The crisis in the Middle East with ISIS has been getting me down lately. The amount of wanton murder, torture, and destruction is horrifying, and will not cease any time soon. Continue in urgent and steadfast prayer for the safety of those Christians and other non-Muslim religious & cultural groups living in the region, and for repentance and conversion to Christ opportunities those jihadis leading the slaughter.
One thing that has been encouraging the past few weeks are the responses from the local Coptics - Christian responses that very much mirror those of the Early Church. You can read about some of them in these articles.
http://www.jpost.com/Christian-News/Murdered-Coptic-Christians-hailed-as-martyrs-391803
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/414222/heaven-face-hell-kathryn-jean-lopez
http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/20/living/coptic-bishop-isis/index.html
Would that all Christians worldwide could have such devotion to the ideals of our Saviour as our brothers and sisters in the Middle East do! We, like the men in the picture above, are the people of the Cross.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/02/the-right-response-to-coptic-21s-martyrdom/
---------------
"It's a beautiful thing to God when a Christian does battle with pain. When he faces threats, punishments, and tortures by mocking death and treading underfoot the horror of the executioner; when he raises up his freedom in Christ as a standard before kings and princes; when he yields to God alone and, triumphant and victorious, he tramples upon the very man who has pronounced sentence upon him. God finds all these things beautiful."
- Minucius Felix, The Octavius 37, c. 200
