(1) “Remember those who are in prison, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” – Hebrews 13:3

Persecution of Christians is growing at an alarming rate around the world – here are three reports this week from Fox News:

In Saudi Arabia, Ethiopian Christians are being arrested simply for practicing their faith – report here.

Christians and human rights advocates are alarmed over an aggressive crackdown on house churches in China, where the faithful are forced to call their gatherings “patriotic” assemblies or sent to prison where they can face torture, according to a new report. Read more here.

Egyptian Christians are told to convert to Islam or face death – report here.

Lets continue to be praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world.

(2) Yesterday, Dr. James White responded to Michael Brown’s Monday edition of The Line of Fire where he played audience clips and had callers on the subject of predestination and election, etc. Dr. White sought to focus in upon the same issues as the Protestant Reformation, spelling out not merely the necessity of grace, but its total sufficiency. Here’s the program.

(3) Speaking of Dr. James White, here is a very fast paced and informative lecture he gave just recently at Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, on the subject of “Why Muslims reject the Gospel.”

(4) There’s a variety of resources in this week’s Friday Ligonier $5 sale worth considering.

(5) Hymn by John Newton:

Alas! by nature how depraved,
How prone to every ill!
Our lives, to Satan, how enslaved,
How obstinate our will!

And can such sinners be restored,
Such rebels reconciled?
Can grace itself the means afford
To make a foe a child?

Yes, grace has found the wondrous means
Which shall effectual prove;
To cleanse us from our countless sins,
And teach our hearts to love.

Jesus for sinners undertakes,
And died that we may live;
His blood a full atonement makes,
And cries aloud, Forgive.

Yet one thing more must grace provide,
To bring us home to God;
Or we shall slight the Lord, who died,
And trample on His blood.

The Holy Spirit must reveal
The Savior’s work and worth;
Then the hard heart begins to feel
A new and heavenly birth.

Thus bought with blood, and born again,
Redeemed, and saved, by grace
Rebels, in God’s own house obtain
A son’s and daughter’s place.