The Great Separation

Christians Fled Mosul, Iraq.

They hate you because of me - I've not been able to follow closely of late the persecution of Christians around the globe, but this morning I received some a link to a news report that I wanted to share and record here.

I suppose it's not surprising that I heard nothing about it on the MSM.

Here's a link to the report from NewsMax and an excerpt:

Violence Against Iraqi Christians in Mosul

Chaldean Bishop Emil Shimoun Nona has said that Mosul is experiencing a “humanitarian emergency” and that "hundreds of Christian families" left the city Feb. 24 in search of shelter, leaving behind their homes, property, and commercial activities, according to Asia News. The situation "is dramatic", he said, and warned that Mosul could be “emptied completely of Christians”.

The families have chosen to flee after a spate of violent attacks which left five Christians dead last week, and members of a whole family murdered on Tuesday. "In one house all the family members were killed — five people,” said an Iraqi member of Open Doors, a non-denominational charity helping persecuted Christians.

“First the attackers drove by and shot from their car. Then they forced themselves into the house and gunned down the entire family. They even threw two bodies outside the house as a cruel warning for others."

For further information on Christian persecution around the globe the Christian Persecution Blog is a good source.

The Pursuit of God.

The ultimate chase - Oh how patient God the Father is with us. But God is not patient like a man waiting for a bus to come along and take him to a shop where he will search through isles for the necessities of life only to wait in a long check out line and then again for another bus to take him home.

No.

Like the hunter pursuing his game, God is patient.

In our adult Bible study, we have been studying world views. We are using the DVD study Wide Angle Curriculum from Break Point. I highly recommend it. We've had some very good discussion in our small group of 8 to 14 people.

Last Sunday night we were discussing some of the things that make Christianity different from other religions and world views and it came up that God, the Christian God, is in the business of pursuing us. While I was sitting there it occurred to me again in a more deeper way how wonderful the husband and the wife metaphor in describing the relationship of Christ and the Church really is in describing the relationship God desires with us.

You see God didn't wait for us to find Him. From the beginning, He set out to pursue us and do everything He could to make it possible for us to be able to enter into His presence. Much like a man who pursues the woman he desires by wooing her because he recognizes in her qualities far beyond the physical, the God of the Universe seeks to pursue and woo us because of His great love for us, because He know the qualities He placed in us. How great must that love be, if He would enter into His own creation, suffer, and die just to take upon Himself our sins and reunite us with Himself?

I spoke Sunday night about how God used we Christians in wooing the lost world, how we were the agents that delivered the precious gifts and notes that He gives to those He loves. My dad noted that, really, we were not just the agents but we are the very gifts. How true.

This all came back to mind last night when doing a little reading before bed of a A.W. Tozer's great book, The Pursuit of God, and I read this:

"We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures. (And this we call pursuing God!)"

Tozer understood. God has been pursuing us all along, not the other way around.