Boko Haram: Digging into Untold History

Today it’s little known that Islam’s holy city Medina was predominantly Jewish city in the time of Mohammad. During that time the city was called Yatrib and it was inhabited by three large Jewish tribes: Banu-Nadir (or “Sons of Nadir,”), Banu-Korayzeh, and Banu-Kainuka. Consistent with Torah-based lifestyle of tilling the land, these tribes engaged in Date palm agriculture, unlike their Bedouin non-Jewish counterparts in the region, who made a living thru caravan trade from Yemen to Syria. Politically Arabia and Israel seem worlds apart but in reality the distance between Eilat, Israel’s southernmost city and Medina is the same as between Boston and Washington DC.

This land where Mecca and Medina stand, the Arabian stretch along the Red Sea, is the same land that was inhabited in the Biblical times by Medianites. The most famous Medianite was Yitro (Jethro) – Moses’ father-in-law. He famously joined the Israelite camp and converted to Judaism, after which he “returned to his people” (Exodus 18:27) to convert them to Judaism. Even though connection between Yatrib (Medina) and Yitro(Jethro) is more phonetic than etymological, due to the one letter variance in their roots, it is certainly an interesting conjecture based on circumstantial evidence of Jewish presence in what was historically Jethro’s homeland. The only scholarly consensus is that Yatrib is a non-Arabic word, so we know that Yatrib and its predominantly Jewish population’s origins predate Arabic culture in that land.

Muslim conquest of Medina in 630CE was of the first of Muslim conquests. Prior to becoming mighty enough to conquer the city, Mohammad tried desperately to endear the Jews of Yatrib to his newfangled religion. He sought after their validation and acceptance. For 16 months, Mohammad prayed with his few early followers along with the Jews of Yatrib in the direction of Jerusalem. After that time, Mohammad realized that Jews will not ever accept him as prophet despite his initial pleading and later threats – Jews insisted that he does not match criteria of prophet in Torah. When Mohammad took over Medina, he beheaded hundreds of Jewish men there, giving the remaining choice to leave, convert or die. His next act was to attempt and erase the Jewish past of the city by renaming it ‘Medina’. Medina means simply “city”. ‘Medina’ also sounds like tribute to Medianite- the pre-Judaic pagan past of the region. Incidentally, this is also when Mohammad turned his prayers from Jerusalem toward the pagan Kabba Stone in Mecca; it remains so until this day.

These acts of Mohamad vis-à-vis Jews of Yatrib (Medina) are clear messages from him to his followers, echoing all these fourteen centuries later. Just as Mohammad showed he cannot co-exist with Jews but must convert, erase or replace them, set the tone for Islam ever since in its attitude towards non-Muslims in general. Throughout the existence of Islam, its spread into the world, and most notably today, it is being experienced in the form of jihad- “holy war” on non-Muslims. The first to experience jihad were the Jews of Yatrib. The polemic nature of Islam evolved from the insecurity Mohammad experienced in being rejected by these Arabian Jews, and even by his own tribe members (Tribe of Qurayish). Some of his tribe could not understand why he thinks he is ‘messenger’ if his message consists of Judaism and Christianity, with which they were already familiar thru hearsay. It is important to understand that this episode in Mohammad’s evolution from unknown preacher of new faith to military and political leader impacted Islam as political ideology and as religion, making the two inseparable. Tracing the roots of this union helps understand how and why Islam majority countries simply have no substantial separation of “church and state”, which impacts social and governmental structure fundamentally.

 Source: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/09/16/muhammads-first-jihad/

Australia Muslim named commander of Islamic State unit

Abu Yahya ash Shami has been reported as having been killed waging jihad for the Islamic State, so it is unclear who this new commander really is, but if he is indeed Australian, he highlights one of the West’s most important new exports: jihad terrorists.

ASIO is investigating reports the head of Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has appointed a 40-year-old Sydney man to a senior military leadership role in northern Iraq.

An Iraqi news website is ­reporting that an Australian fighting with Islamic State, and who goes by the name Abu Yahya ash Shami, has been named the military commander for the town of Jalula in northern Iraq.

Citing a local source, the Iraqi News site said the Australian had proved his allegiance to Islamic State after he beheaded four ­people who refused to swear a bayat, or oath of allegiance, to Baghdadi. “The Australian was fighting in the front of Deir al-Zour (in Syria) before arriving to Jalula,” the website quotes the sources as saying. “The new commander beheaded four militants belonging to different factions (who) were detained a week ago because they refused to swear ­allegiance to Baghdadi.”

The report could not be verified and there is a possibility it is a case of mistaken identity, as the nom de guerre quoted was used by Zakaryah Raad, an Australian man who was killed while fighting with Islamic State. The report also carried a picture of Raad, who ­appeared in an Islamic State propaganda video before his death. But ASIO, which in recent weeks has issued several high-profile warnings about the threat posed by foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, is understood to be investigating the claim.

Attorney-General George Brandis has said publicly that a number of Australians in Iraq and Syria had progressed from being mere foot soldiers and were now occupying leadership positions with jihadist groups. As many as 60 Australians are believed to be fighting in Iraq and Syria, with dozens more supporting the terrorist outfit from Australia.

Among them is former Sydney man Abu Sulayman, who is a sharia official and operational planner with Jabhat al-Nusra, al- Qa’ida’s affiliate in Syria and bitter rival of Islamic State. Sulayman is considered by ASIO to be among the most senior terrorists ever produced by Australia. The report came as more details emerged about a Brisbane father now fighting for Islamic State in Syria.

As revealed in The Weekend Australian, Afghan-born Zia Abdul-Haq, who has adopted the nom de guerre Abu Yusseph, is believed to be in a unit with other Westerners from Canada and France, after leaving a son and former wife behind to enter the conflict. He had also sought a wife in Syria, bragging to friends on Twitter that one woman had told him his fighting in the “jihad” would be his dowry to her.

Brisbane newspaper The Sunday Mail yesterday reported that Abdul-Haq was a finance officer and moved to Australia in his late 20s. He had been “brainwashed” after hearing a talk by prominent radical cleric Musa Cerantonio. Mr Cerantonio, who was deported from The Philippines this year and has been identified as one of the most influential English-speaking clerics for Western fighters in the conflict, yesterday hit out the brainwashing claims. “At the time that I gave the talk that was mentioned in the article, the Islamic State did not even exist — it was given two years before the group was even founded,” he said.

Source: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/09/01/australia-muslim-named-commander-of-islamic-state-unit/

ISIS Laptop Reveals Project to Build Biological Weapons

Foreign Policy reports reveals contents of a laptop found in Syria, laying out instructions for building chemical weapons and detailing attempts to weaponize bubonic plague.

US intelligence officials discovered that one of the world’s nightmare scenarios may have some base in reality as, according to a report in Foreign Policy last Friday, a laptop was recently discovered in war-torn Syria, detailing the attempts and ambitions of the Islamic State (ISIS) to build and use weapons of mass destruction.

According to the report, the computer was discovered in the city of Idlib in north-western Syria, near the Turkish border after fierce battles in which other resistance groups captured the area, and with it an ISIS post.

Foreign policy said that the computer belonged to a Tunisian national who studied chemistry at two separate universities in his home country before leaving to join ISIS in Syria.

The Syrian rebels who captured Idlib didn’t know what was on the computer or what importance it may have and therefore passed it on to Foreign Policy reporters who initially thought that the laptop was empty.

Only after further investigation did they discover tens of thousands of folders and documents in French, English and Arabic. The computer’s contents were originally unsurprising for a terrorist organization like ISIS. Reporters found old videos of Osama Bin Laden, a guidebook for building a bomb and stealing a vehicle, and how jihadists should use disguises and fake identities to travel from country to country without being caught.

Finally, after hours of filing through the computer’s documents, Foreign Policy reporters found documents proving that the Tunisian had taught himself how to construct biological weapons for attacks that would astound the world.

Perhaps the most alarming of the documents however, detailed ISIS sanctioned work to weaponize the bubonic plague and other viruses that would have an even greater affect than that of a localized chemical attack.

“The benefits of a biological weapon are that it doesn’t come up often, and the losses are massive,” said the instructions on the laptop. “When a mouse is injected by the bacteria, the symptoms of the disease begin to show after 24 hours. It’s best to use in places like underground trains or soccer fields and it can be used in a suicide attack as well.

Alongside the instructions was also a message of religious approval for the use of such weapons – part of a Fatwa which says that, “If the Muslims can’t overwhelm the infidels in any other way, they are allowed to use weapons of mass destruction to kill everyone and erase them and their descendants from the earth.”

While the idea of ISIS establishing such devastating weapons can easily conjure fear, this isn’t the first me that terrorist organizations have brought the issue of biological weapons to the forefront of the war on extremism.

Source: http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2014/09/01/isis-laptop-reveals-project-to-build-biological-weapons/

Another Look at Our Other Cousins - Council Declares Women’s Existence Anti-Islamic

In chain being Married out

Islamabad - Sharia Correspondent: The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) concluded their 192nd meeting on Thursday with the ruling that women are un-Islamic and that their mere existence contradicted Sharia and the will of Allah. As the meeting concluded CII Chairman Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani noted that women by existing defied the laws of nature, and to protect Islam and the Sharia women should be forced to stop existing as soon as possible. The announcement comes a couple of days after CII’s 191st meeting where they dubbed laws related to minimum marriage age to be un-Islamic.

After declaring women to be un-Islamic, Shirani explained that there were actually two kinds of women – haraam and makrooh. “We can divide all women in the world into two distinct categories: those who are haraam and those who are makrooh. Now the difference between haraam and makrooh is that the former is categorically forbidden while the latter is really really disliked,” Shirani said.

He further went on to explain how the women around the world can ensure that they get promoted to being makrooh, from just being downright haraam. “Any woman that exercises her will is haraam, absolutely haraam, and is conspiring against Islam and theUmmah, whereas those women who are totally subservient can reach the status of beingmakrooh. Such is the generosity of our ideology and such is the endeavour of Muslim men like us who are the true torchbearers of gender equality,” the CII chairman added.

Officials told Khabaristan Today that the council members deliberated over various historic references related to women and concluded that each woman is a source of fitnaand a perpetual enemy of Islam. They also decided that by restricting them to their subordinate, bordering on slave status, the momineen and the mujahideen can ensure that Islam continues to be the religion of peace, prosperity and gender equality.

Responding to a question one of the officials said that international standards of gender equality should not be used if they contradict Islam or the constitution of Pakistan that had incorporated Islam and had given sovereignty to Allah. “We don’t believe in western ideals, and nothing that contradicts Islam should ever be paid heed. In any case by giving women the higher status of being makrooh, it’s us Muslims who have paved the way for true, Sharia compliant feminism,” the official said.

The CII meeting also advised the government that to protect Islam women’s right to breathe should also be taken away from them. “Whether a woman is allowed to breathe or not be left up to her husband or male guardian, and no woman under any circumstance whatsoever should be allowed to decide whether she can breathe or not,” Shirani said.

Source: http://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2014/03/15/comment/coucil-of-islamic-ideology-declares-womens-existence-anti-islamic/

‘I serve a God who answers prayers’: Full Text of the Medical Missionary, Dr Kent Bently, who Beat Ebola

Dr Kent Bently, who Beat Ebola

 Today is a miraculous day. I am thrilled to be alive, to be well and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position. When my family and I moved to Liberia last October to begin a two-year term working with Samaritan’s Purse, Ebola was not on the radar. We moved to Liberia because God called us to serve the people of Liberia.

 In March, when we got word that Ebola was in Guinea and had spread to Liberia, we began preparing for the worst. We didn’t receive our first Ebola patient until June, but when she arrived, we were ready. During the course of June and July, the number of Ebola patients increased steadily, and our amazing crew at ELWA Hospital took care of each patient with great care and compassion. We also took every precaution to protect ourselves from this dreaded disease by following MSF and WHO guidelines for safety.

Writebol with children in Liberia before
she was struck by Ebola, which she fully
 recovered from on Tuesday.

 After taking Amber and our children to the airport to return to the States on Sunday morning, July 20, I poured myself into my work even more than before – transferring patients to our new, bigger isolation unit; training and orienting new staff; and working with our Human Resources officer to fill our staffing needs. Three days later, on Wednesday, July 23, I woke up feeling under the weather, and then my life took an unexpected turn as I was diagnosed with Ebola Virus Disease. As I lay in my bed in Liberia for the following nine days, getting sicker and weaker each day, I prayed that God would help me to be faithful even in my illness, and I prayed that in my life or in my death, He would be glorified.

 I did not know then, but I have learned since, that there were thousands, maybe even millions of people around the world praying for me throughout that week, and even till today. And I have heard story after story of how this situation has impacted the lives of individuals around the globe – both among my friends and family, and also among complete strangers. I cannot thank you enough for your prayers and your support. But what I can tell you is that I serve a faithful God who answers prayers.

 Through the care of the Samaritan’s Purse and SIM missionary team in Liberia, the use of an experimental drug, and the expertise and resources of the health care team at Emory University Hospital, God saved my life – a direct answer to thousands and thousands of prayers.

 I am incredibly thankful to all of those who were involved in my care, from the first day of my illness all the way up to today – the day of my release from Emory. If I tried to thank everyone, I would undoubtedly forget many. But I would be remiss if I did not say thank you to a few. I want to thank Samaritan’s Purse, who has taken care of me and my family as though we were their own family. Thank you to the Samaritan’s Purse and SIM Liberia community. You cared for me and ministered to me during the most difficult experience of my life, and you did so with the love and mercy of Jesus Christ.
 Thank you to Emory University Hospital and especially to the medical staff in the isolation unit. You treated me with such expertise, yet with such tenderness and compassion. For the last three weeks you have been my friends and my family. And so many of you ministered to me not only physically, but also spiritually, which has been an important part of my recovery. I will never forget you and all that you have done for me.

 And thank you to my family, my friends, my church family and to all who lifted me up in prayer, asking for my healing and recovery. Please do not stop praying for the people of Liberia and West Africa, and for a quick end to this Ebola epidemic.

 My dear friend, Nancy Writebol, upon her release from the hospital, wanted me to share her gratitude for all the prayers on her behalf. As she walked out of her isolation room, all she could say was, ‘To God be the glory.’ Nancy and David are now spending some much needed time together.

 Thank you for your support through this whole ordeal. My family and I will now be going away for a period of time to reconnect, decompress and continue to recover physically and emotionally. After I have recovered a little more and regained some of my strength, we will look forward to sharing more of our story; but for now, we need some time together after more than a month apart. We appreciate having the opportunity to spend some time in private before talking to some of you who have expressed an interest in hearing more of our journey. Thank you for granting us that.

 Again, before we slip out, I want to express my deep and sincere gratitude to Samaritan’s Purse, SIM, Emory and all of the people involved in my treatment and care.

Above all, I am forever thankful to God for sparing my life and am glad for any attention my sickness has attracted to the plight

Opportunities to Serve in Grace Foundation

Grace Foundation has need for staff. There are opportunities for both short and long term staff. We would love for you to come and join the team. The urgent and immediate staff needs are:

1) Church Planters
This is our number one need. We are beginning to see how few people are really willing to give their lives up to plant churches among unreached people where there are none. It is a long, hard process of making relationships over time and takes awhile to see fruit which is why many don't feel "called" to do it. Please pray for more people that would be willing to do evangelism, discipleship, and church planting among the many unreached people groups.

2) Pastoral Care
Pray for a couple seasoned in life and ministry to come on board to oversee the spiritual life of the GF missionaries. We need someone with a lot of wisdom, counseling experience, knowledge of the Word, good speaking skills, compassion that speaks the truth in love and gifted in member care.

3) Medical Personnel
We need a full-time doctor or nurse to help run the medical side of our ministry which helps open so many doors. We need someone to be in charge of all short-term medical teams coming through the base as well as oversee the mobile medical team which will be getting underway soon.

4) Missionary Children Teacher
We need someone that would be willing to come down to teach staff and students' children or assist in the home-school process in order to free the parents up to get more involved in ministry.

5) Internet
We need someone that would serve as our webmaster and be in charge of our search engine optimization. This person would be responsible for helping with all our IT needs and finding more effective ways of using the internet as a way of reaching the nations. We would also like someone with video editing knowledge to help with promotion and production of new resources to help advance the kingdom through media.

6) Maintenance Person
We need a "handy man" that could take care of all the little odd jobs that often pop-up at our facilities.

7)Administrative Assistant
We are looking for an office manager at GFIM to do much of the correspondence, accounting, and fundraising that is involved in keeping the ministries going.

Short and Long-term serving with Grace Foundation:

For those eyeing to serve with us on a short-term basis, the terms are entirely based on your time, availability and affordability to go to the place you would felt the Lord wants you serve in one of our mission bases within Nigeria or outside (list of places below). The other requirement we do not overlook for all including those that want to come on short term basis, is that one should be born again.

The first step in joining our organization as a long-term staff is to go through the twelve month missionary training at our School of Cross-Cultural Missions. This is a great way for us to get to know you and your gifts and for you to get to know us. It is a type of candidacy and screening program to see if you would work well with our team and a chance for you to be empowered for ministry, get to know our staff, our values, our vision, and our ministry philosophy.

After completion of the school, if we both feel good about the relationship we will look for a place where you can work using your gifting, personality, and passion. We have many staff opportunities with GF at our various fields like Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Niger Republic and proposed field in North Africa and the Middle East. We also have good relationships with other missions organizations and love sending the people that we have trained to go and bless them if GF isn't the right fit for you.

Email us now: gracefoundationinternational@yahoo.com or sms us on +2348173322222 to register your interest.

Go ye...Mark 16:15

Women that Christian Men Must Never Consider for Marriage

The last edition of God's Heartbeat contained the first part of this article. In it, J. Lee Grady, former Editor of Charisma and the Director of the Mordecai Project listed the guidelines for women trusting God for husband. This one contain guidelines for men who are looking for wives. 

1. The unbeliever. In last week’s column, I reminded women that the Bible is absolutely clear on this point: Christians should not marry unbelievers. Second Corinthians 6:14 says, “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship h

as light with darkness?” (NASB). Apart from your decision to follow Christ, marriage is the single most important decision you will ever make. Don’t blow it by ignoring the obvious. You need a wife who loves Jesus more than she loves you. Put spiritual maturity at the top of your list of qualities you want in a wife.

2. The material girl. One young friend of mine was engaged to a girl from a rich family. He saved up money for months to buy a ring, but when he proposed she told him he needed to go back to the jewelry store to buy a bigger diamond. She pushed her fiance to go into debt for a ring that fit her expectations. She wanted a Tiffany’s lifestyle on his Wal-Mart budget. I warned my friend that he was stepping into serious trouble. Unless you want to live in debt for the rest of your life, do not marry a girl who has dollar signs in her eyes and eight credit cards in her Gucci purse.

3. The diva. Some macho guys like to throw their weight around and pretend they are superior to women. Divas are the female version of this nightmare. They think the world revolves around them, and they don’t think twice about hurting somebody else to prove their point. Their words are harsh and their finger-snapping demands are unreasonable. Some of these women might end up in leadership positions at church, but don’t be fooled by their super-spiritual talk. Real leaders are humble. If you don’t see Christlike humility in the woman you are dating, back away from her and keep looking.

4. The Delilah. Remember Samson? He was anointed by God with superhuman strength, but he lost his power when a seductive woman figured out his secret and gave her man the world’s most famous haircut. Like Delilah, a woman who hasn’t yielded her sexuality to God will blind you with her charms, break your heart and snip your anointing off. If the “Christian” woman you met at church dresses provocatively, flirts with other guys, posts sexually inappropriate comments on Facebook or tells you she’s OK with sex before marriage, get out of that relationship before she traps you.

5. The contentious woman. A young man told me recently that he dated a girl who had serious resentment in her heart because of past hurts. “Before I would propose, I told my fiancee she had to deal with this,” he explained. “It would have been a deal-breaker, but there was a powerful breakthrough and now we are engaged.” This guy realized that unresolved bitterness can ruin a marriage. Proverbs 21:9 says, “It is better to live in a corner of a roof than in a house shared with a contentious woman.” If the woman you are dating is seething with anger and unforgiveness, your life together will be ruined by arguing, door-slamming and endless drama. Insist that she get prayer and counseling.

6. The controller. Marriage is a 50/50 partnership, and the only way it works is when both husband and wife practice mutual submission according to Ephesians 5:21. Just as some guys think they can run a marriage like a dictatorship, some women try to manipulate decisions to get their way. This is why premarital counseling is so important! You don’t want to wait until you’ve been married for two weeks to find out that your wife doesn’t trust you and wants to call all the shots.

7. The mama’s girl. It’s normal for a new wife to call her mom regularly for advice and support. It is not normal for her to talk to her mother five times a day about every detail of her marriage, including her sex life. That’s weird. Yet I have counseled guys whose wives allowed their mothers (or fathers) total control of their marriages. Genesis 2:24 says a man is to leave his parents and cleave to his wife. Parents should stay in the background of their children’s marriages. If your girlfriend hasn’t cut the apron strings, proceed with caution.

8. The addict. So many people in the church today have not been properly discipled. Many still struggle with various types of addictions—to alcohol, illegal drugs, prescription medicines or pornography—either because we don’t confront these sins from the pulpit or we don’t offer enough compassionate support to strugglers. Jesus can completely set a person free from these habits, but you don’t want to wait until you’re married to find out your wife isn’t sober. You may still be called to be married, but it is not wise to tie the knot until your girlfriend faces her issues head-on.

Your best rule to follow in choosing a wife is found in Proverbs 31:30: “Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” Look past the outward qualities that the world says are important, and look at the heart.

To get the other side of this story, read "10 Men Christian Women Should Never Marry."

Five Biblical Lessons Christians Must Learn from Boko Haram for Missions Advancement

No matter how bad a person or group is, there are certain good things to

Boko Haram Leaders

learn from  and possibly imitate in that person. Having lived and still doing ministries in the Northern part of Nigeria for more than 25years, I have first hand understanding of how the Muslims and especially the Boko Haram operates and have drawn out five Biblical character traits which I recommend as lessons to be adopted by Christians and guarantees that they will accelerate the speed of the spread of the gospel especially in the dark places of the earth.

1.  Readiness to Die -  The average Boko Haram member is ready to die for his/her course. We see both the young and old availing themselves as suicide bombers from time to time. Even though the course for which they avail themselves are Devilish, the truth remains that their height of commitment remains unquestionable. As they die and sometimes are killed, one assumes that their number will reduce but instead, their number multiplies. Jesus in John 12:24-25 taught the church: 'I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.'  How many Christian today are committed to the Lord to that point. Missions especially to the darkest jungle is costly. Sometimes it might cost us our lives.

2. Enduring Hardship -  Beside death, the average sincere Boko Haram will tell you that pursuing their course is not comfortable. You hear they running from jungle to jungle. Now their headquarters is located in a forest - Sambisa Forest. Yet, they neither complain nor grumble. I really wonder how many churches will be willing to go to remote places today not to talk of situating their headquarters strategically in the jungle. Apostle Paul taught us in  2 Tim 2:3-5 to : Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.  No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs — he wants to please his commanding officer. Enduring hardship is not a curse but a price every true Christians must be willing to pay to advance His kingdom. Taking the final frontier especially the chronic unreached jungle can never be done without enduring hardship.

3. Funding the Course they believe in.  Finances have consistently and undeniably remain one of the cruel challenge of the end-time harvest. Fund is needed for every facet of the missionary enterprise - from missionary training to deployment. The missionary families will need to eat, clothed, go to school, etc. The converts have to be catered for. Church, schools, hospitals, etc. have to be built. Sadly, even though the church has the money, missions is considered a waste so the budget is either low or non-existent. Yet the Bible says, No soldier goes to the battle front at its own expense. The early missionaries were well funded by their sending churches but the stories of missionaries of our time are full of woes. It is not surprising that fewer and fewer missionaries are responding to missionary call today.  

On the contrary, we see the Boko Haram who are seriously funded and we complain. The people are funding what they believe in. Some are not footsoldiers but they contribute immensely to get the footsoldiers going. A Muslim Politician is first and foremost a Muslim. His/Her finances cannot be divorced from his religion. He/She considers his position in the society as God-given and must be used to promote his religion. That is why a Governor in one of the North Eastern States could donate brand new hilux to the Boko Haram and a Governor of one of the financial institution publicly voted fund for his state and it was alleged that he used his position to pave way for free flow of resources into the account of Boko Haram. Nine Army Generals are still say to be court-martialed for a similar 'offence'. Watching the Boko Haram activities on Youtube, you will see the kinds of sophisticated weapons, vehicles, communication gadgets, etc. There is no doubt that they are highly funded.  The BBC once reported that they recruits from Niger Republic with N350,000-N400,000. That is no small money. How much do we support our missionaries with.

 For most Christians, reverse is the case. They will tell you point blank that it is not Christianity that placed him where he/she is. When shall the church release the fund God has provided for the most important work of enthroning Jesus as Lord over the nations. The likes of Apostle Paul is rare today. It was he who said in  2 Cor 12:15: 'So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well.'  The day all true Christian will make such resolution and act on it, the world will be reached.

Boko Haram Suspects

4. Visionary - The average Boko Haram member is very ambitious. North East of Nigeria is just the starting point. They want to overrun Nigeria. They want to take over Aso Rock, the Nigeria's seat of power. They want to take over the region and the whole world. They are working at it.    Even though, their activities is Devilish, there is nothing wrong with ambition. It was John Knox who said, 'give me Scotland or else I die'. Apostle Paul taught us to be visionary in Romans 15:20-21: It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else's foundation. It is really sad that many Christians today live aimless lives.

5. Eternity in View -  Finally, the average Boko Haram member live life with the reward in the world to come in view. They were promised scores of virgin. They know if they die in the course of Jihad, it is a very speedy way of accessing the virgins. Sadly, many in the church today live without eternity in view.  If we do live with eternity in view, we will be more committed to missionary work than we are. Jesus said, He must do the work now that is day because the night comes when He will not work anymore. Let us learn from the heathen and approach this work with urgency.   Ours may not be virgin, but there is so much to heaven that time will not permit me to stress on here. "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. (Rev 22:12-13)

God's Heartbeat Staff say thank you.

As we warm up for our 25th Anniversary as a mission
agency, we look back to the input of the God's
 Heartbeat Magazine in constantly fueling your
 passion and say thanks to God and to all who
 partnered with us to realise this.

Killing for a Cause?

Andrew Abah provides insight to a missionary solution to the Contemporary Global Nemesis

It is 1.46am and the thought of why I am here gripped me like the pang of the labour of a woman about to put to bed as  Isaiah 66:7-9  come to  mind immediately: "Before she travailed, she brought forth; Before her pain came, she gave birth to a boy. 8"Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day? Can a nation be brought forth all at once? As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons. 9"Shall I bring to the point of birth and not give delivery?" says the LORD. "Or shall I who gives delivery shut the womb?" says your God.…

A mother in agony

In the next two weeks, I am taking time off to pray more than ever and to write as I  travel across North America to plead with the Church to act now before it is too late even as I bring the situation of the gross darkness coming upon the nations, the execution of  genocide on the Nigerian Church, nay the African church, nay the global church to light and the cry of Mordecai to Esther in Esther 4:13-14  …13Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, "Do not imagine that you in the king's palace can escape any more than all the Jews. 14"For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"

Isaiah had long prophesied in Isaiah 62: 1-3 thus: "Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. 2"For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. 3"Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.….  He was not explicit on the deep or gross darkness will cover the earth and the implication which the Psalmist had hinted in Psalm 74:20: Pay attention to your covenant, for the dark regions of the earth are full of violence.

Other words used for 'full of violence'  in other versions include cruelties, violence, wickedness. We don't need any prophetic telescope to know that this passage is fulfilling very fast globally. First it was the villages of Africa as we dared the dens darkness where the church long ignored.  Witches and wizards are busy feasting on lives like vulture feasting on abandoned corpses. The story of young school girl by name Faith my team and I met in the jungle forest of Aiona still makes me weep. The innocent girl was coming from school and mistakenly touched an object referred to as charm. The story of her life changed for horror! Her hand began to swell and produced pus. The hand was punctured and pus coming out has already filled a big bucket . The hospital could not helped matter as they could only recommend amputation. The poor parent refused that option and the girl was left to go about now with her bone out, stinking and in agony. Apparently, the object of the charm must be rejoicing as she watch this little girl die slowly. What a height of wickedness! We can repeat stories of many of such horrors in many of the villages we confronts that are left to the Prince of darkness not only in Africa but all over the world.

Far away in South America comes the story of a very young medical doctor who just graduated from the University. He was full of hope and had just got  a job. The family were happy rejoicing that their labour over their son has paid off. Some young boys met him on the street of Brazil with an Iphone and felt the only way they could rob him of his iphone was to kill him and so they did! The law freed the boys on the ground that they were underage. What a horror!

Former beauty Queen gunned down

As I write this, I remember the story of  a former Miss Venezuela,  Mónica Spear: killed by armed robbers. Mrs. Spear - a 29-year-old was once a South Florida resident. She was gunned down along with her ex-husband while vacationing in the South American nation. The former Miss Venezuela who lived in Orlando and retains close ties to the area, was gunned down along with her ex-husband while vacationing in the South American country. Spear and her ex-husband, Henry Berry, 39 died in an attempted robbery on the highway between Puerto Cabello and Valencia in central Venezuela.

Spear, who graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2004 with a bachelor of arts in theatre, was also a well-known soap-opera actress. Her father's words: "It is the deepest pain, the deepest pain. It is unbelievable. This is a great loss for us. She was very charismatic, a very good daughter, a very good mother, and she loved Venezuela." Spear's 5-year-old daughter, Maya, survived the attack with a bullet wound in her leg and had to go through surgery.

In an indirect apparent way of encouraging these crimes, legislative changes have led to partial decriminalization of possession of Marijuana for personal use in countries like Brazil. Prison sentences no longer applied and were replaced by educational measures and community services. Uruguay's historic decision to legalize the sale and use of marijuana have gingered other countries that were reconsidering long-held convictions about keeping the drug illegal.

Argentina's counter-narcotics chief, Juan Carlos Molina, basically admitted in a radio interview that the national government is considering walking away from the war on pot. "Argentina deserves a good discussion of this," he said, mentioning decriminalization specifically. Mexico, where marijuana is already decriminalized, is also on the way to lowering penalties for weed. Mexico City's city council is considering legalizing possession of up to three marijuana plants and allowing co-operative grow clubs.

Chile's Socialist President Michelle Bachelet is considering relaxing marijuana's classification as a hard drug (adults can already consume drugs privately in Chile with no penalties), while Ecuador is debating relaxing penalties for marijuana possession.

The result of all these is even countries that missions researchers have classified as Christian nations are today enveloped in gross darkness. The greatest war however is the global Jihadist movement. The number of lives cut down prematurely is unquantifiable. They carry out their activities in various names. Sometimes they bear Fulani Marauders, other times they bear Jamāʻat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-daʻwa wal-Jihād)—better known by its Hausa name Boko Haram (pronounced [bōːkòː hàrâm], "Western education is sinful") ^-is an Islamic jihadist and takfiri militant and terrorist organization based in the northeast of Nigeria, north Cameroon and Niger.

Founded by Mohammed Yusuf in 2002, the organisation seeks to establish a "pure" Islamic state ruled by sharia law, putting a stop to what it deems "Westernization". The group is known for attacking Christians and government targets, bombing churches, attacking schools and police stations, kidnapping western tourists, but has also assassinated members of the Islamic establishment that are sympathetic to Christians. Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has resulted in an estimated 10,000 deaths between 2002 and 2013. The number seems to have multiplied in 2014.

Every morning for a week the news has been dominated by the South Korean ferry tragedy. The terrible grief of the parents, the shocking response of the crew to the unfolding disaster, and the inexorably rising body count. Two days before the South Korean students boarded their ferry for a study trip to the nearby island of Jeju, Muslim Jihadists broke into a girls' school in Chibok, in the remote state of Borno, in north-eastern Nigeria. They shot guards and abducted about 200 students, who were loaded into trucks and, it seems, taken off into the forest. Two groups of the girls, perhaps 30 in all, managed to escape. The rest have simply disappeared.

The latest bombing by the group was in Abuja, on the same day the girls were abducted, in which at least 70 people died. Nigeria's president, Goodluck Jonathan, was soon on the scene. The first appearance of the Borno state governor in Chibok came eight days after the attack. The fate of the Nigerian girls, who had been recalled to class in order to sit a physics exam, when all the other schools in the area were closed by security fears, has not been entirely ignored by the world's media. In my recent article titled: The DARKEST Easter Ever in Nigeria, I made a passionate outburst for prayers for these girls. The excerpts:

Another in deep tears

'As I take time to read news on the over 100 girls captured by the Jihadists and being rendered sex-slave without any visible effort to rescue them by the Federal government, I wept. As I read through political propaganda that they have been released only to be refuted by the parents and the Principal of the girls' school that it was LIE, I wept the more. As I scant through the names of the captured girls and discovered they are mainly Christians, I CRIED! as I preached yesterday appealing for prayers from my congregation, I could not conceal my emotion. One of the parents was quoted by the governor as saying: “I preferred seeing my daughter’s corpse than the trauma of having her abducted''. 

I also stayed up late night waiting for the giant America or UK or France to respond by coming to help us rescue the girls with their military might but they only simply condemned the Jihadists. That to me is very disappointing! The Christian Association of Nigeria, should have also come out more strongly but sound very silent except for the two days fast declared. Is there nothing more that can be done?

Also reading through the pages of newspapers, I weep for Nigeria as the response to the happening portray how heartless and reckless the politicians who plans to rule us are. I expect that first as fathers, they should shield politics and be sympathetic but that is not to be...If these folks come to power, what we see now might be a child's play compare to what is to come. I really weep for Nigeria. Oh Lord arise and show us mercy! 

Even the Muslim Governor admitted in his Easter message that he had witnessed very dark days of insurgency inherited by his administration, none of the attacks have been more troubling for him as much as the last one week that young girls from his state were abducted by suspected Boko Haram gunmen and confined to a forest.

Shettima said:”I have seen very serious moments since I became the Governor of Borno State in 2011 at a period of insurgent crisis. I have seen many innocent lives lost for no reason and I mourn every life lost with empathy and high sense of responsibility. But the last one week have been my worst days as a governor and even the worst in my life. I am troubled as a father, as a leader and as a politician.

“First, as a father, any time my young daughter comes around me in the last one week at the Government House,my heart beats very fast,my heart becomes so heavy and I develop serious headache because when I look into the eyes of my young daughter,I wonder how the parents of these our students feel when faced with the harsh reality that their loving daughters are either in the hands of abductors in fear and desperation for freedom or wondering somewhere looking for safety while parents do not know the status of their children.

“But as a father to a girl child, I know exactly what is currently troubling the minds of parents and relations who are yet to see their children,I am deeply pained and I very much share the agonies of parents. More than everyone,as the leader, on whose area of governance, this unfortunate incident took place, I am very anxious to have our daughters freed because I know very well that the most important obligation of any government be it at the federal, state or local levels is to ensure the safety and welfare of its good citizens. Every good citizen deserves safety as a fundamental human need and right under a democratic system of governance. As a leader and politician, I am also troubled that I have not had the important opportunity to meet the anguished parents of these girls in Chibok because I have,on a number of instances, been advised to hold back the trip in order not to interrupt security operations as well as search and rescue efforts which are our topmost priority,especially now. I am very much aware that Chibok is one of our communities with high population of our Christian parents,brothers and sisters. It is therefore, easy for unpatriotic and divisive elements to make issues out of the delayed visit for whatever motive that will be unhelpful.''

Family of abducted girls

Oh Church ARISE! We need to go to God together and cry for the healing of our nation. We need to pray for the urgent rescue of these innocent girls. We need to pray for the few remnant in the far North of Nigeria who have no other place to go and are being consistently wiped out. Nigeria is our country. Running away makes us refugees in other man's land. Let us collectively cry to God. If a tree be cut down, it can live again. He can still heal our land. Arise oh Compatriot!  I cry for my fatherland. The wall of security is broken down, the gate is burnt off ~ worse than the days of Nehemiah. Oh Lord Arise!

Syrian Christians

It looks like another major world war is in the pipeline. How it works out is not yet clear but it may be along religious line. Events across the world are pointers that only God can avert the ongoing Jihadist movements aimed at wiping away from the phase of the earth. 

Another silent cruelty going on is that Christians in the military are being wiped out due to alleged collaboration between the Jihadists and the Muslim soldiers. The pain of a Christian army Colonel killed in the North East of Nigeria few weeks ago still lingers in my mind. Again, my team and I were in the village of Ankpa-Owukpa, Benue State preaching to his people when the news of his death came. He was the only child of his mother. The old woman wept profusely and uncontrollably.

Reading the newspapers in Nigeria makes one weep and the agony intensifies by the day. Even when scores and sometimes hundreds of Christless Muslims were killed like the ones in Zamfara and Borno States in the Mosque, it gives no Christian any joy as it only swells hell. 

In Central African Republic, it was widely reported that the Chadian armies who were supposedly there to keep peace joined forces with the Jihadists and wiped out many Christian at a time!

The Turkish military is actively assisting foreign-backed Sunni Islamic militants who are routing Christian Armenians from the northwestern Syrian town of Kassab, Syrian and Lebanese sources told WND, an online newspaper. The Armenians are being forced to seek refuge in the Syrian city of Latakia.

While there have been numerous reports of Islamic militant groups such as the al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and the ISIS attacking Syrian Christians, the attack on Armenian Christians in Syria by Turkey has brought back memories of the Ottoman Turk attacks on Christian Armenians. The Turkish attacks beginning in 1915 and lasting until 1923 killed more 1.5 million people and has been regarded by many experts as genocide.

As a result, many hundreds of thousands of Armenians fled to neighboring Syria and Lebanon to seek refuge and reestablish Armenian communities. In addition to some 120,000 Armenian Christians, the government of embattled Shiite-Alawite President Bashar al-Assad has been protecting Christian Syriacs, Marionites and Eastern Orthodox believers.

Beginning last March 21, Sunni rebels have expelled some 5,000 Armenian Christians from their historic town, violently attacking the residents and desecrating their churches. Sources say the al-Qaida-affiliated terrorists then occupied the town’s abandoned homes and businesses. The Armenian refugees fled some 35 miles, mostly on foot, to Latakia, a Syrian Army stronghold. There also is a sizeable Christian population in Latakia. The Turkish government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denied any involvement in aiding al-Nusra militants, even though Erdogan, who also is Sunni, has allowed the Syrian opposition and al-Nusra militants to use his country as a base from which to launch military operations, hold meetings and store supplies.

Sources told WND that Turkish military personnel manning the border between Turkey and Syria allowed the foreign Islamic militants to pass without interference. The stunning story of three Christians martyred by Muslims in Turkey, and what one widow said after she lost her husband, in “Malatya.” The sources also report that al-Nusra fighters have taken control of the Kassab border crossing into Turkey.

According to Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi, the Turkish government is facilitating the infiltration of foreign militants into Kassab. He said such assistance violates international resolutions, since it constitutes involvement in terrorism. Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian also expressed concern about the fate of the Christian Armenians in Kassab. “About 120,000 ethnic Armenians live in Syria – in Kassab and other areas,” he said. “Military actions and the humanitarian situation have forced ethnic Armenians to leave the city.” Lebanese sources told WND that given the Sunni attacks on the Christian Armenians in Syria, it is possible that the Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah will intervene to protect them and get back Kassab.

Pointing to the threat from al-Nusra, whose members increasingly are descending on Lebanon, sources say that the Armenian Christians have asked Hezbollah for protection in the country. The Armenian Christians are a relatively small minority group in Lebanon but have sided with most of the other Lebanese Christians to seek Hezbollah’s protection.

In addition, Lebanese sources say that the Armenians in Lebanon are training a small militia which they have organized to protect against attacks from the Sunni al-Nusra group. In 2000, the Lebanese parliament voted to recognize the turn-of-the-century Turkish killing of Armenians as genocide. It is the only Arab country and one of the few countries in the world that has done so.

The pain of seeing innocent children, helpless women and aged men slaughtered like chickens and sometimes pregnant women sliced so their unborn babies can be brought out as torn into pieces is no doubt excruciating. The natural response is to hate, mobilise and fight back.

Why these atrocities, wickedness, callousness, violence and cruelties? Could they be killing for a cause?  What on earth can stop all these?

A  look at  history generates some concern. It looks like anytime, the Church did not reach out with the Gospel to the nations, they come killing the Church. It is no coincidence that those waging war against the church today are mainly unreached people. The Kanuris,  Hausas, Fulanis & Arabs for example with a population of over 5million people has less than 1% Christians each.  Niger Republic from where they find easy recruits have less than 1% Christian also. As far as eternity is concern, there is gross darkness over these people. The cruelties they remain subjected to as a result of these darkness over the centuries are sufficient cause to strike at the church.

The church must continue to pray. We have God's word on our side that if we ask of the Lord the heathen, He will surrender it to us for an inheritance. If we don't, we dare not ask: why do the heathen rage? The Message Bible (Psalm 2:8)  simplify it thus:

 Let me tell you what God said next.
He said, “You’re my son,
And today is your birthday.
What do you want? Name it:
Nations as a present? continents as a prize?
You can command them all to dance for you,
Or throw them out with tomorrow’s trash.”

How often we misdirect our prayers, seeking for mundane things when the heathen awaits our inheritance. John Knox prayed: Give me Scotland or I die. God gave Him Scotland. Can we begin to focus on the nations.

The cry of the nations (Jeremiah 8:20): "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved." Their situation is desperate.

The second recommendation is to go beyond praying to loving them and reaching them with the light of the gospel. This is not time to hate them. It is no doubt difficult and absolutely unnatural to love the unlovable but Christ taught us to do so. Romans 5:8 says But God commanded his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus taugh in Matthew 4:43-44: "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you''.   

The Jihadists

The first century Christians faced terrible persecution both from the state and the religious orders but Roman eventually became Christianized.  The greatest love we can show to these people is to take the gospel of Christ to them. Only the light can dispel darkness. If they are born again, they become our brothers and sisters. It will be difficult for them to contemplate killing us.  The few of them that are already saved are relating well. Reaching them must be conscious effort. it will require praying for the God of harvest to raise labourers that will focus on them. It will require the church deploying financial resources to those endangering their lives to reach them.

Finally, all these must be handled with every sense of urgency. Doors are shutting up very fast on many nations. There is certainly no doubt that it is more difficult to access closed doors than doors that are wide open even though both have adversaries assigned to resist the gospel. Remember Apostle Paul's words: For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. (1 Corinthian 16:9). Once upon a time, it was easy for Christian from the West Africa sub-region to enter Mauritania because they were part of the regional group, ECOWAS but with their withdrawal, that door is closed up now. It is easier for the camel's head to enter into the eye of a needle than to access that nation now. Most of the war-torn terrorist tribal groups have become incredibly dangerous to access. 

Only concern about enforcing gay right in Nigeria

Missionaries have been killed and many others withdrew for their lives. Before now, we could freely mingle with them, live among them and share the love of Jesus with them. That door is virtually close now. Jesus once said: I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. (John 9:4) Sometimes, not just death but night of opportunities come.

Besides, all the happening are not far from the signs of the end times and His soon return. When the trumpet sounds, the work of missions for those that will be rapture will be over for eternity. Whatever we don't do for the Lord to rescue these nations cannot be done again. May the thought that we are pilgrims in this world encourage our heart. May His promise to build His church which the gate of hell cannot prevail against spur us to do more for Him knowing that we are on the winning side! Maranatha!

They killed for a cause and only the church, not politicians or world power can avert the cause.