January 2025

• CBN News-Israel: Israel October 7 War
• L.A. Fire Info: Airbnb partnering with 211 LA  to offer limited free temporary housing for residents displaced or forced to evacuate; free limited Lyft, Uber drives offered; temporary animal shelter
• Harvest Relief Fund: SoCal Fires, help provide emergency medical care, food, shelter -- assist first responders, support local churches
• CBN News: As 'Apocalptic' wildfires ravage L.A., pastors minister hope amidst devastation 
• California Family: Faith under Fire -- The purge of Calif. Christian foster parents 
• ACLJ: Our client didn't become a nurse to kill the unborn
• Decision: Billy Graham chaplains deploy to New Orleans after attack

The Bible Says ... 'By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.' -1 John 5:2

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Cover photo: La Jolla Sea Caves, Christmas 2024. -Photo InterChurch News

Remembering the 21 Christian martyrs

of February 15, 2015

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'Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus

and for the word of God,

and those who had not worshipped the beast

or its image and had not received its mark

on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.'

-Revelation 20:4-5

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'In 2015 21 Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS on a beach in Libya. ISIS released a video of the beheadings that was intended to terrorise Christians in the Middle East. Yet this very video is watched repeatedly by the families of the martyrs: they are inspired by the calmness and courage of their men. Why are Coptic Christians encouraged rather than terrorised by the video?

Martin Mosebach, an award-winning journalist, travelled to the village that was home to 16 of the martyrs, to interview their families, church leaders and others. His inspiring investigation describes the primitive faith of Egyptian Christians, who have been using the same creed and liturgy since AD42, and how they live in the face of persecution in a Muslim-majority country.'

For more information, refer to Release International ministry to order

'The 21 -- A Journey into the Land of Coptic Martyrs'

by Martin Mosebach

Further references:

1. 'Do This For Love -- Free Burma Rangers in the Battle of Mosul' by David Eubank with Hosannah Valentine, 2020
2. 'The Persecution and Genocide of Christians in the Middle East -- Prevention, Prohibition & Prosecution' Edited by Ronald J. Rychlak, Jane F. Adolphe, 2017
3. Wikipedia: 2015 kidnapping and beheading of Copts in Libya
4. 'The Global War on Christians -- Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution' by John L Allen Jr., 2013
5. 'Tortured for Christ' by Richard Wurmbrand, 1967. 'I tremble for Western Christians who don't help their persecuted brethren. In the depth of my heart, I would like to keep the beauty of my own vineyard and not be involved in such a huge fight. I would like so much to be somewhere in quietness and rest. But it is not possible ... the quietness and rest for which I long would be an escape from reality and dangerous for my soul ... the West sleeps and must be awakened to see the plight of the captive nations.' 

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