Meet a criminal

Meet a Criminal

Okay folks this is the great Iranian criminal Youcef Nadarkhani  he is in jail in Iran and has been given a death sentence. The unspeakable crimes that he committed are as follows....

he dared to assert his religious freedom as a Christian in Iran.

As a result he".... was arrested in October 2009 after he protested a government policy that required children, including his 8- and 9-year-old sons, to study the Quran in school. Nadarkhani told school officials that the Iranian constitution allows for freedom of religious practice. As a result of his protest, secret police called him before a political tribunal and arrested him for protesting. The charges were later amended to apostasy and evangelism of Muslims." (from www.persecution.com)  
Really? Yes, he is in jail with a death sentence because as a Christian he didn't want his children to study the Quran. There is no tolerance in Iran and many of the countries in that region, don't be fooled.

Eyes wide shut

I cannot sit and pretend that Christians are not being persecuted. And just like you I'm pressed for time with hubby, kids, school & activities. So we subscribed to Voice of the Martyrs and they keep us informed and we pray. We are going to have to do more, even though it feels like I'm trying to empty out the ocean with a teaspoon. My eyes are open and I cannot now close them to what I know.

Pastor Youcef and his wife

Action

Here is the e-mail address (prisoner alert)  so we can contact the Iranians and let them know this not okay! That we see them and we know what they are doing and they cannot hide the ugly truth of it.  I know we cannot all react to every single thing that comes accross our computer screen, e-mail or Facebook. Plus, many of you are already deeply involved in a cause, in a person or in a struggle but if you aren't maybe you could consider giving some of your time to Pastor Youcef. This is gospel stuff this is it right here before us.

Blessings!

Here is the the update from Voice of the Martyrs latest update from Fox News

Amish Proverb

"A a plump wife and a big barn never did any man harm."

Okay, this was in the most recent book on the Amish that I was reading and it made me laugh out loud. I like this saying because it is the opposite of post-modern thinking and it made me giggle!

5 Signs of a Virtuous Wife

Here is an article from Generation Cedar that challenges us to examine ourselves.

5 Signs of a Virtuous Wife

Now that you've read her article what do you think about her 5 points:
1. She does her husband good and his heart safely trusts her.
How can we live this out in our lives? Are we telling our friends all about the bad things our husbands does so we can receive their sympathy? Or are we reserving those sort of heart to hearts conversations for our Lord? The Lord who will make all things clear including our own yucky contributions to the situation?

2. She feeds her family well.
What do you do to live this out for your family? Is your family meal table a priority?

3. She is a strong and vigorous worker.
Do we cower from the hard work that needs to happen to run our homes or are we meeting it head on? Also are we strong, have we kept ourselves in a physical condition that enables us to meet these challenges?

4. She helps those in need.
How do we meet the real needs of the poor in our communities?

5. She dresses well and with dignity.
I was reading an article that talked about how Jesus was hard to find in a crowd. Thus he was neither dressed in an antiquated way or in all the new trends. Simply stated if he was a trend setter or centuries behind the times he would have stood out like a sore thumb but remember he had to be identified with a kiss and pointed out in a crowd! So how are you walking the fine line between attractively dressed and Vogue Magazine (or whatever magazine it is now a days that depicts the current trends)?

Have a blessed day and may the Lord Shine his face upon you, your family and your household this day and every day as you seek after him.

Rooster Hill

Making Disciples!

The Fruitful Womb: 93-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Leaves 2,000 Living Descendants at Her Death

" God values children, and so should we. He calls children a “reward” (Psalm 127:3-5) and directs parents to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28) and declares this of those who are blessed with fruitfulness: “Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate” (Psalm 127:5)....If you have attended my talks in the past, you may have seen me put up a graph that shows that if a couple and each of their children in succession have 8 children, that in 4 generations, they will have 4,096 offspring, and in 8 generations, they will have 16,777,216 descendants.

The New York Times has just highlighted the fruitful matriarch, Yitta Schwartz, a Hungarian Jew and Holocaust survivor, who, when she died last month at age 93, had more than 2,000 descendants. An amazing story!

God Said Multiply, and Did She Ever By Joseph Berger

The New York Times

WHEN Yitta Schwartz died last month at 93, she left behind 15 children, more than 200 grandchildren and so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that, by her family’s count, she could claim perhaps 2,000 living descendants.
Mrs. Schwartz was a member of the Satmar Hasidic sect, whose couples have nine children on average and whose ranks of descendants can multiply exponentially. But even among Satmars, the size of Mrs. Schwartz’s family is astonishing. A round-faced woman with a high-voltage smile, she may have generated one of the largest clans of any survivor of the Holocaust - a thumb in the eye of the Nazis.
Her descendants range in age from a 75-year-old daughter named Shaindel to a great-great-granddaughter born Feb. 10 named Yitta in honor of Mrs. Schwartz and a great-great-grandson born Feb. 15 who will be named at a bris on Monday. Their numbers include rabbis, teachers, merchants, plumbers and truck drivers. But these many apples have not fallen far from the tree: With a few exceptions, like one grandson who lives in England, they mostly live in local Satmar communities, like Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, near Monroe, N.Y., where Mrs. Schwartz lived for the last 30 years of her life.
Mrs. Schwartz had a zest for life and a devotion to Hasidic rituals, faithfully attending the circumcisions, first haircuts, bar mitzvahs, engagements and weddings of her descendants. With 2,000 people in the family, such events occupied much of the year.
To read the full story, click here.

Just imigaine if faithful Christians obeyed God's command of fruitfulness began to produce generations of faithful Christians.

Article from VF