"Similar to the days of the Israelites in Moses' time, the Lord's people are still making bricks for their oppressors. However, this modern-day system of slavery takes place in Pakistan, built on the backs of the poorest of believers. The bricks they are making will eventually turn back into dust, but the Kingdom the Lord is building among them is indestructible."
--The Rescue of Azra Bibi, Voice of the Martyrs
"I am not educated. I liked to watch the other children going to school. I wanted to be a teacher of the Word of God, but my mother only earned $1.14 per day. My father died and we lived hand to mouth. One day I decided to help my mother. I asked her, 'Mom, can you teach me how to make a brick?' I was seven years old when I made my first brick. Between the two of us, we made 1,000 bricks a day. On Fridays my mother and I used to go to the market to buy our daily household items. I always liked to shop. Sometimes I could buy clips for my hair.
The kiln owner wouldn't allow us to go to church so my mother always told the owner, 'We are going to see our relatives,' or 'We are going to the market.' I liked to see the church programs on Christmas day, especially the Christmas songs and plays. I also like to hear about the miracles of Jesus Christ. Although we could not sneak to church every Sunday, every morning and in the evening my mother and I would pray. We sang worship songs from cassettes. One song went like this, 'I am weak in my heart; Jesus, encourage me and strengthen me.'"
"...Muhannad Akram, one of the men who tortured and killed my mother, took me to another place. He locked me in a room of a big home. There was an armed security guard present.
'Muhammad Akram is a 70-year-old man. He came into my room and made advances towards me. I cried. I joined my hands in prayer in front of him and begged him to stop, but he violated me. After he left I prayed, "Oh Lord, it is good if You call me home; at least I will see You. I will stay with You and rest in peace. Jesus, I want to come to You. Please call me home.' I wanted to die."
"Muhammad Akram often came into my room. He kept trying to convert me to Islam, I told him, 'My God is an alive God. How can I leave the alive God and accept your faith?' He decided to force me to marry him. He and the kiln owner planned my wedding day..."
"...the day my marriage was supposed to take place, the pastor came with the money. They paid the money to the kilm owner, but Muhammad Akram was very angry. He beat and injured the pastor, but I was still set free."
What a beautiful picture, and what a beautiful picture of grace her word's express. Christians have it very easy in America, though the climate is changing. We are taught to expect persecution, and we are admonished to persevere... to hold to our faith. As Azra did.
Sadly, not everyone is rescued.
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??!!
And you're basing this on, what exactly?
Excuse me, but that seems like an unnecessarily ridiculous statement.
Is there no end to your ability? Writing, artwork, mind-reading!
Again, Mark made the allegation that "liberals" want to continue religious oppression, violence, forced marriage, general oppression. I'm saying that if you had any integrity, you would join me in asking him to validate that outrageous claim.
Come on, Eric, you're a Christian. Mark's a Christian. You know it's wrong to bear false witness. Mark just bore false witness - outrageously so! Unless he can back up his claim, I'm asking you as a brother to call him on it.
Liberals, and Democrats by extension, lie to themselves and this nation EVERY time they get before a microphone. Many Republicans are no better. Want to know what's really wrong with this nation? It's Congress... both houses. It's institutional corruption. It's too many years in the big house and not enough time in the fields. Too many politicians who claim to care about the people but have spent their entire careers padding out their own retirement. Making laws for 'The People' from which they conveniently exempt themselves. These people are professional liars, and Pharisees almost to the man!
It is a lie to say that increasing taxes, increases revenue...
It is a lie to say that the Constitition guarantees a woman's right to kill her unborn child...
It is a lie to stand before the nation and decry one man's illegalities, while concealing one's own.
It is a lie to say this nation is involved in an unwinnable war.
It is a lie to say Iraq is not part of the War on Islamic extremists.
It is a lie to say Iraq has become Vietnam.
It is a lie to say one supports the troops, but doesn't support the mission.
It is a lie to say one supports the troops, but doesn't support their Commander in Chief.
It is a lie to say one supports the troops, while hating the very thing they stand for... Freedom... and spitting on them at public demonstration!
It is a lie to say Bush doesn't care about Black People! EVERY BIT AS MUCH as it was for that fool Farrakhan to claim Bush bombed the Levees!
The Democratic Party is so filled with lies it has spilled over into the body-public...
The insanity that has so infected the gestalt American-mind is the direct result of our elected kings and queens in Washington D.C.. They are destroying this nation every bit as much as Radical Islam would like... every bit as much a the Main Stream Media.
Get your head out of your political leaders Asses and learn to think for yourself! Better to put your head and heart into God's word, and let THAT be your guide!
Before you try to use that tired line again, please think on Romans 2:21-22...
"Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal?
Rom 2:22 Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?"
Or, allow me to expound...
When you accuse us of bearing false witness, don't you ALSO bear also false witness?
Of course you do. We all do. If you can't take the heat and adequately defend your position without resorting to cry-baby tactics, then get out of the kitchen.
And that's all I've got to say about that!
God forgive me for losing my temper!
None of this even addresses the post! Except perhaps tangentially. Americans are every bit as much a nation of slaves as Azra's community of persecuted believers. Thing is, we're blinded to the chains that weight us down. Seek the truth while it is still daylight!
I'm sorry Mark brought up an unrelated topic and that I commented on the inappropriateness of that comment.
"We ALL bear false witness. You are quick to demand retractions from everyone else, but you can't see your own hypocrisy."
As always, I ask you to point out any specific hypocrisy on my part, any specific lies that I may utter.
What you seem to prefer, though, is to tell me what I'm thinking ("What Liberals really want is power and the best way to retain power is to always have the rolls full of people who owe their livelihood to the state?") and then to condemn that strawman.
Here, you're saying that I'm lying and you seem to be saying that I've praised Clinton as "a brilliant president" and all manner of things that I've not said or advocated.
I'm telling you specifically that Mark has offered a falsehood. The people that he calls "liberals" do not advocate nor "Seem" to advocate oppression. In fact, it is liberals that one hears stand up the most against oppression, at least giving it lip service. That is an outrageous statement.
You don't see me saying, "Conservatives seem to hate blacks," "Conservatives seem to love blood and gore," or any of the other sort of accusations you allude to.
And as to this:
"When you accuse us of bearing false witness, don't you ALSO bear also false witness?"
The answer is NO, I have not bore false witness. But if I have, please tell me how so that I can repent and apologize. But to continue to cast aspersions is just ridiculous and to say something like, "NO Dan, you really DO hate Bush," is just a lie and ridiculous.
But by all means, if you don't want to clear up a misstatement, don't. It's your blog, your choice.
I'm just saying...
To finish your last statement.
Even if you disagree. You should at least strive to see how others can look at the same things and reach different conclusions. Not for any evil or bad purpose, just through different lenses of experience and thought.
I shall keep you in my thoughts and hope you come to a more peaceful coexistence with the world.
"As always, I ask you to point out any specific hypocrisy on my part, any specific lies that I may utter."
And I add:
As always, nothing. No specific lies or hypocrisy are pointed out. Given that, why the hostility towards me and mine?
It is always of value, in my book, when comrades who are having a disagreement talk about it.
Coincidence? I think not.
The story of Azra is truly heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. It made me cry and gave me hope. None of us have a leg to stand on as far as perseverence for our beliefs, regardless of what they are. Most of us in our comfy little mansions here in the States would've caved early on... and yet the mere hangnail on the pinkie of this courageous young woman puts ALL of us to shame.
And SHAME ON US for that, too. It will be our undoing.
Banter all you like in this cyberspace paradise where true persecution for our beliefs is about as real as the pink elephant standing behind me, but it's people like her that end up changing the world.
Carry on...
That makes me think of: "I thank my god that I am not as other men".
That statement above is Dan's bluff, because most of us are busy enough that to go run down his comments is more time than we want to spend on nonsense. Lots can be implied and not stated by words, whether true of not. Useless games!
-Jesus
He didn't say "get on a blog and tell everyone, he's wrong and I'm right".
Oh! You're still in Louisville? I thought maybe you had taken up residence in the upper realms.