Iran: Inside Out
Date: March 01, 2010 | Author: Albert Kienle
Iran: Inside Out
News from Iran dominates the headlines, but behind the scenes something else is going on.
The bad and the good.
Iran is the biblical Persia, one of four world powers of the past.
A nation whose history stretches back 2,500 years and whose kings served Israel when they were in exile in Bible times.
A nation that ended 25 centuries of monarchy in 1979 and brought in a revolutionary Islamic regime.
A nation of 66 million people, most of them young and well educated. Two thirds of the people are under 30 and 80% of the population are literate.
A nation that geographically is the largest in the Middle East, with vast reserves of oil and gas. It holds 10% of the world's oil reserves, and in terms of natural gas is second only to Russia.
Iran is the heart of the Muslim World, surrounded by Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Iranians are an Indo-European people. They speak Persian (Farsi), not Arabic; 90% are Shia Muslim.
Iranians place a strong emphasis on family, respect for the aged, and outright rejection of Hollywood morality.
Women, however, are legally devalued in worth to half that of a man.
Iran has much going for it but there are worrying trends tearing at the fabric of families. With low wages, high unemployment and inflation, families live under increasing financial pressure. Iran has the resources for a better life for its citizens but there is mismanagement of the economy.
Iran is a secretive society. What is coming out from the inside is a tale of drug addiction, depression, prostitution, and a rising divorce rate. Divorce is now about 13%. Inflation has been over 20%, unemployment around 15%.
Iran's government opposes Christianity. Bibles are banned, evangelism is illegal, converts could face the death sentence.
These are prayer points.
Iran needs hope!
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iranians have become increasingly disillusioned with Islam. The political, economic, and spiritual situation in Iran has resulted in a deep spiritual hunger for truth. Iran may be a closed land, but the people have open hearts. Iranians today are seen as the most open Muslim people to the Gospel in the world. More have become Christians since the revolution than the previous 1,300 years put together.
These are crucial days in the long history of the Iranian church. Over 50 Christians, and possibly higher, were arrested in 2008 for their faith; just for being Christians, and the persecution continues for purposes of intimidation and information gathering about the house churches. Eight Christian leaders have been murdered because of their witness. The law demands the death sentence for male apostates from Islam, and life imprisonment for women.
Out of hopelessness comes one of many hopeful stories.
A Muslim woman had just given birth. Earlier her life was involved in terror and she was shot in the arm. She began coming to a church because her children were hungry. The testimony she has is awesome. In the hospital the doctors told her husband, "I can only save the baby or her mother." The woman lost a lot of blood and died. She had a vision of the Lord praying for her while she was dead and she came back to life. Then she saw the Lord Jesus Christ touch and pray for the baby and he came back to life. She said after she was home from the hospital she had no milk in her breast and the Lord appeared a few times to her and prayed for her. She said as soon as HE prays for her; she is full of milk and able to breast feed her baby.
The Lord is enough and everything to those that need Him. What a great God we serve...
Source: www.iran30.org
