On May 26, 2017, eight to ten masked gunmen raided a bus full of adults and children going to a church gathering 85 miles south of Cairo, Egypt. A six-year-old girl was sitting in the front row with a friend, separated from her mother. One of the terrorists pointed his gun at this girl and demanded she recite the Islamic statement of faith: \u2018There is no god but Allah, and Muhammad is his prophet.\u2019 She replied, \u201cNo, I won\u2019t say that thing. I am a Christian.\u201d This brave child was one of twenty-eight Christians murdered in the attack.<\/p>\n
Some time later, Joshua Youseff, whose dad Michael is a pastor in Atlanta and a native of Egypt, heard the mother of the little girl talk about forgiveness. \u201cI cannot describe how I felt as I listened to this mother tell her daughter\u2019s story. As I heard her talk of forgiveness and saw her face alight with joy, I felt an overwhelming sense of conviction.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Palm Sunday, a few weeks before the bus attack, two churches were attacked and forty-six Egyptian Christians were killed. Naseem Faheem, a security guard at one of the churches, asked a man to go through a perimeter metal detector before entering. Though he surely was one of the first to die, Naseem\u2019s alertness saved many lives as the man detonated a bomb outside the church.<\/p>\n
When interviewed, Naseem\u2019s widow sat with her two grown sons. When asked about the terrorist who killed her husband, she said: \u201cI\u2019m telling him, \u2018May God forgive you, and we also forgive you. Believe me, we forgive you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
We know Jesus teaches us to forgive our enemies, but I think it takes God\u2019s supernatural work in our hearts to respond like these two ladies. When we do forgive, the world takes note and God is revealed for who He is. Amr Adeeb, a prominent Egyptian television personality, said this to his audience after watching the Faheem interview: \u201cHow great is the forgiveness Egyptian Christians have! These people are made of a different substance.\u201d<\/p>\n
When we forgive, we also escape the continued evil that Satan wants to wield, intending for bitterness, anger, and darkness to overtake our hearts. He is a murderer and a liar, and the lies he tells regarding hatred and revenge are just as destructive as bullets and bombs.<\/p>\n
When we forgive, we follow our Savior who forgave those who unjustly killed Him. \u201cFather, forgive them for they know not what they do.\u201d (Luke 23:34) The Son of God practiced what He preached and His life leads us to God\u2019s kingdom.<\/p>\n
\u201cJesus, give us grace to be just like You.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cForgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u201d Matthew 6:12<\/p>\n
\u201cBear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.\u201d Colossians 3:13<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On May 26, 2017, eight to ten masked gunmen raided a bus full of adults and children going to a church gathering 85 miles south of Cairo, Egypt. A six-year-old girl was sitting in the front row with a friend, separated from her mother. One of the terrorists pointed his gun at this girl and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-persecution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2800"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2802,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2800\/revisions\/2802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/airwoof.org\/journey\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}