'"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind," and "your neighbour as yourself."' — Luke 10:27.

Context

The story of the Good Samaritan starts with Jesus’ commandments in this verse, as Jesus answers the questions of: 'What must we do to inherit eternal life?', and 'Who is my neighbour?' Loving God and loving our neighbour are commands to his followers, his people, his church.

After a horrendous series of beatings, being burnt and left naked to public humiliation a woman accused of witchcraft in Papua New Guinea said this: “Like a bent old cooking pot I laid there alone and nobody came to see me, because I was declared eating humans…” (from an interview led by Fr. Philip Gibbs, 2016). Her story recounts that neither the police, nor her family, nor even a doctor would come to help her.

Who is our neighbour and where are the ‘Good Samaritans’ addressing child witchcraft accusations?

Thank God

Even when situations look and are horrendous, there is light. Give thanks to God for the "countless acts of heroism, generosity and courage …often by strangers", reported by Dr Miranda Forsyth (who is working with Fr. Philip Gibbs to address witchcraft accusations in Papua New Guinea) as these ‘Good Samaritans’ intervene where others will not help.

Let us continue to give thanks for the groups of people SCWA and others are impacting across DRC, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania and elsewhere in Africa, who are seeking to address witchcraft accusations, not by condemnation, but by bringing God’s love and justice into play.

Please Pray

Pray: that children will increasingly have a voice in their communities, nationally and internationally.

Pray: that God will allow his church to move from a position of sometimes colluding and encouraging fear in communities and harm to children, to a position where Christ’s church is seen to take the lead in ending accusations of witchcraft to children.

Pray: that God would heal communities, so that it would not take a stranger to stand up for the abused and rejected in any society, that hate and fear would be replaced by love and acts of kindness.

Pray: Giving thanks that our greatest role model, Jesus, became a stranger, so he could do exactly that.

Thank you for standing with us in our Standing in the Gap prayer campaign. Please continue to press on in prayer with us for the sake of the children and the glory of the name of Jesus. It would be great if you could share this latest bulletin with others in your prayer networks.

With much appreciation,

Susie Howe – Director
The Bethany Children's Trust

http://www.bethanychildrenstrust.org.uk/

More:http://stop-cwa.org/posts/prayer-bulletin-no6-2017

This week marked a century since one of the darkest chapters in human history began, and a truly evil worldview was put into practice.

One hundred years ago, Bolshevik revolutionaries stormed the Winter Palace in Petrograd, the seat of the Provisional Government of Russia. They also seized post offices, train stations, and telegraphs in the dead of night. When the people of Russia’s capital city awoke, they were in what Rhodes Scholar David Satter described as “a different universe.”

That universe was a communist one. Vladimir Lenin’s so-called “October Revolution,” which took place in November on the Gregorian calendar, sought to establish the first-ever Marxist state. After a lengthy civil war, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics emerged, marking one of the greatest setbacks Western Civilization has suffered since the fall of Rome. Communism would eventually rule one-third of the planet, condemning one-and-a-half billion people to lives under brutal, totalitarian governments, and leaving behind a trail of over 100 million corpses.

So many people died because, as Satter explains in The Wall Street Journal, the communist worldview sees the state as supreme, replacing God, Himself. It’s infallible, it transcends morality, and it demands absolute loyalty from its citizens.

Karl Marx taught that only such a state, acting for its people, could break the chains of economic oppression and private property, creating a “new man.” This type of person, depicted in Soviet propaganda posters with bulging muscles and steely eyes, would work willingly for the common good, seek only to advance the interests of his comrades, and usher in a worker’s paradise.

The communist ideal was nothing short of a godless eschatology—a Heaven on earth.

What we got instead was hell on earth. Through political purges, forced population transfers, manmade famines, gulags, and a so-called “Great Leap Forward,” dictators like Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Pol Pot presided over some of the worst mass murders in human history, all directly motivated by the desire to bring about that communist paradise.

It wasn’t until Christmas 1991 that the darkness which had fallen on Russia in 1917 began to lift. The Soviet sickle and hammer descended over the Kremlin for the last time, quietly announcing the end of what President Reagan had dubbed the “evil empire.”

But for millions of people the world over, this godless worldview remained and remains a political reality. China’s forced abortions, Cuba’s political repression, and North Korea’s persecution of Christians are just some of the atrocities that have continued in communist countries since the fall of the Soviet Union.

And here in the United States, communist ideology enjoys a kind of immortality in our universities, where many professors openly identify as Marxists, and students sport those ever-popular Che Guevara t-shirts.

One recent survey by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation found that half of millennials would rather live in a socialist or communist country than in a capitalist democracy. More than 20 percent have a favorable view of Marx, and thirteen percent think of Joseph Stalin as a “hero.”

The only good news is that 71 percent of those surveyed couldn’t identify the correct definition of communism. They don’t understand what they’re praising.

As we look back on the aftermath of that October revolution, we should commit ourselves to teaching our kids, our friends, and whoever else will listen where communism belongs: squarely in the dustbin of history.

Perhaps the best way to commemorate communism’s 100th birthday is to pray that we can fully and finally bury this evil worldview in our lifetimes.

Pray: for effective education on the failed utopian promises of communism, as well as the results of its worldview on humankind.

Pray: that the scourge of communism will end on the earth.
Pray: for communist countries in the world including China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, Vietnam.
Pray: for countries with strong communist influence including Nepal, Guyana and Moldova.

For video overviews of the above countries, visit http://prayercast.com/index.html

Find a BreakPoint radio station in your area – Click here: http://ambassadoradvertising.com/station-map/?program=126

ERIC METAXAS WITH SHANE MORRIS

Is a Door Opening for Christianity in Saudi Arabia?

(Worthy News) - Stunning political developments in Saudi Arabia have some wondering if the strict Muslim-ruled Kingdom could become more tolerant of Christianity.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman has said he intends to return Saudi Arabia to "moderate Islam" and open the country to all faiths.

As part of his reform drive, dozens of officials – including 11 princes – have been arrested on corruption charges. The kingdom also says it has dismissed several thousand imams from mosques for spreading extremism.

The percentage of Saudi Arabian citizens who are Christians today is officially zero, because conversion from Islam to Christianity has long been punishable by death.

But it's estimated that between four and five percent of the population is Christian – mostly guest workers who are not allowed to worship openly.

Some are hopeful that change is coming.

"The days of a religious monopoly in Saudi Arabia are over," says Christian Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab to Christianity Today, "No more pushing Islam down every citizen's throat."

Andrea Zaki, president of the Protestant Churches of Egypt, said of the reform promises, "I hope it will lead Saudi Arabia and the region to a more open society."

But time will tell whether Prince Mohammed can bring real reform and religious pluralism to a nation that has known little to none of it since its founding.

More: http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2017/november/is-a-door-opening-for-christianity-in-saudi-arabia

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump accused Qatar of funding and promoting terrorism all over the world.

“Qatar has funded terrorism at a very high level,” he said, and it seems many in the White House shared his view.

Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon had this to say about Qatar during a discussion at The Hudson Institute this week: “I don’t think it was just by happenstance that two weeks after the summit (in Riyadh) that we saw the blockade by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and Egypt and the king of Saudi Arabia on Qatar.”

Bannon also said repeatedly in his remarks that the Qatar situation was more important than the crisis in North Korea.

“I think the single most important thing that’s happening in the world is the situation in Qatar,” he said, expressing his support for the blockade.

Bannon was joined at the event by former U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and CIA Director Robert Petraeus, both of whom also expressed concern about Qatar’s ties to terrorism, terror financing, and some of the Islamic world’s hate preachers.

Exhibit A is Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, the Egyptian-born cleric and religious leader who is now a Qatari citizen and has used Al-Jazeera, Qatar’s state-funded media outlet, to spread a message of hate across much of the Middle East.

If the Trump administration hopes to help end the ongoing blockade on Qatar, then it must pressure the Gulf nation to distance itself from hate preachers, especially Qaradawi, and allow him and others on the list to face consequences.

For many years Qaradawi’s talk show on Al Jazeera has condoned and encouraged suicide bombings especially against Israelis. The controversial preacher has endorsed Hitler and the attempted genocide of the Jewish people throughout history.

“The last punishment was carried out by Hitler. By means of all the things he did to them — even though they exaggerated this issue — he managed to put them in their place,” he has said. “This was divine punishment for them.”

Qaradawi has also suggested that homosexuals should be punished either by being burned or thrown off a building. The Islamic State group put his theories into practice when it chose to execute gay men in that very way.

Qaradawi’s views have resulted in bans on Qatari citizens entering several countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Tunisia and France.

In many ways his personal fortunes reflect those of the emirate of Qatar which he now calls home. Not long ago he was respected across the globe; now he is an international pariah.

Qaradawi is also on a list created by Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt of 59 people and 12 Qatari entities that are accused of promoting terror. Qatar has also repeatedly ignored extradition requests for Qaradawi from Egypt that began in 2015 when the cleric called for jihad in Egypt after the ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since the beginning of the crisis, Qatar has not backed down from its love for Qaradawi; he even attended a Ramadan dinner with Qatar’s ruling emir.

Qatar must also disavow Qaradawi and cast out such “religious leaders” if they want to once again be viewed as a reliable anti-terror partner. Qaradawi is not merely an example of Qatar’s support for terrorism; he is a reflection of what unchecked and unchallenged religious authority looks like, and his support for terrorists like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, his calls for violence, “resistance” and jihad must be opposed by all those who favor freedom, peace and justice.

Some of the demands on Qatar — such as shutting down Al-Jazeera — may be unrealistic but if Qatar really wants the rest of the world to believe it opposes terrorism, it could start by deporting one of its most fervent endorsers.

Lianne Hikind is a professional writer in Florida and small business owner. She has been previously published by the Media Research Center and the Times of Israel. She was formerly on the board of Great Things for Israel.

The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website.

By: Lianne Hikind on October 31, 2017 at 3:35pm

CONTINUED FOCUSED PRAYER FOR CHRISTIANS IN QATAR

Christians in Qatar are requesting prayers for the current diplomatic crisis their country is in. A growing number of other Arab countries have cut all ties with Qatar. The future for Qatar and its hundreds of thousands of migrant workers – tens of thousands of those being Christian believers – is unclear.

Open Doors spoke to several Christian believers living in Qatar. All of them asked for prayers for the developing situation. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Yemen and other smaller states have severed diplomatic ties with Qatar over its alleged support for Islamist groups. “Let’s just pray this problem will not escalate further… that they will be able to settle their differences,” one believer from an Asian country said.

Up until now, the diplomatic crisis is not the biggest problem for the Christians. “Life goes on, almost normal,” another Christian leader puts it. “For us believers, life is same as last week, but do pray for our safety. There are crowds in the supermarkets because people are scared and are buying food to stock up.”

This leader points out that there have been special prayer gatherings by Christians to intercede for the leaders in Qatar and its neighboring countries. “Because of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for the Muslims, most of the companies have cut the working hours by 50 percent. Also, Christian workers only have to work half days, so they have more time go to church and to pray.”

Another believer asked for prayers to be focused on peace, “That pride will not stand in the way of resolution; in essence: God’s will for the situation.”

An Open Doors worker expresses the hope that something good comes from this crisis: “Many Christians in Qatar already live with strict limitations to express their faith, and extra pressure on them is not what we want. But hopefully the current media attention on Qatar sparks people to pray for the country and the people living and working there.”

PRAY THAT ALL PARTNERS WILL WORK TOGETHER TOWARD COMMON SOLUTIONS THAT ENABLE SECURITY AND STABILITY IN THE REGION

More: https://www.westernjournalism.com/qatars-qaradawi-problem/