Amazing Story of Iraqi Pastor

If you follow along with the daily prayer request in the prayer guide, you may remember that a Baghdad congregation was held hostage on November 1st of last year. Forty-one Christians were killed, and many more injured. Since then, many believers have fled Iraq. But what is happening to those who remain?

In an interview published by Assist News, an Iraqi pastor tells his story. His church was targeted by terrorists, but they went to the wrong address and his church was spared. Nevertheless, many in the congregation were deeply affected by the death of other believers. His church has shrunk in half since the November 1 attack.

He says,

When the terrorists came and killed many Christians, that week, I received many calls from my congregation asking me many why’s. Why did Jesus let them kill Christians? …. After that, in my reading that day in the Book of Acts 4:29, I saw that when the disciples were threatened, they prayed, I thought maybe for protection. I was shocked that they prayed for boldness.

The next week, I went before the church [and said:] “You ask me why, why, why. You should go to God and ask Him why He left His Son torn on the cross. Why Peter died on a cross upside down….God didn’t promise us that we would live in a comfortable life. Why are we surprised? This is our life. This is what is promised for us. Open the book of Acts and see how the Christians suffered.”

News Source: ASSIST News Service.  Read more here: "How a pastor in Baghdad responds to persecution"

“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” – 1 John 4:9-10