Freedom to worship (whether it's God or money)

I know most people don't understand me. And how can they, many times I don't even understand me. I'm living in a country that gives me more freedom than most could ever dream about. I'm constantly amazed when I walk into stores and restaurants and see the choices we get to make. It's exilerating and overwhelming all at once. Just when I start feeling comfortable with my freedom here, I get emails like the following (from the Global Prayer Digest). I'm glad I get these, they help keep me grounded and remind me of what I have to be thankful of, especially on those days when I take things for granted and think I need more.

Buddhist Tibetans of China

"Why am I here?" hissed the Tibetan Buddhist monk at the Chinese interrogator. The interrogator attached electrodes to his feet and replied, "You know why you are here. And you will confess what you have done."

Human Rights Watch said that China's failure to acknowledge long prison sentences for Tibetans who resist their rule makes a mockery out of China's claim that they act according to rule of law. Tibetans are arrested without charges, tried in private, and given long sentences. While in prison, Tibetans are often tortured.

In a highly publicized trial in 2002, two Tibetans were sentenced to death for a series of explosions set off in Sichuan Province. But the Chinese government produced no evidence of their crime. At the time of this writing, one of the men has already been executed.

Our God is a God of justice and mercy. The Tibetans are experiencing neither. Nor are they experiencing the Only God who can save them.

Pray that they will experience the True God, and turn from their ancient religion that leads them away from the narrow path. Pray for the Word of God to change hearts of the Tibetan people so that they will have relief from their suffering, and be blessed.-KC



"You praised the gods...which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in His hand your life and your ways." Dan.5:23

King Belshazzar threw a great banquet and invited a thousand of his nobles. They drank wine together and praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote upon the wall. The frightened king summoned all his wise men, but they could not interpret the writing. Daniel was then called, and he prophesied the king's doom, telling Belshazzar that God would use the Medes and Persians to punish Belshazzar's disregard for Yahweh. Many today worship and praise the "gods of stone." Like Daniel, we are called to give testimony to the one true God and to call rulers to give account to their King. The book of Daniel resounds with the refrain, "The Lord is God of the nations!"

Father, grant us discernment and boldness as we bear witness to the fact that You alone are God.