Bridge of Grace

An Iraqi man in Frankfurt, Germany, is now on trial for crimes against the Yazidi people.  The ISIS terrorist, identified by the authorities as Taha Al-J, is alleged to have taken part in the effort of ISIS to exterminate the Yazidi community of Iraq.  Among the charges he faces is purchasing a 5-year-old Yazidi girl and chaining her outside an allowing her to die of thirst in the Iraqi heat.  His wife, a German convert to Islam, is also facing charges.   Al-J was active in ISIS from 2013 to 2019 and was recently arrested in Greece and extradited to Germany.  In 2015, he purchased the Yazidi child and her mother as slaves.  Al-J took them to Fallujah to work as domestic slaves and subjected both of them to frequent beatings and insufficient food.  Al-J ultimately chained the child up for misbehaving and allowed her to die.  The child's mother survived her enslavement as in currently in court testifying against Al-J and his wife. ...

Al Shabaab Militants Based primarily in Somalia, the Jihadist terrorist organization Al Shaabab has conducted a murderous campaign throughout East Africa.  Operating in Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Yemen, Al Shaabab is responsible for numerous terrorist attacks in the region.  In 2012, Al Shaabab pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and ever since they have launched attacks targeting Christians, Sufi Muslims, and others that they believe to be opponents of the Wahhabist ideology that their terrorist organization embraces.   For years, Al Shaabab has launched numerous attacks on Kenya's Christian populace.  In April of 2015, Four members of Al Shaabab attacked the Garissa University college in Kenya.  During the attack, the militants attacked dorm rooms and demanded at gun point that the residents tell them if they're Christian or Muslim.  Those who identified as Christian were shot, and those who tried to pass off as Muslim were demande...

Though many in the world believe that it is important to know who Jesus really was, many feel that we're simply "too busy to get enmeshed in the nuances of theological discussion."  We often want information that will make a differences in our lives right here, and right now.  Then, often without warning, tragedies and difficulties appear in our lives, and we don't know what to do.  How can we deal with the with loss, heartbreak, and wrongdoing?  The answer is Easter. The death, burial, & resurrection of Jesus happened over three days.  Friday was the day of pain, suffering, and agony.  Saturday is he day of doubt, confusion, and Misery.  But Easter, Sunday, is the day of hope, joy, and victory.  The truth is this, we will all face these three days over and over in the course of our lives.  During those days, we look back and ask ourselves: What did I do in my days of Pain?  What did I get through My Days of Doubt and Confusion?...

As of now, there are over 2300 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Pakistan with at least 31 documented deaths.  Unfortunately, this is not the only thing that man Pakistanis must worry about.  Over the past week, reports have been coming in from Karachi that NGOs operating in the city of Karachi were refusing to provide food and aid to Christians and other members of minority faith groups.  Only Muslims were being granted aid.  Farooq Masih, a Christian man from Karachi's Korongi District testified that members of the Saylani Welfare International Trust handed out food vouchers in the area, but when they go to Christian homes, they moved on.  This angered many in the city, non-Muslim and Muslim alike.  A Muslim resident of Karachi by the name of Adnan stated: "Why did they NGO discriminate against Christians?  Are they not Pakistani Citizens?  We are all suffering from COVID-19."   Sadly, this was not an isolated incident.  In the ...

Most in the world felt that the threat of World Communism died with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it did not.  Communism is very much alive in nations such as China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea, & Laos.  Communist FARC Rebels continue to terrorize the people of Columbia, and the Communist ideology continues to influence nations such as India, Nepal, & Eritrea.  Communism was upheld by Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels as the answer to corruption & greed.  They believed it would eliminate conflict between classes and societal exploitation, it would essentially create a utopia on Earth.  The tragic truth though is this: Communism has only created Hell on Earth.   Communist and Communist-influenced countries around the world are rife with corruption, greed and gross social injustice. Communist Propaganda & Indoctrination is Powerful: but it cannot Hide the Scars that it inflicted on Richard Wurmbrand & so many others. Richard W...

My Father once told me that there are only two guarantees in life: Death & Taxes.  While he is right, Jesus taught that there is another guarantee in life: We're Guaranteed to be Offended.  Many times in our lives, we allow trivial matters to dictate our beliefs and feelings toward our fellow man.  Often we hold grudges for weeks, months, even years over something that somebody said or did that we viewed as offensive.  To many, the offense would seem trivial, but to us, it's a mountain.   To be easily offended means that we are resentful, annoyed, even insulted because of the words, actions, or beliefs of somebody else.  When somebody, even someone that we've known for years offends us in some way, we may dwell on it, obsess over it, even be willing to sever years of friendship over it.   I know this because I'm guilty of it.  I know from my own experience that when we allow ourselves to be easily offended, we are unhappy, often ...

The past few years I have learned that nobody is safe from sex trafficking.  Traffickers will target anybody if they can get money out of it, and transgender women are no exception.  In 2019, Brazilian police brought down a sex trafficking ring that hand been targeting transgender women for six years.  The police launched numerous raids and discovered 38 transgender women in Brazilian hostels.  These individuals were lured by traffickers with the promise that they would help them pay for their sex change surgeries, but once ensnared, they were forced to serve as sex slaves, obstinately to pay for their "surgeries," and were subjected to physical and psychological abuse if they failed to meet their quota. Under Brazilian Law, prostitution is legal, but sexual exploitation is not.  Brazil needs to change this and start making prostitution illegal as well.  I have learned that the line between prostitution and sexual exploitation is seldom clear, and all t...