Already but not yet

When a wedding day arrives, most couples are well-prepared to commit their lives to each other. In the minutes before the ceremony begins, if you were to visit with the bride and groom, and if you were to ask each of them at that point, “Do you love your fiancé? Will you commit yourself completely to him or her?” they would answer “Yes. Yes.” Are they married at that point? No, not yet. Yet are they deeply committed to each other? Yes. Do they love each other profoundly? Yes. All that’s necessary for a marriage is present and ready to go. In many ways they’re already feeling as if they were married, and yet they aren’t married. The concept of "already but not yet" implies that believers in Jesus are currently taking part in the kingdom of God, but that the kingdom of God is coming in fullness sometime in the future.

 “Already, but not yet” describes the tension between the benefits of redemption already experienced in this life and those benefits which await us at the consummation. Christians enjoy the “alreadyness” of the Atonement—remission of sins, adoption as children, the indwelling Holy Spirit, etc. However, there is a sense in which we will not see these realities in totality until the last day, and so they always remain objects of faith. For instance, the believer already has eternal life, but they are not yet physically resurrected. Likewise, the church is a fellowship of persons who are both new creatures in Christ and still imperfect sinners. We await our glorification and the destruction of our sinful natures in the last day.

 If Jesus has won the victory over sin, suffering, and death, why is it that we still sin, suffer, and die? To understand this seeming contradiction, we must recognize the“already, but not yet ”tension of the gospel.

Many of the kingdom of God's blessings are here to be enjoyed now; but many of them are not yet here. Some of its power is available now but not all of it. Some of the curse and misery of this old age can be overcome now by the presence of the kingdom. But some of it cannot be. The decisive battle against sin and Satan and sickness and death has been fought and won by the King in his death and resurrection, but the war is not over. Sin must be fought, Satan must be resisted, sickness must be prayed over and groaned under, and death must be endured until the second coming of the King and the consummation of the kingdom.

 We need to understand that while God's promises are being fulfilled in and through Jesus, they are not yet complete. There's more to come.

Burning with the love of Jesus

It was what the Dutch Jesuit scholar and mystic Henri Nouwen once told a gathering of Baptist ministers: "Ministry is the least important thing. You cannot not minister if you are in communion with God and live in community. A lot of people are always concerned about: 'How can I help people? Or help the youth to come to Christ? Or preach well?' But these are all basically non-issues. If you are burning with the love of Jesus, don't worry: everyone will know. They will say, 'I want to get close to this person who is so full of  God.'"

It is possible and the Suffering Church, by example, proves to us that it its indeed possible to lose everything...to suffer everything...to endure everything...yet maintain a joyful spirit and heart of love for the Lord.

So often our major shortcoming is simply to doubt that we could go through those experiences and come out of them as refined and triumphant.  Jesus never promised that our life would be easy - just fulfilling.  He never promised that things would be fair - only that He would be just. 

“It is more difficult to be a Christian in the USA than in Iran. There you are either a Christian or not!” - Iranian Christian leader Luke Yagnazar “We have physical persecution but you have materialism. Your lot is harder because we know what we are spiritually fighting. Many times you don’t.” - Pastor Samuel Lamb in southern China.

Our first semester passed quickly. Penina gave birth to our son, Dawaudi Babumba. In the fall I returned to my studies. It was then, in my second year, that I noticed the change that had come into my life. In Uganda, Penina and I read the Bible for hope and life. We read to hear God’s promises, to hear His commands and obey them. There had been no time for argument and no time for religious discrepancies or doubts.

Now, in the security of a new life and with the reality of death fading from mind, I found myself reading Scripture to analyze texts and speculate about meaning. I came to enjoy abstract theological discussions with my fellow students and, while these discussions were intellectually refreshing, it wasn’t long before our fellowship revolved around ideas rather than the work of God in our lives. It was not the blood of Jesus Christ that gave us unity, but our agreement on doctrinal issues. We came together not for confession and forgiveness but for debate.

The biggest change came to my prayer life. In Uganda I had prayed with a deep sense of urgency. I refused to leave my knees until I was certain I had been in the presence of the resurrected Christ. It was not just the gift I needed. I needed to see the Giver. I needed to know that the God of orphans and widows, the God of the helpless, heard my prayers. Now, after a year in Philadelphia, the urgency was gone. When I prayed publicly I was more concerned to be theologically correct than to be in God’s presence. Even in private my prayers were no longer the helpless cries of a child. They were spiritual tranquilizers, thoughts that made no contact with anything outside themselves. More and more I found myself coming to God with vague requests for gifts I did not expect. - Uganda pastor, Kefa Sempangi

However, in my work with SAT-7 Canada, we see the Church in many middle eastern countries and in North Africa as evidence the persecution does not guarantee church unity, growth or revival.  Then also we see the Church in South Korea at the other end of the spectrum for they are an example of a free country where the church is experiencing significant growth and revival.

 “It is not persecution itself but the lessons learned under persecution that make and keep the church and an individual believer strong in the Lord…what makes the difference is how we respond to persecution and how we respond to freedom.” Pastor Paul Negrut

May we be willing to learn and act accordingly and be prepared.

http://youtu.be/-X-9zI9PFN8

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Practising our faith

 

Wherever Christians are restricted in practising their faith, the experience of meeting corporately for worship seems to have much more intensity and meaning.  After - or sometimes before - a long hard day of work in an anti-spiritual environment, they are most desirous of meeting with the family of God to express their love, adoration and praise to their Lord.

"God of love, help us to remember that Christ has no body now on earth but ours, no hands but ours, no feet but ours.
Ours are the eyes to see the needs of the world. Ours are the hands with which to bless everyone now. Ours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good". - Teresa of Avila

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Witnessing

Manuel was an effective evangelist among the mountain Quechua people in Peru. One day some Shining Path guerrillas intercepted him on the trail and ordered him to stop going to the mountains; stop handing out Bibles, cassettes and other Christian materials; and stop preaching about Jesus. They threatened his life.

Some weeks later Manuel’s dead body was found on the trail. His feet, hands and tongue had been cut off. With a knife they carved on his torso the message in Spanish, “We told you to stop!” The chopped body parts completed the message, “...visiting the villages; distributing Bibles; preaching about Jesus!”

There was a memorial service for Manuel attended by many believers. An evangelist preached the memorial service message and challenged young people to come forward and take Manuel’s place. Ten young people made the commitment. An elder standing at the side asked, “But young people. What if the same thing happens to you as happened to Manuel?”

One of the youths cried out, “If we die, a thousand will spring up and take our place!”


This from China --

"…in the provinces, believers are still fined, imprisoned, and tortured; local regulations still prohibit unofficial church gatherings", One lady was held for 110 days in captivity. She was hung upside down and beaten with electrical cords. Others with her were beaten with wire from the waist down.

Their crime was meeting with an evangelist. Their testimony was, "...that God's presence was so tangible during the torture that, in fact, she felt joyful. 'Because of these afflictions, we loved the souls of China more...and we prayed for those who were torturing us... We go out ready to preach the gospel, ready to go to jail, and ready to die for Jesus' sake." (CHRISTIANITY TODAY, May 16, 1994, pp. 33-34).

"It is interesting to note that the underground church in China is apolitical! They pray for their leaders but maintain a careful independence...more than a few believers [in America] trade in their Christian birthright for a mess of earthy pottage. We must continually ask ourselves: Is our first aim to change our government or to see lives in and out of government changed for Christ?” Ibid.

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Willingly Suffer

Here is a thought from an unnamed Chinese Christian:


Where there is no cross, there is no crown. This lesson cannot be learned from books, and men do not usually taste this sweetness. This rich life does not exist in a comfortable environment. If the spices are not refined to become oil, the fragrance of the perfume cannot flow forth; and if the grapes are not crushed in the vat, they will not become wine.

 Another pastor shared this request - “We don’t ask that you pray for the persecution to stop, but that we will be faithful and stand strong in the midst of the persecution.”

Sister Pasqualita spoke at the “Mexico, I Love You” Congress. She had suffered severe ostracism in her small town in the very southern part of Mexico because she had become an evangelical. Other Christians had already been forcibly driven from the town.

One night a group of her persecutors surrounded her grass-roofed home setting it on fire. As she opened the door, someone fired a gun at her. A co-worker shares her story in his own words:

“When she was sharing her testimony she was crying. She said, ‘I thank the Lord that only twenty-one ammunition bits touched me.’ She had been shot all over her body and even in the neck. She was still able to run and fell into a hole where her persecutors couldn’t see her in the dark. She was losing blood quickly but some other townsfolk somehow took her out through the mob to another nearby town’s clinic. She survived but three other family members in the house were murdered.
“She complained to the Lord saying, ‘Lord, why now that I’ve given you my life and my family am I suffering this way?’ The Lord reminded her of a song that she used to sing very often, ‘I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.’
“She continued, ‘Then I understood that when I decided to follow Jesus, it was in the midst of any situation, any persecution. My life now belonged to Him. I gained strength in that song. I am preaching again and I am encouraging the rest of the believers that when we decide to follow Jesus there is no turning back.’”

Today Pasqualita continues to be a strong Christian leader and teacher in her community and she still loves to sing, “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back.”

We will be led into difficult times. We are perfected by our suffering, when we suffer like Jesus did, by the power of the Holy Spirit. Don’t waste your pain or your suffering. Use it for a witness, use it for the gospel. Christians are like nails—the harder you hit us, the deeper we go.

Christians are like flowers. The more you crush us, the sweeter the fragrance.



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Filled with the Spirit of God

Do you remember the visual lesson where you ask if a glass of water is really full?  When every one is completely convinced that it was - drops of water were added to our growing amazement. The lesson was clear - the glass was only truly full when the first drop overflowed down the outside of the glass.

Singing is one evidence of an overflowing life.


Former prisoner, Ivan Antonov, shares what he found to be most important of all:

“While in prison camp, I felt that my primary ministry was prayer. Like Daniel, I prayed three times a day, opening the windows of my heart towards my friends in freedom. I also prayed for our persecutors.

I would sing hymns. I was really glad that I knew so many. I had memorized about one hundred and seventy hymns, and in order not to forget them, I reviewed several every day. So over a time, I sang through all of them. I want to emphasize to my young friends that you should worship God with songs and poems and memorize them. They will come in handy. But most important of all, you should study and memorize the Word of God. When I was in prison and camp, I had no Bible, but I was able to review what I had stored in my heart. I went over two chapters from the Old Testament and two chapters from the New Testament every day.

This experience reminded me of Joseph in Egypt. During the time of abundance, he was laying aside stores of grain. When the famine came, he distributed grain from these stores, and the people were saved from starvation.

These Scriptures were food for my soul. I sang hymns every morning and at night before going to bed. God always woke me up early in the morning, an hour and half or two hours before the morning bell. This gave me time to pray and to meditate in peace, because once everyone else was up, there was too much noise and shouting. It was impossible to concentrate. So in those quiet hours, I would go outside in the fresh air and sing hymns of praise to God and pray.”

 Pastor Ung Sophal sat in a filthy Cambodian prison badly beaten.  His hands and feet were chained for five months.

"Only my mouth was unchained...so I sang to God in prison all the time. Another prisoner heard me singing through a small hole in the wall, so I taught him the song—a bit at a time. He passed it on and soon eight of us were singing.”

Archbishop Dominic Tang spent twenty-two years in prison in China for his faith. He reports:

“Besides my prayer and meditation, every day I sang some hymns in a soft voice, ‘Jesus I live for you; Jesus I die for you; Jesus I belong to you. Whether alive or dead I am for Jesus!’ This hymn was taught to me by a Protestant prisoner who lived in my cell.”

 Stuart Hamblen wrote a song and the chorus repeats the theme:

My heart can sing when I pause to remember
A heartache here is but a stepping stone
Along a trail that's winding always upward,
This troubled world is not my final home

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Life's Journey

The most frequently used verbal imagery of life's journey is that of being a pilgrim.

As a pilgrim, it becomes easier to hold earthly things very lightly.

I heard this definition of a pilgrim recently -

"An intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of all our interests in God."

 "The world's way to responding to intimations of decay is to engage equally in idiot hopes and idiot despair. On the one hand, some new policy or discovery is confidently expected to put everything to rights- a new fuel, a new drug, detente, world government. On the other hand, some disaster is as confidently expected to prove our undoing- capitalism will break down, fuel will run out, plutonium will lay us low, atomic waste will kill us off. Overpopulation will suffocate us or alternatively a declining birth rate will put us more at the mercy of our enemies. In Christian terms, such hopes and fears are equally beside the point, for as Christians we know that here we have no continuing city, that crowns roll in the dust and every earthly kingdom must sometimes flounder whereas we acknowledge a king men did not crown and cannot dethrone, as we are citizens of a city of God they did not build and cannot destroy. Thus the apostle wrote to the Christians in Rome, living in a society as depraved and as dissolute as ours, their games like our television specialized in spectacles of violence and eroticism. Paul exhorted them to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in God's work, to concern themselves with the things that are unseen. For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal. It was in the breakdown of Rome that Christendom was born. Now in the breakdown of Christendom, there are the same requirements and the same possibilities to eschew the fantasy of a disintegrating world and to seek the reality of what is not seen and eternal- the reality of Christ." --  Malcolm Muggeridge

There is a gospel song  titled "I can't feel at home in this world any more" - the first verse goes like this...

This world is not my home I'm just passing through
my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
the angels beckon me from Heaven's open door
and I can't feel at home in this world anymore

 Pilgrims who pass through territory en route to their permanent home do not drive in their stakes too deeply.  They know they are leaving in the morning.

Unfortunately, instead of pilgrims with a clear vision of our final destiny, we are being labelled earth-bound tourists searching for the latest spiritual high.

Pastor Allen Yuan in China was 82 years old and still serving - he did not retire because he could not find any reference to retirement in the Bible - this is his quick story --

Chinese policy changed. Because of prison overcrowding, the government decided to release Christian leaders who had spent two decades in jail. Allen was paroled and told he must not preach. But he continued to spread the gospel from his own home. He taped sermons and distributed them. He was still working for Christ in his late eighties. "As we live each day, we want to work for Him [Jesus] until He returns, as we know He is coming soon. If He comes today, I am fully prepared, as everybody must give an account."

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Power in Chains

The apostle Paul commented on a few occasions that being in chains was not necessarily a bad thing.

That's because God can turn anything into good - everyone in that prison system, including the palace guard learned that Paul was in prison because of his love for Christ.

More importantly, from Paul's perspective, he saw a change in the Christians.  It seemed that his chains inspired them to speak God's Word more courageously and fearlessly than before.

Here is a testimony reflecting some of this from Pastor Matta Boush in Sudan --

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. Acts 20:24

In a Sudan prison, Pastor Matta Boush was depressed as he faced 30 years on false charges. A visit from an Irish Catholic sister helped change his outlook. There were others in prison, she said, whose cases were far worse than his. She told him never to ask himself why he was there, but instead to ask for what purpose he was there. From that point Matta Boush began to minister to his fellow prisoners.

He began prayer meetings for non-Muslims and numbers grew quickly. One event at the prison made an especially strong impact. A prisoner, just prior to his execution, rather than being fearful, was calm and gave his testimony. He said he was not afraid to die because he knew he would go to heaven. This made such an impression that some of the Muslim guards became Christians.

He was transferred to another prison in the city of El-Obeid. Some Muslims objected to his ministry and prayer meetings so he was placed in solitary confinement for several months. Away from his God-given work and with too much time to think, depression overtook him again. But the encouragement of friends helped him through the hard times. Returning to the general prison population, he helped lead between 150 and 200 people to Christ.

Later Matta Boush was transferred to El-Khobar prison in Khartoum. There he was able to help build a prison chapel as well as continuing his ministry. In the next ten months, 200 people came to the Lord.

His sudden release indicated that the person ordering it had great authority. As a free man, he contacted churches and visited Nuba refugee camps. He was reunited with his three daughters. His wife, however, had married a Muslim man.

He began providing pastoral care for nine regional churches. He was faithful in sharing the Lord both in and out of prison. No sacrifice was too great to accomplish the goal.

An Open Doors-Africa co-worker named Solomon was assigned to find out if there were many Christians in prison or labor camps in Mozambique during the communist regime there. While researching, he was arrested himself:

“In prison, all my possessions, including my Bible were taken from me. Then I was subjected to a cross-examination for six hours, after which I was thrown into a cell, exhausted. I had to sleep on a concrete floor. I did not even get a blanket…
“Knowing that my heavenly father would never forsake me, I directed all my attention to my fellow-prisoners. Although I still had to sleep on the floor and was harassed by malaria, bugs and gnawing hunger, I tried to talk about my faith as much as possible…
“I had the opportunity to preach to my companions. I prayed for the sick and the Lord heard my prayers and healed them. That was of great support to them and during my stay in prison, I led fifteen people to the Lord.
“Unexpectedly, I found out that there were more Christians in prison. Now it became clear to me why I had to be arrested. In the first place, to bring the message of salvation to the lost ones in prison. And secondly, to strengthen my fellow Christians."

 Check out this prayer for generosity from Ignatius of Loyola --

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
to give and not to count the cost,
to fight and not to heed the wounds,
to toil and not to seek for rest,
to labor and not to ask for reward,
save that of knowing that I do your will.

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Willingness to Serve

Why are chains so powerful? Because of what God does for Christians in prison. Here's a story out of Nepal, told by Tirtha Thapa, general secretary for the National Churches Fellowship, about the time he visited some Christians in chains.

"As I entered, the light was dim and it was difficult to see. I could make out shapes in one corner of the cell, huddled together against the cold, on the bare concrete floor. As my eyes adjusted, the battered faces of the men came into focus. They were bound together with wire that pierced their hands and wound around their limbs, causing intense pain. They were miserable looking creatures. I had met them before, on a previous visit, but in their present condition I didn't recognize them. But they recognized me. "Jaya mashi!" they shouted. "Victory of the Messiah!... Don't worry, we're fine, singing the song of the Lord. Tell our brothers and sisters we're happy here in police custody."

If Christ be God...

Check out these sayings from C.T. Studd - http://churchages.com/en/missions/ct-studd/

One of them is -

"If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."

There are a lot of quotes from this missionary that challenged us to give wholehearted service for God.  That was simply the case because of Jesus' love and example for us.  We then prove our love for Him as faithful bond servants - wherever we are placed...and His reward is His personal presence with us always.

If you want to read an incredible story of a young blind man, Zia Nodrat, who believed this with his life, read it here - http://www.answering-islam.org/Testimonies/zia.html

Here is one of his quotes when he was told that he would be killed because of his apostasy from Islam --

"I have counted the cost and am willing to die for the Messiah, since He has already died on the cross for me."

 

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Lose your life for Jesus

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

Abandonment

I remember submitting a poem to my corporate Christmas newsletter and it made the third page.  I tried to go through the process of explaining what Christmas really was. 

It surprised me for a moment, but with more thought, I knew this was probably normal thinking - in Mongolia.  Someone responded to a radio program and shared their thoughts on Christmas like this --

"When I think of Christmas the first thing that comes into my mind is its significance, especially in relation to the lives of myself and those about me.  I think of what Christmas originally cost, of what its significance costs myself and others today."

Oswald Chambers, in the first of the daily devotions in My Utmost for His Highest, shares this same attitude of complete surrender to God --

  "I am determined to be absolutely and entirely for Him and for Him alone."

Giving yourself in true abandonment to Him means refusing yourself the luxury of asking questions.  We have no ends of our own to serve.  In fact, it never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the one to whom we abandon ourselves.  He then works through us all the time.

"One of the greatest hindrances in coming to Jesus is the excuse of temperament. We make our temperament and our natural affinities barriers to coming to Jesus. The first thing we realize when we come to Jesus is that He pays no attention whatever to our natural affinities. We have the notion that we can consecrate our gifts to God. You cannot consecrate what is not yours; there is only one thing you can consecrate to God, and that is your right to yourself." (Romans 12:1)...I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).  Chambers

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Patiently waiting for God

Paraphrase of Habakkuk by Dr. Jim Cunningham --

    "Though the job offers do not come

    and there is no employment on the horizon.

    Though the stock investments decline

and my RRSPs produce no income.

    Though there are no savings in the account

and minimum cash in my pocket.

    Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

    I will be joyful in God my Saviour.

    The Sovereign Lord is my strength.

    He makes me walk on the edge with sure feet

    and calms me to enjoy the view."

http://youtu.be/LuEFdtIv4lo

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Reckless Abandonment

Here are some thoughts from a letter that might encourage you --

'You know around here we are experiencing hardships.  but thank the Lord He is supporting us and comforting us and caring for us in every way.  When we experience misfortune, adversity, distress and hardship, only then do we see the real blessing of the Lord poured down on us in such a way that we cannot contain it.  Hallelujah!

We have been obliged recently to leave our modest apartment and for over two months have been living on a balcony.  The rain has been beating down and soaking us.  Sometimes in the middle of the night we are forced to gather our blankets into our arms and run to seek refuge in a stairwell.

do you know what I do then?  I'm happy, I laugh, I praise the Lord because we can still take shelter in the stairwell,  I think of how many people are experiencing much worse hardships than I am...

...I don't know what words to use in order to describe the love that the Lord has shown to our family.  I only can bow my knee and my heart and offer to the Lord words of deepest thanks and praise.  Although we've lost our house, we've lost our possessions, we have not lost the Lord and that is enough.  With the Lord I have everything.'

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Depths of Love

Almighty God, who has given many the  boldness to confess the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ before the rulers of this world, and courage to die for their faith: Grant that we may always be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in us, and to suffer gladly for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

From Common of the Saints, Of a Martyr, Book of Common Prayer, p. 246-247

 

The New Testament suggests persecution is a likely consequence of Christian belief: Jesus in Mark 13:9-11 does not say if they hand you over to councils, but that they will hand you over …

Today for affluent Christians such passages are viewed as references to a time long ago. But for Christians in the burgeoning churches of the Middle East and North Africa, persecution and martyrdom are modern realities.

In his book, A Distant Grief (published 2006), Ugandan writer and pastor Kefa Sempangi tells of a certain Easter Sunday - getting confronted by five of Idi Amin’s thugs who were going to kill him. 

"Despite the growing shadow of Idi Amin, Easter morning, 1973, began as a most joyous occasion for the redeemed church. The sun had just risen and the sky was empty of clouds when the first people began arriving at the compound where we worshiped. They came from almost every tribe, from the Baganda, the Besoga, the Bunyacoli, the Acoli and the Langi, the Baguari and the Bakisu. They came from as far away as Masaka, a town 80 miles southwest of Kampala. There were old men with walking sticks and young women with babies on their backs. There were small children with flowers in their arms. There were doctors and lawyers, businessmen and farmers, cotton growers and government workers, only a few traveled by car or taxi. Most came on foot or rode bicycles. Others crowded into lorries so lopsided they seemed ready to collapse at any moment. By nine o'clock, over 7,000 people were gathered. It was the largest crowd ever to attend Sunday service at the redeemed church. When there were no more places in the compound, people climbed trees or sat on the roofs of the lorries. A few large groups set up in nearby yards with their own amplifying systems and hundreds stood in the streets. Before the service, the elders and I met in the vestry, an empty house by the compound, to pray. We felt deeply the hunger in the hearts of the people who had gathered for worship. We knew their desire to hear the Word of God and prayed that their lives would be transformed by its power. As we poured our hearts out to the Father in agonizing intercession, desperate scenes from the previous week flashed again in my mind.     I saw a face burned beyond recognition and a woman huddled in a corner weeping. I saw a crowd of soldiers standing in the park cheering. And I heard the sound of boot crunching against bone. I remembered the arrogance of the mercenaries and the dreamlike deadness of my heart. And once again the triumph of evil overwhelmed me. I felt a deep fear. I myself had fallen, how could I hope to strengthen others on this Easter? Who was I to feed God's children in this most desperate hour? What words could I speak? My brothers and sisters needed courage to stand firm in the growing terror. They needed strength to sustain them in suffering. They didn't need my sermon, they didn't need my thoughts on the resurrection. My father had been right. In such times, men do not need words, he had said, they need power."
"I took my Bible and went to preach that Easter morning with new courage. My message was the suffering of Jesus Christ. I spoke of His triumph over evil and His victory over death. I spoke of the power of His resurrection. And behind me were the elders, sitting on a bench and praying. In front of me, thousands of unfamiliar faces. There were believers in need of encouragement and unbelievers in need of salvation. At 12:30 the sun was pouring hot on our heads and I tried to close the service." That's three and a half hours later.
"The people refused to leave. We have not come for a church service, someone shouted, we have come to hear the Word of God. Go rest yourself and then come back and preach again. The crowd clapped and shouted their approval. I went to the vestry for a brief rest and returned in the mid-afternoon. Hardly a person had moved. I preached for three more hours. And this time when I finished, no one objected. The sun was going down and everyone knew the hour had come to close the meeting. It was not safe to travel after dark. We didn't know whether we'd ever see each other again, or when God might call us home, but we went out in peace because we had seen with our eyes the salvation of the Lord. And with a loud 'Amen' from the people and a final chorus from the choir, the Easter service ended and I turned to the elders and we embraced praising God. It seemed as if days instead of hours had passed since we had met for prayer. I was exhausted but there was joy in my heart. God had answered our prayers. He had broken bread and fed His people. I had to push my way through the crowd and when I finally arrived at the house, I was exhausted and too tired to notice the men behind me until they had closed the door. There were five of them. They stood between me and the door, pointing their rifles at my face. Their own faces were scared with the distinctive tribal cuttings of the Kakwa tribe and they were dressed casually in flowered shirts and bell-bottom pants and wore sunglasses. Although 1 had never seen any of them before, I recognized them immediately, they were the Secret Police of the State Research Bureau, Amin's Nubian assassins. For a long moment no one said anything and then the tallest man, obviously the leader, spoke, 'We're going to kill you,' he said. 'If you have something to say, say it before you die.'
"He spoke quietly but his face was twisted with hatred.
I could only stare at him. For a sickening moment I felt the full weight of his rage. We had never met before but his deepest desire was to tear me to pieces. My mouth felt heavy and my limbs began to shake and everything left my control. 'They'll not need to kill me,' I thought to myself. 'I'm just going to fall over. I'm going to fall over dead and I'll never see my family again.'
"I thought of Pinina, home alone with Damali. What would happen to them when I was gone? From far away I heard a voice. And I was astonished to realize it was my own. 'I do not need to plead my own cause,' I heard myself say. 'I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden in Christ. It is your lives that are in danger. You are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you've killed me, He will spare you from eternal destruction.'
"The tall one took a step toward me and then stopped. In an instant his face was changed, his hatred had turned to curiosity. He lowered his gun and motioned to the others to do the same. And they stared at him in amazement but they took their guns away from my face. And then the tall one spoke again. 'Will you pray for us now?' he asked.
"I thought my ears were playing a trick. I looked at him and then at the others. My mind was completely paralyzed. The tall one repeated his question more loudly and I could see that he was becoming impatient. 'Yes, I will pray for you,' I answered.
"My voice sounded bolder even to myself. 'I will pray to the Father in heaven, please bow your heads and close your eyes.'
"The tall one motioned to the others again and together the five of them lowered their heads. I bowed my own head but I kept my eyes open.
"The Nubian's request seemed to me a strange trick. 'Any minute,' I thought to myself, 'my life will end. I do not want to die with my eyes closed.'
"'Father in heaven,' I prayed, 'You who have forgiven men in the past, forgive these men also. Do not let them perish in their sins but bring them unto Yourself.'
"It was a simple prayer, prayed in deep fear, but God looked beyond my fears and when I lifted my head, the men standing in front of me were not the same men who had followed me into the vestry. Something had changed in their faces. It was the tall one who spoke first. His voice was bold but there was no contempt in his words. 'You have helped us,' he said, 'and we will help you. We will speak to the rest of our company and they will leave you alone. Do not fear for your life. It is in our hands and you will be protected.'
"I was too astonished to reply. The tall one only motioned for the others to leave. He himself stepped to the doorway and then he turned to speak one last time.
"'I saw widows and orphans in your congregation,' he said. 'I saw them singing and giving praise. Why are they happy when death is so near?'
"It was still difficult to speak but I answered him. 'Because they are loved by God. Because He has given them life and will give life to those they love because they died in Him.'
"His question seemed strange to me but he did not stay to explain. He only shook his head in perplexity and walked out the door. I stared at the open door of the vestry for several moments and then sat down on a nearby straw mat. My knees were no longer strong and I could feel my whole body tremble. I couldn't think clearly. Less than ten minutes before, I had considered myself a dead man. And even though I was surrounded by 7,000 people, there was no human being to whom I could appeal. I couldn't ask Kiwanuka to use his connections. I couldn't ask the elders to pray. I could not appeal to the mercy of the Nubian killers. My mouth had frozen and I had no clever words to speak. But in that moment with death so near, it was not my sermon that gave me courage, nor an idea from Scripture, it was Jesus Christ the living Lord."

 Here are two other quotes from his book that I really enjoy - 

 We were, I knew, a needy people. We could not afford to be answered in abstractions. We could not afford to separate doctrine and life. Even our language reflects this need for the concrete. “Truth” for a non-westernized African does not refer to a statement’s correspondence with a fact. Truth is a quality of things. A mango tree is true if it bears sweet mangoes, a house is true if it is upright. A man is true if he knows how to run his home, control his temper, resist gossip.

A religion is true if it works, if it meets all the needs of the people. A religion that speaks only to man’s soul and not to his body is not true. Africans make no distinction between the spiritual and the physical. The spiritual is not a category among categories but the lens through which all of life is viewed. A tribesman from my village knows that cutting a tree, climbing a mountain, making a fire, planting a garden and bowing before the gods are all religious acts.

Kefa Sempangi  and his family made their way to Philadelphia, where a group of Christians began caring

for them.  One day his wife said, “Tomorrow I am going to go and buy some clothes for the children,” and

immediately she and her husband broke into tears.  Because of the constant threat of death under which

they had so long lived, that was the first time in many years they had dared even speak the word

tomorrow.     Their terrifying experiences forced them to realize what is true of every person: there is no

assurance of tomorrow.   

Here is a quote on what happened to his spiritual life while in Philadephia - 

 

The biggest change came to my prayer life. In Uganda I had prayed with a deep sense of urgency. I refused to leave my knees until I was certain I had been in the presence of the resurrected Christ. It was not just the gift I needed. I needed to see the Giver. I needed to know that the God of orphans and widows, the God of the helpless, heard my prayers. Now, after a year in Philadelphia, the urgency was gone. When I prayed publicly I was more concerned to be theologically correct than to be in God’s presence. Even in private my prayers were no longer the helpless cries of a child. They were spiritual tranquilizers, thoughts that made no contact with anything outside themselves. More and more I found myself coming to God with vague requests for gifts I did not expect.

 

The positive results of loving God wholeheartedly are many.  God will bring good from very terrible events and circumstances, personally and corporately.

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Loving God

I found this quote --

"God created people with free will, meaning that we can choose to love and obey God or not. It wouldn't be very meaningful if we loved or obeyed God because we were unable to choose otherwise. A computer or talking doll can be made to say "I love you," but it doesn't have the same meaning as when a human freely chooses to love. Thus, in order for anyone's choice to love and follow God to be meaningful, God permits everyone to choose freely what they will do"

 No sooner do we decide to love the Lord with all our being then we hear Jesus' words - and one of the most difficult commands is to love even our enemies.




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