We have now completed the #ORANGE21 remembrance movement. Twenty-one days of praying for the families of each Egyptian martyred in Libya is motivation to love more deeply and live more fully. Every day is a gift from God and is called ‘the present.’ Why, then, is there an #ORANGE21 post on day twenty-two? For twenty-one …
MATTHEW AYARIGA, of Ghana was the only foreigner in this select group of Egyptian believers. Young, single and unemployed, like so many sub Saharan Africans, he went north to try to make a living. But things didn’t turn out as he had hoped—in January 2015 he was arrested while in route to Ghana via Tripoli, …
The murder of Sameh Salah Faruq generates with in me a guttural longing for the resurrection of the dead. Everything in me desires that these past twenty days of gruesome death be transformed from gory to glory. I know my Redeemer lives and I long for Him to take action. Right the wrongs. Destroy evil. …
Malak Farag Abram’s murder requires me to face the facts. I don’t watch the news. Other than sports, I don’t watch television shows (I almost forgot…I watch cooking shows too). The persecution of Christians isn’t a Hollywood production with actors pretending, special effects appearing to be real, all being shown on a screen that will …
Gaber Munir Adly’s martyrdom gives insight into the importance of life-long habits, understandings, traditions and the repetition of core truth. From my childhood my parents encouraged the singing of truth with frequency and repetition. I think I have sung “There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb” at least ten …
Just this week my friend S*’s name has appeared on a list—it is not a list for Grammy award nominations, or for the top 10 fastest growing churches in the states, nor for a latest best-selling book. It is not a list that pleases men. His name is on ISIS’ list. A fatwa. A death …
The bus driver couldn’t find our destination. Finally, many a wrong turn and a few right, we disembark. On this very small building in current Istanbul was an even smaller, almost hidden placard; “This is the site of Polycarp’s martyrdom.” Ezat Bishri Naseef’s martyrdom confronts me of the tenacity with which martyrs hold to their …
Samuel Alham Wilson is the fourteenth martyr that I am honoring during #ORANGE21. A murder each day for fourteen days is a heavy reality. The feelings I have about these murders can be represented by words like senseless, barbaric, meaningless and godless. From the deepest core of my being, I trust God. From this platform …
Day 13: Remembering Bishoy Adel Khalaf Below are excerpts from a Letter To ISIS from the Coptic Community in response to the 21 Coptic Christians who were martyred in Libya for their faith in Christ: To My Friends, the killers, You beheaded in cold blood 21 Copts, only because they are Christians and refused to leave …
Hany Abdelmesheh Salib’s martyrdom reminds me that Christians are truly citizens of another Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is “not of this world.” So often my mindset is “of this world.” I think and feel that what is temporary is actually permanent and in this way disconnect from Biblical truth. Physical life is temporary. Eternal …