“According to Persecution.org, 200 million Christians are being persecuted in the world today for their faith.” Yet, for the most part the media is silent.
While in the mountains of Guatemala, I met an arm-less man filled with Jesus. A missionary there explained to us, a “neighbor” cut it off with a machete because he converted to Christianity.
And yet, the arm-less one walked tall, confident, bravely towards a faith, unconditionally.
Yet, how many of us today have unconditional faith? How many of us doubt when there is shaky ground, an offense, or a questioning of the goodness of God when things don’t go our way?
Today there lives a lie in American Christianity; one that says, if we turn to Christ our lives will be easy, pain free, filled with health, wealth, and prosperity.
Another sits in a prison cell. His name Saeed Abedini. His only crime? Being a Christian in a land of Muslims. Sent to one of the worst prisons with murderers and rapist. Beaten, tortured, not treated for his worsening health, suffering with a life threatening health condition.
Where is his voice? Why the injustice? Would we tolerate illegal imprisonment of Saeed if he was our brother, son, father, cousin?
They came to our small group. She spoke of her friend. A Christian, married to an abusive husband of a different religion. He beat her, belittled her, and harassed her for converting to Christianity.
They live in America, not some third world country. Yet secretly, inside the walls of their own fortress, persecution lives freely in their home, nobody even noticing.
And in America, we are insulated in our cushy lives, immune to the reality that real people, really suffer, for the real gospel all over the world because of their faith in Jesus. And yet we can sit carelessly, arguing over doctrine, coddling our materialism, or living for pleasure in our form of Christianity…one that doesn’t include suffering…
Are we doing our Christian brothers and sisters a dis-service? Are we robbing them from our prayers, our support, the defense that comes by seeking a God who sees and hear, us disassociating out of discomfort and convenience?
And while Saeed could avoid the beatings and imprisonment by just confessing, “I reject Jesus”…He doesn’t.
And I wonder, if our faith is so strong? Would you or I, if tortured, imprisoned, and taken from all we know, denounce His name?
Oh how many futile things are we are dying to live for in our culture today? Yet, I wonder….Do we have anything we are living for that we would be willing to die for like Saeed and 200 million others in the world today?
Will you stop right now, take some time and join me in praying for the 200 million persecuted Christians in the world today?
9 Comments
Thank you for speaking up! I’m sharing your post and praying with you.
We pray for Pastor Saeed here in or nightly prayers. Many of us are suffering for our faith. The amazing thing about Christianity is it’s the only faith where persecution causes it to spread. That’s how I know God is in it. He is always there especially through the suffering.
Elizabeth – Thank you! Yes, let’s lift up our voices to heaven…together! 🙂
Laura – Beautifully said! I love that you pray nightly for Saeed. So true my friend, “the blood of the saints is the seed that grows the church!”
Thank you so much, Jen, for speaking out and speaking up for those who often feel they have no voice. Your timely words waken us to how insular and overly comfortable we can be in the outworking of our faith, or the expectations of living as Christians in western society and culture.
It’s a great challenge to question how we too might react if subject to slander, torture or imprisonment for our faith ~ maybe all three.
Much food for thought here and much to stimulate prayerful confession for our neglect/forgetfulness and urgent intercession too for our suffering brethren in Christ. Praying with you.
Joy – Such a beautiful comment! Thanks for receiving this post with such love and grace. Oh this great gift we have…yes, that we might see the value in it and stand together for those persecuted because of it!
How little we suffer for our faith compared to our brothers and sisters in other countries! Thanks for speaking out on this topic for Thought-Provoking Thursday, Jen.
Praying right now with you. Lord, more faith–to those being persecuted, to those of us not!
Lyli – So true friend.
Lisa – Oh yes, may the Lord hear His people’s outcry, like in the days of Egypt and the Israelites…
Gosh, this is a humbling post. And a needed wake-up call. It is so easy to hear about those stories and know that things like that happen in the world, but then go back to surfing the internet and get caught up in pop culture, etc. Like Joy said, I wonder if I would be able to withstand all that other Christians in the world do. I sometimes ask why in the world was I able to be born in America and they weren’t… I suppose it’s so that we can do SOMETHING- prayer, donate money to causes that will partner with them, raise awareness, etc. Thanks for this. Sarah @ thejellyjars.com