Global — A Bible app is growing in popularity around the world, including in countries where Christians face persecution.

Downloads of the popular YouVersion Bible App hit a record high on Jan. 5, with 798,000 installs in one day. It’s the most single-day downloads the app has experienced since it launched in 2008. This is occurring despite the reality stated in a new report from Open Doors that “more than 380 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith” worldwide.

Bobby Gruenewald, founder of the app, told the Christian Post in an interview that “this year’s increase is even higher than this same time last year, and it’s a trend [they’re] seeing globally.”

The regions with the highest concentration of downloads were in various parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Installations increased by 94% in Egypt, 48% in Pakistan, and 166% overall in the Middle East.

Earlier this month, International Christian Concern released its annual report, the 2024 Global Persecution Index (GPI), detailing Christian persecution worldwide. Egypt and Pakistan were both listed in the report for egregious acts of persecution. In both nations, radical Islamic extremism and blasphemy laws contribute to the gross mistreatment of Christians.

According to the GPI, “Christians continue to experience persecution from radical Muslims” in Egypt. In Pakistan, Christ followers “are increasingly targeted through the weaponizing of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which angry Muslim mobs enforce.”

The European Centre for Law and Justice in 2024 also reported on the abuses Christians face in Egypt. The report explains that Christ followers are routinely harassed and bullied, often with little help or protection from local authorities, and women are “especially targeted.”

“Christian women are especially targeted and harassed,” the report stated. “In rural regions of Egypt, Christian women have been kidnapped, held for ransom, forced to convert, and marry Muslim men.”

In Pakistan, Christians face daily hardships, discrimination, and even imprisonment simply for following Christ and are often recruited for sewer cleaning and street sweeping jobs. Women face particularly grievous mistreatment. According to the GPI, “civil society groups working in the country” report that, like Egypt, “many women and girls are abducted, married off, and forced to convert to Islam.”

Although many new Christians may be exposed to persecution in various regions around the world if they accept Christ as their Lord and Savior, they’re willing to risk it to know him more personally. The surge in Bible installations is a testament to the longing of human hearts for Jesus.
Sources:persecution

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Between the Old and New Testaments, the discipline of fasting is mentioned nearly 70 times, but data suggests it’s not something many Christians prioritize in their lives.

In 2014, the Barna Group released a study of Lent, the season preceding Easter and a time when people often abstain from something for religious reasons, and the Christian data-collecting agency found only 17% of adults practiced Lenten fasting in the last three years.

A Pew Research Center analysis from last year revealed just 27% of Christians overall participate in religious fasting, with Catholics leading the way at 40% and Protestants coming in far behind at 18%.

That lack of focus on fasting, Pastor Ronnie Floyd explained on a recent episode of CBN’s “Faith vs. Culture,” is due to a dearth of teaching on the subject.

“I really think spiritual leaders have neglected it for a lot of reasons,” he said. “And how do you neglect something, for example, that is mentioned in 57 verses of the Bible? It has 69 references of the word in those 57 verses as ‘fast’ and ‘fasting.’”

Noting each of those passages centers on abstaining specifically from food, Floyd asked, “How in the world could we not talk about that, especially when we know Jesus said, ‘When you give, when you pray, when you fast.’ He did not say, ‘If you give, and if you pray, and if you fast.’”

The Arkansas-based minister and former Southern Baptist Convention executive is the author of the newly released, “The Supernatural Power of Prayer and Fasting: 12 Ways God Will Change Your Life.”

In all his years of studying fasting, Floyd said there remains “a mystery” to fasting.

“It’s about me bringing myself — surrendering myself to God — without any ties whatsoever at all,” he said. “And whatever [God] does in it, then I conform to that will. … People are very transactional with God, and obviously, Scripture talks about, ‘If you’ll do this, God will do this,’ and I believe that. The only thing we can do is we go in with God’s promises about things we’re praying about when we begin to fast.”

“It’s on God to choose to do what He does and wants to do, and then it’s up to us to conform our lives and submit to to the will of God,” he added.
Sources:faithwire

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യുഎസിൽ ടിക്ടോക്കിനെ നിരോധിക്കുന്ന നിയമം ശരിവച്ച് സുപ്രീം കോടതി. ടിക്ടോക്കിന്റെ ചൈന ആസ്ഥാനമായുള്ള മാതൃ കമ്പനി ബൈറ്റ്ഡാൻസ് ഈ ഞായറാഴ്ചയോടെ പ്ലാറ്റ്‌ഫോം വിൽക്കുന്നില്ലെങ്കിൽ യുഎസിൽ ടിക് ടോക്ക് നിരോധിക്കപ്പെടും. യുഎസിൽ 170 ദശലക്ഷത്തിലധികം ഉപയോക്താക്കളുണ്ടെന്നാണ് ടിക്ടോക് അവകാശപ്പെടുന്നത്. നിരോധന നിയമം യുഎസ് ഭരണഘടന മുന്നോട്ടുവയ്ക്കുന്ന അഭിപ്രായ സ്വാതന്ത്ര്യ സംരക്ഷണത്തെ ലംഘിക്കുന്നെന്ന് ടിക് ടോക്ക് വാദിച്ചെങ്കിലും രാജ്യത്തെ പരമോന്നത കോടതി ആ വാദം ഏകകണ്ഠമായി നിരസിച്ചു.

ടിക് ടോക്ക് ആപ്പിന്റെ യുഎസ് പതിപ്പ് വാങ്ങാനായി ഒരാളെ കണ്ടത്തുക അല്ലാത്ത പക്ഷം ആപ്പ് സ്റ്റോറുകളിൽ നിന്നും വെബ് ഹോസ്റ്റിംഗ് സേവനങ്ങളിൽ നിന്നും നീക്കം ചെയ്യുക എന്നാണ് കോടതി നിലപാട്. തിങ്കളാഴ്ച അധികാരമേറ്റെടുക്കുന്ന ഡൊണാൾഡ് ട്രംപിന്റെ ഭരണകൂടമാണ് നിയമം നടപ്പിലാക്കേണ്ടതെന്ന് വൈറ്റ് ഹൗസ് പറഞ്ഞു. ഒട്ടും വൈകാതെ തന്നെ തീരുമാനമെടുക്കുമെന്ന് ട്രംപും അറിയിച്ചിരുന്നു.

ട്രംപിന്റെ സത്യപ്രതിജ്ഞാ ചടങ്ങിൽ ടിക് ടോക്ക് സിഇഒ ഷൗ സി ച്യൂപങ്കെടുക്കുമെന്ന് പ്രതീക്ഷിക്കുന്നു. ആപ്പുമായി പ്രവർത്തിക്കാനും അത് യുഎസിൽ ലഭ്യമാക്കാനുമുള്ള ട്രംപിൻ്റെ പ്രതിബദ്ധതയ്ക്ക് സി ച്യൂ നന്ദി അറിയിച്ചിരുന്നു.

ചൈനീസ് സർക്കാരുമായുള്ള ബന്ധത്തെക്കുറിച്ചുള്ള ആശങ്കകൾ കാരണം, ഡെമോക്രാറ്റിക്, റിപ്പബ്ലിക്കൻ നിയമനിർമ്മാതാക്കൾ കഴിഞ്ഞ വർഷമാണ് വീഡിയോ ഷെയറിംഗ് ആപ്പായ ടിക്ടോക് നിരോധിക്കാൻനിയമം പാസാക്കിയത്.എന്നാൽ ബീജിംഗിന് ഒരു വിവരവും കൈമാറുന്നില്ല എന്ന് ടിക് ടോക്ക് ആവർത്തിച്ച് വ്യക്തമാക്കിയിട്ടുണ്ട്.
Sources:azchavattomonline.com

The US Supreme Court has upheld a law that bans TikTok in the US unless its China-based parent company ByteDance sells the platform by this Sunday.

TikTok had challenged the law, arguing it would violate free speech protections for the more than 170 million users it says it has in the US.

But that argument was rejected unanimously by the nation’s highest court, meaning TikTok must now find an approved buyer for the US version of the app or face removal from app stores and web hosting services.

The White House said it would fall to incoming President Donald Trump’s administration, which takes office on Monday, to enforce the law. Trump vowed to make a decision in the “not too distant future”.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who is expected to attend Trump’s inauguration with other high-profile guests, said he wanted to thank the incoming president for his commitment to work with the app and keep it available in the US.

Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers voted to ban the video-sharing app last year, over concerns about its links to the Chinese government. TikTok has repeatedly stated it does not share information with Beijing.

Passed in April last year, the law allows TikTok owner ByteDance until 19 January 2025 to sell the US version of the platform to a neutral party to avert an outright ban.

It would mean that from Sunday, Apple and Google will no longer offer the app to new users or provide any security updates to current users – which could kill it off eventually.

ByteDance has vowed not to sell TikTok and said it planned to shut US operations of the app on Sunday unless there is a reprieve.

The Supreme Court ruled without any dissenting opinion that the law did not violate the US Constitution’s First Amendment protection of free speech.

The justices affirmed a lower court’s decision that upheld the statute after it was challenged by ByteDance.

“There is no doubt that, for more than 170 million Americans, TikTok offers a distinctive and expansive outlet for expression, means of engagement, and source of community,” the Supreme Court said.

“But Congress has determined that divestiture is necessary to address its well-supported national security concerns regarding TikTok’s data collection practices and relationship with a foreign adversary.”

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