I was a bad Dominican (wannabe) this past week.  I was off in Orlando at a teachers’ conference and then I was on vacation.  I let a day which truly deserved notice slip by without taking notice.  I intend to make amends on one of the few ferial days this month.

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, along with Saint Mary Magdalene, is one of the principal patronesses of the Order of Preacher.  When a young girl, this daughter of the Governor of Alexandria (a tremendously important city in the Roman Empire), declared to her parents that she would someone whose intellect, beauty, status, and wealth surpassed her own.  In her later teenage years she became a convert to Christianity and dedicated her virginity to the LORD, thus becoming a bride of Christ and “marrying” one who did exceeded her standards on all fronts.  

She earned her spot as the co-patroness of the Order of Preachers when she was but twenty-three years old.  As the daughter of the Governor of Alexandria she was able to meet the Emperor Maximinus.  At the time, the Emperor was engaged in outrageous persecutions of Christians and St. Catherine took it upon herself to confront the Emperor and convince him to convert to Christianity.  She succeeded in converting the wife of the Emperor, but the Emperor himself refused and ordered fifty of his scholars and philosophers to dispute with the young girls.  She deftly refuted the arguments of each scholar and philosopher in turn, resulting in the Maximinus executing each in turn.  After refuting every sage the Emperor could throw at her, the tyrant ordered her to be executed. 

Saint Catherine was to be executed on a torturous device known as the breaking wheel.  Essentially, a person was bound to a large wagon wheel, beaten to death, and then hoisted up into a public place so that their death might be a warning for others.  As St. Catherine was brought to her own Golgotha, she touched the breaking wheel and the device shattered.  At that point the executioners beheaded the young lady.  Nevertheless, the breaking wheel became known as Catherine’s Wheel. 

St. Catherine is counted among the Fourteen Holy Helpers, saints whose intercessions are thought to be especially fruitful, and Saint Joan of Arc declared that she heard the voice of St. Catherine giving her advice. 

Saint Catherine is who every Christian father should desire his daughter to be.  She was refined, chaste, intelligent, and wealthy.  On top of that, she was a fearless defender of the Christian faith, laying her life down to defend both Christ and His Church.  Even more so, she was able to effectively refute the greatest pagan philosophers of the day and make converts of many adversaries, including none less than the empress herself!  May all our daughters be just like this blessed saint.  May they live three times as a long and die peacefully surrounded their loving family!

Almighty God, who gave grace to Your holy martyr Catherine of Alexandria to cleverly silence the wisdom of godless and wear the brilliant crown of martyrdom: strengthen your servants by that same grace, that we may endure reproach and persecution and faithfully bear witness to the name of Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

I was praying with my dear friend Brittany today. She and I lead our campus outreach team in the Christian group I’m a part of here at University of Arizona. We were praying for next semester and the things that are going to happen, for God to give us strength and grow in us mightily. We know that with these things that we are being called to do on campus will come much persecution. And this isn’t just persecution from strangers, but it will be constantly spiritual and also from our own community.

So I was thinking about that aspect. Will my closest friends turn on me? Will they unsupport me? When I am doing crazy and uncomfortable things will they run in the opposite direction?

I have a few friends in mind for this. I hope you are reading this. My request is that you all lift Brittany and I up in prayer. If there is ever a moment of doubt or disagreement in you, pray about it, dwell on it. Come to me with that if the doubt sticks, but come to me encouragingly and gently. I need my community. I need support. I need to be actively loved. I need to be given the benefit of the doubt.

I guess this is my warning, my only way of really preparing anyone else. Please love me. If you don’t meet those requests, it’s ok. I will still love you. Because it’s not you all who I should rely on for strength, it’s Christ.

 On the stone wall of a room for guards near the Circus Maximus in 1st century Rome, archaeologists found a sort of graffiti that mocked Christians.  Here’s how Everett Ferguson describes it.

“The figure of a man with the head of an ass is shown hanging on a cross.  Nearby another man raises his hand in a gesture of adoration, and the inscription reads, ‘Alexamenos worships his god.’  Jews had been charged with worshiping an ass; this calumny was here transferred to Jesus.  As repulsive as the picture is to Christians now, it conveys strongly how contemptible the idea of a crucified Lord was to pagan thinking” (Ferguson, Backgrounds of Early Christianity, 3rd edition, p. 596).

This takes our thoughts in a variety of directions.  In light of all the preposterous Greek myths, why was the cross so ludicrous to this tagger? How does this ridicule help inform the “persecution” texts of the NT epistles?  Why don’t as many people make fun of the cross today -  because we’ve domesticated it so badly, because we’ve privatized our faith, or because no one really cares? 

shane lems

sunnyside wa

*Note: Because this is an illegal subject in Iran, so all names, places, and such will be kept out of this post.

It was exciting to be informed by a good source that there has been a great growth of Christianity inside the iron walls of Iran. At a meeting last night we heard that Iran is falling apart from the inside out, much like Rome in the early centuries.The people of Iran are becoming very disillusioned with their government (Ahmadinejad by most accounts did not win in the ballots but by authority, specifically because the “spiritual leader” Ayatollah Khameni wanted him to be “President”) and now especially with Islam. Many, many Iranians are “on the fence” about their faith–they can’t understand how such blatant crime and sin can be done by those in power and in the name of Allah. So they either become Radical Muslims, or they hear of the Gospel and find God.

The Recent Election

Ever since the 700’s AD countries like Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc. have been overrun by the conquest (not bloodless by any means!) of Muhammad. In 1979 the first Ayatollah (Khomeini) put out the king and set up Iran as a Islamic State. So as you can see, and as you likely know, Islam is a religion by force, not by choice (for the vast, vast majority). There are almost 1.6 billion Muslims in the world today, but most of them are very dissatisfied with Islam. For over a millennium the people of the Middle East have not heard anything but “There is only one god and Muhammad is his prophet”. They were slaves to those in power, and Islam was the opium to keep the people down. It still is.

Jihadists--Friendly?

But freedom is coming to Iran! In the last 20 years it is estimated that the church has grown to several hundred thousand Christians in Iran (but the persecution is heavy). Obviously Christianity is illegal in Iran, so are missionaries, and so is a lot of Western Society.

A great group working over there is the “Voice of Christ Media Ministries” and they are sharing the truth with any and all Iranians. They have a short (AM) and long wave (FM) radio going out into Iran and an unprecedented number of people are tuning in to the Gospel. Emails and phone calls are coming in and the word is being spread–true Christianity answers life’s problems!

But Iran is doing everything it can to limit the Gospel–Satellite radio is illegal (but everyone has one!) and the internet is severely blocked off from anything Christian.

There has been a certain website that has been so influential in Iran that it was cut off and blocked. It streams radio 24 hours/ 365 days a week with a Christian talk show, messages, and Christian music. It is called Radio Mojdeh (connected with “Voice of Christ Media Ministries). You won’t be able to understand any of it though because it is all in Farsi (Persian Language).

Please pray that this website would be opened again to the people of Iran–they deserve the right to know and to choose the course of their destiny for themselves.

Iran's Ahmadinejad and Bolivia's Evo Morales

Close to home for me is the fact that my home country Bolivia and Iran have created some strong ties. Iranians can now enter Bolivia without a visa, and vice versa. My president is playing with fire and he is clueless. Ahmadinejad’s beliefs are that a Messiah is coming (Mahdi) is bring Islam to the whole world by force and violence. Thus his main goals are to “pave the way” for him by destroying Israel and USA. (Sounds like the John the Baptist and the Messiah, they aren’t very creative). Supposedly this Messiah will come in the next few years (he’s been awaited for over 1000 years now)–Muhammad was never any good at prophesying (unlike Christ), so I wouldn’t trust those who believe in Mahdi either. Interestingly when Mahdi appears (which he will not) Christ will come with him in the clouds, like in the Rapture, and honor Mahdi as greater than himself. Obviously Muhammad knew his Bible well, but he used it for his personal gain and glory.

Just some things to keep in mind and to pray about. The world is coming to an end and the battle is getting hotter–pray that the Gospel will be spread while there is still time.

done

A few weeks ago, I had been fasting for health reasons for about 3 days – not a total fast, but almost.  The morning of the fourth day I had a long vivid dream.  I woke up from it at 4 a.m. and wrote it down because as others I’ve had in the past that were significant, this one impressed me as being important.  I can’t explain the difference between a normal dream and these others I have sometimes.  They are full of symbolism that I don’t “see” and understand until I wake up, and I began having them about three years ago.  I am not going to claim it’s from God.  If He did give it, He will confirm it in others.  If it was just a result of low blood sugar on the brain, and impresses you as such, you are free to file it circularly.   I have no attachment to the outcome of sharing this.

Here is a summarized version – the actual dream is longer and full of details.  As I wrote it all out – the symbolism became clear to me and I wrote out what I believed it meant.  You can test that too, and add your thoughts if you have any insight.

Dream 11-17-09

My husband dropped me off to meet a friend of ours in old trailer park located in a run down part of a big city.  I had no idea why I was there.  Our friend met me and we walked to the back of the park where there was a gate.  We went through the gate and there was some sort of a compound set up.  The first thing I saw to my right was a canopy with tables set up, and against one wall a Ham radio was set up on a table and white boards up on the wall behind it.  Looked like a place for planning and communication, but there was no one there.  We went past it and into a small building we had to step up to get into.  Inside were a group of people having a meeting with a man standing up speaking.  He seemed to be presenting people with a choice.  I sensed no one would be asked to leave, but he began to openly confront people with Jesus Christ – and asking people to share what they believed concerning Him.  Some became visibly irritated – and uneasy.  Two people left.  The man was making it very clear that unless you were completely on board with the truth about Jesus, you would not want to be there.  But no one was told to leave.

From there much activity was taking place – people finding their assigned living spaces in the building.  It seemed like a training program of some kind.  I was given a small area with a bed.  The first thing I realized about the place was that everything that was brought into the building was equally shared among everyone – no exceptions.  One young woman came up to me so excited to be there, and started to explain to me that her pastor had helped her to come there. I began to wonder why I was there, and how.  I looked at a clipboard and the names of my family were written down to be there four weeks.  I asked my friend that had brought me if he knew anything about that, but he wouldn’t say anything.  In fact he never said a word at any time in my dream.  I wanted to know who arranged it – what was the cost??  None of my questions were answered.  All I knew was that  I was supposed to be there.

The place was closed down on the weekends, so I went home and my family returned with me the following Monday. I had brought supplies from home and was suddenly convicted when I put them in my quarters – remembering that they must be put out to be shared equally with everyone else.  I went to the main kitchen/living area and there was a notice that the director and his wife were resigning, which gave me a sense of uneasiness because we had just arrived and didn’t have any idea what to expect anyway.  I didn’t want to be in a situation where there was chaos.  I began to bake a cake.. and after I put the batter in the pan, I was dropping spoonfuls of red and yellow frosting into the batter, to be baked inside of it.  (I think I know what this represents – will explain later).  As I was doing this, a man came in who I knew was the director, but had never met him.  He began to talk about how things were before he came, and how he was afraid problems he had dealt with would return after he left.  He said before he came, everyone there had been striving and competing against one another for position and authority.  No one trusted anyone else.  Then he pointed to a cabinet where the medicines were kept.  He said the door remains open and unlocked (like all supplies remained out in the open for all to see/share).  He explained that before it was kept closed and locked, and people often found ways to steal from it.  Since the door was kept closed, no one realized the theft had taken place until someone opened it up to use something, and by then it was too late to discover who had done it.  With everything out in the open, everyone knew at all times what was supposed to be there and anything missing would be immediately obvious to everyone.

At one point – my family was trying on swimming suits because the facility had a pool – but we never actually saw it.  People would refer to it sometimes in passing, but I have no idea where it was.  My husband and son walked out of our quarters with their bathing suits on and were strongly urged to not be seen wearing them.  No one wanted to talk about “the pool” for some reason.

The last part of the dream, I was outside playing football – yes football.  If you know me – you know I do not exactly think highly of this game, nor am I physically able to engage in any form of this sport.  But in my dream I was having a great time, playing football with teenagers (still at the training center) and fully physically engaged.  I remember the element of the game giving me the greatest satisfaction was the joy of working together as a team.  I was playing with reckless abandon – putting 100% into it mentally and physically – doing things that I can truly, only dream of doing in real life. ha.  When I came inside to get cleaned up, I had pain in my eye and I looked to find 3 small twigs (looked like thin pine needles) lodged in my eye. I pulled them out and it hurt terribly, and began looking for something to treat my eye with to prevent infection.

My conclusions about the overall meaning:

1 – I see it as a dream about being in training for things to come as it concerns the Body of Christ.  Training and  preparation are important.  The training facility was equipped to do more than it was being used for.  The radio was not used, and neither was the pool.  I am currently writing a parable where communication with the Holy Spirit is symbolized by a two-way radio.  I think this is the symbol of the Ham radio, as well as the importance of being connected to other groups of believers in other places – to not be isolated as a body from the wider Body.  Water is also a symbol of the Holy Spirit and there is a very large segment of the the Church that is not willing to fully acknowledge what it means to be “immersed” in it – being scared because of issues that have been blown out of proportion in this area.  I see the silent radio, the elusive pool and cautions to prospective “swimmers” to be a rebuke concerning our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

2 – The central and most urgent purpose that we should be aligned around are the simple truths of Jesus. When He is clearly presented and lifted up, and people confronted to testify for Him, tares will not be content to stay in the body.

3 – In our individualistic, capitalist-minded culture, we recoil at the idea of “commune” – because it looks like communism.  I won’t get into politics, but capitalism practiced by those with fallen human nature is just as evil as the alternatives.  It has made us selfish, and self-reliant.  The church in Acts was “communist” in the sense that they shared all things and no one had need.  In hard times, we as the Body of Christ must be willing for everything we have to be used for God and His family – not counting anything as our own.  When people are suffering there is no place in the Holy Spirit that allows for hoarding, greed, and a lack of compassion for those who are in lack.  This cannot be legislated to unregenerate hearts – but it should be the desire of the children of God.  We must find our purpose in our calling, not in our things.

4 – Striving against one another for position, leadership, influence, etc..  will only tear us down.  Leaders must be respected and we need an attitude of humility toward each other, not arrogance and pride in our own agendas.

5 – Transparency prevents dishonesty, and keeps all problems out in the forefront.  Keeping things locked and hidden away does not allow issues to be dealt with.  No secrets.

6 – Teamwork, finding pleasure in helping one another in our mission – being willing to sacrifice ourselves completely to help each other.

7 – Close contact in teamwork brings offenses and they can happen before we even realize it.  We can have collected grievances we didn’t realize we carried until we find they hurt.  We need to remove them and seek “salve” to prevent infection – the spreading of bitterness.

The meaning of the red and yellow frosting and the cake.  This really made no sense to me and I couldn’t figure out what in the world that was doing in the dream.  Everything else made sense as I was writing it out.  Then it came to me the colors of the communist Chinese flag are red and yellow and I believe the things that I have seen in this dream are the lessons from the persecuted church.  Putting the frosting in the cake to me represents these amazing believers who are the sweetest of all their countrymen – but are forced to be hidden underneath the surface.

A week or so after I had this dream, someone loaned me a book that confirmed so many things I understood this dream to mean.  I felt compelled to share it.

Take it or leave it – as you wish.

The persecution blog posted a nice consideration of the distinctions between Islamic jihad and the Crusades. I have included the following paragraph to give you an idea of the thrust of the post:

Nor were the Crusades “thoughtless explosions of barbarism,” as Riley-Smith accurately characterizes their reputation today. They had a sophisticated underlying rationale, elaborated theologically by Christian nations threatened by Muslim invaders who had managed to reach into the heart of Europe — from central France in the eighth century to Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were a response to the desecration of Christian shrines in the Holy Land, the destruction of churches there and the general persecution of Christians in the Near East. A Crusade had to fulfill strict criteria for the Church to consider it legitimate and just. It had to be waged for purposes of repelling violence or injury, with the goal of imposing justice on wrongdoers. A Crusade was not to be a war of conversion but rather a rightful attempt to recover unjustly seized Christian territory. And only a recognized church authority like the pope could call for one.

The persecution blog posted a nice consideration of the distinctions between Islamic jihad and the Crusades. I have included the following paragraph to give you an idea of the thrust of the post:

Nor were the Crusades “thoughtless explosions of barbarism,” as Riley-Smith accurately characterizes their reputation today. They had a sophisticated underlying rationale, elaborated theologically by Christian nations threatened by Muslim invaders who had managed to reach into the heart of Europe — from central France in the eighth century to Vienna in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They were a response to the desecration of Christian shrines in the Holy Land, the destruction of churches there and the general persecution of Christians in the Near East. A Crusade had to fulfill strict criteria for the Church to consider it legitimate and just. It had to be waged for purposes of repelling violence or injury, with the goal of imposing justice on wrongdoers. A Crusade was not to be a war of conversion but rather a rightful attempt to recover unjustly seized Christian territory. And only a recognized church authority like the pope could call for one.

Most of us Christians have it pretty good in the US, the persecution that we have to deal with usually falls along the lines of scoffing, mocking and a little heat of discrimination. This isn’t bad at all, however, there are some in this country who have given their lives to Christ and now find themselves fearing for their lives! Yes, even here in the US there are people who have left their Muslim background only to find themselves fearing being killed by their own parents. Take Rifqa Bary, a teenage girl who was brought up in a Muslim household and gave her life to Christ.

info here

LINK

Some people say that her life isn’t in danger and this whole issue has been blown out of proportion, I strongly disagree.

The Hadith Vol. 4 book 52 #260 States that if anyone leaves their religion kill them.

LINK

Narrated Ikrima:

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, ‘Don’t punish (anybody) with Allah’s Punishment.’ No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’ “

The last we heard, Rifqa is safe in foster care somewhere in Ohio, her 18^th birthday (from what I can tell) will be around August 2010, of course we will be keeping her in prayer.

Here’s another interesting story, Mosab Hassan Yousef a young man who is not facing danger in the US but rather seeking refuge here instead (His father is a PLO leader in Hamas), if Mosab were to return to the mid-east his life would be in grave danger.

Here’s an interview he did on Fox.

LINK

Here’s the video

These are two interesting stories with a distinct difference, one is fleeing her family in the US to escape persecution from her family and the other is fleeing to the US to escape persecution from his family.

In Matthew’s gospel chapter 5:11 Jesus said “ Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you… rejoice and be exceedingly glad for great is your reward in heaven.”

In Matthew 10:35-36 Jesus said He came to “set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter in-law against her mother in-law and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

We can see these things being played out before our very eyes, what shall we do?

Pray for them and that the Lord will protect them and that their families would receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior for the eternal salvation of their souls.

Continue to pray that solitary and seeking Christians in the Arabian Peninsula will find Bibles and also peers for fellowship and encouragement. You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more. (Ps. 10:17-18)

John Wesley in Wednesbury

A Robust Faith

Although the Methodists enjoyed great successes they also endured terrible persecution which lasted several years.

But God gave them power to press through into victories.  Historian John Simon writes:

‘If Methodism had not come into contact with the mob it would never have reached that section of the English people which most needed salvation.’ [He’s not right here. All sections of English society needed (and still need) salvation. What he means is that the Methodists could never have reach the majority of the population, and thus influenced the culture of English life without facing violence – a sobering thought!].

‘The ‘Religious Societies’ shut up in their rooms, would never have reformed the country.

‘A superb courage, rarely equalled on the battlefield’

‘It was necessary that a race of heroic men should arise, who would dare to confront the wildest and most brutal of men, and tell them the meaning of sin, and show them the Christ of the Cross and of the judgement throne.

‘The incessant assaults of the mob on the Methodist preachers showed they had reached the masses.

‘With a superb courage, rarely equalled on the battlefield, the Methodist preachers went again and again to the places from which they had been driven by violence, until their persistence wore down the antagonism of their assailants.

‘Then, out of the once furious crowd, men and women were gathered whose hearts the Lord had touched.’ (John S. Simon, The Revival of Religion in the Eighteenth Century London, 1907)

In coming posts we will examine what that looked like and what that actually meant for some of the leaders and followers of the movement.

© 2009 Lex Loizides