Government military operations in northern Burma (Myanmar) escalated in December, culminating in civilian casualties on Christmas Eve that left Christians feeling attacked in part for their faith.

 

Offensives against rebel groups in Kachin state, where predominantly Christian, ethnic Kachin live, displaced dozens of villagers and seriously injured two civilians on Christmas Eve, local sources said.

 

Burma army artillery fire on Dec. 24 struck a village near Laiza, headquarters of the rebel Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), seriously injuring a schoolteacher and a student, according to the local sources. 

 

Sin Gau, assistant pastor with the Kachin Baptist Convention in northern Kachin state, said fighting should have halted on Christmas Eve, when many celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. 

 

“They launched attacks when Christmas approached – it happens almost every year,” Sin Gau told Morning Star News. “So, we even felt as if they deliberately did it.”

 

Area Christians felt the fighting disrespected their religious rights, he said. 

 

“As we are Christian, Christmas Eve is the most important thing for us, but we couldn’t fully enjoy Christmas as fighting continued,” Sin Gua said.

 

The Burma army and KIO’s military wing, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), have been fighting since 2011 following the breakdown of a bilateral…

Many Christians have made New Year’s resolutions to read through the entire Bible this year, but how do you begin such a task? Pastor John Piper recently offered some help.

According to The Christian Post, Piper has encouraged Christians to begin their Bible reading by reading from four separate places daily.

This is called the Discipleship Journal Reading Plan, explained Piper in a post on his website, Desiring God. 

“By reading these four different places, you complete the entire Bible in one year. Two of those places are in the New Testament, two of them are in the Old Testament,” explained Piper.

This plan also only has scheduled Bible readings for 25 days of every month, which leaves time to catch up if you fall behind, which may help you stay motivated to complete it.

Piper stressed how important it is to be regularly reading the Word of God:

“Christ is most magnified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, and we cannot be daily satisfied in the depths of our soul in Christ if we don’t see Him and savor Him.”

“I know that, left to myself, I am an absolute dud. I am blank, nothing deep, nothing moving, nothing intense, nothing beautiful, nothing precious, nothing sweet or wonderful…” he continued. There is one hope for John Piper in 2018: that I would have eyes to see the God-entranced magnificence of everything — namely that God…

International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that one of the Chibok schoolgirls who was kidnapped in 2014 has escaped and is in safe keeping with the Nigerian government. The Nigerian military announced the rescue of the girl in the Sambisa Forest area in Borno State.

Confirming the release to ICC, the chairman of the Chibok Parents Forum, Yakubu Nkeki, said with a tone of excitement, “It is true! Her name is Salome Pogu, from Kuburmbula Ward, Kaumitihyahi village.” Yakubu further explained, “Just the day before, her father, Pogu Yahi, came to visit me and asked what further steps were being taken to secure the release of the remaining girls, only for us to hear the good news of the rescue of his daughter today.”

Yakubu also disclosed that the previously released girls who had been in the custody of the Nigerian government in Abuja were brought to spend Christmas with their families in Chibok. He said, “We distributed them to their parents in the various villages. It was indeed a joyful time of reunion and celebration.” The girls would soon return to Abuja to resume their education.

In 2014, Boko Haram, the radical Islamic sect, kidnapped more than 270 primarily Christian girls from their school in Chibok. Twenty-four of the girls were released in 2016, while another 82 were released in June 2017 in exchange for Boko Haram commanders held by Nigerian authorities. At the time of writing, there are…