The suffering of our Somalian sisters

Last Sunday, Nov. 13, was International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. As we all know, many of our fellow Christians in other countries are suffering greatly because of their faith. Jeff Sellers, editor of Compass Direct News, filed a report on the kind of persecution some of our sisters have undergone in Somalia. He interviewed them in Kenya, and his report was posted Nov. 11 on a blog at National Review Online. Here is nearly all of that report:

The women, who had fled to Nairobi from war in Somalia, are Christians who have paid the price for their faith not because they were bold in proclaiming it, but because they were unable to hide it. Before our translator showed up, I found myself waiting with some of them in silence, wondering if I should break the language/culture/gender barrier by showing them photos of my wife and baby.

I was glad I didn’t. There was Amina, a 28-year-old refugee from Mogadishu whose husband divorced her after kicking her and their four-year-old son out of the house when she converted to Christianity; he’s now threatening to take the boy away from her. There was Shukri, whose husband was killed by Islamic extremists from the al Shabaab rebels fighting the transitional government in Somalia; her late husband’s mother took her twin girls, born [in] 2006, to keep them from being raised Christian.

There was Kamila, who lost her truck-driver husband to an accident and who still bears the knife scars on her mouth and chin from her fellow Somali women; the brother of her late husband had sent them to attack her as part of his attempt to snatch her then five-month-old baby from her. According to custom, the brother should attain all of her late husband’s property, including her son, in order to keep him from being raised a Christian. A court ruled that the baby should stay with Kamila until he is weaned, and she took that opportunity to escape with him to another area near Nairobi; he is now five.

There was Sahra, who wears a full-body burqa in her Somali neighborhood in Nairobi to keep from being recognized and abused. Her husband was killed in fighting in Mogadishu in 2006. Her relatives have cut her off because of her Christian faith, and she said she can feel the same shunning from her fellow expatriates. “When they see you are low-income and have left your religion, they see you as sick in the head,” said the mother of two young daughters who survives by working odd jobs.

There was Mana, whose husband was kidnapped by al Shabaab Islamists in July after they discovered he was a Christian. He was able to escape last month with the help of residents of the area where he was held in Somalia, but his tortured body is still too fragile to be moved, so he cannot yet be reunited with his family in Kenya. He is still spoon-fed, the militants chopped off three fingers from his right hand and two from his left, and there are no fingernails on those that remain.

Finally, there was an older Somali woman, some of whose children are now grown. Her oldest is 25, but she nearly lost him when six Muslim neighbors, who surmised that they were Christians meeting secretly for worship, cut his hands with a knife and belted his face with a metal bar on Oct. 31, before leaving him unconscious, naked, and bleeding at the entryway of an area church. Every Friday the Muslim women in her Somali neighborhood in Kenya used to invite her to the mosque, and she would tell them she wasn’t feeling well. Eventually they figured out that they were Christians.

If ever there was an inconvenient truth, it is the lordship of Christ for these women. In their world, there is much shame associated with their status as refugees in a bleak economy and as Christians in a Muslim fishbowl, but they know what it is to live 1 Peter 4:16, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.”

And so it is that the older Somali woman who found her son in a pool of blood, echoing the attitude of the others, could tell me, “Although he has been beaten, we trust God to protect us. We don’t feel like we’re going to return to Islam; we will stand with Christ.”

A prayer for Covenant Community Church

I am grateful for Covenant Community Church in Fredericksburg, Va. I am grateful to be a part of this body of believers. I am grateful to be an elder and the pastor of this people. I am grateful for God’s gracious work among our fellowship, including the love and refreshing the saints have given to one another. Today, I am especially grateful for the evidences of His grace among us in the last few days.

I shared the following at our members meeting Nov. 11 as a prayer of thanksgiving for our fellowship. Except for the words “brothers and sisters” at the end instead of “brother,” they are the words Paul wrote in verses 4-7 of his letter to Philemon. I offer them again as a prayer for our church:

I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith which you have toward the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints; and I pray that the fellowship of your faith may become effective through the knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake. For I have come to have much joy and comfort in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, [brothers and sisters].

Our Master, not our maitre D

Here is a good reminder from a prayer by Scotty Smith as we prepare to worship our Lord tomorrow. Smith, founding pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, Tenn., blogs prayers on The Gospel Coalition website. You can read his entire prayer from Nov. 10 here.

Forgive us when we demonstrate a greater preoccupation with the “victorious Christian life,” than with you, the victorious Christ. You are our loving Lord, not our private masseuse; our gracious Master, not our maître D; our coming King, not our bottled genie.

Forgive us when our prayers reflect a greater commitment to our comfort than to your kingdom. Free us from “claiming” things you never promised. Give us a greater joy in serving you, and, indeed, in suffering with you. Wherever you lead us in your triumphant procession is the best place to be. However you spread the fragrance of knowing you is the best way to live. So very Amen we humbly pray, in your name and for your glory.

Preparing for corporate worship November 13

Reminding himself of the gospel of Jesus and the grace he had received prompted the apostle Paul to break into praise to God: “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (I Tim. 1:15-17). May we gather together this Sunday filled with rejoicing in God’s great gospel grace toward us and with praises to His glorious name.

Marriage myth No. 4: Life will really begin when I get married

If you enter marriage with this mind-set, you likely will find life still hasn’t begun – or, at least, your vision of what life is hasn’t begun. If you are a Christian, Jesus is your life (Col. 3:4). Whether single or married, life began for you when you cast yourself upon Him and His work for you on the cross. Marriage is not intended to give you life. If you think it is, then you have substituted marriage for Christ. In your case, marriage is an idol, a substitute god. Substitutes do not bring life. Only Jesus does. Marriage is intended above all else as a display of the relationship between the eternal bridegroom, Christ, and His bride, the church. As a Christian, you bring life – in the person of Jesus – into marriage that the world may see the eternal marriage on exhibit, that you and your spouse may know true joy, and that God may be glorified.

Back to the blog

I regret the lack of posts for more than a week, but I am back to blogging again after being away from home and from a good opportunity to blog.

'The critical question'

From John Piper in his book God Is the Gospel (thanks to Justin Taylor):

The critical question for our generation — and for every generation — is this:

If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ were not there?

And the question for Christian leaders is: Do we preach and teach and lead in such a way that people are prepared to hear that question and answer with a resounding No?