False Allegations Raised... Again - Gospel for Asia

False Allegations Raised... Again - Gospel for Asia: 'via Blog this'

Thousands of Lives Transformed. See What's Next!

2011 was IJM’s most successful year yet! Because of your partnership,  we are celebrating: 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. That was just the beginning - get more details on 2011 victories here! There are more people waiting for rescue, so in 2012, IJM will dramatically expand the movement to end slavery in India, begin critical new projects around the world to protect children and families, and seek to rescue even more people than last year. (Learn more about what’s next.) With such big goals ahead, we will need every advocate possible this year. Do you have 3 friends who haven’t heard about IJM yet? The start of the new year is the perfect time to introduce them to this mission. Will you forward this email to three friends and ask them to check out our job openings and sign up for updates on the movement? Here’s to more freedom and rescue than ever before in 2012! Gratefully, Sean Litton Vice President, Field Operations International Justice Mission

A Quote to Ponder

Here is a great quote from The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis which I read a few years ago and now I'm enjoying once again.

"Hell is a state of mind - ye never said a truer word. And every state of mind, left to itself, every shutting up of the creature within the dungeon of its own mind - is, in the end, Hell. But Heaven is not a state of mind. Heaven is reality itself. All that is fully real is Heavenly. For all that can be shaken will be shaken and only the unshakable remains."

“I Will Not Deny Jesus”

PLEASE PRAY FOR ANONG December 01, 2011
:

Dear Friends,

The Voice of the Martyrs thanks you for your loving support and prayers for the persecuted church. Your involvement is a testimony of your faithfulness and commitment in service to our Lord.

We have recently learned of the plight of a gifted, young school teacher in a communist nation where Christians are under constant peril. "Anong" is a gentle and kind girl who is an active member of the church who cleans, prepares for worship and teaches children and youth and each year organizes a Christmas program for youth.

Anong was very pleased when the principal of the school where she teaches took notice of her hard work and told her that she was a gifted teacher with a bright future. Then, to her surprise, the principal made her a very appealing offer: the government would be willing pay to further her education and increase her salary.

The offer thrilled Anong, who struggles to care for and support her elderly parents and pay for her younger brother's college education. When Anong had to sign the papers the government officials only had one request: "If you stop being a Christian you will still work with us, you still be a teacher, we will send you to upgrade your education and we will increase your salary. If you don't stop being a Christian we will remove you from your position, you cannot work with us and we will cut off you salary, too."

Anong was shocked. She thought about her job, her parents and her younger brother studying for college. But she told our VOM contacts, "I will not deny Jesus and I will stand in the truth. Even if they don't like me or remove me from my position, that is not bad. I believe God will help me and He prepares good things for me."

VOM will stay in contact with Anong to assist with her and her family's needs that may arise from this situation. Please pray that Anong will remain firm in her faith and resolve, following the example of Paul and the apostles who said; "We ought to obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). Pray that the Lord will reward her faithfulness and supply all of her and her family's needs according to His riches in glory.

Thank you for partnering with us on behalf of our brothers and sisters who suffer for their faith in Jesus Christ.

In His service,

VOM Staff

Copyright © 2008 Be-A-Voice Network www.Be-A-Voice.net PERSECUTION.com Tell a Friend

A Quote to Ponder

"It's called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it!" - George Carlin

A Quote to Ponder

"All concepts of reality that ignore Jesus Christ are abstractions."

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Remember Christ at Christmas (with video)

 By Chad Prigmore

Many years ago, in a small town called Bethlehem; down a dusty lane, under a clear, cold and starry sky walks a tired simple man leading a donkey that carries his young wife. She sits on the donkey's back trying to be comfortable without too much fidgeting so as not to alarm her already concerned husband.

The young girls name is Mary and she is at the end of her ninth month of pregnancy. She knows with every step the donkey takes that her time to deliver draws nearer. While the anxiety of the coming birth occupies her mind, above all she has a feeling of inexplicable joy - for she knows that within a few hours, after her work is done, the world and all of mankind will never be the same again.

Mary is a woman of faith; a faith very few people down through the ages of history have fathomed. The birth of her child will be the culmination of a series of events she is wholly a part of yet may not completely understand for years to come. She has been visited by and actually spoken with the angel Gabriel. She carries a child conceived through divine intervention while she is yet a virgin. And her joy and peacefulness over the previous months has seemed to radiate from the child growing in her womb.

Mary knew before conception that her child will be a son and that his name will be Jesus. But the most wonderful knowledge Mary has of her soon to be born son is that, in the words of the angel Gabriel, "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end."

Then Gabriel told her, "...therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."

This simple, miraculous story is the beginning of Christmas.

Now the lens of history pans forward a couple thousand years to the present time. The Friday after Thanksgiving will be one of the most glaring examples of how such a beautiful divine event has been exploited in order to generate profits in a society lost to the worship of money. All over America, people will rise in the middle of the night, stand in line until the appointed time, and then push and shove each other in a frenzy to purchase unneeded items with money that many of the crazed shoppers do not even have. This is Black Friday - the saddest spectacle of the profit driven, corporate marketed, consumer addicted holiday season. For weeks until and even after December 25th, every effort will be made to bombard consumers with the temptation to Buy, Buy, Buy. The success of the Christmas holiday season will be determined by corporate balance sheets and financed by high interest credit cards.

Now what if we pan the lens forward a bit more into an imaginary future in which Christmas is once again simple and miraculous? In this future Christmas, Christ is worshiped instead of money. And those people around us who are in need experience Christmas miracles through the out-flowing of Christ's love. In this future Christmas, the forgotten reason of why Christmas exists has been re-discovered. The true spirit of Christmas - the love of Christ shared by all who love Him with those yet to know him has transformed the holiday and brought it back to it's forgotten and wondrous place.

All over the world this Christmas season millions of people who have no idea who Christ is will suffer in poverty and hunger. For thousands of homeless orphan children in poor Asian countries, Christmas morning will be just like any other morning - begging in the streets for anything that might help them survive another day. How might their lives be changed if thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people in the wealthier countries of the world came to remember what the world has forgotten about Christmas?

Christmas can be a time of joy and peace, of loving sacrifice, and an opportunity to do what Christ would have us do in celebration of his birth so many years ago.

Please take just a couple of minutes to watch this video; The Forgotten Christmas from Gospel for Asia. And please consider what you can do in the true spirit of Christmas.



Visit The Forgotten Christmas website for more information on how you can help those in need.

Also, please share with as many people as possible.

How Great the Joy!

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it's shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. - Hebrews 12:2

We cannot fathom or even begin to fully comprehend the suffering and pain Christ went through for us. Yet, consider the immensity of what Christ's joy must be - "who for the joy set before him endured the cross ..." The joy far outweighed the suffering! How great must the joy that awaits us when we join Christ be? How small our capacity to comprehend the treasure that awaits us!