February 16 - Separation

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any power, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


During the early centuries after Christ, Egypt was predominantly Christian. In A.D. 969, the country was conquered by Jawhar al-Siqilli and Cairo founded as the new capital, but thankfully Egypt's Coptic Christian church never disappeared. Today, Egypt has the Middle East's largest Christian community, making up 14.2 percent of its people. However, the country's constitution gives preference to Muslims; and Christians are treated as second-class citizens, denied political representation, and discriminated against in employment. The government uses an 1856 Ottoman Empire law to keep any church from being built, repaired, or even repainted without the permission of Egypt's president. Christians are also susceptible to attacks by Muslim extremists, which often go unpunished by Egyptian authorities. Christian girls are sometimes raped and then forced to marry Muslim men. Others have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam.

It seems that Christians in Cairo and all of Egypt are worse off than we thought. As of recent, Cairo has been so bad, US citizens and Christians have been exported for safety. This goes back beyond the past 60 days. Christians are minorities in the Middle East. We have been blessed to have the ability to worship God in freedom, apart from fear of what someone might do to us. Are there attacks on Christians in the United States? Of course, but we have it so much better than our brothers and sisters in other countries. Some people are not going to like it when we stand up for what is right and true. We can be laughed at, spat upon, abused, and so much more, but as the word of God clearly says: nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God.

Continue to pray for Egypt. Pray for Christians in our local communities.

- Excerpt from Jesus Freaks