Tag: Christians
International Day of Prayer- Serving Persecuted Christians Worldwide – Open Doors UK & Ireland – Please Pray
We’d like you to close your church…– link to Open Doors resources.
Imagine living in a society where your Christian faith must be hidden. Just going to church could get you arrested, imprisoned – even killed. If you want to meet with other Christians you have to meet secretly – in a secret place, at a secret time, in a secret way…
For many Christians in the Arab World, this imaginary world is a reality. So to help you and your church to identify with believers who meet in secret, we are asking you to hold your own Secret Church service to pray for persecuted Christians in the Arab World..
We have produced a new range of Secret Church resources to help you. Your church will not only hear how persecuted Christians live their lives of faith – they will be able to experience it for themselves!
So why not take up the Secret Church challenge and help strengthen the church in the Arab World to be a light to their nations.
Morning Reading; Philippians 2.12b-16a ESV
“Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” Philippians 2.12b-16a ESV
Morning Reading: Philippians 2.5-11 NLT
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2.5-11 NLT
Please pray for: Bishop Tawadros new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians | BBC
Peanut Gallery: Please pray for Bishop Tawadros who has been chosen the new pope of Egypt’s Coptic Christians, becoming leader of the largest Christian minority in the Middle East… to be enthroned in a ceremony on November 18.
“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Timothy 2.1-3 NKJV
Watch the moment in the ceremony when a blindfolded boy picked the name out of a bowl –
His name was selected from a glass bowl by a blindfolded boy at a ceremony in Cairo’s St Mark’s Cathedral. Three candidates had been shortlisted.
The 60-year-old succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March aged 88.
He succeeds as attacks on Copts are on the increase, and many say they fear the country’s new Islamist leaders.
The other two candidates were Bishop Raphael and Father Raphael Ava Mina. They were chosen in a ballot by a council of some 2,400 Church and community officials in October.
Bishop Tawadros has studied in Britain
In God’s hands
Their names were written on pieces of paper and put in crystal balls sealed with wax on the church altar.
A blindfolded boy – one of 12 shortlisted children – then drew out the name of Bishop Tawadros, who until now was an aide to the acting leader, Bishop Pachomius.
Bishop Pachomius then took the ballot from the boy’s hand and showed it to all those gathered in the cathedral.
Strict measures were in place to make sure there was no foul play during the televised ceremony: the three pieces of paper with candidates’ names were all the same size and tied the same way.
Copts say this process ensures the selection is in God’s hands.
Bishop Tawadros will be enthroned in a ceremony on 18 November.
The Peanut Gallery 