“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before
it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own;
but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore
the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not
greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If
they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do
to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”
Let My People Think
The Lord grabbed my heart today as I was listening to a
podcast by Ravi Zacharias, a Christian apologist. You can find it here. More
information on Ravi and his ministry is here. I will tell you I think very
highly of this brother and have learned a great deal from him.
In it, Ravi mentioned two things. First, he discussed a
book, World Christian Trends AD 30 – AD
2200 by David Barrett and Todd Johnson of the Center for Study of Global
Christianity. Written in 2001, this book outlined trends in martyrdom,
including the fact that 70 million Christians have been killed for their faith
since AD 30—45 million in the 20th Century. They projected that
100,000 would be killed per year by 2012, but the actual total is
130,000-160,000. That works out to one of our brothers and sisters being killed
every five minutes!
Second, Ravi mentioned a Newsweek article from last February.
It is titled “The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World,” and it
discusses the extreme persecution of Christians in majority-Muslim countries
around the world. Interestingly enough, the author is an atheist from Somalia, Ayaan
Hirsi Ali. For such an article to be written by an atheist, especially in a not-so-conservative magazine gives you an idea of the
situation facing many believers around the world.
The Church Under Persecution
Jesus said persecution would be a fact of life for His
followers. That doesn’t mean it’s what He wants; it’s simply a reality since
the church is in direct opposition the world. The more I see Jesus Christ as He
is, the more my heart breaks for my brothers and sisters facing persecution. We’re part of the same body! We are one with them! As Paul said, if one part of the body suffers, we all suffer (whether we know it or
not).
Please take a moment to listen to the podcast (the portion I mentioned starts around 5:24 and is less than five minutes long) and read the article. And please pray for the church around the world. If you’re
interested in something you can do to help, here are a couple of organizations
we support that are already at work among the persecuted church:
For my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world,
Ryan
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