From the AP:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Assailants triggered a coordinated series of explosions outside five churches in Baghdad and Mosul during Sunday evening services, killing 11 people and wounding more than 50 in the first major assault on Iraq’s Christian minority since the 15-month-old insurgency began.

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The unprecedented attacks against Iraq’s 750,000-member Christian minority seemed to confirm community members’ fears they might be targeted as suspected collaborators with American forces amid a rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.

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The wave of explosions – at least four of them car bombings – began after 6 p.m. as parishioners gathered inside their neighborhood churches for services. The blasts shattered stained-glass windows and sent churchgoers running into the streets, screaming and clutching their bleeding heads.

Source: Blasts Hit Churches Across Iraq; 11 Dead – August 1, 2004

If you knew your church would be targeted by anti-Christian fanatics, would you still attend services?

What does it mean when the Bible says, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain,” if it does not mean this very example, being destroyed by those who hate God even as you bow the knee to Him?

These 11 Iraqis surrendered their lives simply because they assembled together to worship Christ. Would you?