Memorize Bible’s contents to strengthen yourself in the Lord

By Pastor Paul, Director, Bibles for Mideast

In GENESIS the world was made by God's creative Hand;
In EXODUS the Hebrews march to gain the promised land.
LEVITICUS contains the Law, holy, just and good;
NUMBERS records the tribes enrolled, all sons of Abraham's blood;
Moses in DEUTERONOMY records God's mighty deeds.

In JOSHUA their rebellion oft provokes the Lord to smite;
JUDGES did what was right; but RUTH records the faith.
In 1st and 2nd SAMUEL, of Jesse's son we read;
Ten tribes of 1st and 2nd KINGS revolted from his seed.

In 1st and 2nd CHRONICLES, we see Judah captive made;
But EZRA leads the remnant back by princely Cyrus' aid.
The city walls of Zion NEHEMIAH builds again;
While ESTHER saves her people from the plot of wicked men.

In JOB we read how faith will live beneath affliction’s rod;
And David's PSALMS are precious songs to every child of God.
The PROVERBS like a goodly string of choicest pearls appear;
ECCLESIASTES teaches men how vain are all things here.

The SONG OF SOLOMON exalts sweet Sharon's lovely rose;
While Christ the Savior and the King the rapt ISAIAH shows.
The foreboding JEREMIAH apostate Israel warns;
His plaintive LAMENTATIONS their awful downfall mourns.

EZEKIEL tells in wondrous words the Kingdom's mysteries;
While God's great Kingdom yet to come, DANIEL in vision sees.
Of judgment and of mercy HOSEA loves to tell;
JOEL describes the blessed days when God with man will dwell.

Among Tekoa's herdsmen, AMOS received his call;
And OBEDIAH prophesies of Edom's final fall.
JONAH enshrines a wondrous type of Christ, our risen Lord;
MICAH pronounces Judah lost—lost, but to be restored.

NAHUM declares on Nineveh just judgment shall be poured
When Christ our risen Savior shall come to be adored.
A view of Chaldea’s coming doom HABAKKUK's vision gives;
While ZEPHANIAH warns the Jews to turn, repent and live.

HAGGAI wrote to those who saw the temple built again; 
ZACHARIAH prophesies of Christ's triumphant reign.
MALACHI was the last to touch that high prophetic code,
His final notes sublimely show the coming of the Lord. 

MATTHEW, MARK, LUKE and JOHN the Gospel story give;
Describing how the Savior was born and died that man may live.
ACTS tell how well the Apostles preached with signs in every place;
And Paul in ROMANS proves that man is saved through faith by grace.

CORINTHIANS 1 and 2 instructs, exhorts, reproves;
GALATIANS proves that faith in Christ alone the Father approves.
EPHESIANS and PHILIPPIANS tell what Christians ought to be;
COLOSSIANS bids us live for God and from all sin be free.

In 1st and 2nd THESSALONIANS, the Lord will come from heaven;
In 1st and 2nd TIMOTHY and TITUS, a shepherd's rule is given.
PHILEMON marks a brother's love as only brethren know;
HEBREWS reveals Christ's priestly works prefigured long ago. 

JAMES teaches that without holiness, faith is but vain and dead;
1st and 2nd PETER point the narrow way the saints are led.
JOHN in his three Epistles on love delights to dwell;
But JUDE gives warning terrible of those once who fell.

The REVELATION prophesies that tremendous day,
When all the kingdoms of the earth with noise shall pass away;
God comes down with His tabernacle, forever to be with us,
And we will be His people: 'Even so come, Lord Jesus.'

What are you looking for?

They were looking for their temporal needs to be met,
He came to meet their eternal need,
and they missed Him

They were looking for a lion,
He came as a Lamb;
They were looking for a warrior,

He came as a Peacemaker;
They were looking for a king,
He came as a Servant;
They were looking for liberation from Rome,
He submitted to the Roman stake;
They were looking for a fit to their mold,
He was the mold maker,
and they totally missed Him.

What are you looking for?
Lion? Warrior? King? Liberator?

He came as a Lamb
to be sacrificed for your sin;
to make peace between God and man;
to model servanthood for all humanity;
to give you eternal life.
Will you miss Him?

When we submit to the Lamb,
we will meet the Lion;
join with the Peacemaker,
we will meet the Warrior;
work with the Servant,
we will meet the King;
walk with the Submitted,
we will meet the Liberator.

Concern ourselves with the eternal,
and we will have the temporal.
If Jesus is not fitting into the mold you have,
then come to the mold maker and get a new one.

Submit to His plan for your life
and you will see the eternal need met first;
then all the other things you have need of
will be taken care of as well.

With prayers, love and Shalom
In Jesus,
Pastor Paul (Director), Bibles for Mideast

Bible distribution plans: Please pray

Pastor Peter Haneef, president of the ALG Church (umbrella for the many Bibles for Mideast churches) has a special prayer request for visitors to this website and supporters of the work and ministries of Bibles for Mideast.

“Kindly pray as our church wants to distribute 30,000 bibles in Arabic, Urdu and other Asian and African languages before the end of this year,” he asks.

“All our believers will also be presenting bibles as New Year’s gifts to at least two of their non-Christian friends,” he adds. “Please pray that the Holy Spirit helps them to win souls for Jesus our Savior.”

He and all of us know we cannot do this—any of it—without the help of praying, generous Christians. If the Holy Spirit leads you to participate with this Bible Distribution Ministry, please click here.

Pastor Peter himself knows better than most the mighty power of prayer, having himself had a dramatic conversion from Islamic extremism (From radical Islamic murderer to ardent leader in the Kingdom of Jesus). Now leading the ALG, he found himself on the receiving end in June of this year of the very atrocities he once meted out (Brutal attack on ALG Church leader Pastor Peter Haneef and family in Bangladesh). While that ended gloriously with, ultimately, the salvation of his main attacker (Boy’s dramatic dream of wounded lamb leads to salvation of his Islamic terrorist father), Pastor Peter is in fact still not quite completely recovered, so please pray for him as well.

TOP: (L) aT A recent bible distribution event; (R) a cancer patient receives a bible
Bottom (L to R): Muslim woman receives bible; Hindu woman learning bible; presenting a passenger boat driver with his own bible

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From our ‘Pastor Peter collection’

Bibles for Mideast forms Assembly of Loving God (ALG) Church
From radical Islamic murderer to ardent leader in the Kingdom of Jesus
Brutal attack on ALG Church leader Pastor Peter Haneef and family in Bangladesh 
Boy’s dramatic dream of wounded lamb leads to salvation of his Islamic terrorist father

Praising His amazingness: abducted pastors miraculously released in Middle East

Report: Bibles for Mideast and the ALG Church in the Middle East

On a Sunday evening two weeks ago, Assembly of Loving God (ALG) pastors Firos* and Altaf* were visiting an Arab Muslim in his home in the Middle East. The Christians shared the gospel with the man, and his entire household had gathered around, listening intently.

As leaders of an underground ALG church** in the area and with families of their own, the men used their ‘spare time’ to engage in personal evangelism and distribute bibles among local Arab Muslims. About 50 former Muslims now met regularly with them for prayer, worship, and learning more about their new and living faith.

This particular country has extremely harsh attitudes towards proselytizing, especially attempts to convert Muslims to Christianity. As the men shared the Gospel of Life that Sunday evening, a neighbor noticed the goings-on and informed the imam of the local mosque.

Late evening namaz (prayer) was ongoing at the mosque, a requirement called ‘Isha’ [Muslims are supposed to perform namaz five times per day, with Isha being the fifth—Ed.]. When Isha ended and the people learned of the evangelical activity in their neighborhood, an angry mob formed under the leadership of the imam. They armed themselves with a variety of weapons and headed to the home. Bursting in on the family, they brutally attacked the evangelists. They dragged the pastors to their mosque, tied them to a pillar, and kept up the beating. Firos and Altaf clutched their bibles to their chests, but the mob snatched them away. Shouting and laughing wildly, they set the men’s bibles on fire.

The imam told the pastors to leave Jesus and come back to Islam, offering them a number of official state positions if they agreed.*** But they turned down his appeals.

The ONLY fire and sword that matters

"Jesus is our Lord and Savior,” they bravely declared. “He saved us from the sin and death we knew and experienced in our own lives. Now we are new creations in HIM. You may kill our flesh, but we will have an everlasting life with our Savior in Heaven. So we will never lose our faith in Jesus, no matter what happens."

This provoked the people even further. They dragged the men to a cellar and abandoned them there for three days, without even a drop of water to drink. But the pastors looked to their Lord. For the entire three days and nights they praised and prayed. Being so with their Lord in Spirit, they didn’t feel any pain, hunger or thirst, nor were even aware of the passing time.

After the three days, the mob handed them over to a terrorist group, who threw them into a cellar in another location. For nine days they endured more brutal torture and again, no food or water. They were given dire warnings that unless they return to Islam and join the fight against Christians and Christianity, they would be killed and their bodies hung in a public place.

This proved hardly a threat to the pastors. For the sake of Jesus, they knew they could endure any persecution. They personally prepared themselves to die, assured of the greatest high hope of living even closer with Christ. 

Yesterday (Friday) morning, the terrorists tied the men’s hands behind their backs and took them out into an open area. Midday approached and temperatures soared. They told the pastors to kneel down. When they did, they tied their legs together as well.

Two men stood behind the kneeling pastors, wielding razor-sharp blades.  The killers tried to cover the Christians’ faces, but someone told them not to bother.  ‘Let them see and experience even more fear as they are being executed,’ they explained. 

Instead, the pastors looked to their Lord. They watched in amazement as a cloud formed overhead and they began sensing a refreshing coolness. Within the cloud, they saw Jesus seated on a throne! Thousands of angels surrounded Him.  They began praising the Lord joyfully and enthusiastically as they knelt under the shadow of His Presence and the cloud-like formation of angels around Him.

The killers, now even more determined due to the men’s praises [we’re fairly certain no one but the pastors saw the spiritual reality—Ed.], brandished their knives over the men’s necks. But as they prepared to bring down the blades, both they and their weapons unexpectedly fell to the ground.

Fear gripped onlookers as they heard the pastors’ loudly praising their Lord, and only intensified as they watched the would-be assassins fall over, helpless and disarmed.

The evangelists then witnessed rays of fire emanate from Jesus and down through the cloud towards the witnesses of the ‘execution’. Overcome with terror and the now-extreme heat, the crowd fled.

Somehow the pastors’ legs and hands were then loosed. Instead of standing up, however, they remained on their knees, praising and thanking their mighty Savior. Both then observed two angels appear, and felt themselves being lifted up. The next thing they knew, they were standing in front of a house.

They heard sounds of praise and worship from within the home, so they knocked on the door. A man came and opened the door slightly to have a somewhat fearful peek. When he saw the pastors outside he could barely contain his joy, praising the Lord loudly and shouting for the others to come. They were all members of the men’s own church … in the midst of prayer and fasting for their pastors’ immediate release!

Adding to the miraculousness of this story, this was not the location the church had been meeting in before the abduction. Soon after the pastors disappeared, worshippers had noticed several suspicious-looking characters watching the home they’d been meeting in.  Concerned, they moved their ‘church’ to a place many miles away. Since they had lost their leadership, some elder believers now led services, which was what was going on when the pastors ‘reappeared’. But the pastors of course had no idea their congregation had moved.

Our Lord of course knew, and He Himself arranged and rearranged everything according to His purposes. While the underground believers’ Friday prayer and fasting session would have normally drawn to a close by 3:00 p.m., this one continued many more hours, on into the night.

Both pastors’ wives and children had been sick with desperation when the men disappeared two weeks ago. Now of course they, and all who gather with them, are overjoyed.

Please pray for both families, and the believers who meet with them. The pastors want to specially thank all who have been praying for them, and know that it is only because of prayer that our Lord so mightily intervened.

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* Names changed for security reasons
** the umbrella organization for Bibles for Mideast churches
*** We can’t know if this was a deception to tempt the pastors, or if the imam did have the authority to offer the positions since many religious leaders in the Middle East do have high influence in government.

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Daughter of evangelist miraculously survives terrorist attack, now she AND her attacker serve Jesus

Close to twenty years ago, 12-year old, Sofi* and her young brothers all arrived home from school, accompanied by their neighbor, seriously ill. The neighbor had found them vomiting uncontrollably shortly after getting off the bus. When the youngest boy fainted, he’d picked him up and then helped the three youngsters find their way back home.  They were then rushed to hospital.

Testing showed deadly poison in their saliva, so doctors administered the proper antidote immediately.

Sofi with her brothers a few years before the attack

“Two or three minutes later and there would not have been any hope for your children,” medics informed the alarmed parents.  

The family later discovered that as the children had gotten on the public bus packed with other travellers and students, a middle-aged woman had smiled at them and called them by name. She invited Sofi to sit beside her as the boys stood nearby.

Friendly and kind, she explained she was a prayer partner with the same ministry their father served as a leader in. She chatted away, asking how the rest of their family were. As the children prepared to get off, she offered them chocolates as a ‘token of her love’, unwrapping them herself and putting them into their mouths. Loving chocolate as much as any kids do, they happily gobbled them up.

But almost immediately on descending the steps of the bus, the younger boy began vomiting, then the older, then Sofi … undigested chocolates spewing everywhere. Their concerned neighbor happened by about this time. 

Relatives and friends of the family began searching all over for the woman who’d provided the chocolates, but could find no clues anywhere.

By the next day, Sofi’s condition grew far worse. She could no longer breathe properly, and as much as she tried, couldn’t get any words out. As her memory began failing, doctors worried the poison may have affected both her lungs and brain. Fortunately, the boys began to slowly recover.

As Sofi’s condition deteriorated, she fell into a coma. Her family and many church members knelt tearfully before the Lord, claiming God’s promises and asking Him for a miracle.

About 30 hours later those still praying around her bed noticed her face suddenly became remarkably bright. With eyes still closed, a joyful smile spread across her face. She suddenly raised her hands into the air as if trying to catch something. Everyone thought she must be on her way from this world, and cried out in sorrow. Her parents completely lost it. Doctors and nurses on duty hurried into the room.

Just as a doctor reached out to check her pulse, Sofi rose from her bed, her hands still upraised. It looked as if she were holding onto something in the space before her.

“Jesus! Abba! JESUS! ABBA FATHER!” she began calling out in her native language. She then opened her eyes, gazed at her hands in amazement, looked back in front of her and then pointing to a particular spot cried out: “There is my Father Jesus!”

Her mother reached out to hold her and called her by name. Sofi immediately recognized everyone, and realized she was in the hospital.

She also declared she was hungry. The doctor checked her over thoroughly and advised her parents to feed her something light. Since she had a slight temperature, he also gave her a tablet to bring the fever down.

Before she went to bed that night, she and her family joyfully praised the Lord together. Sofi seemed imbued with new power in her prayer and praise.

Unbeknownst to the family and medical staff, a fellow named Rashid* had appeared in the hallway and with two other men, had been closely watching the goings-on in Sofi’s room. They had come up from the hospital parking area, where, posing as ambulance attendants, they’d been observing from the outside.

Rashid also happened to be in command of a group of militant fanatics seeking to convert everyone to Islam and eventually bring the whole world under Islamic domination. The plan to have the children given poisoned chocolates had been hatched by his group. They were certain the children would die, at least the girl Sofi. The next part of their plot entailed carrying away the child’s dead body along with her family in the ambulance, and then kill the rest of the family.

But as Rashid and his men kept vigil, he witnessed an intensely-bright sphere of light flash down from above and then hover over where Sofi lay unconscious. He saw a hand came out from the orb, touch the leader’s daughter, and then watched her regain consciousness and stand.

He could barely contain himself when he saw blood flowing from a hole in the middle of the hand. He trembled with fear, felt woozy and fell to the floor. The men with him picked him up and scurried awkwardly away with him.

Rashid completely lost whatever peace he had. Disturbing dreams ruined his sleep and he grew convinced Jesus must be ‘after him’.  Feeling unbearably burdened, he managed to locate Pastor Paul, Director of Bibles for Mideast, and confessed everything. Yet instead of being turned in to the police as Rashid expected, he was embraced with tears. He began to read the Bible he had kept on hand simply to criticize and disprove Christianity, and found now he could hear Jesus clearly in the words. He readily accepted Him as his Lord and Savior.  

Sofi (r) teaching bible to young Hindu girl, who later received Christ

Rashid now serves as an ordained pastor with Bibles for Mideast, and works unstintingly alongside his wife and children establishing house churches across the Middle East [we wrote him about him earlier here].

Sofi, now married and with two youngsters, works as a school teacher and, on the side, a Bible teacher. Many of the young people she teaches scripture to, albeit secretly, are Hindus and Muslims who do eventually find the truth in Jesus (see picture)!

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*  Names changed for security reasons

RELATED STORY: Radical Muslim terrorist ‘terrified’ by the Light of Jesus now serves as pastor!