Tag Archives: Christian

Muslim Schoolgirl Who Found Jesus Risked Life To Read Bible

While most 12-year-olds were worried about social structures at school, their social media presence or just the awkwardness of becoming a teenager, Rifqa Bary was living in constant fear.

Because this young Muslim girl had found Jesus.

Bary moved to America when she was 8-years-old from Sri Lanka after two tragic incidents.  The first, she was blinded in one eye accidentally by her brother.  The second, she was intimately abused by a family member.  Eventually, the family made their way to Ohio.

She said that she was immediately faced with a life of shame because in Muslim culture victims are shamed.

“In our culture in America, when someone is abused it is the one that is abusing that is punished and there are consequences. Yet, in my Islamic culture, the victim is the one where the shame is put on them,” Bary explained. “I use this quote, I was half seen as a ‘blind picture of imperfection.’ So in my family, they were really serious about maintaining our family image, and so we moved completely to run from the shame that could potentially harm our family.”

She said she was considering ending her life.

Then a friend at school introduced her to Christianity and invited her to church.  She discovered Jesus and the true meaning of love.

But she had to hide her new faith in Christ.

“… When my parents would go to sleep I would stay up in the bathroom and read, and so there was a serious feeling of threat that I felt,” she shared.

But it didn’t stop her going deeper into Jesus.

“It was love,” said Bary. “That is the distinction that I can see even today, years later. In Islam, from what I experienced, there was fear and a lot of anger. You obey Allah because you are afraid of being punished. And as a Christian we obey because we love God.”

“I would do it all again because it has made me who I am and I have a greater sense of compassion,” she said. “… I love my family and I desperately want them to see and experience the freedom and mercy I have found in Jesus, and I forgive them.”

Sitting PM David Cameron’s Party Wins British Elections

David Cameron, the British Prime Minister who hasn’t been shy about discussing his Christian faith, looks to be on track for another term as PM after Thursday’s British elections.

Cameron’s Conservative Party is on pace to win 331 seats in the next Parliament according to the BBC.  The victory is viewed as a massive surprise on par with Benjamin Netanyahu’s big win in Israel.  In both cases, the media predicted big losses for the conservative party with big gains for liberal parties.

The leaders of the liberal parties such as Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg said they would be stepping down to allow for new leadership for their parties.

Cameron has been criticized by anti-religion groups and liberal parties for his open Christianity.

“People who advocate some sort of secular neutrality fail to grasp the consequences of that neutrality, or the role that faith can play in helping people to have a moral code,” Cameron said to the Church Times.

“I believe we should be more confident about our status as a Christian country, more ambitious about expanding the role of faith-based organizations, and, frankly, more evangelical about a faith that compels us to get out there and make a difference to people’s lives.”

Cameron said he wants to bring the nation together.

“I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together, not least by implementing as fast as we can the devolution that we rightly promised and came together with other parties to agree both for Wales and for Scotland,” the British PM added.

“In short, I want my party, and I hope a government I would like to lead, to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost – the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom. That is how I will govern if I am fortunate enough to form a government in the coming days.”

British PM: “Christian Message Is the Bedrock of a Good Society”

The prime minster of Great Britain has written an Easter message where he called Christianity the “bedrock of a good society.”

David Cameron wrote the article for Premier Christianity that says all people, regardless of their faith, could celebrate the values of Easter: compassion, forgiveness, kindness, hard work and responsibility.

“Whether or not we’re members of the Church of England, ‘Love thy neighbour’ is a doctrine we can all apply to our lives – at school, at work, at home and with our families. A sense of compassion is the centre piece of a good community,” Cameron wrote.

Cameron admitted he’s not a “model church-going, God-fearing Christian” but that he relies strongly on his faith to guide him and his decisions for the nation.

The message from the PM was not without critics, many of whom pointed out the upcoming elections and wondered if the message was an attempt to sway voters.

“What’s ironic here is that the prime minister, through trying to convey he is not afraid to call himself Christian, has actually communicated that he seems terrified to identify as one. The prime minister is entitled to hold whatever religious beliefs he wants and should stand by them rather than cynically trying to woo the Christian vote ahead of May 7,” wrote an associate editor of the Catholic Herald.

Muslims Could Outnumber Christians Worldwide By 2070

A new study shows that Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world and will surpass Christianity by the middle of the century.

The study from the Pew Research Center says that the only religion that won’t see increases in numbers by 2050 is Buddhism.  Islam will be the only religion that increases faster than the world’s population on the whole.

Christianity and Islam will obtain equal status by 2050 according to the study.

The study showed bad news for Christianity in North America.  The number of Christians in the United States will decline from 78 percent of the population to around 66 percent by 2050.

Muslims, “other religions” and those who are not affiliated with any religion will see the largest increases.  The study predicts there will be more Muslims than Jews in the U.S. by 2050.

The study attributes the increase to Muslim women having the highest fertility rate with 3.1 children per woman.  Christians are second with 2.7 per woman.  The highest percentage of youth are Muslim at 34 percent compared to 27 percent for Christians.

Seattle Pacific Professor: “This Is Not God’s Will”

A professor at Seattle Pacific University told students Thursday night that the campus shooting that left a student dead and two others seriously injured was not God’s will for their school.

“There’s no explaining it,” Professor of Biblical Studies Frank Spina told students. “‘This is not God’s plan. This is not God’s will. This is not God’s way of teaching us a lesson. Any lesson we could have learned out of this could have been learned otherwise.”

Police say the shooting would have been significantly worse if not for the heroic efforts of a student who pepper sprayed the shooter then disarmed him as he tried to reload.

Jon Meis, a 22-year-old Christian engineering student and teaching assistant, noticed the gunman reloading and made his move.  Friends say that Meis has always been “quiet and religious” and that his actions to stop the gunman showed in action his beliefs in being a “selfless, courageous man.”

Meis was taken the hospital for minor injuries after the altercation and has not spoken to the press.  His family’s answering machine has a message asking those who call to pray for the victims and their families.

Panel Examines Christianity’s Huge Growth In China

A recent panel discussed the massive expansion of Christianity in China even as the government increases their crackdown on Christ’s people.

One of the panelists talked of the persecution as a source of joy for many of the Chinese Christian leaders because it’s bringing forward the true followers of the faith.

“Chinese Christian leaders look at this as a winnowing effect, so those who are not true Christians will leave the churches; the ‘Sunday Christians,'” said Professor Carsten Vala of Loyola University Maryland. “The really committed, devout believers will be increasingly strengthened in their faith by this ‘winds of persecution’ and honestly the church buildings may be torn down, but that doesn’t mean the congregations themselves have scattered.”

Reverend Zhang Boli spoke about the growth in the underground church movement that is surpassing the “registered” and “official” churches according to the Chinese government.  He attributed the crackdown to the growth.

“Recently we have seen some changes in the Chinese government’s policy towards religion,” said Boli via an interpreter. “The reason that caused them to decide to make those changes is because Christianity is moving very, very quickly in China.”

Official government statistics say there are 33 million Christians in the country but panelists say that because of unregistered “house churches” the amount is likely higher.

Apologetics Leader Says Christians Need To Engage Through Arts

The executive director of Athanatos Christian Ministries, an apologetics ministry, says that Christians need to realize they need to engage the culture through the arts.

Anthony Horvath pointed to recent advances of anti-Christian beliefs being approved by government bodies and judges, saying those actions didn’t come quickly by any method other than intentional manipulation of culture through television, movies and books.

“The Church needs to get financially involved in supporting apologists and artists, because they will be the last remaining frontline representatives of the Gospel when the church buildings in America empty – as they have done in post-Christian Europe. And frankly, time is of the essence,” he said.

Horvath said that Christians have taken for granted too long that Christianity is a respected voice in the marketplace of ideas because it has been that way for a long time.  He says that now more vocal anti-Christianists are trying to remove that voice and work to make even culture engagement unwelcome.

“We are called to preach the Gospel, Horvath told The Christian Post. “To do that today means thinking carefully about our audience, adjusting where necessary, and remembering that the Bible says, ‘The worker is worth his wages.’ Christians who believe we should be more involved in the culture through art should support those Christians who are engaged in that work. Not just moral support, but financially, institutionally, and other tangible forms of support.”