Category: Christian News

Date Published: 22-03-2016 Flowers and a candle for the victims of today’s Brussels attacks, are placed on the steps of the Belgian embassy in Berlin, Germany. Christians in Brussels are praying as news of this morning’s attacks unfolds, and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel confirmed that “scores” of people have been killed or injured. Speaking to Christian Today from Brussels, Joe Szabo, senior pastor of the Christian Center, said that members of the congregation were caught up in the attacks, and that staff at the church met to pray this morning. “We do know of people from the church… who were in the airport, they were there when the explosion happened,” Szabo said. “Thankfully no one was hurt.” The church will specifically be praying for those injured in the attacks, and the families of those killed, during its Easter services, he added. “For the victims, for God to protect the city and our country.” OM Belgium, an evangelical Christian missions organisation, is located just five minutes from Zaventem Airport where two of the blasts took place. Field leader Jan Wisse said his brother-in-law was on a train following the blast at Maelbeek metro station an hour later. Wisse said his team held a prayer meeting this morning, and a number are currently helping the Red Cross. Another member has been sent to see what practical help the organisation can offer to victims who are recovering in a local sports complex. The Christian Center has been involved in responding to the refugee crisis in Brussels, where hundreds have fled from countries such as Syria and Eritrea. Already, controversial columnist Katie Hopkins has sparked outrage by blaming refugees for this morning’s attacks: Republican presidential candidate frontrunner Donald Trump – who has infamously called for a ban on Muslims entering the US – also appeared to blame refugees for the attacks. “My message to us is, we better get smart and we better get smart fast,” he said during a phone interview with Fox today. “In my opinion, this is just the beginning. It’s going to get worse and worse. Because we are lax and we are foolish. “I’ve been talking about this for a long time. Look at Brussels, Brussels was a beautiful city, a beautiful place with zero crime, and now it’s a disaster city,” he added. “It’s a total disaster. And we have to be very careful in the United States, we have to be very, very vigilant as to who we allow into this country.” Szabo said the Christian Center will continue to serve refugees in its community. “We are still believing that we are to love all people in our city. We pray for Muslims, for Christians and for the Jewish population. The bombing will not deter us from continuing to carry out our mission to share the love of God with all people,” he said. Though the church had to suspend some of its outreach to refugees today because public transportation has stopped, it did distribute food to refugees closer to its building. “As soon as the security allows us to move in”, volunteers will be heading to refugee centres in other areas of the city as usual, Szabo added. Carlton Deal, founding pastor of Brussels church The Well, said in an email to Christian Today that the Maelbeek metro station is a just a kilometre from the church’s office. “Stories of near misses are pouring in from our community: a last minute flight cancellation, an impromptu decision to walk instead of take the metro, a friend of a friend who was on the metro when the bomb exploded, but is unhurt,” he said. “All day long sirens are sounding, police and ambulance vehicles rushing to respond to needs, helicopters hovering overhead.” Belgian police and emergency personnel work near the Maalbeek metro station. Several years ago, The Well held a week of service called ‘Serve the City’, which has now grown to a movement that spreads across 100 cities around the world. One of the ways volunteers continue to serve is by helping in refugee centres in Brussels. Deal wrote in a Serve the City Facebook post today: “Let’s… be very attentive to the needs of the most vulnerable in our city and neighbourhoods in the coming days. Join our weekly projects or share with us news of ways you have been able to care for people in need. “On a day like this, we see more clearly the brokenness around us. We grieve all that is lost, but not as people who have no hope. May the events of today deepen our compassion and strengthen our resolve to cross the line.” In his email to Christian Today, Deal added: “We normally serve homeless friends and refugees tonight, but we have cancelled all activities, for the safety of our volunteers. “However, we do not view refugees in any way as the cause for the Brussels attacks. We will return to serving them absolutely as soon as possible. We care deeply for them, and see them as people who are running from the same bombs we are.” He said: “If we’re placing blame we have to look to immigrants not refugees, and, in the same breath, ask ourselves how much we have helped them to integrate into Belgian society. Third and fourth generation Muslim immigrants in Molenbeek still report feeling foreign and alienated, with few prospects for meaningful work and a successful European life. Radical imams and jihadists find them easy prey. “This is where we have to start. Live in their neighbourhood. Become their friends. Hear their stories. Feel their pain. Grieve together about all that is lost and look to Jesus, the risen Lord, our eternal hope. “Pray with us that in these challenging days, Jesus would continue to make of us a well, from which people in Brussels may drink His living water,” Deal said. “We are a community of faith and mission. We love, we serve, we believe – for such a time as this.” Islamic State has claimed…

  More people, including Muslims, are coming to Christ in Syria than ever before, as the five year anniversary of the civil war approaches, according to a persecution charity. “We’re in a big harvest. God is waking up a sleeping Church,” one pastor told Open Doors. “The Muslims coming to faith are ready to die for their new beliefs; that is a different kind of Christianity.” The war in Syria has devastated its population, with 7.6 million people internally displaced and 4.6 million refugees having fled the country. While the number of Christians officially in the country has decreased since the beginning of the war due to persecution, people – including Muslims – are still coming to faith in Jesus. “What attracted me is the loving environment of the church,” said one Syrian believer from a Muslim background living in Aleppo. In February this year a church in Damascus, Alliance Church, planted a new church close to Homs; a city once dubbed the “capital of the revolution”. While the recorded number of Christians in Syria has fallen – from 1.9 million before the war to between 600,000-900,000 now, the number of Christians secretly worshipping is unknown. New converts from Islam can face serious consequences for leaving their religion. “We [my wife and I] both became Christians,” a Syrian refugee in Lebanon told Open Doors. “My wife took her veil off, but people started to threaten us.” There are glimmers of hope on the ground in Syria. A church in Homs, alongside Open Doors, opened a furniture factory in February, which is now providing work for over thirty people and has already received orders internationally. The charity has also financed the opening of a new pharmacy, which enables people to buy medicines at a reasonable price and offers discounts for those who cannot afford them. “One of the needy women who received medicine for free burst into tears,” an Open Doors contact said. “We continue to live in Syria with hope that our country will heal from its painful outcomes. It will heal from its wounds and will regain peace soon,” said one Syrian church leader. “We, under the Lord’s grace and through his strength, have decided to stay and carry on.”

As difficult as it is to be a Christian in places where majority of the people observe Islam, Shahid (not his real name) bravely defied the odds and served the God he loves. Shahid grew up as a devout Muslim in Libya. He was taught Islamic jurisprudence and he even memorised the Quran. However, things began to change when he turned 14 years old and tried to delve deeper into the teachings of Islam. “Islam was completely exposed with its hidden reality,” Shahid shared with Leading The Way. “Little by little, I had serious concerns about Islam.” Shahid questioned his family and friends, who simply told him not to question his faith. “They told me there is a verse in the Quran that urges Muslims not to seek answers to questions about some things, as it may hurt them if they know the answers,” he said. The doubt Shahid nursed never went away, and for more than four years, he struggled with his questions. He later decided to abandon his faith and become an atheist. “I got to a point when Islam had no more part in my life, and religion ceased to exist and Muhammad meant nothing to me,” he recalled. But thanks to the Christian ministry Leading The Way’s visit to the Middle East, Shahid was introduced to Jesus Christ. Finally, Shahid’s questions about faith were answered. “I learned about who Jesus is and how to be a Christian. We studied how to live with Christ, fellowship with Him, and be part of the church,” he said, adding that he “accepted Jesus’ salvation and got baptised.” It was not enough for Shahid to know about God, because He wanted to share the Good News to others as well. He is now helping the Christian ministry spread the Gospel and baptise converts to Christianity. Shahid’s story is one that has deeply inspired Leading the Way’s founder and president Dr. Michael Youssef. “He is a free man,” Youssef said of Shahid’s testimony. “Most importantly, he is free in Christ!”

The pastor in Idaho who was shot six times in the back and suffered a collapsed lung is on his way to recovery—a development that his family described as a miracle. Pastor Tim Remington, 55, was shot at around 2 p.m. Sunday at the parking lot of the Altar Church in Coeur d’Alene by suspected gunman Kyle Odom, 30, who was arrested Tuesday outside the White House in Washington, D.C. after he threw “objects” over the fence, NBC News reported. Remington’s son Jeremiah said what happened to his dad was a miracle. “It really is, there was a bullet that lodged in his skull. It’s an angel that said, this is as far as its gonna go today,” he said, according to KHQ. Remington’s family said God is keeping him alive. “Thank you and keep praying for him,” Jeremiah said, adding that they can forgive Odom for what he did. “If God can forgive, we can forgive,” he said. Coeur d’Alene Police Chief Lee White said Odom was arrested while throwing objects, including documents and a computer flash drive, over the White House fence. The package included a manifesto that named U.S. House members and senators, and Israeli government officials. Remington was shot one day after he prayed at a rally of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz in Coeur d’Alene. Odom is a former Marine who has a history of mental issues, the police said. Remington’s condition was upgraded to fair at the Kootenai Health and Medical Center. White said Odom’s attack was “pre-planned” and that he was armed during the Sunday church service. He went to the parking lot after the service and shot the pastor. Records showed that he had three minor traffic violations dating to 2002. A resume available publicly showed Odom worked as a flight expedition technician for the Marine Corps from 2006 to 2010 in Camp Pendleton, California. He was given the Iraq Campaign Medal with one star. He graduated from the University of Idaho as a summa cum laude in biochemistry in 2014. During his college days, he was awarded a fellowship in 2013 for advanced research in aging.

An Idaho pastor was shot yesterday hours after he led a prayer rally for Ted Cruz. Tim Remington (left) bows his head while praying for Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Saturday Tim Remington was found with multiple gun wounds outside Alter Church in Coeur d’Alene, where he is pastor. The gunman had waited for Remington while he conducted his services and fled before police arrived at the church parking lot. Remington’s nephew Matthew and fellow church members said he was shot four times in the back while walking to his car. Police later identified Kyle Odom, 30, as a suspect. He is still on the run and was last seen driving away from the church in a silver Honda Accord. The attack came the day after Remington spoke at rally for Ted Cruz who is second in many polls for the Republican presidential nomination. The motive for the shooting is under investigation and it is not clear whether it was linked to Remington’s support of the Texas senator. “Our prayers are with Pastor Tim, his family, and the doctors who are supervising his care,” Cruz campaign spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told NBC News. “We pray for his full recovery and are thankful for the efforts of law enforcement to ensure the attacker is swiftly brought to justice.” “We just want to be here for everyone in our congregation. Be here for our pastor. We are going to go to the hospital and wait for the word to make sure he is okay,” said one church member according to CBS News. “He opens his home to people. He takes them in and lets them live in his home,” another church member said. “All the people society has turned their backs on, he goes out and he reaches out to them.” Remington is understood to be in a critical but stable condition.