Canadian Christians should be in prayer for persecuted Believers around the world. It is a hard reality that Jihadists, Islamist, and terrorists are found most everywhere. No longer should we think of them just on the other side of the world. They are in our own country and by permission so it seems no thanks to our prime minister who along with others see things differently than the rest of us. Justin Trudeau is a global citizen who offers chances and pay-outs to haters of Jewish, Christians, and even Muslims, any who resists their hateful ideology is on their list. Terrorists are welcomed back to Canada with open arms and granted a new life, if they choose to accept it, and monies to the extent of 2 million dollars set aside on their behalf from tax payers money to resettle and re-educate them to our ways. Many know this political approach to be deceptively naive and out of touch with reality. We can equate sympathizers of evil and their notion for rehabilitation to be a dismal failure to understand human depravity. Deradicalizing programs will do little to unseat evil men from an unwavering commitment to their ideology and is a poor substitute to change hateful ways. The real trouble with government is that they do not recognize that corruption and abominations are incorrigible acts of the heart and require divine intervention. Otherwise, we mask the true issue by making it look like a symptom where someone has gone terribly wrong and society only needs to convince them to accept a better life. The wickedness in the heart of natural man is the issue and in need of transformation.
“The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery. (Mark 7:21)
Let me introduce you to someone who clearly recognizes the dangers. Her name is Leah Shalbu; she is a Christian who has been held captive by Boko Haram for the last 247 days and counting. This is her story.
Sharibu is a fifteen year old Christian girl presently in captivity. She along with a 110 girl were abducted by Boko Haram from a school in Dapchi (northern Nigeria) February 15, 2018. Sharibu has been the prisoner of a brutal repressive group of terrorists and murderers for over 247 days now. Most to date have been freed but Sharibu has not and faces a life of slavery and even death because she refuses to renounce her Christian faith and convert to Islam. She will probably be beaten and raped many times, then sold, if that has not already happened.
Some of the rescued girls recounted how Sharibu refused to deny her faith despite her classmates’ pleas that she should recant and return home with them. “I am a Christian,” they reported she kept telling her abductors, even after being pressured to accept Islam as a precondition to her release. (Christianity Today International)
Leah is alone and vulnerable. Yet, she stands for Christ in a jungle where gun-wielding mean men threaten her with violence and unmentionable atrocities. Leah refuses to give in to the evil around her. She has become a clear testimony to the truth of the gospel for the suffering she is willing to endure for her Savior. Meanwhile, back on Canadian soil are Parliamentarians who roll out the carpet for like-minded radicals and are welcoming them into our country.
Pray for Leah, though diminutive in stature that she stays courageously strong in her Christian faith, and pray for our government who do not know the difference between what is good and what is evil.
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20)