Lee Grady - Fire in My Bones

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Glad Tidings From Cairo
I’ll never look at Christmas the same after spending this past week in Egypt with my new Arabic-speaking Christian friends.

Normally I wake up to the sound of an alarm clock at 6 a.m. But today, long before that hour, I was jarred out of a deep sleep by the sound of a Muslim cleric singing his prayers over a loudspeaker near my apartment on the Nile River. Welcome to Cairo, where every morning scratchy-voiced men chant their rote prayers from hundreds of minarets scattered across the dirty skyline. You cannot escape the sound.

Imposing mosques€”including a huge one built by the Saudi Arabian government€”dominate this city of 18 million people. But if you scratch the surface you will also discover that one of the world’ oldest Christian communities is rooted here. These Christians have lived in the shadow of Islam for centuries, enduring persecution and discrimination. But I am happy to announce that the Egyptian church is headed toward its finest hour.

This past Thursday morning I enjoyed breakfast with one of the leaders of the Egyptian evangelical movement. I cannot tell you his name because Egyptian Christians prefer to conduct their ministry work under the radar. Unlike us Americans, who are eager to send out press releases and make television appearances, this humble man is not looking for publicity. In his case fame would derail his ministry and endanger other people’ lives.

This man seems content to carry out his ministry anonymously. He recently returned from visiting a neighboring Arab country, where he had attended a prayer conference that had attracted hundreds. For four days, he said, Christians from several Arab nations asked God to send spiritual revival to their region.

Another miracle happening here is that many Muslims are coming to Jesus because of dreams and visions. In most cases Jesus appears to people in dreams and tells them that He is the Son of God. When they wake up, they seek out Christians to know more about the gospel.

“God is showing us that He loves the Arab people,” my new friend explained.

Egypt’ Christians are holding fast to a promise from the prophet Isaiah, who predicted hundreds of years ago that spiritual renewal would sweep from Egypt to the other nations of the Middle East.

“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria,” Isaiah said. “The Assyrians will go to Egypt and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. In that day Israel will be the third, along with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing on the earth” (Is. 19:23-24, NIV).

That prophecy’ fulfillment seems impossible to those of us who focus all our attention on negative headlines about suicide bombings in Israel, Jordan and Iraq. But when you visit this region you realize more is happening under the surface than what we hear about in Western media reports. God is on the move.

What is also obvious is that Arab Christians feel neglected and abandoned by many of us in the West. They don’t understand why some Western Christians seem to show favoritism toward Jews, especially when the Israeli government has at times persecuted and harassed Arab believers in the Palestinian territories.

Egyptian Christians love all lost people, this leader told me. “But our love for the Jewish people should not cause us to love any other group of people less.”

Egyptian Christians envision a day when Arab believers from throughout the Middle East will worship Jesus with all other Christians in the region, putting aside all ethnic disputes.

During my December visit to Cairo, just a week before Christmas, I was reminded that Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to Egypt to hide Him from King Herod (see Matt. 2:13-15). Part of the miracle of Christmas took place here, in an Arabic-speaking country that many of us consider hostile.

Before Jesus returns, He wants to visit the Arab world again€”and transform it from a stronghold of violence to a land of peace and refuge.

J. Lee Grady is editor of Charisma and an award-winning journalist. He writes a column for Charisma Online twice a week. To subscribe to Charisma Online and be entered for monthly book giveaways, click here.

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