Mubarak steps down. God at work in Egypt.

We as the church have a historic opportunity to pray for Egypt. Should freedom and democracy prevail we can hardly imagine what that might mean for the gospel. We can pray the forces behind both anarchy and Muslim extremism would be defeated and that Egypt's prophetic destiny would advance. We may forget, but Egypt has a crucial role to play in God's Kingdom come on earth.

We as the church have a historic opportunity to pray for Egypt. Should freedom and democracy prevail we can hardly imagine what that might mean for the gospel. We can pray the forces behind both anarchy and Muslim extremism would be defeated and that Egypt's prophetic destiny would advance. We may forget, but Egypt has a crucial role to play in God's Kingdom come on earth.

Isaiah 19:19-24 “In that day there will be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the LORD at its border. And it will be for a sign and for a witness to the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt; for they will cry to the LORD because of the oppressors, and He will send them a Savior and a Mighty One, and He will deliver them. Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the LORD in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a vow to the LORD and perform it. And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will strike and heal it; they will return to the LORD, and He will be entreated by them and heal them. In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve with the Assyrians. In that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria—a blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

As we pray that God's truth prevails we remember that Jesus said, “For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” And then he offered his hands to the spikes to show what it looks like to be “of the truth.”

Truth by its nature draws a line between what is true and what is not. Love unites. Surely one of the hardest things we are called to do is to speak the truth that draws a line with the love that unites.

And yet that is exactly what is happening today in the Mideast. We hear of the crowds in the square, the threat of the Muslim Brotherhood. But we also hear of Muslims coming to Christ in extraordinary ways. In his book Breakthrough: The Return of Hope to the Middle East, author Tom Doyle, Middle East Director of e3, who works to encourage Christian pastors and churches, states that millions of Jews and Arabs have come to Christ in the past ten years. He points to the compelling message and lives of Christians living the truth in sacrificial love as essential.

Doyle and others are reporting that this message of love is confirmed to many Jews and Muslims who are receiving personal visions of Jesus asking them to turn and follow him.

A missionary tells how Jesus’ love reached a Muslim who dreamed he was trapped in a racing fire. Flames engulfed him. Smoke burned his eyes and filled his lungs. Suddenly two strong arms reached down and snatched him out of the inferno. Night after night he dreamed the same dream. Each time the same arms, the same man delivered him.

One day as he walked down the street in his radically Muslim village he saw a crowd gathered. Drawing near he followed their gaze to a video projected on the side of a building. The movie showed a man was stumbling down a street shouldering heavy crossbeams. The man looked up. The Muslim’s jaw dropped. The bloody face under the crown of thorns was the face of the deliverer in his dreams.

One man loved his village enough to show the film at great personal risk. Now the Muslim man who saw in it the face of his dreams plants churches in his Muslim country. In matters of love, Jesus goes personally to invite others to become people “of the truth.” May we follow his example and fully grasp how being “of the truth” means being a man or woman who loves extravagantly, prays for miracles and seeks the kingdom’s advance.