Pray For The Persecuted Church

If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.  1 Corinthians 12: 26

Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those that are ill treated, since you yourselves are in the body.  Hebrews 13: 3

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. At church this morning we prayed in small groups with those closest to us specifically for Christians that are currently suffering extreme and unimaginable distress in the countries of North Korea, Somalia, Iraq and Syria.

Those happen to be at the top of the list for countries where everyday Christians lose their property, are arrested, beaten, abducted, raped and in the Islamic countries brought into forced marriages, just because someone confesses faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

There are some good organizations that keep tract of what is happening to the persecuted Christian. My daughter Becky has followed Voice of the Martyrs for many years and Open Doors is another one to follow. Today with what is happening with ISIS the statistics are off the chart but according to Open Doors on a normal month 322 Christians are killed, 722 experience severe abuse and 214 Christian churches and dwellings are destroyed.

These organizations have a list of the top 100 countries where this is happening. Yes, that's right, 100! At the top of the list, apart from North Korea, are most of the Islamic countries of the Mid East, Northern and Eastern Africa, lower Central Asia and then other countries with large Islamic populations such as Indonesia, Pakistan and India.

Right now there is a huge migration of peoples trying to escape from the horrors of ISIS. Most of those are Muslims but there is also quite a number of Christians as well. I have heard that for some reason our State Department does not favor visa and asylum requests from those Christians. There are Christian groups here in the United States that have been working very hard to present their case but so far to no avail. Don't you just love politics?

It is estimated that over 100 million Christians are currently at risk. For you and I this must seem like a bad fairy tale that we can shove to the back of our minds as we enjoy the blessings of religious freedom that relatively few of us have actually shed our blood for. Few of us as well understand the principles that made our freedom possible. The same enemy that is at work in the world is here as well and so we need to be proactive, doing what we can to help those in the body currently under distress and doing what we can to keep it from happening here as well.

The results of this is not all negative for the body of Christ. Pastor Saeed Abedini is an Iranian Christian, 35 years old, who has been imprisoned there quite some time solely because of his faith. Even though his cause is well known our government would not even include his release as part of their nuclear give away deal with Iran. While imprisoned Saeed led those jailed with him to faith in Jesus. The authorities then placed him with the toughest and meanest inmates and he led them to Christ as well. That is his heavenly reward. His earthly reward has been to be tortured for talking about Jesus.

However, just as in the early centuries, the persecuted church is a growing church. The underground Church in Iran is rapidly growing as it is elsewhere throughout the Mid East and other regions as well. Decisions there for Jesus can often mean rejection by family and society and yet The Heavenly Father can still provide everything one needs, on any level.

Almighty Father,

Show us what part we should play in your overall plan for the growth and health of the Church, the body of Christ. We want our hearts to be tender to the moving of your Holy Spirit to let us know when and how to pray for those in the body that are suffering right now. Release Pastor Saeed to his family soon, in good physical and mental health. Raise up mature spiritual leaders in every country, town and village empowering them with the mighty gifts of the Holy Spirit. Let us be aware of the enemies plans in such a way that we can petition You to overcome them. We ask that new political leaders would be raised up in those countries whose hearts are soft to You. And we ask for the same thing here as well.

All these we pray in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus.  Amen.