of the city’s universities tells him that today “there is a feeling of fin de race amongst Christians all over the Middle East.”

How sad - and how true.



 

World Jewish Congress: "Why is the world silent when thousands of Christians are being killed?"

The President of the World Jewish Congress, Mr. Ronald Lauder, asks, “Why is the world silent while Christians are being slaughtered in the Middle East and Africa? The continued suffering of Christians in the Middle East and Africa due to persecution and violence is unspeakable and heart-breaking.”

Unlike most leaders, who are silent in the face of increasing persecution of Christians in many countries, Mr. Lauder has the courage to stand up for those who are persecuted because of their religious beliefs.

Read the article here.

 

750,000 begonias creat a "carpet" the size of a small city park

What do 750,000 begonias look like when spread out on the central plaza at Brussels' Grand Place?

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When an Arab man marries a Jewish bride during a war...

Ten interesting photos of a wedding celebration that cut across the divisions during the most recent war between Israel and Gaza. The police had to keep protestors away from the celebrations.

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The Spread of Orthodox Christianity - 50 photos

Orthodox church in down-town Thessalonica, Greece

The Orthodox churches make up the second largest group of Christians, after the Roman Catholic Church.

This group of churches has confronted Islam for about 1,400 years, suffering immeasurably. in the process. As fewer Christians face the unrest and declining standards of human rights in the Middle East, an increasing degree of respect is being given by Roman Catholics and Protestants to the tenacity and faithfulness of the many varieties of Orthodox Christians. (I am not including Coptic believers, or the ancient churches in Iraq, Iran and India in this short survey.)

Outside of  Orthodox churches, their "religious culture" is often not well understood. For Orthodox believers, the "church building" is a reflection of spiritual values, with a portrait of Jesus - the Creator and Redeemer - painted on the ceiling, the one who reflects God, who is the unseen Father.

My photos may be used, shared at no cost.

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