3.10.2010 THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

voice of the martyrs, 9.2010 director's commentary..the jhmu are the original inhabitants of laos..many laotians look down on them as culturally bqackward. sometimes people call them kha, meaning 'slave', an insulting reference to a time when the khum were taken captive by invaders.

the khmu, of course, resent being called slaves. but the greek word for 'slave', doulos, is also the 2nd most common word used to describe christians in greek manuscripts of the new testament. the work doulos occurs more than 100 times in greek manuscripts of the new testament...it is 2nd in use only to mathetes meaning 'disciple'.

it is difficult to find the work 'slave' in most translations of the bible...it has become the more socially acceptable 'servant'..in I peter 2.16, the apostle writes that although we are 'as free', we should live as douloi, or fully committed slaves of God.

...references to freedom in the new testament do not imply freedom from Jesus but rather freedom from sin or religious customs of men. in one sense, even Jesus was not 'free' to do what he wanted. in john 8.29, Jesus says that he came to do the will of His Father. we, His douloi, are commanded to follow in His steps. although Jesus calls us His friends in john 15.15, He lovingly and jealously regards us as His committed slaves. Jesus uses the doulos metaphor notably and powerfully in matt. 20.27 and25.21, mark 9.35 and john 15.20...

during my time with the khmu, katin, hmong and bru christians, i asked them how they felt about losing homes and being beaten because they are christians. ..many of the khmu told me these sufferings encourage them. they told me that their own suffering proves that Jesus is God because He told them in the bible that christians would be persecuted.

i wonder if these kha, loyal slaves of Jesus Christ, know that Jesus Himself took the nature of a slave. Jesus became a kha for us all, submitting to the Father with unquestioned obedience in order to secure our salvation (philippians 2.5-11)...

whenever we christians are insulted in the courts, in the press or in the classroom, we - like the kha - are free to rejoice that these attacks from the world prove that Jesus is God. we are free to ignore seemingly terrible consequences in order to share His saving grace and love with more passion. as douloi of Jesus who were paid for with the price of His blood, He owns us. we are His. He is our Lord.

LAOS..a young khmu..'my villagers still hate me and mock me like they mocked Jesus on the cross. it is the world's right to hate us or love us. but for me, i will follow Jesus because i read in the bible what He says, that the world will hate you'.

others in laos...'when we became christians, we were evicted. 2 times they kicked us - 17 christian families - out of the village where we lived. i am the khmu pastor of the group. i am also a farmer...i tell..our group, 'all people in the world have sin and they cannot help themselves; only Jesus can help us. we are committed to Jesus, so when persecution comes don't be scared...later i encouraged them..'do not have regrets, because we do not stay on this earth long. we will leave the earth someday so we can endure it like this'...

the second night..the police forced us off the truck..we said, 'we don't know where to go because none of our relatives are here'. then the police and the soldiers kicked our things off the truck onto the ground..the truck left. we stood there waiting. then we sat down in the yard for 2 days...finally the local police came..after one police officer read the accusations against us, he took his gun and hit it on the table. 'why did you disobey the government and leave what the laotian people believe?' he shouted. i replied, 'we do not know what we are going to do. they left us here, so i guess we will have to stay..'

they put us on a bus and took us to an area by a river. we lived in this place for a few years; then we moved again. they gave us land to plant rice, but it is bad land. many times they came to cheat and steal from us.

we took a truck back to our home village and moved the heavy wood beams of our old church building. we brought it to our third location. we rebuilt it in 2 days...we reopened it and worshiped there. then we put the cross on the roof...the police came and put me and 2 others in the district jail..we were jailed because we didn't take the cross down from the church. last year the police tore the cross down...then the officials came and tore down the entire church building...

this year i went back to our old village and baptized 12 people. we baptized new converts 2 times, at our old village and in the new village. we are very strong in faith. we are now meeting in an enlarged house. in the beginning of our evictions when they forced us to move, we had 108 believers. now we have 203 christians'.

..by the end of our time in laos we had accumulated 117 pages of testimonies like the one above, including that of pastor bin, who was thrown out of his village and now preaches to 2 house churches every sunday using his cell phone...evicted 3 times, pastor ta's church continues to grow...'they can tear down our bamboo church, but they cannot tear down the church in our heart'..

VOM, 10.2010 INDONESIA...pastor palty was on his way to their newly constructed church on christmas..as he passed the local mosque 'i heard the loudspeaker announce that men and women should gather at the mosque and then march to the church after assembling..he knew that forced church closings by muslim s were common in bekasi. and when he arrived at the filadelfia batak christian protestant church, he was greeted by 50 police officers in riot gear and 6 soldiers armed with light weapons. they had surrounded the church to protect the christians from an approaching mob of about 1000 muslims. most church members had already arrived, but police had to escort latecomers thru the angry mob blocking the church entrace. the mob banged drums, shouted taunts and harassed the christians already inside the church.

some threw stones and were shouting 'allahu akbar' (god is great)..others were calling us kafirs (infidels) and pigs and yelling obscenities. some carried sticks and others shouted 'burn the church! close it down!'

once inside the church, pastor palty was still frightened. but he was careful not to show his fear before the congregation. their backs were to the church entrance, so only he could see the crowd growing larger outside.

'when i saw the mob getting bigger, i prayed in my heart, Lord, please strengthen me to face this situation. the muslims were yelling and mocking and trying to frighten the christians inside the church. many of the believers turned their heads (to look) and i said, do you want to see them and become afraid or do you want to see me and not be afraid?

tears streamed down the cheeks of late arrivers as they joined the other worshipers, who were already singing christmas carols. people were singing and crying, pastor palty recalls sadly. joyful christmas songs turned to tears.

although the believers were clearly upset, pastor palty urged them to persist in their worship..the holy communion that day was the best for us because it was the first time we got closer to the Lord, pastor palty says.

1.2011 LOVING THE UGLIEST director's commentary...richard wurmbrand, the founder of our mission, suffered terrible persecution in romania. you would think that after moving to america at almost the age of 60, he would have wanted to live a comfortable life and hear no more about suffering. but while liven here in the west, he wrote, love all men..but bestow the greatest part of your love on the ugliest souls.

the Holy Spirit brings each believer to one or more points - thru a challenge, a bible verse or a moment in prayer - at which he decides to move forward with God or to sit comfortably in one place...

in EGYPT last year, i met a truck driver we call 'ahmed'. he had been interrogated, beaten and tortured...for bringing many muslims to Christ. the police in egypt have a special division that focuses on Christians who have a burden for lost souls..muslims...the police try to learn where ahmed's christian converts live; his last interrogation occurred only 2 months before we met..

ahmed drives out into the wilderness at night to feed 42 christian converts who sleep on cardboard mats in a small house. may of these former muslims, whom ahmed brought to Christ, were part of a radical islamic organization called the muslim brotherhood. now they are hunted by police for converting..

here are some details of ahmed's ministry...'i give them food, i give them bibles, i give them everything. i care for them because for now, most of them must hide. they can't work..i feel humbled when i meet them because they are eating the bible. they have finished the bible more than 8 times. when i return to them. i find many ?s waiting for me. i tell them, 'i will go back to the church leaders and will come back with answers. i can never answer them all...

ahmed also..helps the new believers find 'tent making jobs so they can share Christ. then he described how he is tortured by the egyptian police. 'i was shamed. i was naked, totally naked, hanging upside down with ropes on my legs...'

2.2011..PAKISTAN.. there is a picture on the director's page, with pakistani women singing with one hand raised to God and the other grasping the from of their necks, with the subtitle 'pakistanis sing, even if they hang me, i will follow Jesus, based on revelation 2.10 - be faithful until death and I will give you the crown of life'.

director's commentary.. one of these courageous evangelists i spoke with approached a church official in lahore and asked about the christian presence in the northwest provinces where radical muslims operate. the official turned to him and said, why would you want to go up there? we don't have any churches up there. the eroding spirit of religion had transformed the official into a weak ghost, perhaps a shell of his former self.

richard wurmbrand,the founder of our ministry, once shared a similar thot about souls standing before the judgment. to paraphrase the message..he said, perhaps when we are taken up to heaven and Jesus leads us thru the gate, He will stoop and introduce us to a very shining, beautiful soul who is receiving great honor. we will curiously ask Jesus, 'who is this person? they are certainly remarkable. what did they do with their life?' then Jesus will turn to us with a tear in his eye and whisper, 'this is you. this is what you could have been'.

i know this illustration does not follow scriptural teaching and i don't remember whether this applied to the redeemed or unredeemed (maybe both). yet hearing it as a young man, the story was always a personal challenge to me.

in my opinion, corruption is not the main killer of christian endeavor. we all recognize corruption and sin in our war with the devil. but just as high blood pressure is considered a silent killer ..the silent killer of the gospel is mediocrity - or, in biblical terms, being 'lukewarm'. a mediocre life is one that is neither good nor bad. mediocre christians may enjoy life simply because it is there, believing that as long as they have faith and are 'good' people, they don't have to accomplish much of anything.

when i had various stomach cancer surgeries in my twenties, i would be given a shot of demerol. wow! that stuff was great. no pain, no problems. yet when my brother flew in from new york to sit by my hospital bedside, i could not talk to him - i simply 'floated'. if i had continued to spend every day under the influence of demerol, the greatest tragedy is that i would have erased the potential of who i might have been.

this week i returned from northern vietnam after visiting with the hmong along the chinese border. a few hundred thousand hmong have become christians in the last 2 decades. we published the first complete hmong bible (still illegal) in 1997 and we have oprovided them thousands of shortwave radios so they can hear the gospel. their homes have been burned, they have been beaten, they have been imprisoned and some have been killed, but they remain faithful witnesses..

i also visited with a christian girl from central vietnam who went to jail when she was 14 years old. her crime was teaching the children in her village about Jesus.

this young woman did not miss what she might have been at the age of 14, she served Jesus in jail and 7 years later she continues to be a witness. the same is true of gao feng. after chinese christian gao feng returned from a 3 year prison sentence, his friends lamented his 'lost time'. gao replied, 'i would rather go to prison for three years for doing something for Jesus than sit at home and do nothing for Him'.

before richard wurmbrand passed on 10 years ago, he left us with a challenge. it was not a bible verse or a long philosophical talk; it was simply 2 words: BE AGGRESSIVE. i am sure that i am not the best i could ever be. but the persecuted church, like saints i have known since i was young, calls me to be better, to push the envelope more than my flesh desires.

don't be satisfied to live under the influence of spiritual demerol, accepting the mediocrity of the easiest path and reaching out to no one because you 'deserve' a rest. instead, remember that from his prison cell, the apostle paul wrote to the church at ephesus, 'now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that wors in us..' (eph. 3.20). every day is a gift. what will you do with it?