Please pray for the bloodshed to cease. Hammas are killers without conscience, and alas, the Israeli government have sunk to their level and increased evil upon evil. Christ taught differently. We need to show the Love of Jesus now more than ever. You can help by sending a donation to the International Red Cross / Red Crescent Society.

You can designate where your dollars will go. There are over 200 volunteers on the ground in Gaza now helping the injured, displaced, and hurting people there.

Matthew 2:18 (King James Version)
In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

Let us be of some comfort and assistance if we can. Share the hope of salvation to the hopeless when God blesses you with the opportunity.

Matthew 5:3-5 (King James Version)

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

 May God bless you abundantly from His riches of Glory in Heaven.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools

Martin Luther King Jr.

Human Dignity has gleamed only now and then and here and there, in lonely splendor, throughout the ages, a hope of the better men, never an achievement of the majority.

James Thurber (1894 - 1961)

From quotationspage.com

I don't have much to say. The pictures speak far more than my words could ever say.

The fragile peace between Israel and the Palestinian people was shattered the day before yesterday with bombs and rockets rained on Gaza in retaliation for rocket attacks by the militant group Hammas from Palestine. The terrorist's from Hammas are intent on killing innocent Israeli's, and the Israeli government is intent on killing innocent Palestinian's. These bombs and rockets from both sides are directed into urban areas populated by innocent men, women, and children. Over 220 are dead in Gaza as of this writing. Many are children. This is terribly wrong and inhumane. It doesn't matter who is right or wrong. Civilized people do not kill innocents. Please join with me in prayer, until this stops, that God's mercy will prevail and the killing will stop. Father God, please forgive us for our sins and inaction where we could do something, even if it is only to say a prayer for these folks. Lord please let your Love abound in our hearts and in the hearts of these people on both sides of the divide. Lord please heal your people Israel, and the Palestinian people who you love so much. Lord we pray that your peace will come to these people. Thank you Lord in the sweet and precious name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

Ephesians 6:12 (King James Version)

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Bombs and bullets don't just kill terrorists and oppressors.

If America is to be the beacon for freedom in this world and the standard for justice, let it begin in the hearts of the American people. Write to your congressman and pray to your God.

From eword today 

CHARLES H. SPURGEON QUOTATION

"He is no Christian who does not seek to serve his God. The very motto of the Christian should be 'I serve.'"

We can serve God in many ways. We can serve Him where we are, and we should ask Him to put us where He can use us the most. We all have gifts or special abilities to serve God's Kingdom and our fellow man.

Ephesians 4:7-9 (King James Version)

7But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

8Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Some of us Can sing or play instruments, some can teach, some are good builders, some may be good at working on cars, or good at languages. Some are simply endued with an abundance of Love in their hearts, or faith in their Spirit. These are all gifts that God has enabled us with to do His work. Fitting one piece to another, so many dissimilar abilities making the composite or completing the puzzle. Desire that God will show you how to use your gift in conjunction with the different gifts He has given other Christians to realize His greater plan for humanity. This great puzzle is missing your piece. You will not see the picture until you add your piece to the others. I pray that God will touch your life today and show you how to use your gift.

1 Corinthians 12 (King James Version)

1 Corinthians 12

1Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

2Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

3Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

4Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

8For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

11But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.

12For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

14For the body is not one member, but many.

15If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

19And if they were all one member, where were the body?

20But now are they many members, yet but one body.

21And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

22Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

23And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

24For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.

25That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

26And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

28And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

29Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?

30Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

31But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

Thanks also to BibleGateWay.Com 

From "Elementary Theology" by Emery H. Bancroft

"Jesus Christ is the central figure of the world's history. The world cannot forget Him while it remembers history, for history is His story. To leave Him out would be like astronomy without stars, or like botany with the flowers forgotten. Horace Bushnell said, "It would be easier to untwist all the beams of light in the sky and to separate and erase one of the primary colors, than to get the character of Jesus out of the world." The history of the race since it's inception has been the history of the preparation for His coming. The Old Testament foretells His coming in type, symbol, and direct prophesy. The history of His people Israel is a story of expectation, of yearning, of preparation. The fact of Jesus Christ is not only firmly imbedded in human history and written upon the open page of Scripture, but is also experientially embodied in the lives of millions of believers and interwoven in the fabric of all civilization worthy of the name.   .... You may have Confucianism without Confucius; Buddhism without Buddha; Islam without Muhammad; Mormonism without Joseph Smith; and Christian Science without Mary Baker Eddy. But you cannot have Christianity without Christ, for strictly speaking, Christianity is Christ, and Christ is Christianity. It is not primarily a religion, but a life; and the life is His life made living in men. "Christ in you, the hope of glory"."

So let us hope to be found in Him at His appearing, needing not to be ashamed at His coming. But rather eagerly awaiting our redemption as the time draws nigh.

Galatians 3:26-28 (King James Version)

26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

If by chance you do not know my Jesus, I pray that you take the time to find room for Him in your heart today. Please write to me if you need any help or explanation and I will try my best with God's help. May God perform a miracle in your life today !

Revelation 3:20 (King James Version)

20Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

( thanks to biblegateway.com)

From Time.Com

Christmas with Baghdad's Dwindling Christians

By Abigail Hauslohner / Baghdad Thursday, Dec. 25, 2008

Iraqi Christians celebrate Christmas Mass in Baghdad on December 25, 2008.

The Catholic Church of Mar Yousif is modest and unassuming from the outside. On Christmas morning, a maze of cars obstructed the street in front, presenting a hundred-foot long physical barrier to any would-be car bomber. The faithful have learned to be cautious: their church is nestled in the Mansur district of Baghdad that was formerly home to some of the city's worst insurgent activity.

But the war seems almost distant once you get past the church doors. Inside, chandeliers from high ceilings illuminated a Christmas morning with nearly a thousand Iraqi Catholics filling row after row of packed pews — more than the building has seen in years.

This year marks the first time in Iraq that Christmas is an official national holiday. Congregants at Mar Yousif (St. Joseph's) said they felt hopeful about the future, and many spoke earnestly about their optimism for the country, now enjoying the lowest level of violence since 2003. But others noted that even as conditions in Baghdad improve, Iraq's persecuted Christian minority continues to stream out of the country. At Mar Yousif's service on Christmas morning, the head priest, Pios Cacha, who has seen his congregation dwindle from 1,200 families to 650 since the U.S. invasion, led a sermon that was straightforward: Iraqi Christians should come back to Iraq and start rebuilding their broken country, and their community.

"Why are we afraid? We should not be afraid of the terrorists. When we were born, we were free," thundered Cacha from a red carpeted stage. He urged his congregation to embrace friendship, brotherhood, and open minds. "We need to teach the new generation how to live," he said.

Sectarian violence in the five-and-a-half years since the invasion has forced hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians to flee the country, many of them to neighboring Syria and Jordan. Mansur, the predominantly Sunni district that houses Mar Yousif, was a dangerous insurgent stronghold until one year ago. And in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, where many of the Syriac Catholic congregants hail from, the persecution continues. In February, the head of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Mosul, Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, was kidnapped and murdered. Over a dozen others were killed this fall in direct religious targeting.

"People are still thinking about leaving. From their point of view, things are still bad, like in education and health," says Maha Selma, who sat in the front row of Mar Yousif with her elderly parents. "Those who leave don't come back."

On Christmas morning, Monsignor Pios Cacha led a service in which Arabic hymns mingled with long, chanted prayers in Aramaic, and even a few tunes in English from the young mixed gender choir. "We wish you a Merry Christmas, We wish you a Merry Christmas," they sang to the accompaniment of a keyboard. As Cacha stood at the altar, his traditional sermon about Jesus and Bethlehem also mixed with pragmatic appeals for peace and reconstruction.

"I'm asking all the Christian brothers to come back and rebuild the new Iraq," he told his audience, adding that he had stayed through the worst years of the violence, during which he took on the leadership of two additional churches whose priests had fled. After the service, others in the congregation echoed his pride.

"My sister and her family are in America now as humanitarian refugees in Chicago. But they feel like strangers there, and they miss this atmosphere," says Ghassan Khudher, a pediatrician who has attended Mar Yousif on Christmas for the past 10 years. "Here there is still fear for our families and our children.,� he says to me. �But I don't like being outside [Iraq], because your country is not like Iraq."

As the service wound to a close around noon, families swarmed across the red carpets to receive communion from white-robed priests. One cleric later donned a Santa mask and hat to pass out toy trucks and pink purses to a crowd of screaming children.

As the congregants headed home, a car bomb exploded in Shula, a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood northwest of Mansur, the AP reported. The bomb appeared to have been targeted at the Iraqi police.

As we enjoy another Christmas safe, warmed by the love and closeness of friends and family, let us remember the others of this world who are not safe, warm, or loved. Those who have lost their loved ones to war and hatred and violence. Those who are hungry, sick or persecuted for their faith. Those of all faiths who are being killed in the "name of God". Let us think about those in our own country who are destitute, unlovely, and unloved. The homeless, handicapped, those enslaved by drugs and alcohol. Somewhere some young girl is selling herself to men in the night for money for drugs or just to pay bills. Though it is not right, we must not hate her. Jesus died for such as this. Remember Mary Magdalene and what great love grew for Christ out of the dirt of her past. None of us are any better. Rahab the harlot who was not of the promise, yet was justified by her faith in God because she acted on that faith. How often do we "the righteous", act on our faith when we have so much to lose? There are children sleeping in cars out in the cold weather tonight. "Bum's" under bridges and interstate viaducts wrapped in tattered blankets. Somewhere some senior is alone waiting for someone to come and visit them who never shows. Maybe hungry because they had to choose between food and medicine with their last dollar. Think of those crying and lonely in jails and prisons, wishing they had made different choices and feeling so far from the love of God. The people locked in mental institutions, confused and struck down by satan. Alone and unloved. Definitely not the crowd that we would have around the dinner table this Christmas. Thankfully Christ has prepared a table for them and all of us out of the abundance of His mercy. Praise God that we can come to Him and He will clean the dirt and the filth off of our lives and clothe us in pure white garments. He puts the gold ring on our finger signifying us as joint heirs with Him. He is not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. What good news this Christmas. Pray for these and learn to love as Jesus did. We must love the sinner while hating the sin that enslaves. It is Imperative if we want to grow in Christ. Indeed, if we do not have this love we must question whether we are actually saved from the condemnation of hell.  We are no better. Peace to you and all the Blessings of God's grace in Christ Jesus. Help somebody today. Shalom.

From Wikipedia

"I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is a Christmas carol based on the poem "Christmas Bells,"                                         composed by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) in 1864.

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.
And in despair I bowed my head
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on earth, good will to men.”
Till ringing, singing on its way
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Can we trust the New Testament as a historical document?

Many people do not believe that the Bible is a reliable document of history. But, the fact is the Bible is very trustworthy as a historical document. If we were to look at a chart that compared the biblical documents with other ancient documents, we would see that the Bible is in a class by itself regarding the number of ancient copies and their reliability. Please consider the chart below
Author1    Date
Written    Earliest Copy    Approximate Time Span between original & copy    Number of Copies    Accuracy of Copies
Lucretius    died 55 or 53 B.C.        1100 yrs    2    ----
Pliny    61-113 A.D.    850 A.D.    750 yrs    7    ----
Plato    427-347 B.C.    900 A.D.    1200 yrs    7    ----
Demosthenes    4th Cent. B.C.    1100 A.D.    800 yrs    8    ----
Herodotus    480-425 B.C.    900 A.D.    1300 yrs    8    ----
Suetonius    75-160 A.D.    950 A.D.    800 yrs    8    ----
Thucydides    460-400 B.C.    900 A.D.    1300 yrs    8    ----
Euripides    480-406 B.C.    1100 A.D.    1300 yrs    9    ----
Aristophanes    450-385 B.C.    900 A.D.    1200    10    ----
Caesar    100-44 B.C.    900 A.D.    1000    10    ----
Livy    59 BC-AD 17    ----    ???    20    ----
Tacitus    circa 100 A.D.    1100 A.D.    1000 yrs    20    ----
Aristotle    384-322 B.C.    1100 A.D.    1400    49    ----
Sophocles    496-406 B.C.    1000 A.D    1400 yrs    193    ----
Homer (Iliad)    900 B.C.    400 B.C.    500 yrs    643    95%
New
Testament    1st Cent. A.D. (50-100 A.D.    2nd Cent. A.D.
(c. 130 A.D. f.)    less than 100 years    5600    99.5%

It should be obvious that the biblical documents, especially in the New Testament documents, are superior in their quantity, time span from original occurrence, and textual reliability. The question is not into documents a reliably transmitted to us. In the question is whether or not the biblical documents record actual historical accounts.
The Bible is a book of History
It could be said that the Bible is a book of history -- and it is. The bible describes places, people, and events in various degrees of detail. It is essentially an historical account of the people of God throughout thousands of years. If you open to almost any page in the Bible you will find a name of a place and/or a person. Much of this can be verified from archaeology. Though archaeology cannot prove that the Bible is the inspired word of God, it has the ability to prove whether or not if some events and locations described therein are true or false. So far, however, there isn't a single archaeological discovery that disproves the Bible in any way.
Nevertheless, many used to think that the Bible had numerous historical errors in it such as Luke's account of Lysanias being the tetrarch of Abiline in about 27 AD (Luke 3:1). For years scholars used this "factual error" to prove Luke was wrong because it was common knowledge that Lysanias was not a tetrarch, but the ruler of Chalcis about 50 years earlier than what Luke described. But, an archaeological inscription was found that said Lysanias was the tetrarch in Abila near Damascus at the time that Luke said. It turns out that there had been two people name Lysanias and Luke had accurately recorded the facts.
Also, the walls of Jericho have been found, destroyed just as the Bible says. Many critics doubted that Nazareth ever existed, yet archaeologists have found a first-century synagogue inscription at Caesarea verified its existence. Finds have verified Herod the Great and his son Herod Antipas. The remains of the Apostle Peter's house have been found at Capernaum. Bones with nail scars through the wrists and feet have been uncovered as well demonstrating the actuality of crucifixion. The High Priest Caiaphas' bones have been discovered in an ossuary (a box used to store bones).
There is, of course, a host of archaeological digs that corroborate biblical records such as Bethsaida, Bethany, Caesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Cyprus, Galatia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus, Rome, etc. For more on this see, Archaeological Evidence verifying biblical events and places.
An inscribed stone was found that refers to Pontius Pilate, named as Prefect of Judaea.’ (The New Bible Dictionary, (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.; 1962.)
Luke 3:1, "Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea..."
"A decree of Claudius found at Delphi (Greece) describes Gallio as proconsul of Achaia in ad 51, thus giving a correlation with the ministry of Paul in Corinth (Acts 18:12)." (The New Bible Dictionary)
Acts 18:12, "But while Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat."
Excavations have revealed a text naming a benefactor Erastus which may be a reference relating to the city-treasurer of Rom. 16:23. (The New Bible Dictionary)
Rom. 16:23, "Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother."
At Ephesus parts of the temple of Artemis have been uncovered as is mentioned in Acts 19:28-41. (The New Bible Dictionary)
Acts 19:28, "And when they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians."
"It is known that Quirinius was made governor of Syria by Augustus in AD 6. Archaeologist Sir William Ramsay discovered several inscriptions that indicated that Quirinius was governor of Syria on two occasions, the first time several years prior to this date...archaeology has provided some unexpected and supportive answers. Additionally, while supplying the background behind these events, archaeology also assists us in establishing several facts. (1) A taxation-census was a fairly common procedure in the Roman Empire and it did occur in Judea, in particular. (2) Persons were required to return to their home city in order to fulfill the requirements of the process. (3) These procedures were apparently employed during the reign of Augustus (37 BC–AD 14), placing it well within the general time frame of Jesus’ birth."2
"The historical trustworthiness of Luke has been attested by a number of inscriptions. The ‘politarchs’ of Thessalonica (Acts 17:6,8) were magistrates and are named in five inscriptions from the city in the 1st century ad. Similarly Publius is correctly designated proµtos (‘first man’) or Governor of Malta (Acts 28:7). Near Lystra inscriptions record the dedication to Zeus of a statue of Hermes by some Lycaonians, and near by was a stone altar for ‘the Hearer of Prayer’ (Zeus) and Hermes. This explains the local identification of Barnabas and Paul with Zeus (Jupiter) and Hermes (Mercury) respectively (Acts 14:11). Derbe, Paul’s next stopping-place, was identified by Ballance in 1956 with Kaerti Hüyük near Karaman (AS 7, 1957, pp. 147ff.). Luke’s earlier references to *Quirinius as governor of Syria before the death of Herod I (Luke 2:2) and to *Lysanias as tetrarch of Abilene (Luke 3:1) have likewise received inscriptional support." (The New Bible Dictionary.)
There are many such archaeological verifications of biblical events and places. Is the Bible trustworthy? Absolutely! Remember, no archaeological discovery has ever contradicted the Bible. Therefore, since it has been verified over and over again throughout the centuries, we can continue to trust it as an accurate historical document.
________________
1. This chart was adapted from three sources: 1) Christian Apologetics, by Norman Geisler, 1976, p. 307; 2) the article "Archaeology and History attest to the Reliability of the Bible," by Richard M. Fales, Ph.D., in The Evidence Bible, Compiled by Ray Comfort, Bridge-Logos Publishers, Gainesville, FL, 2001, p. 163; and 3) A Ready Defense, by Josh Mcdowell, 1993, p. 45.
2. (Habermas, Gary R., The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ, (Joplin, MO: College Press Publishing Company) 1996.)

Marhaban!, which is Welcome! in Arabic. I wish you all a blessed Christmas this year. I am thinking of how blessed I am this year. Number one is that I have a personal relationship with my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Hallelujah! Thank You Father for sending your Son to die a cruel and agonizing death so that I might live. I did not deserve this. I could never in a thousand lifetimes do enough good to start to even approach the price I would have to pay back for this great ransom that He paid for my life. I am grateful to have my mother, sister, and brother still alive and more importantly, saved and sealed with redemption by the Blood of Christ. I have a wonderful church family at Ailey Baptist Church here at the foothills of the beautiful Smokey Mountains in East Tennessee. I have a roof over my head and food in the refrigerator thanks to God. I'm out of work now like so many in this part of the country, but I have a lot of time for studying the Word, thank you Jesus. I still have my old beat up car and half of a tank of gas. Praise the Lord. My special little girl (who is 6, and a half! , she will tell you. ) is half way around the world, but safely in the arms of God with a hedge of Angels around her. Praise His Name. I am healthy and relatively sane, I don't know how with all the abuse I've put my body through. Thank You Father. I have learned to forgive and hatred has been replaced with love. Praise you Jesus. The Holy Spirit has made His home in my humble dwelling. Thank you Holy Spirit. I have so much more to be thankful for also, that I can't begin to mention everything. Thank You Lord. As Job said [ Job 19 : 25 ], " I know that my redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. " This is certainly great news, and a terrific consolation for the believer in Christ Jesus. If by chance you who are reading this don't know my Jesus, please take the time to get acquainted with Him. He is a friend who will stick closer than a brother. He promised that he will never leave you or forsake you.

John 6:35-40 (King James Version)

35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

36 But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.

37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.

40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Are you hungry today ? Is there something missing in your life ? Give Jesus a try. A trial offer so to speak. If He doesn't satisfy your need, you can always go back to what you were. What have you got to lose ? Isn't it about time ? When I got sick and tired of being sick and tired, it was almost too late. There are about eighteen inches between you and hell today if you have not been forgiven of your sins. That is the distance from your knees to the ground. Get on them and ask forgiveness and start your life today. God bless you all from the abundance of His riches in Glory. Thank God today. MaSalaama ! (Go in Peace).

Commentary Courtesy of Matthew Henry's Concise Bible commentary from e-wordtoday

James 2:14-26 (King James Version) Courtesy of BibleGateWay.com

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.

20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?

23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.

24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?

26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

James 2

Verses 14-26 Those are wrong who put a mere notional belief of the gospel for the whole of evangelical religion, as many now do. No doubt, true faith alone, whereby men have part in Christ's righteousness, atonement, and grace, saves their souls; but it produces holy fruits, and is shown to be real by its effect on their works; while mere assent to any form of doctrine, or mere historical belief of any facts, wholly differs from this saving faith. A bare profession may gain the good opinion of pious people; and it may procure, in some cases, worldly good things; but what profit will it be, for any to gain the whole world, and to lose their souls? Can this faith save him? All things should be accounted profitable or unprofitable to us, as they tend to forward or hinder the salvation of our souls. This place of Scripture plainly shows that an opinion, or assent to the gospel, without works, is not faith. There is no way to show we really believe in Christ, but by being diligent in good works, from gospel motives, and for gospel purposes. Men may boast to others, and be conceited of that which they really have not. There is not only to be assent in faith, but consent; not only an assent to the truth of the word, but a consent to take Christ. True believing is not an act of the understanding only, but a work of the whole heart. That a justifying faith cannot be without works, is shown from two examples, Abraham and Rahab. Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness. Faith, producing such works, advanced him to peculiar favours. We see then, ver. 24 , how that by works a man is justified, not by a bare opinion or profession, or believing without obeying; but by having such faith as produces good works. And to have to deny his own reason, affections, and interests, is an action fit to try a believer. Observe here, the wonderful power of faith in changing sinners. Rahab's conduct proved her faith to be living, or having power; it showed that she believed with her heart, not merely by an assent of the understanding. Let us then take heed, for the best works, without faith, are dead; they want root and principle. By faith any thing we do is really good; as done in obedience to God, and aiming at his acceptance: the root is as though it were dead, when there is no fruit. Faith is the root, good works are the fruits; and we must see to it that we have both. This is the grace of God wherein we stand, and we should stand to it. There is no middle state. Every one must either live God's friend, or God's enemy. Living to God, as it is the consequence of faith, which justifies and will save, obliges us to do nothing against him, but every thing for him and to him.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Matthew Henry,  (18 October 1662 – 22 June 1714), was an English non-conformist clergyman.

Life
He was born at Broad Oak, a farmhouse on the borders of Flintshire and Shropshire. His father, Philip Henry, had just been ejected by the Act of Uniformity 1662. Unlike most of his fellow-sufferers, Philip possessed some private means, and was thus able to give his son a good education. Matthew went first to a school at Islington, and then to Gray's Inn. He soon gave up his legal studies for theology, and in 1687 became minister of a Presbyterian congregation at Chester. He moved again in 1712 to Mare Street, Hackney. Two years later (22 June 1714), he died suddenly of apoplexy at the Queen's Aid House (41 High Street) in Nantwich while on a journey from Chester to London.
Works
Henry's well-known Exposition of the Old and New Testaments (1708–1710) is a commentary of a practical and devotional rather than of a critical kind, covering the whole of the Old Testament, and the Gospels and Acts in the New Testament. After the author's death, the work was finished by a number of ministers, and edited by G. Burder and John Hughes in 1811. Not a work of textual criticism, its attempt at good sense, discrimination, its high moral tone and simple piety with practical application, combined with the well-sustained flow of its English style, made it one of the most popular works of its type. Matthew Henry's six volume Complete Commentary, originally published in 1706, provides an exhaustive verse by verse study of the Bible. His commentaries are still in use to this day.

Henry's commentaries are primarily exegetical, dealing with the scripture text as presented. Henry's prime intention was explanation, not translation or textual research.

His Miscellaneous Writings, including a Life of Mr. Philip Henry, The Communicant's Companion, Directions for Daily Communion with God, A Method for Prayer, A Scriptural Catechism, and numerous sermons, were edited in 1809 and in 1830.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.

( Thanks to biblegateway.com for the cut and paste capability or I would have to type every word ! )

Isaiah 42 (King James Version)

1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.

2 He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

3 A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

4 He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for his law.

5 Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

6 I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

8 I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

9 Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

10 Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.

Isaiah 49 (King James Version)

6 And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.

7 Thus saith the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, Kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the LORD that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee.

8 Thus saith the LORD, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;

9 That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.

10 They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them.

11 And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be exalted.

12 Behold, these shall come from far: and, lo, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim.

13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted.

Jeremiah 31 (King James Version)

31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:

Malachi 3:1-6 (King James Version)

Malachi 3

1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap:

3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.

Isaiah 9 (King James Version)

6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Micah 4 (King James Version)

1 But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

2 And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

3 And he shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid: for the mouth of the LORD of hosts hath spoken it.

5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.

These are just some of the promises of the old covenant between God and His people.  As I was looking up the promises of Jesus in the New Testament I was just overwhelmed with the number and the, for lack of a better word, awesomeness of His promises to us. The promises fulfilled and those yet to be fulfilled are so splendid and unlike anything known in the history of mankind. That He would rise again from the dead, that God would answer any prayer of faith that was according to His will, that the apostles would raise the dead and heal the sick in His name, that God would send The Comforter to lead and guide us into all truth and knowledge, and that He would come again to take us home and judge the world. These are our comfort and our shield. They give us cause to rejoice, and cause to bow our knees in humble adoration. We have a way to be cleansed and to be counted among the righteous. Not as the world considers righteousness, but the true righteousness of God that cannot be questioned or made of nought by man. What a privilege ! What an awesome responsibility. Please cherish this and try to give it to someone else too. As He loves us, let us also love our brothers and sisters. Even if they don't look just like us, or live in our neighborhood, or even speak the same language. Christ died for them, should we not share life with them? God bless you all. Tell someone about what God has done for you today.

Here are some pictures of the Christmas project some ladies in our church along with some other friends put together this year. We hope it will grow into something even more special as the years go by. This is Wilson Elementary School in middle Tennessee, ( Overton County ), in the heart of coal country. The mines have shut down and most are out of work here. The principal told us that in this little school the poverty rate is 96%. Some of these children go hungry at night and many do not have decent clothes or adequate medical care. This is America people. Not Africa or South America. We have neighbors suffering right next door. The librarian told me that they have one computer for over two hundred children. They need so many things, and this is just one little school in one little rural county. We were able to share Christ's love with them and provide some clothing, toiletries and some toys and candy. What a awesome privilege and what a tremendous blessing we were given by the Lord. You should have seen those little smiling faces and the sincere gratitude. I am humbled at the sight and the remembrance of this day. I will never forget it as long as I live.   

Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. Since I can remember, it's been a special time of year with presents and family gatherings, and lots of good food. As children, my brother, sister and myself would be eagerly anticipating Santa's visit for months before the culmination on Christmas morn with the frenzy of activity and piles of bright colored paper and bows and bags. Mom always took so much time and care to wrap them and in seconds they were ripped and scattered across the living room floor. We didn't know much about Jesus, or the real reason for the season in those days. We had a basic knowledge of who He was supposed to be, but mom and dad were a young couple who didn't go to church. I guess they were kind of caught up in the cares of the world and trying to make a life for themselves and us kids. Mom worshiped dad, and dad worshiped.... well, himself, I guess. He was a heavy drinker and a real fun guy. The life of the party so to speak. We kids idolized him. He could do no wrong in our eyes. When we were small anyway. Even the beatings and his and mom's fighting and arguing seemed to us what normal people did. Even our friends had lives similar to ours. Their Dads were at the bar 'till the early hours of the morning with their mom's looking all over town for them. I got to go with dad sometimes when he was supposed to be watching me. I remember Christmas time at this one bar and restaurant in upstate New York that mom and dad used to like to go to where the owner had 13 children of his own. A large Catholic family with kids from babies to adults each a year or two apart. My brother and I always had someone to play with. It was a family type of atmosphere for a bar, I guess. There was a big fireplace that always was burning with a log on the fire in the wintertime and the jukebox was well stocked with Christmas songs. Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole and all the standards. We didn't know about the drugs and fights and broken families that came out of that place. It was normality to us and we really liked going. They had horses out back that we got to ride occasionally and a lake behind the bar with row boats. I remember dad got me and my brother bamboo cane fishing poles and showing us how to fish there. Of course he soon went back to the bar to drink with his buddies while we were left to figure out the finer points of angling for ourselves.We didn't mind though, we were pretty self sufficient as kids. We learned how to fend for ourselves early on in life. You see, kids don't see things with our eyes. As adults we have some perspective, being further back from the experience and interpreting it with knowledge and the wisdom we've accumulated over the years. With kids, things just happen and you experience them. Period. You don't have as many filters or preconceived notions because it's all new and you're living it in the moment. That is a lot better I think. That may be why they are so strong in some respects. We didn't really know how bad things were because they weren't really that bad to us. The bruises from dad's last beating would be gone soon enough and the latest neighborhood scandal would blow over and we'd be back to normal again. Maybe we knew that mom and dad weren't talking to each other for a while, but we had more important things to worry about. Candy bars and comic books, if the bully who lived next door was going to beat you up today and how you could get him back in some sneaky, covert action. We just got on with being kids like kids everywhere do. They don't realize that momma is in the other room crying because dad just got fired and we have no food in the refrigerator. Do you see what I'm trying to get at ? Kids feel the pain but they just don't have the time for it. They make some kind of better reality for themselves. I had some friends whose 3 year old son was diagnosed with non Hodgekins lymphoma. Cancer. They had to move to Memphis to live at St. Jude's Medical Center ( God bless those people and doctors ), while he received treatment. They suffered terribly with worry and doubts and so many tears and prayers. Little Matthew hurt and the chemotherapy hurt and made him terribly sick, but he never complained about what was happening or why. He was more concerned about why mommy and daddy were crying and so worried bout him. I Praise God and thank Him that Matthew is in remission and with no reoccurrence for about five years now. Glory to God. His mom told me of the bravery of these little ones that she met and got to know over the months. Some went on to be with the Lord, leaving us in a far worse state than they are in now. Children are precious and need to be protected. Please never, never do anything that will hurt your children, or lead them away from the Lord. Jesus said that if one were to hurt one of these, it would be better if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea, and that His Fathers Angels do watch over them. Let us also watch over them. There are kids going to bed hungry tonight in your very neighborhood. There is some little one crying somewhere because her clothes are tattered and worn and the other kids make fun of her. Please, don't wait on someone else to help them. Do it ! It may be just in the nick of time. You may change a life. May God bless you all with the abundance of His riches this Christ-Mass. Hug your babies today and tell them you love them.  I love you all.

Your brother in Christ, Stuart England.

I got this from Arabs For Christ .  An excellent site reaching the Muslims for Jesus.

The authenticity of the Bible
The Muslims claim that both the Old and New Testaments have been changed, and that the Bible is, therefore, not trustworthy. For this reason they believe it was necessary for God to give another book, the Koran, to replace it. They believe that the Koran contains the essence of all the heavenly books, including the Old and New Testaments.
Can the Word of God really be changed?
In addressing this issue, it is important to direct the Muslim's attention to the fact that the Bible is God's Word. The following are a few good questions you might consider when asking your Muslim friend:
If the Bible is God's Word, how could man change it?
Isn't God able to protect His Word from being changed?
Since the Bible is God's Word, whom are we accusing when we say it's been changed? Aren't we accusing God Himself by saying that He was not able to protect it from being changed?
Who changed the Bible? When was it changed?
Which parts were changed? And for what reason?
By asking him such questions, you will find out that he does not have answers to any of them. The Muslim simply says, "It was changed," and that just shows that he has absolutely no proof or evidence to support his allegations.
What does the Bible say regarding itself?
Because the Muslim agrees that the Bible is God's Word, you may also want to direct his attention to what it says about itself:
Mathew 5:1 "...until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished."
Mathew 24:35 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my Word will not pass away."
1 Peter 1:24,25 "...the grass withers and the flowers fall off, but the Word of the Lord abides forever."(Also Isaiah 40:8)
1 Timothy 3:16 "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof , for correction, and for training in righteousness."
2 Peter 1:21 "For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God."
C. What does the Koran say about the Bible?
The Koran itself does not say the Bible has been changed. In fact, it says that unless one obeys the Torah and the Bible, they are nothing. It mentions the Torah and the "Zambur" (the Old Testament with the Psalms) and the "Injil" (which is the New Testament) many times. When the Koran was written, no mention was made of the Bible having been changed. Thus, when Islam began in the 6th century, 600 years after Jesus Christ, the Bible was accepted as true.
D. What about the issue of translation
The Bible we have in our hands today was translated form the original languages of Hebrew and Greek. Whether it was printed in 1999, 1970 or 1950 it was translated form the original language. We have a complete Bible that dates back to the Third century A.D 300 years after Christ and 400 years before Islam. It is a complete, original Bible and we have several of these in existence: one in a museum in London and another in the Vatican in Rome.
However, someone may say, "Well, maybe it was changed before the year 300." We have thousands of original copies of various sections of the Bible that date back to before the year 300. If these pieces were put together, the result would be hundreds, if not thousands of complete Bibles dating back to before the year 300. The oldest of these manuscripts dates back to around the year 100 AD. We also know that the first books of the New Testament were written in 40 or 50 AD. Evidence of this may be found in the writing s of the Church Fathers, by whom many books and articles were written prior to 100 AD. The entire New Testament, with exception of five sentences that have nothing to do with theology or doctrine, can be reconstructed from the quotes of the church fathers found in these writings. In essence, we have the original copies from the same times as the writings of the Apostles who wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
What is interesting is that in the days of Christ, the region of the Middle East where Christ was born and brought up was under the influence of Greek civilization. The Greek judiciary system required two witnesses to appear before a judge to bring evidence in a trial. God in His sovereignty, however, has provided us with four witnesses, all of whom are in agreement concerning the events of the life of Christ. II Corinthians 13:1 says, "... every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses."
Finally, the Bible is not a scientific book, but where it mentions science it is accurate. It is not a history book, but where it mentions anything historic it is again accurate. It is not a geography book, but where it mentions geography it has proven to be true and accurate. The Bible, as it is in our hands to day, is the true Word of God and is able to stand up to any type of test, research, or criticism.

These folks are not our enemies. Christ died for them every bit as much as He died for me or you. They are the hardest people to reach with the Gospel though, because they are indoctrinated against it from birth. The Shahadda or Muslim creed and profession of faith is the first thing that is whispered into a baby's ear after he's born and the last thing he hears or says at the point of death. It goes something like, " There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is Allah's Prophet." The Qu'ran it seems was constructed as a direct rejection of the Christian faith. We need to be considerate of their views and respectful of their sacred book and prophet while maintaining our own integrity. We can agree to disagree but not get into theological debate. Love them into Heaven. Love is what conquers all. After all is forgotten or dismissed your love for these people is what they will remember, and with it.... Christ. Hallelujah, Praise the Name for ever. May God bless you richly in your endeavors as you work in His will and for His purpose.

Hatred breeds hatred. It is a foul disease that is virulent and contagious. That is why the Bible so strongly warns us ; 

1 John 2:11 (King James Version) But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.

1 John 3:15 (King James Version) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

And exhorts us rather to...

Ephesians 6:11-13 (King James Version)11: Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13: Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

How much hate has been promulgated in the name of religion, only God knows. Mankind seems to think that he has to hate for God that which is in opposition to his beliefs. His "holy" hatred a welcome return to familiar ground; if indeed he has ever left his former state.

The Bible tells us what the fruits of the Spirit of God are, and what is acceptable and pleasing in His sight.

Ephesians 5:8-10 (King James Version)

8: For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: 9: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) 10: Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.

Philippians 4:7-9 (King James Version)

7: And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 8: Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 9: Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

History is replete with examples of Christian killing Christian, Jew killing Christian, Christian killing Jew, Christian killing Muslim, Muslim killing Christian, etc., etc. We don't even have the time to mention The Hindus and eastern religions or Jim Jones or David Koresh and so many others. Irish Protestants killing Irish Catholics and vice versa, Slavery, abuses of women and children, and the list goes on. I will present a little bit of history concerning the oppression of the Muslim peoples here because it seems as though after 9/11 and the events in Iraq and Afghanistan with regards to the suicide bombers in particular, that we may think that this is something new under the sun. Who started it first is a childish and inane exercise.

This is from a report by The Central Intelligence Agency of The United States.

"Ethnic Cleansing" and Atrocities in Bosnia
Summary
Evidence drawn from press reports, international relief agencies, refugees, and other sources of information indicate that ethnic Serbs are responsible for the vast majority of ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
Croats and Muslims in Bosnia have also committed atrocities and forced other ethnic groups to flee--the Croat destruction of Mostar is a noteworthy example--but the ethnic cleansing actions of the Bosnian Serbs are unrivaled in scale and intensity. There is no pattern of events, moreover, indicating that Croats or Muslims have planned or carried out systematic, large-scale ethnic cleansing.
Sustained campaigns of ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serbs since 1992 have resulted in the likely deaths of tens of thousands of non-Serbs, the displacement of hundreds of thousands more, and radical change in Bosnia's demographics. Up to 90 percent of non-Serbs who lived in the 65 percent of Bosnia now under Serb control have been forced to flee, were detained, or were killed. Well over 3,000 settlements--mainly in Serb-controlled areas--have been destroyed and some 1.3 million Bosnians, primarily Muslims, have been displaced within Bosnia, mainly as a result of ethnic cleansing.
The Bosnian Serb Army, paramilitary groups, Bosnian Serb political leaders, and security elements have played pivotal coordinating roles in ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Consistent patterns of political-military collusion and coordination are evident in Serb seizures of Bosnian towns. Many non-Serb refugees from throughout Bosnia have described Serb takeovers in strikingly similar terms.
The bloodiest rounds of ethnic cleansing took place earlier in the Bosnian conflict in 1992 and 1993, but Serb efforts to expel non-Serbs continue. More than 16,000 have been evicted from northern Bosnia since last summer, and thousands more have been forced from the eastern enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa this month alone.
The apparently systematic, widespread nature of Serb actions strongly suggests that, from the beginning of the conflict, Bosnian Serb political and military leaders have played a central role in the purposeful destruction and dispersal of Bosnia's non-Serb population.
Introduction
Ethnic cleansing has been carried out in Bosnia since at least early 1992, primarily by Bosnian Serb political and military forces opposed to the Bosnian Government's declaration of independence following a republic-wide referendum in early March 1992. The Bosnian Serbs boycotted the vote. Refugees have indicated that Bosnian Serbs probably were planning takeovers of some towns, such as Brcko, before the referendum and reportedly sought help from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) and paramilitary groups formed in Serbia to do so.
In many cases, ethnic Serbs did not constitute majorities or significantly greater pluralities in key multiethnic towns that they subjected to ethnic cleansing. Official census data shows, for example, that in early 1992 Muslims constituted a majority of 56 percent in the northeastern city of Brcko. The Muslim population was about equal to that of Serbs in the northwestern town of Prijedor (39 and 40 percent, respectively), as well as in the larger opstina of Prijedor (44 and 43 percent, respectively). Both areas have since been virtually depopulated of non-Serb residents.
Well over a million of those displaced since early 1992, primarily by Serb ethnic cleansing, remain in Bosnia. A majority are Muslims forced into overcrowded enclaves and towns in Bosnian Government-held areas. Ethnic cleansing by Bosnian Serbs continues today, although the most brutal and widespread incidents took place in 1992 and 1993, when some of the most notorious detention camps were forced to close following extensive international publicity. More than 16,000 non-Serbs have been expelled from Serb-controlled areas of northern Bosnia alone since last summer, and thousands more have forced from the eastern enclaves of Srebrenica and Zepa this month.
Croats and Muslims have also committed atrocities during the Bosnian conflict, but their actions have consisted for the most part of discrete--though sometimes fierce--episodes that lack the sustained intensity, orchestration, and scale of the Bosnian Serbs' efforts. (see page 7 text box) The majority of refugee accounts--corroborated by information from the UN, international relief organizations, and other sources of information--indicate that ethnic Serbs are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the destruction, displacement, and loss of life associated with ethnic cleansing in Bosnia.
Key Actors in Ethnic Cleansing by Bosnian Serbs
A substantial body of evidence indicates that political, security, military, and paramilitary elements all played central, coordinated roles in carrying out ethnic cleansing in Bosnia. Statements by refugees from affected towns as distant from each other as Prijedor, Brcko, and Foca reveal a strikingly similar pattern. They describe how non-Serbs were disarmed and Serb political, security, and military forces took control of towns, setting up new local government structures with identical names or functions in each case, and systematically rounding up, interrogating, torturing, and imprisoning or expelling members of non-Serb Žlites--usually Muslims. The almost simultaneous timing of the takeovers of many towns in spring 1992 also suggests collusion among Bosnian Serb authorities. The balance among these political and military elements appears to have shifted over the past two years--the military, for example, has expanded its role in ethnic cleansing through its offensives--but all appear to remain involved.
The Serbian Democratic Party and Internal Security
Local and regional members of Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic's Serbian Democratic Party (SDS) appear to have been responsible for many tactical decisions involving the ethnic cleansing of non-Serbs. Numerous refugee accounts name the SDS as having orchestrated Serb takeovers of previously multiethnic towns, where they put in place new rŽgimes, set up interrogation centers, established mock "courts," and moved thousands of non-Serb civilian prisoners to detention camps.
The SDS mayor of Prijedor, who took office following the takeover of the town in April 1992, stated to a US news organization in a fall 1992 interview that the three principal detention sites in the area--Keraterm, Trnopolje, and Omarska, where thousands reportedly were tortured and died--were "formed on decisions of the Prijedor civil authorities." Many ethnic Serbs identified as local SDS activists have also been affiliated with local paramilitary or irregular units reported to have terrorized the non-Serb populace.
Local SDS officials have also worked closely with internal security elements. Interior Ministry officials traditionally control the local police, and their authority for dealing with public order gives them access to municipal records. Many refugees have reported that, in town takeovers, prominent local non-Serbs have been quickly rounded up by police using organized lists. Bosnian Serb internal affairs officials also reportedly have commanded interrogation sites and detention camps for civilians, such as Omarska, according to various refugee interviews.
Karadzic has consistently denied that Serbs have engaged in ethnic cleansing or that his rŽgime is responsible for any atrocities, but he and his associates apparently have exercised authority over some Bosnian Serb detention camps. Journalists, for example, have described having to arrange visits to detention camps in 1992 through Karadzic's office, and other Westerners reportedly toured camps accompanied by SDS "escorts." This information and the consistent patterns evident in the takeovers of towns throughout Bosnia strongly suggest that top SDS leaders, including Karadzic, knew about ethnic cleansing plans from the outset--and that they probably initiated them in coordination with internal security organs and the military.
The Bosnian Serb Military
The Bosnian Serb Army (BSA), which was formed from the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) in mid-May 1992, has been a central participant in ethnic cleansing campaigns against Muslims and Croats. BSA units have conducted systematic ethnic cleansing operations, controlled detention camps, and methodically destroyed Muslim villages, in particular, most notably in northern and eastern Bosnia. BSA forces have often operated in conjunction with Serb paramilitary units identified as perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities of the Balkan conflict.
The BSA has operated many of the detention camps that have held primarily Muslim and Croat civilians--rather than bona fide POWs--according to press accounts and statements by refugees. BSA-run camps, notorious for their alleged brutality and death tolls, include facilities at Manjaca and Batkovic. A significant part of the Serb detention camp and prison system in Bosnia was an integrated entity organized within the corps structure of the BSA, according to information from various sources. Some former detainees claim to have been able to discern the military command structure in BSA-run camps and, in some cases, identify former JNA officers then serving in the camps' commands. The BSA's security service reportedly exercised command and control of the camp system using military police as guards.
As the BSA, under the command of General Ratko Mladic, has intensified its military operations, its role in ethnic cleansing has grown. The BSA has incorporated into its campaigns the systematic destruction of villages--primarily Muslim--to ensure that their inhabitants will not return. BSA forces in both the January-April 1993 Srebrenica offensive and the April 1994 Gorazde attack, for example, razed Muslim villages well after Bosnian Serb troops had control of the areas surrounding them.
Paramilitary Forces
Numerous Bosnian refugees have indicated that both Bosnian Serb and Serbian paramilitary units initially operated in conjunction with the JNA and later the BSA, as well as local police forces, to seize control of territory and ethnically cleanse areas in 1992. There is some circumstantial evidence that the JNA/BSA and the Serbian Interior Ministry armed Bosnian Serb and Serbian paramilitaries in 1992.
In many cases, the JNA/BSA secured the area around a town and fired artillery or tank rounds into the area to terrorize the population, according to a variety of reports. Paramilitary units appeared to operate in close coordination with the Army--if not under its command--typically following up on the Army's encirclement of the town by entering it to "ethnically cleanse" it through murder, terror tactics, and expulsions. The BSA appears to have disbanded most paramilitary units or incorporated them into the Army in the past two years for various reasons. Volunteer paramilitary units that have operated since that time appear to have functioned under BSA command or as part of BSA units.
The Toll of Ethnic Cleansing
There is no reliable estimate of how many Bosnians have died as a result of Serb ethnic cleansing, but information from refugees and press reports strongly suggests that they number in the tens of thousands. Information on deaths is mostly anecdotal and not the result of formal investigations or exhumation since most deaths claimed took place in areas under Serb control to which access for outsiders is denied. In many cases, however, refugees who have reported such deaths claim to have witnessed them.
Approximately 2,000,000 people from states of the former Yugoslavia have been displaced but reside elsewhere in their home republic or in another republic of the former Yugoslavia. About 1,300,000 of those displaced persons are in Bosnia, a majority of them Muslims forced to leave Serb-controlled areas. In addition, approximately 1,000,000 more refugees from the former Yugoslavia have fled abroad, according to UN information, most of them to Europe. Although it is difficult to estimate the breakdown of Balkan refugee populations by ethnic group, either within the former Yugoslavia or abroad, a clear but unspecified majority almost certainly is Bosnian Muslim.
Conclusion
Sustained ethnic cleansing campaigns in Bosnia over three years have radically altered the formerly multiethnic state. Restoring its pre-war demographic balance and ethnic distribution now appears virtually impossible. The actions of ethnic Serb political and military forces have created a Bosnian--mainly Muslim--diaspora. At the same time, ethnic Serbs have succeeded in securing their hold over large parts of Bosnian territory and made significant strides toward their apparent objective of establishing, or expanding, an ethnically pure Serb state.

This is nothing new, sadly. Not even for the Balkans region whose history seems to be written in blood. This is from " Infidels, A History of the Conflict Between Christendom and Islam". p.244

"... This guerrilla war, in in Harold Temperly's view, led directly to the revolt in Bulgaria and all that followed. It was a cruel war on both sides. The first things that British consul Holmes saw as he entered Nevesinge were a Turkish boy's head blackening in the sun, and a bloody froth bubbling from the slit throat of a young Turkish girl." (cited and translated in Harold Temperly, The Bulgarian and other Atrocities 1875-8)".

Many other instances too cruel and too graphic to mention occurred. Both Muslim and Christian were savage in their hatred and brutality It was then and continues today. Consider reading on the Greek Revolution of 1822, where in one instance, "around Easter 1821, the Greek peasants of the Peloponnese began to kill all the Muslims in the land - men, women, and children alike. Almost 20,000 were slaughtered in a few months.". From "Infidels" p.233.

The Ottoman Turks whom the aforementioned rebels were trying to overthrow were just as cruel and I do not presume to cover over their atrocities, but am trying to show that there has been extreme hatred and cruelty on both sides. Consider also the ruler of "Christian" Wallachia, ( what is now southern Romania ), Vlad (the impaler) Tepes, who .." perfected the technique of mass death, skewering his enemies on a long spit or spear- the longer the stake, the higher in rank the victim. In 1461 Murad II's son, the young Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, was horrified when he saw the 20,000 rotting corpses hanging on sharpened stakes outside the walls of Vlad's capital of Tirgoviste." ( Infidels, p. 193)

Of course we had the Inquisition, the public burnings at the stake in early America of "witches" and other "heretics", The burning white crosses of the Ku Klux Klan at their lynching's of black Americans, etc., etc. Do I need to go on? We need to start loving our fellow man. Tell someone about Jesus today. God Bless you all.

This is from the Financial Times of London

World’s hungry ‘close to one billion’

By Javier Blas, Commodities Correspondent

Published: December 9 2008 10:04 | Last updated: December 9 2008 10:04

The food crisis has pushed the number of hungry people in the world to almost 1bn, in what the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation described on Tuesday as a “serious setback” to global efforts to reduce mass starvation.

“The ongoing financial and economic crisis could tip even more people into hunger and poverty,” the FAO added.

The Rome-based organisation said that a preliminary estimate showed the number of undernourished people rose this year by 40m to about 963m people, after rising 75m in 2007. Before the food crisis, there were about 848m chronically hungry people in 2003-05.

“High food prices are driving millions of people into food insecurity, worsening conditions for many who were already food-insecure, and threatening long-term global food security,” the FAO said in its report The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2008.

Prices of agricultural commodities such as wheat, corn and rice jumped to record levels earlier this year, triggering food riots in countries ranging from Haiti to Egypt to Bangladesh and prompting appeals for food aid for more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

Although food commodity prices have fallen about 50 per cent from this summer’s all-time highs, they remain well above pre-crisis levels. The cost of rice, for example, has halved since July, but it still trades at prices that are 95 per cent above 2005 levels.

In addition, the weakening of some emerging countries’ currencies against the US dollar has partially erased gains from the drop in commodity prices.

The new FAO estimates also show the food crisis has thrown into reverse a decline over a quarter-century in the proportion of undernourished people as a percentage of the world’s population. The percentage has risen now to about 17 per cent, up from a record low of 16 per cent in 2003-05 period, but still below the 20 per cent of 1990-92.

“Soaring food prices have reversed some of the gain and successes in hunger reduction, making the mission of achieving the internationally agreed goal on hunger reduction more difficult,” the FAO said.

Almost a decade ago, world leaders agreed in New York to the UN Millennium Development Goals, calling among other targets for a halving between 1990 and 2015 in the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Jacques Diouf, FAO director-general, said in a foreword for the report that the task of achieving the UN’s hunger reduction targets in the remaining several years to 2015 will “require an enormous and resolute global effort and concrete actions”.

However, with leaders’ attention firmly focused on the global financial crisis and its economic ramifications, many observers now believe that the hunger and poverty reduction targets are no longer achievable by 2015.

The vast majority of the world’s undernourished people – more than 90m – live in developing countries, according to FAO estimates. Of these, 65 per cent live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

In sub-Saharan Africa, one in three people – or almost 240m – are chronically hungry, the highest proportion of undernourished people in the total population.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

While we're enjoying the Holidays with our loved ones, safe warm, and secure. Looking upon the wonderful bounty of meats and deserts and grandma's dressing and home baked rolls that the Lord has blessed us with, let us consider the hungry people who have nothing in this world. Those children whom one bite off your plate would be more than they could even dream of. I'm sure God has a very special place in His heart for them. We should too. Not just a prayer that they be comforted, but action on our part that they will be.

Matthew 25:34-40 (King James Version)

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

James 2:15-17 (King James Version)

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

courtesy of e-word today

May God richly bless you today !

Persecution of the early Church

This is from the good work of the folks at Wikipedia.com. I have reformatted and condensed it. To find more info that I left out, ( such as the references and links), go to the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution#Great_Persecution

Diocletian and Galerius, 302–303

Diocletian was in Antioch in the autumn of 302, when the next instance of persecution occurred. The deacon Romanus had come to the city from Caesarea Maritima, in Syria Palaestina (near modern Caesarea, Israel). Romanus saw many in the city visiting the pagan temples, and was angered. In protest, he visited a court while preliminary sacrifices were taking place and interrupted the ceremonies, decrying the act in a loud voice. He was arrested and sentenced to be set aflame, but Diocletian overruled the decision, and decided that Romanus should have his tongue removed instead. This being done, Romanus was sent to prison, where he would be executed on November 17, 303. The arrogance of this Christian displeased Diocletian, and he left the city and made for Nicomedia for the winter, accompanied by Galerius.
Throughout these years the moral and religious didacticism of the emperors was reaching a fevered pitch; now, at the behest of an oracle, it was to hit its peak. According to Lactantius, Diocletian and Galerius entered into an argument over what imperial policy towards Christians should be while wintering at Nicomedia in 302. Diocletian argued that forbidding Christians from the bureaucracy and military would be sufficient to appease the gods, while Galerius pushed for their extermination. The two men sought to resolve their dispute by sending a messenger to consult the oracle of Apollo at Didyma. Porphyry may also have been present at this meeting. Upon returning, the messenger told the court that "the just on earth" hindered Apollo's ability to speak. These "just", Diocletian was informed by members of the court, could only refer to the Christians of the empire. At the behest of his court, Diocletian acceded to demands for a universal persecution.

First edict

On February 23, 303, Diocletian ordered that the newly-built Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures set to flame, and the treasures of the church collected as treasure. February 23 was the feast of the Termnialia, for Terminus, the god of boundaries. The emperors must have thought it appropriate: It was the day they would terminate Christianity. The next day, Diocletian's first "Edict against the Christians" was published. The key targets of this piece of legislation were, as they had been during Valerian's persecution, Christian property and senior clerics. The edict ordered the destruction of Christian scriptures, liturgical books, and places of worship across the empire, and prohibited Christians from assembling for worship. Christians were also deprived of the right to petition the courts, making them potential subjects for judicial torture; Christians could not respond to actions brought against them in court; Christian senators, equestrians, decurions, veterans, and soldiers were deprived of their ranks; and imperial freedmen were reduced to the status of slaves.
The edict might not actually have been an "edict" in the technical sense; Eusebius does not refer to it as such, and when the Passio Felicis states "exiit edictum imperatorum et Caesarum super omnem faciem terrae", it may simply be as an echo of Luke's Gospel 2:1: "exiit edictum a Caesare Augusto ut profiteretur universus orbis terrae". Elsewhere in the passion, the text is called a programma. The text of the edict itself does not actually survive. Diocletian had requested that the edict be pursued "without bloodshed", in spite of Galerius' demands that all those refusing to sacrifice should be burned alive. The practice nevertheless became quite widespread in the East. In spite of Diocletian's request, the death penalty was widely used, following the discretion of local judges. After it was posted, a man on the street named Eutius tore it down and ripped it up, shouting "Here are your Gothic and Sarmatian triumphs!" He was arrested for treason, tortured, and burned alive soon after, thus becoming the edict's first martyr. The provisions of the edict were known and enforced in Palestine by March or April (just before Easter), and was in use by local officials in North Africa by May or June. The earliest martyr at Caesarea was executed on June 7; the edict was in force at Cirta from May 19. The first edict was the sole legally binding edict in the West. In the East, however, progressively harsher legislation was devised.

Second, third, and fourth edicts

In the summer of 303, following a series of rebellions in Melitene (Malatya, Turkey) and Syria, a second edict was published, ordering the arrest and imprisonment of all bishops and priests. Diocletian should not have needed this second edict; that he issued one indicates that he was either unaware the first edict was being carried out, or that he felt it was not working as quickly as he needed it to. Following the publication of the second edict, prisons began to fill—they underdeveloped prison system of the time could not handle the deacons, lectors, priests, bishops, and exorcists forced upon them. Eusebius writes that the edict netted so many priests that ordinary criminals were crowded out, and had to be released.
In anticipation of the upcoming twentieth anniversary of his reign on November 20, 303, Diocletian declared a general amnesty in a third edict: Any imprisoned clergyman could be freed, so long as they agreed to make a sacrifice to the gods. Diocletian may have been searching for some publicity with this legislation. He may also have sought to fracture the Christian community by publicizing the fact that its clergy had apostatized. The demand to sacrifice was unacceptable to many of the imprisoned, but wardens often managed to obtain at least nominal compliance. Some of the clergy sacrificed willingly; others did so on pain of torture. Wardens were eager to be rid of the clergy in their midst: Eusebius, in his Martyrs of Palestine, records the case of one man who, after being brought to an altar, had his hands seized and made to complete a sacrificial offering. The clergyman was told that his act of sacrifice had been recognized and was summarily dismissed. Others were told they'd sacrificed even when they'd done nothing.
In 304, the fourth edict ordered all persons, men, women, and children, to gather in a public space and offer a collective sacrifice. If they refused, they were to be executed. The precise date of the edict is unknown, but it was probably issued in either January or February 304, and was still being applied in the Balkans in March. The edict was in use in Thessalonica (Thessaloniki, Greece) in April 304, and in Palestine soon after. This last edict was not enforced at all in the domains of Maximian and Constantius. In the East, it remained applicable until the issue of the Edict of Milan by Constantine and Licinius in 313.

Nicomedia

Before the end of February, a fire destroyed part of the imperial palace. Galerius convinced Diocletian that the culprits were Christian conspirators who had plotted with palace eunuchs. An investigation into the act was commissioned, but no responsible party was found. Executions followed. The palace eunuchs Dorotheus and Gorgonius were eliminated. One individual, a Peter, was stripped, raised high, and scourged. Salt and vinegar were poured in his wounds, and he was slowly boiled over an open flame. The executions continued until at least April 24, 303, when six individuals, including the bishop Anthimus, were decapitated. The persecution had intensified: Now presbyters and other clergymen could be arrested without having even been accused of a crime, and condemned to death. A second fire appeared sixteen days after the first. Galerius left the city, declaring it unsafe. Diocletian would soon follow. Lactantius blamed Galerius' allies for setting the fire; Constantine, in his later reminisces, would attribute the fire to "lightning from heaven".

Palestine and Syria
Under Galerius and Urbanus, 303–305
Palestinian martyrs recorded in the Martyrs of Palestine.

Palestine is the only region for which an extended local perspective of the persecution exists, in the form of Eusebius' Martyrs of Palestine. Eusebius was resident in Caesarea, the capital of Palestine, for the duration of the persecution, although he also traveled to Phoenicia and Egypt, and perhaps Arabia as well. Eusebius' account is imperfect. It focuses on martyrs that were his personal friends before the persecutions began, and includes martyrs that took place outside of Palestine. His coverage is uneven: He provides only bare generalities at the bloody end of the persecutions, for example. Eusebius recognizes some of his faults. At the outset of his account of the general persecution in the Ecclesiastical History, Eusebius laments the incompleteness of his reportage: "how could one number the multitude of martyrs in each province, and especially those in Africa and Mauretania, and in Thebaid and Egypt?"
Since no one below the status of governor held the legal power to enforce capital punishment, most recalcitrant Christians would have been sent to Caesarea to await punishment. The first martyr, Procopius, was sent to Caesarea from Scythopolis (Beit She'an, Israel), where he had been a reader and an exorcist. He was brought before the governor on June 7, 303, and asked to sacrifice to the gods, and to pour a libation for the emperors. Procopius responded by quoting Homer: "the lordship of many is not a good thing; let there be one ruler, one king". The governor beheaded the man at once.
Further martyrdoms followed. On November 17, 303, the governor, Flavianus, returning to Caesarea from outside the province, tortured and executed Zacchaeus, a deacon from Gadara (Umm Qais, Jordan), and Alpheus of Eleutheropolis (Bayt Jibrin, Israel), a reader and exorcist. More deaths came the next spring, when the new governor, Urbanus, published the fourth edict. Urbanus, on the advice of the pagans of Gaza, executed a man named Timothy for his recalcitrance on May 21, 304. On the same day, Urbanus sentenced Agapius and the Montanist Thecla (also Gazans) to fight wild beasts in the amphitheater. Their executions were delayed, however, until suitable games were held. On the day of the event, six young men followed Urbanus into the amphitheater, showing their support. These six were arrested and held until March 24, 305, when they, too, were executed. Eusebius probably does not list a complete account of all those executed under the fourth edict—he alludes in passing to others imprisoned with Thecla, for example, though he does not name them.

Under Maximinus and Urbanus, 305–307

The bulk of Eusebius' account deals with Maximinus. Maximinus took up the office of emperor in Nicomedia on May 1, 305, and immediately thereafter left the city for Caesarea (hurrying, Lactantius alleges, so as to oppress and trample the diocese of Oriens). Initially, Maximinus governed only Egypt and the Levant. He issued his own persecutionary edict in the spring of 306, ordering general sacrifice. The edict of 304 had been difficult to enforce, since the Imperial government had no record of city-dwelling subjects who held no agricultural land. Galerius solved this problem in 306 by running another census. This contained the names of all urban heads of household and the number of their dependents (past censuses had only listed persons paying tax on land, such as landowners and tenants). Using lists drawn up by the civil service, Maximinus used town criers to call all men, women, and children down to the temples. There, after  being called by name, everyone sacrificed.

Maximinus' first edict indirectly caused the martyrdom of one Apphianus. On March 31, 306, Apphianus had rushed past governor Urbanus' bodyguard, seized his hand, and told him to stop praying to lifeless idols and evil spirits. Urbanus' guards struck Apphianus, knocked him on the ground, and stamped on him. In prison, under torture, Apphianus refused to say who he was, where hehad come from, or where he was living. On April 2, 306, Urbanus ordered that he be drowned in the sea. Agapius, imprisoned in 304, was sent from prison to the arena several times, but kept being brought back. On November 20, 306—Maximinus' birthday—Agapius was brought into the arena with a small board identifying him as a Christian. Maximinus had ordered him to the beasts, alongside a slave who had murdered his master. Maximinus arrived at the arena soon thereafter, and, in a show of clemency, pardoned the murderer. Maximinus called on Agapius to deny his god and receive the same freedom. Agapius refused. Maximinus left Agapius to be attacked by a bear. Since Agapius survived, the next day he was thrown into the sea, and weighted down by stones tied to his ankles.
Eusebius characterizes Urbanus as a man who enjoyed some variety in his punishments. One day, shortly after Easter 307, he ordered the virgin Theodosia from Tyre thrown to the sea for conversing with Christians attending trial (and refusing sacrifice, of course); the Christians in court, meanwhile, were sent to Phaeno. On November 2, 307, Urbanus sentenced Domninus to be burned alive, three youths to fight as gladiators, a priest to be exposed to a beast, Silvanus, bishop of the churches around Gaza, and his thirty-nine companions to work in the coppermines (Silvanus was later beheaded), and a number of others (including Pamphilus of Caesarea, a priest, scholar, and defender of the theologian Origen), to prison. He also ordered some young men to be castrated, and sent three maidens to brothels. Urbanus, however, was soon dead. For unknown reasons, Urbanus was stripped of his rank, imprisoned, tried, and executed, all in one day of expedited proceedings. His replacement, Firmilianus, was one of Maximinus' trusted confidants and a veteran soldier.

Under Maximinus and Firmilianus, 307–311

At some point after the publication of Maximinus' first edict, perhaps in 307, Maximinus changed the penalty for transgressions. Instead of receiving the death penalty, Christians would now be mutilated and condemned to labor in state-owned mines. Since Egyptian mines were overstaffed (thanks primarily to Christian prisoners), Egyptian penitents were increasingly sent to the copper mines at Phaeno in Palestine and Cicilia in Asia Minor. At Diocaesarea (Tzippori, Israel) in the spring of 308, 97 Christian confessors were received by Firmilianus from the porphyry mines in the Thebaid. Firmilianus cut the tendons on their left feet, blinded their right eyes, and sent them to the mines of Palestine. On another occasion, 130 others received the same punishment. Some were sent to Phaeno, and some to Cicilia.
Eusebius notes that this event marked the beginning of a temporary respite from persecution. Although the precise dating of this respite is not specifically noted by Eusebius, the text of the Martyrs records no Palestinian martyrs between July 25, 308 and November 13, 309. The political climate impinges on persecutionary policy here: This was the period of the conference of Carnuntum, which met in November 308. Maximinus probably spent the next few months in discussion with Galerius over his role in the imperial college.
In the autumn 309, Maximinus resumed persecution by issuing letters to provincial governors and his praetorian prefect, demanding that Christians conform to pagan customs. His new legislation called for another general sacrifice, coupled with a general offering of libations. It was even more systematic than the first, allowing no exceptions for infants or servants. Curatores, duumviri, and tabularii, who kept the records, saw to it that there were no evasions. This edict also required food sold in the marketplaces to be covered in libation, and set sentries to stand guard over bathhouses to ensure that all customers sacrificed. This second edict caused the deaths of Antonius, Zebinas, and Germanus, who tried to stop governor Firmilianus from offering sacrifice. The men were beheaded on November 13, 309. On the same day, he executed Enathas, a virgin from Scythopolis, was executed, after having been stripped half-naked and flogged through the market places of Caesarea. Firmilianus also forbade the burial of martyrs, bringing (it was said) the pillars of buildings in the city to weep, although "the weather was fine and the air clear". The Palestinian Talmud also reports that the pillars of Caesarea wept in the same general period, although they attribute the tears to the death of Rabbi Abbahu (if Jewish, in sorrow; if Samaritan, in joy) instead of the deaths of the Christian martyrs. In spite of their apparent similarities, the two events may have happened on separate days—the Jewish miracle on a foggy day, the Christian miracle on a clear one, for example.
The next few months saw the worst extremes of the persecution. On December 13, 309, Firmilianus condemned some Egyptians arrested at Ascalon (Ashkelon, Israel) on their way to visit the confessors in Cilicia to various punishments. Three were beheaded; the rest lost their left feet and right eyes. On January 10, 310, Peter and the Marcionite bishop Asclepius, both from Anaia, near (Eleutheropolis, West Bank), were burned alive. On February 16, Pamphilus and his six companions were executed. In the aftermath, four more members of Pamphilus' household were martyred for their displays of sympathy for the condemned. The last martyrs before Galerius' edict of toleration were executed on March 5 and 7. At once, the executions stop. Eusebius does not explain the end, but it coincides with the replacement of Firmilianus with Valentinianus, appointed at some time before Galerius' death. Eusebius does not mention Valentinianus anywhere in his writings.

Under Maximinus and Valentinianus, 311–313

Even after Galerius' edict of toleration in 311, Maximinus continued to persecute. Maximinus issued orders forbidding Christians to congregate in cemeteries in Autumn 311, and began persecuting Church leaders before the year was out. Peter of Alexandria was beheaded on November 26, 311. Lucian of Antioch was executed in Nicomedia on January 7, 312. Many other Egyptian bishops, according to Eusebius, suffered the same fate. According to Lactantius, Maximinus ordered confessors to have "their eyes gouged out, their hands cut off, their feet amputated, their noses or ears severed". Persecution had begun again, and would not cease until Maximinus was defeated at the hands of Licinius in spring 313, when Maximinus was compelled to unequivocally assert full liberty for his Christian citizens.

Egypt

In Eusebius' Martyrs of Palestine, Egypt is covered only in passing. When Eusebius remarks on the region, however, he writes of tens, twenties, even hundreds of Christians put to death on a single day, which would seem to make Egypt the region that suffered the most during the persecutions. In Egypt, Peter of Alexandria fled his namesake city early on in the persecution, leaving the Church leaderless. Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis (Asyut), took up the job in his place. Meletius performed ordinations without Peter's permission, which caused some bishops to complain to Peter. Meletius soon refused to treat Peter as any kind of authority, and expanded his operations into Alexandria. According to Epiphanius of Salamis, the Church split into two sections: the "Catholic Church", under Peter, and, after Peter's execution, Alexander; and the "Church of the Martyrs" under Meletius. This schism would persist long after the deaths of both Peter and Melitius.

Legacy

Contemporary Christian theologians held that persecution strengthened the Church: In the words of Tertullian, "The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of the Christians is the seed [of the Church]." According to this view, the example of the martyrs strengthened the faith of fellow-believers, inspired pagan onlookers and brought in new converts to the faith. It was also believed that persecution would root out those Christians who were weak in their faith. Early apologists for the Church had divided amongst themselves on how to deal with apostasy: Tertullian took a hard-line against the phenomenon, while Clement of Alexandria attempted to forge a compromise. Now whole Christian communities broke down along these lines, as the persecution drove a wedge between the lapsed, the hard-liners, and their respective fellow-travelers, leaving schisms that took take decades to die down.
In the absence of persecution, the ascetic replaced the martyr as the ideal Christian type. Between 260 and 324, asceticism became a popular expression of Christian piety. In the house of Pamphilus of Caesarea, for example, Pamphilus and his pupils lived simply, copied out the scriptures, and followed in the path set by the Christian philosopher Origen. Eusebius implies that monastic communities similar to the first-century Jewish communities of the Therapeutae were already in existence by the time he wrote his Ecclesiastical History (ca. 300). Saint Anthony, on the chronology of Athanasius' Life of St. Anthony, moved deep into the desert at about 285. After his return to civilization in 305, Anthony performed miracles—healing the sick, casting out demons, etc.—and convinced many to choose the monastic life. "The desert was made a city" by these new monks.
In future generations, both Christians and pagans would look back on Diocletian as, in the words of theologian Henry Chadwick, "the embodiment of irrational ferocity". To medieval Christians, Diocletian was the most loathsome of all Roman emperors. From the fourth century on, Christians would describe the "Great" persecution of Diocletian's reign as a bloodbath. The Liber Pontificalis alleges 17,000 martyrs within a single thirty-day period. In the fourth century, Christians created a "cult of martyrs" in homage to the fallen. The Christians responsible for this cult were loose with the facts: Their "heroic age" of martyrs, or "Era of Martyrs", was held to begin with Diocletian's accession to the emperorship in 284, rather than 303, when persecutions actually began; they fabricated a large number of martyrs' tales (indeed, most surviving martyrs' tales are forgeries), exaggerated the facts in others, and embroidered true accounts with miraculous details. Of the surviving martyrs' acts, only those of Agnes, Sebastian, Felix and Adauctus, and Marcellinus and Peter are even remotely historical. Hagiographers portrayed a persecution far more extensive than the real one had been. These traditional accounts were first questioned in the Enlightenment, when Henry Dodwell, Voltaire, and, most famously, Edward Gibbon questioned traditional accounts of Christian martyrdom.
Throughout the final chapter of the first volume of his Decline and Fall, Gibbon insinuated that Christians had greatly exaggerated the scale of the persecutions they suffered.
After the church had triumphed over all her enemies, the interest as well as vanity of the captives prompted them to magnify the merit of their respective suffering. A convenient distance of time and place gave an ample scope to the progress of fiction; and the frequent instances which might be alleged of holy martyrs, whose wounds had been instantly healed, whose strength had been renewed, and whose lost members had miraculously been restored, were extremely convenient for the purpose of removing every difficulty, and of silencing every objection. The most extravagant legends, as they conduced to the honour of the church, were applauded by the incredulous multitude, countenanced by the power of the clergy, and attested by the suspicious evidence of ecclesiastical history.
Throughout his history, Gibbon implies that the early Church deeply undermined traditional Roman virtue, and, with it, the health of its civil society. Some of Gibbon's contemporaries were displeased with the irreligious tendencies in his work. Later historians, however, took Gibbon's emphases even further. As historian G.E.M. de Ste. Croix put it in 1954, "The so-called Great Persecution has been exaggerated in the Christian tradition to an extent which even Gibbon did not fully appreciate." According to the estimate of W.H.C. Frend, only 3,000–3,500 Christians were killed in the persecution. Although the number of verifiably-true martyrs' tales has fallen, and estimates of the total casualty rate have been reduced, some modern writers are less skeptical than Gibbon of the severity of the martyrs' torture. As author Stephen Williams wrote in 1985, "even allowing a margin for invention, what remains is terrible enough. Unlike Gibbon, we live in an age which has experienced similar things, and knows how unsound is that civilised smile of incredulity at such reports. Things can be, have been, every bit as bad as our worst imaginings."

Revelation can be defined as " something revealed", or " A manifestation of divine will or truth". There are two types of revelation evident in The Holy Scriptures. 1. General Revelation, which is given to all men everywhere and declares the reality of the Creator-God. It is evidenced in nature, ( see Romans 1:20 ). Also it comes in the witness of mankind itself. Since man is made in God's image, man is personal. Being like God in this respect, he has capacities for love, creativity and intellect. This also equates God as a personal God and not inanimate or unreachable. The general revelation of God leaves man without excuse for he cannot claim that he is unaware of the fact and reality of God. ( see Romans 1:18-25 ).Man has a natural inclination to search out God. As St. Augustine noted, " Thou has formed us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in Thee" ( confessions I 1:1 ). Paul in Acts witnesses to the Greeks in the great city of Athens, the intellectual capital of the world, that "... I perceive in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by,and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him I declare unto you. ". How many "gods" have we created since the dawn of time? Even the atheists have themselves as their "god". This general revelation is inherently limited because of mans fall from grace and fellowship with god, i.e. the "sin condition". Adam "talked with God" before sin entered the picture and broke the connection. The general revelation of itself is no longer adequate due to man's actions and fallen and abnormal condition.It is unknowingly distorted by man himself. Special Revelation becomes the necessary remedy for man's alienation from God. Calvin writes in Institutes of the Christian religion I:6:1; " It is necessary to apply to Scripture, in order to learn the sure marks which distinguish God, as the Creator of the world, from the whole herd of fictitious gods".  General revelation is the foundation upon which rests the next type of revelation.. 2. Special Revelation. Special revelation is necessary both because of the actions of man taking himself out of communion with God, and God's very character itself. God is transcendent and thus beyond human comprehension. Job witnesses to the fact in that.." Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out." [ Job 36:26 ]. See also 1 Timothy 6:15-16. The fact of human sinfulness along with the incomprehensibility of God make it absolutely necessary that, if God is to be known, it must be by His own initiative. Special revelation is therefore no accident, but by God's will.  A remedy for man's fallen and separate condition. It is the story of man's possible salvation and is therefore both the event and the written record of God's redemptive activity on behalf of His fallen creation. Special revelation comes in the form of History,( i.e. the Old testament accounts of the plan of God's redemption through The covenant with Abraham and Israel ), and revelation in His divine Word. Historical events are open to diverse interpretations, and inaccuracies in recorded versions, therefore the inspired word of God becomes a necessary buttress to history itself. Frequently the Word comes before the event. Prophecy. The completion of the Word as an event as exampled in so many instances in the Bible. Christ is the supreme instance of the event of revelation and the Word of revelation as one. The Word who was made flesh. He is the center of History, The Alpha and the Omega, God Himself to whom be the honor and the glory for ever and ever, Amen.

If by chance you don't know the personal God, in Christ Jesus... Please, take the time to look for Him.

"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."  [ John 3:17 ]

I got most of this from Elemental Theology by Emery H. Bancroft.

(Slightly paraphrased)