LET US NOT FORGET!

Louise Warden

Lord, I need to talk with you about this - it is very disturbing!

The story claimed that 156,000 Christians died last year because of their faith.

Can they be serious, Lord?

They go on to claim that it adds up to 17 deaths per hour! Surely they exaggerate, right?

Can you imagine that in the time it takes to fix a good three-minute soft-boiled egg, one living, breathing human being has been murdered!

I cannot even begin to fathom such a thing. It is mind-boggling!

And just where is this persecution taking place anyway?

You don't suppose we, in this, the U.S.A., have our blinders on because of the persecution is going on in the third world?

You understand what I am saying, Lord?

It is not happening in our own back yard or in a neighboring state. No, just over 'there', somewhere - what a shame! Yawn! Yawn! Yawn!

And, Lord, I don't want to get into the possible race issue, so I won't.

We cannot forget the holocaust that occurred during World War II. It did not seem possible nor plausible that such a horrendous thing could happen, but it did! No matter the nay-sayers who doubt - for the ground of Auschwitz and other such prisons remain, silently screaming their testimony. The ghosts of those prisons speak to us in photographs too horrible to comprehend.

It is was in those places where such unexplainable deaths occurred daily. Try listening to personal accounts of survivors without becoming sick at your stomach and appalled at the inhumanity of it all.

May Jesus and the Father have mercy on all who knew what was going on and did nothing to stop such carnage. Father, I was just a child when the holocaust was going on, but would I have prayed if I had known? Oh, how I hope the answer would have been a resounding "yes"!

We now face a similar situation that we must pray will never reach the magnitude of the holocaust.

Lord, will we take the evidence seriously?

Please open our eyes so we can see the truth! Help us to recognize the evil that is taking place. Strengthen us to speak out to help others be aware as well as to pray. People are counting on us, their "family" in God, to pray fervently for them.

Help us to do this, Father!

There are, for example, people - real, live, breathing people like can worship only in secret and in fear. There are people - people with blood in their veins like mine - being murdered martyred because they would not deny our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.

Do not think of the 156,000 deaths as an exaggeration. We must not close our minds to what is happening because it seems to be too painful.

But, if there is doubt, check out several descriptive web sites that will tell all we could ever want to know!

Better yet, we could read Paul Marshall's book, Their Blood Cries Out. Even my pastor who has seen much suffering had a difficult time reading one short account of the rape and murder of a young girl who professed Jesus and wouldn't deny Him. Even as she was being tortured, she kept singing hymns and she kept on singing hymns as they shot her over and over in an attempt to shut her up. They did not succeed. They could not overcome her witness, her faith, and her love for the Savior.

I know you cried, Lord, when Stephen was stoned and he came to my mind as I read of this young girl's death. Let us not forget that you cry when one of yours is treated in such a way.

There is an even more eye-opening book, if that is possible, called In the Lion's Den written by Nina Shea. In the opening comments, let me quote Peggy Noonan, who is an ex-speech writer for President Reagan:

"This enormously timely book is exactly what the public needs - a passionate argument that is well-documented and fully supported by the facts. But the real beauty is that it's about one of the great stories of our time, and it's a story that almost nobody knows. Shea deserves our thanks."

Shea tells us that in southern Sudan, Christians have a choice. Be converted to Islam or the whole family will face starvation. Can you imagine how a mother must feel when faced with such an alternative? How would you and I respond? Would we sit and watch as our helpless children died the slow, painful death of starvation, or would we decide that Islam is better after all? This is not a choice; it is full-fledged persecution. Would any of us be able to stand as many in Sudan are standing? Would we be able to bless those who curse, revile, and persecute us? What a challenge to our own faith - is it strong enough?

Nina Shea truly does deserve our thanks, along with Paul Marshall, for making us aware of such persecution. And we must also thank those who are faithfully maintaining web sites to inform, proclaim, and "shatter the silence".

Jesus, I was surprised at how ignorant I was that such persecutions are occurring and I simply came upon a web site by accident. Thank you for that 'accident'. I pray that you will show me ways to open doors, windows, whatever, to help others become aware. So many do not know. Why, Lord? Why are so many in authority so quiet? Some did speak out when the Chinese president visited our country, but so much more must be done

We, as Christians in this wonderful United States must take some kind of action. None of us has been burned out of our homes because we believed in Jesus. None of has been denied an education because of our belief. And, so far, none of us has been required to die because we align ourselves with our Lord and Savior.

We are fortunate in that we can worship freely. We can pray mostly wherever we wish, except in public schools. We can worship in the church of our choice. So many others are much less fortunate!

What, then, can we do? We can pray each and every day for those who are being persecuted, no matter where they live. We can pray that the Holy Spirit will minister to them and give them solace in the midst of their pain. We need to make our prayers a daily commitment for as long as there are those who are dying or being tortured in the name of our precious Jesus.

We can also pray for those who are doing the persecuting and the torture. You told us to pray for those who persecute us. To me, if they persecute a "brother or sister in Christ", they are persecuting me. While I am praying for the persecutors, I need to pray for their conversion - that the Holy Spirit will bring a spirit of conviction to their hearts and that they will come into the knowledge of your saving grace.

Father, can you believe that those being persecuted are asking more for strength to stand firm rather than for deliverance? I read that and I thought, "What courageous belief".

Our congressional representatives can be contacted and encouraged to pass any kind of bill denouncing religious persecution wherever it occurs. And, if necessary, to take some type of non-violent action or reprisal. We pray that they will HEAR and that they will DO.

The most important step we can take is to band together in daily prayer and that through such determined, believing prayer, we will see changes. We will see them because God, in response to prayer, does change things, prayer does have an effect, and prayer does matter. The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church formally ended on November 16th, but our prayers must go on. We can commit to continue this cause each and every day. We can continue to spread the word to those who are still unaware.

Prayer is greater than any odds that may be against us.

LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY!

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Notes:

WEB SITES

1. Visions of Glory, http://www.vog.org/

2. Shatter the Silence, http://www.persecutedchurch.org/

3. Voice of the Martyrs, http://www.vom.org/

BOOKS

1. THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT, Paul Marshall, Word Publishing, 1997

2. IN THE LION'S DEN, Nine Shea, Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1997