Urgent request to pray for Christians in Egypt

Supporters of Egypt's ousted President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans against the military near Cairo University in Giza, Egypt, Monday, July 8, 2013. Photograpehr: Manu Brabo/AP Photo — Supporters of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans against the military near Cairo University in Giza, Egypt, Monday, July 8, 2013. Photograpehr: Manu Brabo/AP Photo

Peanut Gallery: The news out of Egypt is not good. Millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding that Islamist President Morsi step down. He didn’t… and the Egyptian Army stepped in. Egyptian Christians have generally (although not officially) aligned themselves with the anti-Morsi forces.

But Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood are not finished yet. They have called for a counter-revolution and have taken to the streets. The result has been further chaos with shootings, military arrests and crackdown, accusations, and counter-accusations. A Coptic priest was killed by Islamists in Northern Sinai. Only God knows how it will end.

No matter who wins this current struggle for power, Egypt is a failed state and Coptic Christians live in great peril.

Egyptians civil servants are waiting in line for hours in front of these subsidized bakeries. Fights break out often, says a reporter from NPR covering the story this morning. Prices at unregulated bakers run around 8 cents per loaf… eight times the cost of the price at the government-supported stands.

Egypt cannot feed its own people, cannot supply adequate fuel, cannot borrow money (virtually bankrupt), cannot employ its teeming masses, and Egyptian tourism has shrunk to nothing. The vast majority of people live in abject poverty. There is no quick fix and no one seems to have a long range economic plan.

Coptic Christians have been brutalized under the Morsi regime – either by design or neglect. Pope Tawadros II has criticized the regime’s treatment of Christians without much success, i.e. until the current overthrow of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood. Now Christians are aligned with the anti-Morsi forces and they will be easy targets for Islamist revenge. As mentioned a Coptic priest ( Mina Aboud Sharweem) has already been killed in a sectarian murder.

But Egypt’s problems go way beyond socio-economic and sectarian analysis.

Gang-rape of Egyptian woman in Tahrir Square

Egypt have serious, wide-spread misogyny problems. It’s not about veils or coverings – it’s about wide-spread gang rape in public spaces, the widespread practice of female genital mutilation at puberty, the kidnapping of young Christian girls by Islamists with forced marriages to older men, the practice of marriage to pre-pubescent girls as young as 8 or 9. There is something fundamentally wrong with a society that treats women (created in the image of God) like that.

Below, please find an earlier post from Open Doors UK requesting urgent prayer. That was a week ago and the situation has changed dramatically for the worse. Christians in Egypt desperately need our prayer. One Coptic brother in Christ write:

Psalm 33 has been one of the very encouraging words and promises for us as a church and we read it publicly many times, especially verses 9-11, ‘For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations’.

“We ask you to join us in praying that His name would be known and glorified in Egypt (Isaiah 19:21).”

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OUT OF EGYPT – Open Doors UK / 2 July 2013

With millions on the streets in Cairo, celebrating the army’s 48 hour ultimatum, Christians have been gathering night after night to pray for peace.

Army ultimatum

An Egyptian Christian brother in Cairo told us, “Last night (July 1), millions rejoiced and shouted in streets and squares until early morning today, celebrating the clear pronouncement directed to President Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood ruling party, that the army has again decided to take the side of the people rather than the rulers.”

President Morsi, however, has said the 48 hour army ultimatum ‘may cause confusion’ and vows to stick to his own plans to resolve the political crisis.

10 days of prayer for Egypt

Meanwhile, in a large church in the centre of Cairo, Christians have just concluded 10 days of prayer for Egypt. One church member told us:

“Around 800-1000 gathered every night from 7.00-9.00pm to cry out on behalf of our nation. We prayed mainly for the protection and peace of Egypt. We also prayed for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit and for a revival and great harvest in Egypt. Psalm 33 has been one of the very encouraging words and promises for us as a church and we read it publicly many times, especially verses 9-11, ‘For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations’.

“We ask you to join us in praying that His name would be known and glorified in Egypt (Isaiah 19:21).”

Source: Open Doors; BBC

Morning Reading: Acts 12.6-19 NLT – prison break

Reading: Acts 12:6-19 NLT

The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, fastened with two chains between two soldiers. Others stood guard at the prison gate.

St Peter Being Freed from Prison
Gerrit van Honthorst (1616-1618)

Suddenly, there was a bright light in the cell, and an angel of the Lord stood before Peter. The angel struck him on the side to awaken him and said, “Quick! Get up!” And the chains fell off his wrists. Then the angel told him, “Get dressed and put on your sandals.” And he did. “Now put on your coat and follow me,” the angel ordered.

So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening.

They passed the first and second guard posts and came to the iron gate leading to the city, and this opened for them all by itself. So they passed through and started walking down the street, and then the angel suddenly left him.

Peter finally came to his senses. “It’s really true!” he said. “The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jewish leaders had planned to do to me!”

When he realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer. He knocked at the door in the gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to open it.

When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran back inside and told everyone, “Peter is standing at the door!”

“You’re out of your mind!” they said. When she insisted, they decided, “It must be his angel.”

Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed.

He motioned for them to quiet down and told them how the Lord had led him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers what happened,” he said. And then he went to another place.

At dawn there was a great commotion among the soldiers about what had happened to Peter. Herod Agrippa ordered a thorough search for him. When he couldn’t be found, Herod interrogated the guards and sentenced them to death. Afterward Herod left Judea to stay in Caesarea for a while.

Prayer: Heavenly Father – Why is it that we pray for divine intervention, but never really expect it. Forgive our unbelief and small faith. Lord Jesus – Align us with your Kingdom purposes so that we might pray with boldness and conviction. Holy Spirit – Open our hearts and minds to all the miraculous possibilities that you work among us. Make us faithful in prayer and humble in spirit… trusting you for outcomes befitting your perfect will. Amen.

Hymn: “Sweet Hour of Prayer” – W.W. Walford (1772-1850)

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Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care, and bids me at my Father’s throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief, and oft escaped the tempter’s snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! The joys I feel, the bliss I share of those whose anxious spirits burn with strong desires for thy return! With such I hasten to the place where God my Savior shows his face, and gladly take my station there, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer! Thy wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I’ll cast on him my every care, and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!

Morning Reading: Acts 12.1-5 NLT – more persecution

Reading: Acts 12.1-5 NLT

The Beheading of St. James by Fra Filippo Lippi, 1455 (part of the Pistoia Sante Trinita Altarpiece in the National Gallery, London) — The Beheading of St. James
by Fra Filippo Lippi, 1455
(part of the Pistoia Sante Trinita Altarpiece in the National Gallery, London)

About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church. He had the apostle James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.

When Herod saw how much this pleased the Jewish people, he also arrested Peter. (This took place during the Passover celebration.) Then he imprisoned him, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring Peter out for public trial after the Passover. But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him.

Prayer: Lord Jesus – Your followers have been persecuted from early on… some you deliver from evil, and some pay the heavy price of martyrdom. In all of it, make us people of prayer… trusting, hoping, believing and persistent. Deliver us from the evil extent in our time. Clothe us with the full armor of God… that we might stand firm against the schemes of the devil… who roams this earth seeking to devour your people. Transform us into Kingdom people… and may your will be done in us and through us… for your name’s sake. Amen.

Hymn: “Abide with me” – Henry Francis Lyte (1847)
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Abide with me: fast falls the eventide; the darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts flee, Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day; earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away. Change and decay in all around I see. O Lord who changes not, abide with me.

I need your presence every passing hour. What but your grace can foil the tempter’s power? Who like yourself my guide and strength can be? Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe with you at hand to bless, though ills have weight, and tears their bitterness. Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, your victory? I triumph still, if you abide with me.

Hold now your Word before my closing eyes. Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies. Heaven’s morning breaks and earth’s vain shadows flee; in life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

Morning Reading: Acts 11.25-30 NLT- Christian relief

Reading: Acts 11:25-30 NLT

Then Barnabas went on to Tarsus to look for Saul.

When he found him, he brought him back to Antioch. Both of them stayed there with the church for a full year, teaching large crowds of people. (It was at Antioch that the believers were first called Christians.)

The Prophecy of Agabus by Louis Cheron (1660-1713)

During this time some prophets traveled from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up in one of the meetings and predicted by the Spirit that a great famine was coming upon the entire Roman world. (This was fulfilled during the reign of Claudius.)

So the believers in Antioch decided to send relief to the brothers and sisters in Judea, everyone giving as much as they could. This they did, entrusting their gifts to Barnabas and Saul to take to the elders of the church in Jerusalem.

Prayer: Lord Jesus – May I bear the name “Christian” with honor and courage. Holy Spirit – Give me a teachable spirit, and open my heart to follow as you lead. Heavenly Father – All that I have is on loan from you. May I use it wisely to further your Kingdom purposes. I ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Hymn: “Here I am, Lord” – Fr. Daniel Schutte, SJ
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The Cost of True Freedom

Count the Cost of True Freedom – The Cost by Rend Collective Experiment

“Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” – Galatians 5.1 MSG
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