by | Dec 30, 2023 | Uncategorized
Religious animosity mixed with farmer-herder tensions continue to plague Christians in beleaguered Middle Belt region.
At least 140 Nigerian Christians were killed over the Christmas holiday.
Attacks on 26 villages in Plateau State began December 23, led by suspected extremists among Fulani Muslim herdsman against Christian farming communities. Some media reports cite nearly 200 dead, with many missing as local residents fled from gunmen into the bush.
Grace Godwin was preparing Christmas Eve dinner when her husband burst in with news from the neighboring village, ordering her and the children into the fields. Rebecca Maska similarly took cover but was shot and bled for three hours until help arrived, while her son had his hand chopped off with a machete before escaping. Magit Macham dragged his wounded brother to safety and hid overnight until the attackers moved on.
“These attacks have been recurring,” Macham told Reuters, having returned home from the regional capital of Jos to celebrate Christmas. “They want to drive us out of our ancestral land.”
For years, violence has plagued the West African nation’s Middle Belt, where a predominantly Muslim north intersects with a predominantly Christian south. Land rights issues are also contested, as seminomadic cattle herders press against settled agrarian hamlets in Africa’s most populous nation.
The Christmas massacres were the worst attacks since 2018. A local publication tallied an additional 201 deaths in Plateau State in the first half of 2023. Across the Middle Belt, at least 2,600 people were killed in 2021, according to the most recent data by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.
The Northern Governors’ Forum called the attacks “reprehensible and heinous.” It was further condemned by the national Muslim organization Jama’atu …
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by | Dec 25, 2023 | Uncategorized
The real gift of Christmas.
The Christmas season is upon us! For my kids, this means the anticipation of gifts. I think they begin making their lists on December 26 for the following year. They look forward to and talk about their coming gifts for months and months.
When the gifts finally arrive, they are met with various reactions—some more excited than others. But the one thing that never fails is this: After about an hour, my kids are off doing something completely not related to the very gifts they’d been anticipating all year long. Earthly gifts, though wonderful, aren’t ultimately satisfying. They leave us wanting. But there is one gift that is truly satisfying. One gift that keeps on giving. One gift that will never disappoint us, will sustain us, and is always available to us. That gift is Jesus, the Light of the World.
Isaiah prophesies of a baby who will save the world. This surprising announcement came to a rebellious people in a dark time. There was war and unrest. There was no peace to be found. The darkness was palpable, and it went beyond even the circumstances Israel found themselves in. The darkness they experienced was also spiritual; it’s a darkness we all experience before we know the Savior.
Jesus fulfills the Old Testament promises of the coming light from Isaiah 9:2: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”
This was a promise of good news to Israel, as it is to us today. The Light of the World has come, and if we follow him, we will also walk in the light—we will have the light of life (1 John 1:7; John 8:12). We don’t have to fear destruction because we have been given the light and truth and will no …
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by | Dec 24, 2023 | Uncategorized
Founder of International House of Prayer admitted to “past misconduct” earlier this month.
Leaders of the International House of Prayer, an influential charismatic evangelical prayer and mission group based in Kansas City, announced Friday that they have cut ties with founder Mike Bickle.
In late October, a group of former IHOPKC leaders accused Bickle of a pattern of alleged clergy sexual misconduct. Earlier in December, Bickle admitted some past misconduct but said that many of the allegations against him were false.
“With a very heavy heart I want to express how deeply grieved I am that my past sins have led to so much pain, confusion, and division in the body of Christ in this hour,” Bickle said in an online statement. “I sadly admit that 20+ years ago, I sinned by engaging in inappropriate behavior—my moral failures were real.”
On Friday, IHOPKC announced that Bickle was no longer part of the group.
“Since taking over management of the crisis, the Executive Committee has received new information to now confirm a level of inappropriate behavior on the part of Mike Bickle that requires IHOPKC to immediately formally and permanently separate from him,” said spokesman and crisis management consultant Eric Volz in a video posted on YouTube.
Volz said that IHOPKC leaders did not have permission to share details about Bickle’s alleged misconduct, only saying an investigation into allegations against him is in process.
The spokesman also announced that Stuart Greaves, executive director of IHOPKC, had resigned, without giving any reason for why he had done so.
Bickle has long been an influential figure in charismatic Christian circles. An early leader in the Vineyard movement, he split with the group in the 1990s over theology and clashes with its founder, John Wimber, and …
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by | Dec 23, 2023 | Uncategorized
An angelic celebration that is a foretaste of what’s to come
In Luke 2:13, we witness a party of angels parading the night sky as they sing a declaration of praise over Christ’s arrival on earth as an infant. How marvelous it must have been to hear the shouts of celebration vibrantly filling the air, an honorable demonstration for the divine made flesh. Though we can only imagine what celestial sounds filled the night sky, one familiar piece of music endeavors to offer a glimpse: the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. Here, an angelic choir welcomes Christ’s presence and power, accompanied by a symphony that has been treasured for centuries—an earthly rendition of the sound of that sacred evening.
The celebration on that night over 2,000 years ago is a foretaste of what is to come: the celebration that will break out as the Lamb, white as snow, sits at the head of the table, waiting for his bride to arrive. We can see the parallels between the angels’ announcement to the shepherds, the soaring music of Handel’s Messiah, and the “voice of a great multitude” shouting praise over the consummation of Christ and his church in Revelation 19:
Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure.
(Rev. 19:6-8, ESV)
In this passage, John witnesses the heralding of the ultimate heavenly marriage and the arrival of Christ’s bride, who has adorned herself in an array of luminescent garments fit for a celestial ceremony. The intersection of Luke 2 and Revelation 19 renders images of Christ exalted first as a child …
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by | Dec 23, 2023 | Uncategorized
An angelic celebration that is a foretaste of what’s to come
In Luke 2:13, we witness a party of angels parading the night sky as they sing a declaration of praise over Christ’s arrival on earth as an infant. How marvelous it must have been to hear the shouts of celebration vibrantly filling the air, an honorable demonstration for the divine made flesh. Though we can only imagine what celestial sounds filled the night sky, one familiar piece of music endeavors to offer a glimpse: the famous “Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah. Here, an angelic choir welcomes Christ’s presence and power, accompanied by a symphony that has been treasured for centuries—an earthly rendition of the sound of that sacred evening.
The celebration on that night over 2,000 years ago is a foretaste of what is to come: the celebration that will break out as the Lamb, white as snow, sits at the head of the table, waiting for his bride to arrive. We can see the parallels between the angels’ announcement to the shepherds, the soaring music of Handel’s Messiah, and the “voice of a great multitude” shouting praise over the consummation of Christ and his church in Revelation 19:
Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready;
it was granted her to clothe herself
with fine linen, bright and pure.
(Rev. 19:6-8, ESV)
In this passage, John witnesses the heralding of the ultimate heavenly marriage and the arrival of Christ’s bride, who has adorned herself in an array of luminescent garments fit for a celestial ceremony. The intersection of Luke 2 and Revelation 19 renders images of Christ exalted first as a child …
Continue reading…
