CONTINUE TO MEET AND ENCOURAGE

CONTINUE TO MEET AND ENCOURAGE        Tuesday - October 26, 2010

“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:25

In October 2010, Pastor Imad Dabour of Lebanon addressed delegates at the third Lausanne Congress of World Evangelization in Cape Town South Africa. He said that for tens of thousands of Christians in North Africa persecution is part of their everyday life.
"There are two things about Christianity that we teach people. That it gives you salvation and a lot of joy with it - and persecution. Persecution is a basic teaching in our church," he said.
In such a hostile environment, growing in their new identity as a Christian is not easy and many new converts face losing their friends and family, Dabour explained. With persecution occurring daily across the region, becoming a Christian is a "serious decision".
Despite the difficulties, the church continues to teach converts the truth that Jesus is the only way.
"It is a hostile environment [and] a daily challenge for Christians with a new identity from a Muslim background," Pastor Imad noted.

Do not let anything separate you from the love of Christ. Today in prayer, pray for persecuted Christians that they may be encouraged in Christ.

“When the world asks, ‘What is God like?’ we should be able to say, ‘Look at the church.’ As the body of Christ, we are to be like Jesus so that we too reveal God to the world.” – William R.L. Haley

God’s Word: “They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” – Acts 2:42