Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who gave up his life taking a stand against Hitler wrote,
"When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die." -
Cost of Discipleship
That's what it means to lose our life in order to save it. Jesus was our example, being willing to go to the cross on behalf of others - even a lost world.
Check this great testimony -
http://members.opendoorsusa.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=50404.0&dlv_id=69525
I read about a pastor who works in upper Egypt, an area of intense persecution for Christians. He runs a day care centre, a medical clinic and a literacy training program as well as caring for the families of those in prison. He has been beaten twice by
Muslim fundamentalists and threatened daily with death, He knows they are trying to kill him - but he continues to daily bear his cross.
Another person came for counseling because the young she had trained at her work were recently promoted to be her supervisors. She was passed over solely because she was a Christian. That's the cross one must bear in Egypt.
The essence of what I am saying is that instead of exercising and asserting my will, I learn to cooperate with
God's wishes and comply with His will.
There is another story of a pastor in
Cuba receiving Bibles and he knew he was at risk in receiving them - but he responded to that possibility by asking the question right back - what risk?
Rinaldo Hernandez is a Methodist pastor in Cuba. He decided to stay in Cuba as a cross he must bear. I did some research and think I found he source of strength -
In the years following Cuba’s 1959 Marxist revolution, many of the
Methodist pastors who didn’t flee their homeland were “strangely
warmed” by the same fire that burned in Emilio’s heart. Rinaldo
Hernandez, then a young seminarian studying at a Methodist school in
the city of Matanzas, discovered the heaven-sent fire in 1979 when a
visiting professor from the United States told students at a chapel
service that she had been baptized in the Holy Spirit. Rinaldo, his
wife and some other students prayed for an infilling of God’s power and
began speaking in tongues.
A few months later, before he could finish his studies,
Rinaldo was labeled a criminal by the Cuban government and sent to a
labor camp. But the fire he encountered at the seminary in Matanzas only
burned more brightly during those dark days he spent away from his
wife and infant daughter. The Holy Spirit’s presence renewed and
invigorated him, and confirmed to him that God had called him to share
Christ with his countrymen.
When I met Rinaldo in 1993, he was pastoring a lively
congregation of young people—many of them new converts—at the same
Vedado church where Emilio Gonzales had been baptized in the Spirit
forty years earlier. The Communists were not interfering with the work
of the church, and the young people worshiped without fear of
recrimination.
“We are not praying for a revival,” Rinaldo told me. “We are in a revival. There is a growing church in Cuba, a powerful and dynamic church. This movement is quiet, but strong.”
Like the majority of Methodist churches in Cuba, Rinaldo’s
congregation is fully charismatic in doctrine and worship style. On a
typical Wednesday night at the Vedado Methodist Church, the young
members clap, shake tambourines and raise their hands as they sing
lively praise choruses. Some of them stood in front of the congregation
and shared words of prophecy and exhortation.
Jamie Buckingham wrote an article this year,
The Risk Factor - read some of his challenging words here -
http://ministrytodaymag.com/index.php/ministry-news/19489-the-risk-factor
http://youtu.be/7wkft_6ASVI
