Urgent Prayer for Christians of Pakistan

I received this email to day from Voice of Martyrs, Please remember in prayer our fellow persecuted brothers and sisters of Pakistan:

Dear VOM Friends,

It was just a rumor. But among the radical Muslims in Pakistan's Gojra village, a rumor was enough of an excuse to kill.
When the rumor was broadcast from the loudspeakers on the minarets of local mosques, it became fact. As part of a wedding ceremony, the loudspeaker shouted, Christians tore pages from a Quran. Then they compounded the disrespect by walking on the shredded pages.

"Defend Islam!" The loudspeaker called. Muslims answered, rampaging through a Christian section of Gojra on Aug. 1. Eight Christians were killed, including women and children. More than 100 Christian homes were burned by a mob. The mob, which was estimated to be more than 20,000 people, also burned a church.

Five Hours Without Help
Emergency personnel did not reach Gojra for more than five hours. Christians were forced to use vegetable carts to move their dead and wounded to the hospital.
Responding to an international outcry, Pakistani government officials have now said no Quran was desecrated. The government promised to help rebuild the burned homes of Christian families.

Even before the government acted, contacts of The Voice of the Martyrs were in Gojra, offering comfort to the wounded and praying with the families of the dead. They continue to aid the village, including helping with some medical expenses, offering encouragement and pressing for a forceful government response.

Pray Blasphemy Laws Are Overturned
Christians in Pakistan hope these attacks can be a turning point. They are praying to God and pressing their government to overturn unjust blasphemy laws that are often a pretext to attack Christians.
They are also asking us to pray with them. Pray for Christians in Pakistan to be bold witnesses for Christ, despite threats. Pray for those wounded and left homeless by the brutal Gojra attacks. Pray for Muslims to come to know Jesus Christ in a personal way.

Martin Quèrè

My first visit to the National Seminary of Ampitiya, I met Martin Quèrè, a renowned scholar of Church History. He was greatly respected for his work in Catholic Church of Sri Lanka. As I waited anxiously, with feeble gait and gloomy face, this French priest approached us. He pleasantly greeted us with a smile. At the introduction the Dean said, "Reverend father has two PhDs!" At that moment, swiftly and in a melancholic weak voice, Quèrè replied, "All that is useless, now I can't remember much!" I was astonished. This great man strived his whole life to gain knowledge. Now he is unable to retrieve it clearly. After our brief meeting, he retired to his old room, where he resides for about fifty years. He walked morosely; his face was tainted with a deep sadness.

 "Whence then comes wisdom? And where is the place of understanding?"  Job 28:20

How to Find a True Gem!

This story sent to me by one of my dear friend. I stated it as it is:

I MUST WARN you, reader; before you begin. These words are ancient jewels mined
from the quarry of my life. Read them only if you dare treasure them. For it would be better to
never know, than to know and not obey.
The hand which writes them is now old, wrinkled from the sun and labor. But the mind
which guides them is wise; wise from years
wise from failures
wise from heartache.
I am Asmara, merchant of fine stones.

I am a seller of stones. I travel from city to city. I buy jewels from the diggers in one land
and sell them to the buyers in another I have weathered nights on stormy waters. I have walked
days through desert heat. I have dined with kings. I have drunk with paupers. My hands have
held the finest rubies and stroked the deepest furs. But I would trade it all for the one jewel I
never knew.

It was not for lack of opportunity that I never held it. There was a chance in Madrid when
I was young. No, it was not for lack of opportunity. It was for lack of wisdom. The jewel was in
my hand, but I exchanged it for an imitation. And now I fear my days will end without my ever
knowing the beauty of the precious stone.
I have never known true love.
I have known embraces. I have seen beauty. But I have never known love.
If only I'd learned to recognize love as I have learned to recognize stones.
My father taught me about stones. He was a jewel cutter. He would seat me at a table
before a dozen emeralds. "One is true," he would tell me. "The others are false. Find the true
jewel."

I would ponder—studying one after the other. Finally I would choose. I was always
wrong."The secret, "he would say," is not on the surface of the stone; it is inside the stone. A
true jewel has a glow. Deep within the gem there is a flame. The surface can always be polished
to shine, but with time the sparkle fades. However, the stone that shines from within will never
fade."

With the years, my eyes learned to spot true stones. I am never fooled. The stones I
purchase are authentic. The gems I sell are true. I have learned to see the light within.
If only I'd learned the same about love.

But I've been foolish, dear reader, and I've been fooled.
I've spent my life in places I shouldn't have been, looking for someone with sparkling
eyes, beautiful hair, a dazzling smile, and fancy clothes. I've searched for a woman with outer
beauty, but no true value. And now I am left with emptiness.

Once I almost found her. Many years ago in Madrid, I met the daughter of a farmer. Her
ways were simple. Her love was pure. Her eyes were honest. But her looks were plain. She would
have loved me. She would have held me through every season. Within her was a glow of devotion
the like of which I've never seen since.

But I continued looking for someone whose beauty would outshine the rest.
How many times since have I longed for that farm girl's kind heart, her sweet smile, her
faithfulness? If only I'd known that true beauty is found inside, not outside. If only I'd known,
how many tears would I have saved?

I'd trade in a moment a thousand rare gems for the true heart of one who would have
loved me.

Dear reader, heed my warning. Look closely at the stones before you open your purse.
True love glows from within and grows stronger with the passage of time.
Heed my caution. Look for the purest gem. Look deep within the heart to find the greatest
beauty of all. And when you find that gem, hold onto her and never let her go.
For in her you have been granted a treasure worth far more than rubies.
Seek beauty and miss love.
But seek love and find both.

If, Just If…

"One prominent Sri Lankan clergyman D.T. Niles said, 'evangelism is one hungry beggar telling another where he can find bread!'

Just imagine a village full of beggars, whom no one knows where to find bread; therefore hundreds are dying in hunger daily.

Several miles away, there is a place where people not only have their full but they just throw fresh bread as trash, because they have so plenty.

If a person knew the existence of these two places, What would his/her response be?

Now… Just think

If the remote hungry beggars' village is a real existing remote village in Venezuela, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Somalia, China, India, Vietnam or Sri Lanka;

If the plentiful place of food is your church, here in USA;

If the bread is the living word of God, the gospel message of Jesus Christ,

and the only person who knows the existence of this two place is YOU (now you know any way)—

what would you do?

Two Ladies were sharing lunch together when one said to the other: "I don't know many Christians,but somehow I can't help regarding them as hypocrites." Said the other, "But your sister-in-law, she lives in the same house with you; surely you must acknowledge that she is a devoted Christian." "That's just it," was the laughing reply. "She has a very lovely disposition, and she devotes her life to missions and Sunday schools, but she has never said a word to me about becoming a Christian. It's only make-believe with her about souls being in danger. You need not tell me! I know that she is fond of me, but if she believed all that, don't you think she would not have said something?"

[This is a part of the application in a sermon I prepared for World Missions Class].

Oh Wretched War, Where is Thy Glory!

Yesterday I watch a movie titled 'Nanking' and my friend next door watched 'Schindler's List'. The Nanking is a documentary about the three years of Japanese occupations of China. I saw the horror of Japanese soldiers killing men, women, children, and babies, looting even the poor and senseless raping of women. It is a great unleashed of degeneracy. Why do people do such atrocities? The first month of occupation itself, they killed all the Chinese unarmed soldiers. A singel day Japanese killed 30,000 Chinese soldiers unarmed (POW) and some suspected as soldiers in civilian clothes. They tied their hands back, and shot them near a river with heavy machine guns, some Japanese men kill by just for bayonet practice. Some of the officers tested their swords by beheading hundreds—two officers competes each other to kill the first hundred by their official sword. The bayonets fixed on guns were stained with fresh blood all times. Every day soldiers come and take girls at their will, some of the girls return raped brutally and some may not.
End of the occupation they estimated 20,000 or more so women were raped and 250,000 people killed. I am glad that the war in Sri Lanka is over—no war is justifiable.

I bitterly, disgustingly hate war— I hate it!
No good come out of it; just only expose the crude depravity of a sinful man. I have seen much of the brutality by my own eyes, the ruthless massacres of youth in 1989-1990. Bodies floating on rivers, dead bodies with hand tied behind and decapitated, tortured or half burned cremations of killed in public places, smoking body parts, dried blood on the cloths of the killed. I have seen it all. I'v heard of walking, living bombs exploding themselves among the innocent civilians. Ruthless killings, hacking to death a whole village by LTTE carders—not to mentioned the killing and raping of our own military.

I remember once, I was travelling to the north via train for ministry; It was in 1993. A soldier going to his duties in the same train confess to me, seeing several times, killing 300-500 youths round up by the Sri Lankan army. They were asked to dig a long trench and kill them by hitting back to their heads—then buried half alive. Few years latter human-rights organizations found those mass-graves of hundreds killed, mostly innocent civilians. He told me terrifying stories of his friends kidnapping beautiful girls, and gang-raped, then killed on the morning. He on one night released a girl of 16, who so charming and looks like his sister, brought by his friends to rape. At the next day girl's father took him inside the shop and gave him handful of gold as gratitude. He said, he refused (ironically, soldiers carrying gold could be convicted for theft), and urged the father to send the girl away for safety; "I have never seen that girl again," he told me. I shared the gospel with him—He was a wrong man for war, too compassionate! But now, I don't know whether, he still lives or not! I hate war—even the war-movies…which remind me of the past war time of Sri Lanka and the viciousness of times I disparately wanted to forget.
Where's thy glory, oh wretched war; where is thy victorious battle cry, where is thy proud children of heroism—in sum, all thy bring is suffering, death, destruction and depravity.
NOTE: August 25, Channel 4 revealed a video footage of a extra-judicious killing by the Sri Lankan Army. I could not verify the story but it is very closely related to my story. This piece has sensitive graphics; be warned.

Is this evidence for Sri Lankan 'war crimes'?

John Piper, Bible Study, and FREE Stuff!

Go to his page: Bible Study Magazine on Piper and get free copy of his new book Finally Alive in Logos bible study software.

Pastor Assaulted in North of Sri Lanka

On July 23, a pastor of a church in Polonnaruwa district (Predominately Buddhist), North Central Province, Sri Lanka was brutally attacked by unknown assailants, according to the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. The pastor was driving home from a prayer meeting when a group of men on motorcycles called out to him. When he stopped his vehicle and rolled down his window, the assailants attacked him with knives. He was able to prevent them from slashing his neck but sustained severe arm injuries. His vehicle was also damaged. The pastor eventually fled the scene and sought help. Pray for healing for the injured pastor. Ask God to bless the ministry of Christian workers spreading the Gospel in Sri Lanka amid opposition.

from:

VOM-USA Prayer Update for July 31, 2009 Thank you for praying for persecuted Church in Sri Lanka!