Skip to main content

Persecution


Over the last few days I have been getting this prompting to write about christian persecution.
I was not sure why ,today I realise it is the international day of prayer for persecuted christians.
I got a message early this morning about how in a village church some fundamentalists had stopped a church service of simple tribal folks but some unknown people had beaten the fundamentalists black and blue.
Now the organisation was all out to close down the church.I have visited that simple village.The tribals are dirt poor and suffer from depression,mental illnesses,etc.It was a precarious situation for the goodman's family .Just going around with him was frightening enough he lives amongst the majority caste.His little son in all innocence can be quiet vociferous about his belief.This was the place where I saw an old man working alone to build the church brick by brick with his own hands in his land.That poor tribal man had a vision so big that it could very well touch eternity.I was deeply touched even as he bent down to remove grass stuck on my skirt,but I also sensed persecution in the future.
Going back to the Word ,Jesus in several places has mentioned persecution .
John 15-vs 18-20
'If the world hates you......
If they have persecuted me ,they will also persecute you...'
1st Peter 1 vs 7
'The trial of your faith....'
Mathew 5,vs 11
'Blessed are you when people insult you,persecute you......'
Today the bible reading was from ACTS 8 where the chapter starts with the anecdote of the persecution that broke out against the church in Jerusalem.About Saul leading the way ,persecuting christians as he destroyed churches.
This very Saul,aka Paul was a chosen vessel of Christ ,became a means of salvation for the gentiles and the author of most of new testament.
What is this good news that it catches like fire.I heard one of the Jew pastors saying that a person who reads the new testament twice word to word would have no other choice,but to accept Christ as the Lord and savior.
The Word of God is it's own defence.When I was in school I used to have innocent enough classmates who had the fear of the bible.In their superstition filled faith they had been forbidden to touch any form of christian literature.Now they are believers and attend different churches,I hear.
I hear of persecution ,it was foretold by our lord.
I was deeply inspired by the story behind Chris Tomlin's 'Whom shall I fear'where the writer when going through a personal challenge goes back to the anecdote in 2 King's 6 where the King of Aram sends his army to capture Elisha the prophet and when his servant sees the army of the king he is frightened,Elisha tells him,'Don't be afraid ,those who are with us are more than those who are with them.'And he prays that God open his servants eye to see.Then the servant sees the hills full of horses and chariots of fire around Elisha.
We worship the same God.
Persecution is to be expected but at the backdrop of persecution is the larger than life images of revelation where the angel of the Lord writes to different churches and commends those churches who are able to overcome and persist inspite of all odds and most of all the promise Romans 14 :11-'....every knee will bow...'and Revelation 20,21,and 22 that seals it all.
In the mean time may we have very many testimonies of God's faithfullness ....against all odds.
For'the earth will be filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea.'Habakkuk 2:14.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

night-hunting.

 Monda suggested  we go  hunting. Dressed up to beat the rains and the unpredictable weather we ventured out at night with the two Dawas. Annie had baked a cake for Rumpanol.It started  pouring in spurts but nothing could beat the enthusiasm.The junior Dawa was to drive us to a place around fifteen kilometres up the north Sikkim highway.We would come across three rivulets of sort where we could possibly find the edible frog.The senior Dawa was already at the spot making a pathway in the jungle for us to proceed. We reached the spot at around eight at night.in the pitch dark one could hear the sound of frogs of all variety and we started seeing quite a few but none of edible variety.We shuffled around in the rain with an umbrella,raincoat and torches like Nancy drew exploring the grasses and having eye contacts with stunned frogs which seemed to have lost the ability to run .The two boys did a Tarzen and was lost in the jungle with a sling bag ,a torch sans any cover from the rain.While
Post a Comment
Read more

Feet in the water.

  Fifteen days of earned leave after working for two years,I was praying in a house group prayer and worship and pleading with the Lord to show me something ,when it was not forthcoming I surrendered to the Lord and prayed let your will be done and then I saw the Lord walking up a winding road and deep in my spirit I knew He was calling me to follow Him .I did not know where to but I thanked the Lord and said yes. I have been living more in the unseen world than the seen world. Suddenly out of the blue I received a message from Dr Arpit asking me to replace them in Madhipura  for a  fortnight. I needed to go because things were getting a little intense and I needed sometime to step back and mull some things over. I had no idea why the Lord was taking me back to the old world of EHA , mission hospitals and friends from the yore. Travelling to Madhipura , I  continnued to ask the Lord, 'Why this road? I had no idea why I was going  where I was going.I am glad I came because I could r
Post a Comment
Read more

Thank you.

 After almost five months of struggling with the nitty gritties the dialysis unit opened last week. We were able to dialyse our set of first three patients over the last few days. So much of effort,dissapointments ,struggles,joys and most importantly prayers have gone into the venture.Many who will never see the fruit of their prayers have invested their prayers into it. The day it started with many apprehension I was praying at the early morning hour and put my head on the pillow to rest and then just as I was about to sleep I saw a vision of Jesus on His knees interceding.That is how much my Lord cares for us and this morning while listening to Alistair I realised that He deals with us like a father does a five year old .That is how He sees us. Lord Jesus ,you are the crown on my head and the only thing I can take pride in.
Post a Comment
Read more