In reflecting during my morning devotions on the Words of Jesus, I was amazed in a new way about something He said regarding persecution. In John 16:1-4, Jesus said, “…in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when the time comes you will remember that I warned you. I did not tell you this at first because I was with you.”
This passage is perhaps more relevant today than ever. If you believe as I do that the Words of Jesus are universal, timeless, and powerful yesterday, today, and forever, then this passage explains much of what is going on in the world today.
With the rise of radical Islam across the globe, staggering numbers of Christians are being slaughtered today in the name of Allah. Muslims actually believe they are performing “a service to God” by carrying out this genocide against the Christian “infidels.”
But the fact is, even the most “devout” Muslim does not know the true God. They have never known the Father or the Son. We pray someday they will.
Intellectuals, secularists, politicians, and pundits try to explain atrocities against Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere with wild claims such as poor economies, lack of education, political instability, or payback for U.S. intervention in Iraq as some of the many reasons that these things are happening. But again, as Jesus said, it is because these people do not know the Father or the Son.
CFI provides educational supplies to Christian children who are forced to live in slavery in the heart of the Muslim world.
As we approach the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, here are a few things to focus your prayers on:
1) Pray for men, women, and children to “know God,” to really know the Father, to really know the Son.
2) Pray for the conversion of those in “darkness” to come to the light.
3) Pray for the safety and protection of our brothers and sisters in Christ; that God will preserve them in the midst of this overwhelming persecution.
Pray for these things every day, not only on the Day of Prayer.
The Gospel is a simple, straightforward message.
You and I need to do everything we can, while we can, to be Ambassadors for Christ in all we do. We need to shine the light of the Gospel on those who do not know the Father or the Son. We need to demonstrate the love of Christ to those around us through our words and actions.
And, we as believers must, can, and should do everything we can, while we can, to help our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ, now more than ever. “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