Displaying items by tag: Religion

She was picking fruit on a sweltering summer’s day in June 2009 with Muslim women when a dispute arose over a shared cup of water because the Muslim women would not drink from a cup that they considered ‘unclean’ as it had been used by a Christian. This culminated in Aasia Bibi being accused of insulting Muhammad. ‘My husband was at work, my kids were in school’, she recalled. ‘A mob came and dragged me away. They made fun of me.’ ‘I am not angry at all, I’ve forgiven everyone from my heart and there is no hardness in me. I learned how to be patient after having to leave my children behind.’ These are the gracious words of Aasia Bibi, the Christian mother-of-five who spent nearly eight years on death row in Pakistan, falsely accused of ‘blasphemy’.

Giving Stream have launched 'Farming Food Bank' where church members buy a retail hamper from their church for £30 and another hamper is donated to local families in need. The hampers include 15 balanced meals. Giving Stream's Colin Kaye said, ‘We have the farm, butchers, chefs, equipment, and expertise to produce food. Churches have congregations and a local feeding programme or plans to launch one. This project links us all together, working as one, in the name of Jesus.’ Giving Stream will install a walk-in freezer on church premises at the company's cost; they will stock it with two different products - a retail hamper, which can be bought, and a free food hamper, used for donations only. Every time a retail hamper is sold a free meal hamper is donated to the church, who then feed people who are hungry.

Scotland's Destiny Church has begun fundraising for £150,000 to enable them to take legal action against Edinburgh Council, believing the case will have ramifications for the UK Church. It stems from the recent cancellation of a booking made at the city's Usher Hall for the church’s annual SURGE conference with Gavin Calver and Larry Stockstill. The cancellation came after the venue said it had received complaints linked to comments Mr Stockstill had previously made. He is a preacher, author, and pastors' mentor who runs a church-planting network. According to the Times, Stockstill has described same-sex relationships as ‘offensive’, ‘repulsive’, and ‘deeply grievous’. See Destiny Church, a thriving Pentecostal network focusing on evangelism and social action with congregations across Scotland, has been criticised by the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church.

Security agencies are using ‘Yarovaya Law’ to impose harsh restrictions on evangelical Christians to tackle ‘extremist’ activities. The law demands permits to enable meeting outside registered religious buildings - outlawing house churches and prayer meetings. The law gives security agencies access to private phone conversations and text messages. There are few Protestants who have not been impacted by the law. A Moscow pastor with a congregation of 50 who are interrupted most Sundays by police said, ‘Authorities dressed as civilians knock on our door, asking to come in and “pray”. If we refuse they film us turning them away and use the footage against us. If we let them in they take pictures inside the church to identify ways that we are violating the law and must pay fines for “illegal missionary activity”’. Meanwhile President Putin’s revised constitution wants gay marriage to be forbidden. It will be put to a public vote. See

Dr Jason Hubbard writes, ‘Before Jesus ever performed a miracle, or preached a gospel, the Spirit of God drove Him into the wilderness to fast. He came out of that fast in the power of the Holy Spirit. Before there was an original Jesus movement, there was an original Jesus Fast. In 2020 Christians are being called to respond to Lou Engle’s call to a global 40-day-fast to see a world-wide manifestation of Jesus the Evangelist. The late Bill Bright (founder of Campus Crusade) believed that the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual atomic bomb that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil and usher in a great revival and spiritual harvest around the world’. See

A coalition of Christians across denominational lines has united to pray for an end to the coronavirus. Cindy Jacobs says, ‘We believe strongly that since this is a worldwide issue, it is going to take the whole Church to cry out together for the mercy and healing power of God to contain it.’ Church leaders stood united to fast and pray on 3 March to petition the Sovereign Lord for His mercy. Let us continue to knock on Heaven’s door, praying Psalm 91 over families and nations, binding fear, knowing that God has not given us a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7). Pray for wisdom for our leaders and safety for emergency responders working to protect people and prevent the virus spreading. Pray for Christians to have a calm courage to share the Word effectively through this time of crisis. For the prayer petition click the ‘More’ button.

On 1 March, despite heavy rain, many Catholics took a stand against a surge of Islamist extremist violence. The faithful marched the streets of Abuja against the rising wave of insecurity and killings in every part of Nigeria. They carried placards demanding a better and safer society. Some have reported that the numbers of protesters were in their thousands. The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference slammed the government for not doing enough to bring those behind these crimes to book. He said, ‘May we once again remind all the arms of government in Nigeria and all whose responsibility it is to protect Nigerians that without security there can be no peace.’

March is International Women's History month. Women are two thirds of the world’s poorest citizens. Nearly two-thirds of illiterate people are women. Globally women are paid less than men. A cultural preference for male babies has led to 30 million deaths of unborn or baby girls in India and China and fuels trafficking women as brides or sex slaves. God looks on the heart: what do we look at when choosing leaders? Pray for more women and men to be recognised, equipped, and released into service based on their giftedness and godliness. Pray for more humble, Christ-like models. Prideful ‘hierarchy’ and ‘angry feminism’ destroy the unity that God designed and desires. Pray that Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, atheist, and tribal people groups will see amazing unity in the Body of Christ between men and women that causes them to turn to Jesus.

Quotes from a working document on Islam from the Lausanne Global Consultation state - Every individual church fellowship and denomination throughout the world needs to find ways of enabling Christians to be awake to the challenges of Islam and for opportunities to witness to Muslims. Where Christians are held back by fear, they need to be encouraged to build genuine, natural relationships with their Muslim neighbours, by practising hospitality and taking bold initiatives. Where they are held back by ignorance, they need to learn more about Muslims and Islam and to explore prayerfully some of the new opportunities that have opened up in recent years for communicating the gospel. Where they are held back by prejudice, they need to be reminded of the ways in which Jesus enabled his disciples to overcome their racial and religious prejudices.

Rohingya pastor, Taher, and his 14-year-old daughter were abducted from Bangladesh Cox’s Bazar a refugee camp after 59 men attacked 22 Christian families, beating residents, vandalising homes, and looting property. At least 12 Christian refugees were injured and hospitalised and a makeshift Christian church and school were smashed. Families were relocated to a UN transit centre and filed a police case against the armed ethnic group, Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army. Taher’s wife, Roshida, fears her husband is dead and that her daughter has been forced to convert to Islam. She said, ‘No one can give me clear information.’ Approximately 1,500 Rohingya Christians are among 700,000 predominantly Muslim Rohingya refugees who fled ‘ethnic cleansing’ in 2017. Authorities described the attack as a ‘law and order incident’ - not Christian persecution. They do little to protect Christians. One said, ‘if victims wanted safety they should ‘go to the moon.’