Galatians—the Hebraic Contextual Background Explained
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Understanding Galatians Hebraically in 23 Minutes
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Middle Eastern Christian Woman Tells Americans Not to Pray for Persecution to End
Coptic Christians attend a church service during Holy Easter week in central Cairo, Egypt, April 17, 2014.
God’s plan for the Middle East is “working perfectly” even though the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians is seemingly getting worse by the day, a persecuted Christian woman told American churchgoers on Sunday.
The Christian woman, who is referred to by the pseudonym of “Maryam” for security purposes, was encouraged by a group of six pastors and ministry leaders from the United States to travel to America and share her family’s story of persecution and speak about the dedicated faith displayed by Christians in the Middle East.
This past Sunday, Maryam visited MeadowBrook Baptist Church in Gadsden, Alabama, and shared the story of how her father was sentenced to six months in jail after he complained to police about a Muslim man who was blocking the entrance to his store, threatening to kill him and disfigure his daughters with acid.
“I will let you and your sister be orphans,” Maryam said, recalling the Muslim man’s threats.
Although her father tried to file a complaint with police, he was sent away and told by authorities to forgive the Muslim man. But after Maryam’s father was physically assaulted, he went back to the police a second time and a case was finally filed. However, the Muslim man alleged that Maryam’s father had cut him.
Instead of the Muslim man being jailed for death threats and physical assault, he was set free while the judge sentenced Maryam’s father to prison.
As a whole, persecution and harassment are daily struggles for Middle Eastern Christians, Maryam said.
Maryam also spoke about a physical assault she suffered on her way to the airport to travel to the U.S. She said she was assaulted by Muslim men because she did not bow to strict fundamentalist standards and cover her hair.
“I was walking in the street and behind me there was three guys and they started to insult me and things like that. I just kept walking. They held these small stones and they started to throw it on me,” she said. “They shouted in a loud voice, ‘Cover your hair!’ That is what I am seeing. It’s daily life. Everyday we are facing situations and it is very hard.”
Although Christians in the west might view persecution as a bad thing, Maryam and many other Middle Eastern Christians view persecution as a necessity to help the Church continue to grow in a hostile part of the world.
“The persecution is getting worse and worse and worse,” Maryam said. “But on the other hand actually, what has encouraged me, encouraged my faith, encouraged my church, encouraged everybody Christian in [the region] is that is the Church is increasing.”
Maryam explained that while some radical Muslims are brutally killing and persecuting so called non-believers and claim to be acting in the name of Allah, many other Muslims in the Middle East are starting to open their eyes and ask serious questions about the religion they espouse.
“A lot of Muslim people now, they are so confused about what is going on now. A lot of them are asking, ‘Who is this God whose name is Allah, who orders people to slaughter?'” she said. “They are confused and they are asking and wondering now days about ISIS and about what is going on.”
“We are talking to them and asking them ‘Please, open your Quran and search what is written,'” Maryam continued.
Maryam said there are now over 1 million Christians in her country who are “Muslim background believers.” She said she knows of one priest who single-handedly has converted over 6,000 Muslims in the last five years.
“We are not afraid or worried that the persecution will increase. We are just feeling that this is God’s time,” Maryam said. “God is working perfectly now in the Middle East. Even with all these crazy stuff happening, God is really working now.”
“So, I want to encourage you that, of course, you need to pray for your brothers and sisters in the Middle East who are suffering for being Christians and for their faith, but I am asking you to pray a different prayer,” Maryam encouraged the Alabama churchgoers. “Don’t pray for the persecution to be stopped. … But pray for the Christians there, for their boldness, their encouragement, for their faith and that they can all be witnesses for God’s work and for God.”
MeadowBrook Senior Pastor Randy Gunter, who visited the region and met Maryam in April, told The Christian Post on Tuesday that he also met with a well-respected Christian leader named “Paul” during his trip.
Paul told Gunter that the experiences Christians have faced since 2011 have been “amazing.”
“Do not pray for the persecution to stop; that is to pray in the wrong direction of the Bible,” Gunter recalled Paul telling him. “What God has allowed us to go through in the last five years is amazing. He has allowed a great shaking.”
“We could see the shining face of Jesus in the midst of all the chaos,” Paul added. “Christians had hope, whereas the Muslims around us did not.”
Gunter argued that many Christians in the West have the “wrong concepts about the persecuted Church.”
“Many view [persecution] as a destroying the Church, but historically and presently, God uses persecution to bring about the pure essence of hope and salvation within the Church,” Gunter wrote in an email to CP. “Many Muslims and others are coming to faith because they are witnessing the love, forgiveness and compassion of the Lord’s Church. Like all people, they long for hope. ”
Maryam will be speaking at eight different churches and venues in the U.S. over the next two weeks.
“Some people [in the U.S.] shared with me that ‘We are shy to speak to people about the Gospel or about Jesus because they might laugh at us,'” Maryam explained. “I was like, ‘Your brothers and sisters in [the Middle East], they want to evangelize but the law prevented that. But here it is allowed to speak about Jesus and sing songs. For us, it is not allowed. If we did something like that, we would be in jail.'”
“You have to be very awake because there is no time to waste,” Maryam stressed. “The persecution has penetrated the U.S. and penetrated Europe now.”
Lessons from Deuteronomy on Faith, Fighting and Overcoming
Deuteronomy 1:26–28, Moving forward in the face of obstacles. Many times in our spiritual walk we are just at the point of spiritual breakthrough, but we receive an evil report about some spiritual giants that is blocking our forward movement and our resolve to advance melts. It seems sometimes that if we could just see what the future holds for us that it would be much easier for us to go forward! Yet Yeshua said, Blessed are those who haven’t seen, yet still believe in YHVH’s promises (John 20:29). Do you have what it takes to go on without being deterred by the world, the flesh and the devil? How can one go forward in faith if one cannot see where one is going? It gets down to personal and intimate relationship with your Heavenly Father, through Yeshua. He directs us through his Spirit. Can you hear his voice with your spirit when he tells you, “This is the way, walk you in it,” (Isa 30:21)?
Deuteronomy 1:29, He will fight for you. How does Elohim fight for us? Let’s look at the example of the children of Israel. We can learn a lot from them (1 Cor 10:11). How many examples are there of the Israelites sitting down and doing nothing while YHVH fought for them? Few if any. What then does YHVH require? We must do our part, and he Continue reading
Which biblical covenant(s) apply to you?
Ephesians 2:12, Covenants. The Apostle Paul makes a very interesting and often overlooked statement in Ephesians 2:12. For context we will quote the surrounding verses:
Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Messiah, being aliens from the commonwealth [citizenship] of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without Elohim in the world: but now in Messiah Yeshua ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Messiah. (emphasis added)
Paul, talking to the redeemed believers in Ephesus, states that they had been (past tense) Gentiles (comprised of various ethnic or people groups) without Elohim and without hope, but now, through the work of Yeshua at the cross, provision had been made for these alienated people-groups to become citizens of the nation of Israel. Elsewhere Paul refers to these (former) Gentiles as now being Israelites and defines them as heirs to the Continue reading
Why do you still consider yourself to be a Gentile?
Ephesians 2:11, Gentiles. Paul says in a number of places that those who come to Yeshua are no longer Gentiles but are the children or seed (literally “sperm,” which is the meaning of the Greek word) of Abraham (Eph 2:11–19; Rom 4:16; 9:8–11; Gal 3:7,9,14,28–29). The word Gentiles as used in the Scriptures (both in the Hebrew and the Greek languages) simply means “ethnic groups or nations.” There are many places in the Scriptures where Jews and Israelites are referred to as “Gentiles.” There is no class of people called Gentiles in the spiritual body of Yeshua. Scripture uses the following terms for the redeemed of YHVH: the saints, the called out ones (or church), the body of Yeshua (1 Cor 10:16; 12:27; Eph 4:12) the one new man (Eph 2:15), sons of Elohim (Rom 8:14, 19; Phil 2:15; 1 John 3:1, 2), children of Elohim (Rom 8:16, 21; Gal 3:26; 1 John 3:10), or Abraham’s offspring (Gal 3:29), the bride (Rev 18:23; 21:2, 9; 22:17) for example.
Any attempt by anyone to keep the Jew—Gentile division alive within the body of Yeshua is in effect keeping up the middle wall of partition that the Apostle Paul gave his ministry life and eventually his physical life to tearing down (see Eph 2:11–19). It is also going against Continue reading
Success! I trapped the skunk…
Life is full of battles. There are a lot of enemies out there. Some are human, others are non-human and then there are spiritual enemies as well. This blog is devoted, in part, to combatting the enemies of biblical truth whoever or whatever they may be.
Well, recently I’ve been fighting a different kind of enemy for the past few weeks—a skunk that has taken up residence in my yard. I finally got a live trap and baited it with marshmallows (kosher, of course) and peanut butter. Just last night I came out of my backyard office building (a converted chicken house) at about midnight and almost ran into the skunk. We both surprised each other as he scampered off. He’s really cute. Thankfully, he hasn’t sprayed, but he has been tearing up my flowerbeds and lawn in search of grubs and earthworms.
This morning he was in my trap. Yeah! I just came back from releasing him on the other side of the river.
After I shook him out of the trap and backed off quickly, he did spray, but didn’t get me.
Good riddance and have a nice life Mr. or Mrs. Skunk—whatever you are.
There’s the trap next to the garbage bag a wrapped it in. Just beyond the trap you can see a black spot disappearing into the grass. That’s the skink.