The world correctly has been outraged by the kidnapping of the 276 Nigerian girls by the terrorist group Boko Haram. We pray that God will protect them from these criminals who intend to sell them as sex slaves and deliver them to return to their families. However, lost amid all the media attention on this case, is the reason these girls were kidnapped. They are Christians. Boko Haram is Muslim. This is another incident of the horrendous persecution of the church of Jesus by Muslim insurgents and terrorists in Nigeria. It infuriates me the way the press makes it appear that this is an equal opportunity conflict with vicious Christians on one side and vicious Muslims on the other. It is not. The only crime those on the Christian side of the conflict have been guilty of has been having faith in Jesus instead of Mohammed. Those poor little girls have received this despicable treatment purely due to the fact that they are identified with Christ.
We picture death as coming to destroy; let us rather picture Christ as coming to save. We think of death as ending; let us rather think of life as beginning, and that more abundantly. We think of losing; let us think of gaining. We think of parting; let us think of meeting. We think of going away; let us think of arriving. And as the voice of death whispers, "You must go from earth," Let us hear the voice of Christ saying, "You are but coming to me." Norman Macleod
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