Previous Service
Welcome
“Obeying Jesus and following Him closely, results in great blessings and a deep assurance of Him being with us always even to the very end of the age.”
Stella
Worship
Word
I finished off last week by writing that Ibrahim’s father arranged for him to be imprisoned with the purpose of him getting this Jesus out of his system. He instructed the prison officers to punish Ibrahim. And that’s what they did, including beatings, whippings, and electric shock treatment in his mouth.
Sometime later, his father had a business meeting to attend in the City centre and on the way he instructed his chauffeur to go via the prison. His father was quite shocked at the amount of weight Ibrahim had lost, how weak he was and the scars, cuts, and bruising on him. Only that previous evening had the guards gone into graphic details about what they would do to him the next day, resulting in Ibrahim confessing to the Lord that he couldn’t take any more and he was afraid he would deny Him.
His father ordered the guards to release him and told the chauffeur to take him home and he would go to his business meeting. On the way home Ibrahim told the chauffeur that he was so very hungry and asked him to stop at a take-away and purchase him some food. Whilst the chauffeur went to get the food, Ibrahim escaped and just kept on walking. He came across a Christian man who gave him refuge and who introduced him to some other Christians who arranged for Ibrahim to flee to Israel where he met up with a Bishop in the church. He arranged for Ibrahim to work, helping disabled children. Sometime later, Ibrahim was accepted as a student in the Bible College of Wales, where I met up with him.
We used to go out into the early hours of the morning visiting Muslims, eating with them, and witnessing to them. Ibrahim led a number of Muslims to faith in Jesus Christ and they got baptised. It was then that Ibrahim received a letter off some so called Muslim Brotherhood, threatening him that they were going to kill him. The Bible College reported this to the police and a decision was made to relocate Ibrahim. The last I heard of Ibrahim was that his flat was found burst open in the early hours of the morning and his two dogs just roaming the streets. One day Dr. Priddy, a godly man who had been at the Bible College some 60 years, and had been a father-figure towards Ibrahim was preaching in the morning service, and he announced that whilst he was in prayer the previous night, the Lord had spoken to him and told him to stop praying for Ibrahim as he was now safely with Him in heaven.
Quote of the week
“Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems”
John Stott
Verse of the week
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
John 15:18
Let’s Pray
Heavenly Father, it is written in Church History that the blood of the martyrs is seed for the Church. So let it be the case that for everyone that has been persecuted or even died for their belief in Your Son, let much fruit be borne as a result, in Jesus Christ, Amen.