ANGLICARE reaches out in love to people in need, just like Jesus reached out to us. They want to encourage you to think of one thing you can do to share God’s love with someone else and do it! What do you reckon??? Go on, do it these holidays…
The following is from 13:3. Used with permission. Pray for persecuted Christians.
Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is facing execution after refusing to renounce his faith during court hearings held this week.
In July, the Supreme Court instructed the Revolutionary Tribunal of Gilan Province to review his case to verify whether he was previously a practising Muslim. At the recent hearings, the court in Rasht ruled that Pastor Youcef was not a practising Muslim before becoming a Christian. However, he remains guilty of apostasy because of his Muslim ancestry.
According to sources, when Pastor Youcef was asked to repent in court, he said:
Repent means to return. What should I return to? To the blasphemy that I had before my faith in Christ?
When judges told him to return to “the religion of your ancestors, Islam,” Pastor Youcef responded, “I cannot.”
Nadarkhani has used up all his chances in the court. “We hear some rumors that he could be executed literally this week – that he’s had now three days which is called for in Islamic law to reconsider his decision, and he could be executed at any time,” reports Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs USA.
MORE INFORMATION
Check out this news report for more information about Youcef’s case.
URGENT PRAYER NEEDED
Please share this story with your friends and family and ask them to pray for Youcef Nadarkhani and his family.
Please pray that Youcef will be faithful even to death so that he will receive the crown of life (Revelation 2:10).
Pray that Christians around the world will take swift and decisive action on Youcef’s behalf.
Pray that all charges against him will be dropped.
Pray for all Christians in Iran, that they will keep their eyes on Jesus and not be fearful. Pray that persecution will only increase their passion for Christ and their willingness to share their faith.
Pray that God will comfort Youcef’s family during this very difficult time.
I was going to have a crack at writing some school holiday reading notes, but in the end thought I’d use a brilliant new resource from Matt Jacobs. It’s a project called SixtySixBooks. Basically it provides an intro to different books of the Bible in a way that youth can understand along with a sample reading plan.
On Sunday night we had a special year 12 church service. It was encouraging to be able to pray for them and preach to them. I spoke from Isaiah 40 encouraging people to lift up their eyes to see the Incomparable God who offers strength to those who put their hope in him.
Here’s a link to the mp3. I hope it’s helpful for those who need a bigger picture perspective.
Row proposed that we have a night of square-dancing to finish our term together as a Small Group. Luckily we didn’t do square dancing. Instead we had a ‘Music Appreciation Night’. It was so much fun. Each person in our group had to have 2 songs prepared (with another 2 backups) to play for the rest of the group. It was cool to hear different songs and be introduced to music for the first time.
Before each song was played we introduced it to the group, made a few comments afterwards, took further questions or comments and then moved on to the next person. We basically did two laps of the room.
Soulies recently went away on our youth camp, Mission Impossible. It was a sweet, sweet, encouraging time in Philippians. Here’s a pic of our youth leaders. They’re legends:
I’ve been writing less on this blog this month, but increasing content on our youth website. Here are the latest 10 posts:
Summer is coming. It’s time to get fit and healthy! But eternity is also coming. Physical training is of some value, but it’s got nothing on training in godliness. Godliness will prepare you for eternity. Here is a sermon I recently preached on godliness from 1 Timothy 4:4-16…
ARE YOU READY FOR ETERNITY?
1) GODLINESS HAS VALUE FOR ALL THINGS
2) DELIBERATE TRAINING IN GODLINESS
3) EXAMPLES OF GODLINESS
4) THE PRIORITY OF THE WORD OF GOD
INVEST IN ETERNITY.
It’s been one year since we moved to Narrabeen. Crazy, I know. We really are thankful to God for the provision of an amazing church family at St Faith’s to serve among with joy.
The above pic (courtesy of State Records NSW) is of the opening of the Narrabeen Tramway, c.1913. We haven’t seen any of the trams yet…
The title of this blog post loses some of its punch when I regularly post it a couple of days late! But nonetheless – welcome to a new month AND a new season!! It’s Spring, but it feels like Summer down here at Narrabeen Beach. Yesssss. September includes: MISSION IMPOSSIBLE; a new Soulies (non-residential) Study Camp; prep for NYMC; some serious planning for 2012 and sunbaking. Bring it.
Above is my fave pic from the September smashing mag desktop designs. If you are a new reader of DMDC – the posts below were the most clicked for the month of August. Check them out: