Kobani Comes to Christ!

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By John Davison

KOBANI, Syria (Reuters) – A community of Syrians who converted to Christianity from Islam is growing in Kobani, a town besieged by Islamic State for months, and where the tide turned against the militants four years ago.

The converts say the experience of war and the onslaught of a group claiming to fight for Islam pushed them toward their new faith. After a number of families converted, the Syrian-Turkish border town’s first evangelical church opened last year.

Islamic State militants were beaten back by U.S. air strikes and Kurdish fighters at Kobani in early 2015, in a reversal of fortune after taking over swaths of Iraq and Syria. After years of fighting, U.S.-backed forces fully ended the group’s control over populated territory last month.

Though Islamic State’s ultra-radical interpretation of Sunni Islam has been repudiated by the Islamic mainstream, the legacy of its violence has affected perceptions of faith.

Many in the mostly Kurdish areas of northern Syria, whose urban centers are often secular, say agnosticism has strengthened and in the case of Kobani, Christianity.

Christianity is one of the region’s minority faiths that was persecuted by Islamic State.

Critics view the new converts with suspicion, accusing them of seeking personal gain such as financial help from Christian organizations working in the region, jobs and enhanced prospects of emigration to European countries.

The newly-converted Christians of Kobani deny those accusations. They say their conversion was a matter of faith.

“After the war with Islamic State people were looking for the right path, and distancing themselves from Islam,” said Omar Firas, the founder of Kobani’s evangelical church. “People were scared and felt lost.”

Firas works for a Christian aid group at a nearby camp for displaced people that helped set up the church.

He said around 20 families, or around 80 to 100 people, in Kobani now worship there. They have not changed their names.

“We meet on Tuesdays and hold a service on Fridays. It is open to anyone who wants to join,” he said.

The church’s current pastor, Zani Bakr, 34, arrived last year from Afrin, a town in northern Syria. He converted in 2007.

“This was painted by IS as a religious conflict, using religious slogans. Because of this a lot of Kurds lost trust in religion generally, not just Islam,” he said.

Many became atheist or agnostic. “But many others became Christian. Scores here and more in Afrin.”

MISSIONARIES AND CRITICS

One man, who lost an arm in an explosion in Kobani and fled to Turkey for medical treatment, said he met Kurdish and Turkish converts there and eventually decided to join them.

“They seemed happy and all talked about love. That’s when I decided to follow Jesus’s teachings,” Maxim Ahmed, 22, said, adding that several friends and family were now interested in coming to the new church.

Some in Kobani reject the growing Christian presence. They say Western Christian aid groups and missionaries have exploited the chaos and trauma of war to convert people and that local newcomers to the religion see an opportunity for personal gain.

“Many people think that they are somehow benefiting from this, maybe for material gain or because of the perception that Christians who seek asylum abroad get preferential treatment,” said Salih Naasan, a real estate worker and former Arabic teacher.

Thousands of Christians have fled the region over decades of sectarian strife. From Syria they have often headed for Lebanon and European countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017 banned entry for all Syrian refugees indefinitely and imposed a 90-day ban on travel from several other predominantly Muslim countries.

“It might be a reaction to Daesh (Islamic State) but I don’t see the positives. It just adds another religious and sectarian dimension which in a community like this will lead to tension,” said Naasan, a practicing Muslim.

Naasan like the vast majority of Muslims rejects Islamic State’s narrow and brutal interpretation of Islam. The group enslaved and killed thousands of people from all faiths, reserving particular brutality for minorities such as the Yazidis of northern Iraq.

Most Christians preferred not to give their names or be interviewed, saying they fear reaction from conservative sectors of society.

The population of Kobani and its surroundings has neared its original 200,000 after people returned, although only 40,000 live in the town itself, much of which lies in ruins.

(Corrects reference to U.S. policy in paragraph 21.)

(Editing by Tom Perry and Alexandra Hudson)

Making Peace with God

Abiding

Teach the Bible [podcast]

JESUS IS COMING AND THE TRUE BODY OF CHRIST IS “HOLDING FORTH (BOLDLY DECLARING) THE WORD OF LIFE”

“Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” Philippians 2:16

WHEN you speak God’s Word, you are speaking divine authority.

“These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:15

“And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20

“That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.” Philemon 1:6

“Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O LORD God of hosts.” Jeremiah 15:16

Nourishing the Body of Christ

“If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.” 1 Timothy 4:6

“All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.” Proverbs 15:15

The best way to learn is to teach.

HOW well do you know your way around in God’s Word?

Jesus knew His way around God’s Word. Do you? If not, why not?

“And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he FOUND the place where it was written,” Luke 4:17

The disciple of Christ must daily and diligently search, study, and learn God’s Word in light of His Great Commission command to us to teach His Word to others (Matthew 28:18-20). Our ability to minister is in large part based on our knowledge of God’s Word or the ability to navigate God’s Word (King James Bible).

MAKE THE DIFFERENCE – OBEY GOD, “PREACH THE WORD.” (2 TIMOTHY 4:2)

Tip: Always know WHERE you are reading in God’s Word – chapter and verse. You’ll be surprised at the repertoire that begins to build, making you, like Jesus, a good navigator of our LORD’s Word as you preach His Word (Luke 4:17).

Have you ever pondered why there is little or no Scripture being used when listening to someone pretending to be speaking about the LORD? You should wonder (Matthew 7:16, 20; 1 John 4:1).

“Preach the word” is the divine mandate, command (2 Timothy 4:2).

Let us cease to pretend that we represent the LORD when everything we say isn’t coming straight out of His Word. Read that again please.

“If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles (written Word) of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.” 1 Peter 4:11

Think God is calling you to serve? Good. If He has saved you, He has called you (Ephesians 2:8-10; 4:7). Get lost in His Word every day (Jeremiah 15:16). Read it (Revelation 1:3). Study it (2 Timothy 2:15). Memorize it (Proverbs 4:4). Meditate upon it day and night (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1). THAT’s your prep for ministry, not going to an antichrist seminary. Jesus inducted you into His school of the Holy Ghost and Word the moment He saved you.

“As I was listening I was thinking of Paul. Who was a very educated man in the law. But after he was saved he spent three years being taught exclusively by the Lord Jesus Himself. And he says he “conferred not with flesh and blood.” But he was taught “by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (Gal 1:12-18). All of us should be taught by the Lord in His Word and not learned through mere men or books. But by a direct revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ! Jesus is The Word of God (John 1:1, Rev 19:13).” Karen Cochran

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“For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10

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WHEN PARENTS GET OLD …

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WHEN PARENTS GET OLD …

“Let them grow old with the same love that they let you grow … let them speak and tell repeated stories with the same patience and interest that they heard yours as a child … let them overcome, like so many times when they let you win … let them enjoy their friends just as they let you … let them enjoy the talks with their grandchildren, because they see you in them … let them enjoy living among the objects that have accompanied them for a long time, because they suffer when they feel that you tear pieces of this life away … let them be wrong, like so many times you have been wrong and they didn’t embarrass you by correcting you …

LET THEM LIVE and try to make them happy the last stretch of the path they have left to go; give them your hand, just like they gave you their hand when you started your path!

(“Honor your mother and father and your days shall be long upon the earth”.) – God”

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” Ephesians 6:1-3

Karen Cochran writes:

“A few years ago the Lord spoke to me and I heard honor your Father and Mother. I didn’t know that my Mom would be moving close to me in a few months and I would become her primary helper. It has been one of the biggest challenges of my life because she has dementia and isn’t always kind. I have had to come home many nights and sit at the feet of Jesus and ask forgiveness because I was not like Jesus to her. Then I go back everyday because the Lord commands us to Honor our Mother. He didn’t promise it would be easy. I have to be like Jesus and say Father forgive them for they know not what they do. Luke 23: 34 .As people who have dementia do not know what they are doing or saying.”

Sharing how God is working in her life concerning her relationship with her beloved mother, Karen Cochran writes:

“I had to die to being right. Pride! How could I love her (my mother) with the love of Jesus? How would she see Jesus in me? She would not see Him in me in all my pride and arrogance! By being full of pride, all I did was stir up strife. Proverbs 10:12 ‘Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.’ Because she would retaliate and would be angry. I had to learn to keep my mouth shut. And it has completely changed our relationship. But first the Lord had to change me and cleanse me from my ‘know it all’ attitude and my pride. I went to the Lord and said ‘why is she (my mother) so mean to me’. The Lord straightened me out quick. It was me not her! I couldn’t control her! All I could do was allow God to root out what was sin in me.”

“Being broken to the core has been a continuous prayer for me. Otherwise my stone heart will hurt someone else that does not deserve to be hurt. Jesus had shown me my resentment against my parents. As I went to their grave, Jesus begin to say, ‘If they hadn’t taken you to Jesus at an early age, you wouldn’t be where you are now.’ I felt all the bitterness, anger, and hatred leave. How gracious is our Savior!” Thomas Cochran

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