The Christianity Today website is reporting today that new concerns of persecution are rising in India since the passage of an "anti-Christian" law. Here's part of the article...

Daniel Blake has written an article for the Christian Post titled 250 Million Christians Will Be Persecuted in 2007. The article begins by saying that Christians will face persecution simply for following Jesus. The persecution is growing the fastest within Muslim countries.

CUBA – A Cuban court acquitted Rev. Carlos Lamelas of human trafficking, but convicted him on previously unannounced charges of falsification of documents.

I LOVE the way the Lord works in my life and I totally love how He is constantly reminding me through various means about the saints of old who were martyred for their faith. This morning I was reading my email and I received an email from Pastor Steve, a friend of mine I work with at the Lutheran church, and he was reminding us that today is St. Stephen's Day - yes, that's right, December 26th is St. Stephen's Day.

Special thanks to our persecution blogger who alerted us to this wonderful cartoon. :)

UPDATE - On Tuesday, December 13, a Cuban court absolved Rev. Carlos Lamelas of all charges of trafficking in illegal immigrants.

Father Samy Al Raiys, the kidnapped rector of the major seminary of the Chaldean Patriarchate, was released after being held for six days. According to the official Web site of the Patriarchate, the priest, who was abducted outside his home at the Church of St. George on the morning of December 4, is in good health.

I couldn't help but think of the Lord Jesus as our attorney before the Father in heaven. If we receive Christ as our Lord and our Savior, then we have access to the Father in heaven. When we stand before the Father on judgment day and He inquires of us, there is no greater comfort than to know that Jesus is my advocate with the Father, according to 1John 2:1. This story shows how this believer had an unlikely advocate with this lawyer who was "just standing in." I think this is pretty cool.

The following news item comes from VOM partner Compass Direct.

Happy Monday to all of you! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are growing closer to the Lord Jesus even as we fellowship together through this blog.