Since it is Valentines Day today, and since we're all thinking about love, I wanted to remind you that God is LOVE. He is the ultimate love. Jesus is perfect love and if we ever doubt what love really is, all we have to do is look to Christ because He epitomizes what we call the love chapter in the bible - 1Corinthians 13.
Most of us think of 1Corinthians 13:4-8 when we think of this chapter and I wanted to share these verses with you, so that you may think about these verses when you read the following story that my friend Alex Murashko has written for The Christian Post.
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
It is a humbling thought to know for a fact that Jesus the Christ walked in love perfectly. I praise Him for such a gift to us all.
Now let's look at some of what Alex wrote when he recently when to Egypt to cover what is happening there with the Coptic church. His entire column can be read here.
The Coptic Orthodox Church is the largest Christian denomination in Egypt, estimated to make up about 10 percent of the nation's population of 81 million people.
Copts have endured sporadic persecution during the decades' long reign of former President Hosni Mubarak. In some cases, since his overthrow, persecution of Christians has intensified as a Muslim Brotherhood and fundamentalist Muslim majority in government appears to be flexing its muscles.
While many have seen the success of Islamist parties in the Parliamentary elections as a sign of hard times ahead, others feel that it is still possible for a constitution to be crafted by the Egyptian government that would guarantee religious minority rights for the Copts and other groups.
"What is in your heart that you would like everyone to know about the Christians in Egypt?" I ask the priest first.
"I would like to say that there is a big revival happening in the Orthodox Church, not only in the Orthodox Church, but the Egyptian Church as well," the priest says through the translator. "The Lord is using the people, the congregation more than the leaders of the Church in this revival."
Isn't this encouraging? It is to me, amazing revival where our brothers and sisters are being persecuted. Please keep the Coptic Christians in your prayers.