Category: persecution

I’ve written before of the support group Susan and I attend.  Each month, thirty to forty people gather to encourage one another and talk about the common struggle with our disease.  There is definitely fellowship in suffering, but there is also a celebration of life.  Each person may be at a different place in his own battle, but we all have a special appreciation for each day we live.

Though there are differences, something about this group reminds me of church.  God intends there to be fellowship among His children.  He wants our eyes open to realities that the rest of the world often ignores.  How do the mature view their days on earth?  “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.  What is your life?  You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”  Do we live with such truth in mind?

Difficulty has a way of bringing focus.  Fellowship in suffering can make the focus even sharper.  Some of the most passionate songs about Jesus and Heaven were composed and sung by slaves many years ago.  Sufferers who know Christ have hope in their hearts and have so much to share.

I am thankful for healthy days and sunny skies, but fellowship is not just about my present circumstance.  Do I have a friend in difficulty?  Perhaps I can carry a bit of his load.  I can always enter the place of prayer on behalf of others.

Richard Wurmbrand was a Romanian Christian who spent 14 years in prison for his faith.  He often boldly challenged Christians to remember those who suffer for Christ.  May such fellowship bring us joy in the Lord.  From Richard’s book In the Face of Surrender:

Our brothers and sisters in jail volunteered to take beatings for others.  When it was cold, prisoners gave away sweaters so that others might feel warm.  I have witnessed such scenes myself.  Concern for others drowns out your own troubles.  Focus on God as the saints in prison do, and you will know that heavenly peace comes from patient cross-bearing.  To get out of the neurosis of lawlessness, begin to practice the law of love, at least in the little things.  Deny yourself for a period the food you love most, or some luxury of clothing, and think of those who eat unbearable food and are in rags.  Interrupt your sleep for prayer on behalf of those interrogated during the night.  Give up some item of cosmetics for those who cannot wash.  Renounce an hour of television for those who for years have been in solitary confinement in underground cells and see nothing.  Sacrifice your complaining and grumbling for one day.  Take time from other preoccupations to pray for the persecuted.

“If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort of his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.”  Philippians 2:1-4

It was very humbling to have friends cry for me while I was so sick. What is involved in entering the suffering of another? What brings us to that point where we can’t hold back the flood of tears?

Though Jesus knew His Father was going to raise Lazarus from the dead, He wept as He saw Mary and her grieving friends. Though He knew a great miracle was about to take place, He entered the pain of others. Do you think He enters our suffering today? Perhaps a greater question is: Do we choose to enter His?

Only John and a handful of women entered the most intense time of Jesus’ suffering. Though others knew what was happening, only these few actually stood at the cross. How painful it must have been for Mary to see her Son die in such a way, but where else could she go? How horrifying it must have been to see the Master hang on a tree, yet John and the other women did not shrink back. I wonder sometimes if John’s involvement in this part of His Savior’s pain helped transform him from a “son of thunder” to the “apostle of love”.

Will we dare enter the suffering of Jesus today? Be assured He does suffer. “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me… I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

I want to give you a challenge: Get to know the suffering Church of Jesus Christ. If you are not aware of the persecution of Christians in our world, you may be bothered at first (I was). It is more pleasant not to think about these things, but Jesus invites us to draw close. Most of these brothers and sisters don’t live in our land, but we can enter their suffering… through prayer, through fasting, and through giving. For over thirty years, The Voice of the Martyrs has served the persecuted Church. Visit one of their web sites and ask God to let you embrace the suffering Body of Christ. Jesus wept; will we? www.persecution.com www.linkingup.com

“Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” Hebrews 13:3

Rich Mullins wrote a song entitled, “We Are Not As Strong As We Think We Are”. How many times I have discovered this to be true! I thought I knew a little about prayer until I stood with those brothers in Benin who gathered before the sun rose to lift their prayers to our Lord. When I realized afresh that I was not as strong as I thought I was, I asked them to pray for me and the American Church.

In the year 2000, Samuel Lamb, a pastor in the underground Church in China, was asked how Americans could help. “Tell them to pray for us. Pray for revival; pray for more new converts; pray for more strength to stand firm because persecution is still severe.”

But perhaps those who have gone through the fires of persecution have something to teach us. They may know how to cry out to God. They may know something about intercession. They know what type of faith is needed to endure. And they know to pray for souls. When Moses came down from the mountain after fasting forty days and nights, he found his people in terrible sin. What did he do? For forty more days and nights he fasted. During this time he lay prostrate on the ground and begged God not to destroy His people.(read Deut 9) What brings such disregard for self and such concern for others?

John Hyde was an American missionary to India at the turn of the twentieth century. His constant prayer was, “O God, give me souls or I die!” Was he sincere? The Holy Spirit is the source of such praying. The passion we need comes from Him. It is a passion full of an uncommon love that offers the most precious possession for the souls of men. Anyone who desires such passion is invited to humbly come to the One who knows how strong we really are.

“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” Revelation 3:17-19