Sunday. May 29. 2016

"Let us be on the side of those who sit in jails and are sentenced to death for their faith. Let us pray for them and help them."

--- Richard Wurmbrand ---

Monday, May 30, 2016

"The message I bring from the underground church is don't abandon us! Don't forget us! Don't write us off! Give us the tools we need! We will pay the price for using them! This is the message I have been charged to deliver to the free church. I speak for the underground church, the silenced church, the "dumb" church which has no voice to speak."

--- Richard Wormbrandt ---

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

--- Dietrich Bonhoeffer---

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
For the rights of those who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
Defend the rights of the poor and needy.

--- Proverbs 31:8-9 ---

I remember something to the effect below in a VOM magazine. Unfortunately I do not have the magazine now. So what is below is only a rough approximation of what I remember reading. Thus the lack of quotation marks. But here is what I remember. It made a profound impact on me.

...The Nigerian believers can not articulate the finer points of the Calvinist Arminian debates. But when a jihadist comes waving a machete and demands that they recite the Islamic shahada, but the Nigerian believers respond and say "No. Jesus is Lord." Suddenly their theology becomes very deep...

...From a VOM Medical Missionary...

Somalia is a nation with less than 300 Jesus followers.. This against a backdrop of several million Muslims and the jihadist group El-shabab. Precious saints have been martyred and spilled their blood in Somalia for following Christ.

Here is a prayer request from one dear sister from that nation. Please notice her prayer request is not to be delivered from the evil that is in Somalia.

"Please pray that we may bear the weight of living for the kingdom in Somalia."

Brothers and sisters let us remember the prayer request of this dear sister. Let us remember the persecuted in Somalia and around the world in our prayers.

Remembering those slain for the Lamb.

"For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ"
...2 Cor.1:5

...The Apostle Paul...


This morning I learned that a brother who is a Bible translator in the Middle East lost his dear wife and two of his five children in a grenade attack launched by jihadists. This brother thought that he had his wife and children in a safe house. But evidently the jihadists found the house. And three of his family members were ushered into the presence of Jesus. The brother had a heart passion to bring the New Testament into the vernacular all the people that were on his heart.

Please keep this brother in your prayers that just as he is sharing the abundant sufferings of Jesus. This brother will also share the abundant comfort that Jesus also brings.

I forgot to add the dear brother's name is Stephen. His name is in honor of the first martyr of Jesus.

In honor of those who are slain for Jesus.

When asked how to pray. Believers in persecution say,

"Pray for our persecutors. That they will come to know Jesus through our sufferings. Don't pray that we be safe. Don't pray that we be out of prison. But pray that we stay true to the name of Jesus. Even if it cost us our lives."

... And now, behold, bound by the Spirit I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of God...Acts 20:22-24

Let us also pray that our brothers and sisters will finish well the race that is set before them. That race of testifying of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to even their persecutors.

"It is easy to die for Jesus. But it is harder to live for Jesus every day. To live for Jesus every day means you die everyday."

---Pastor J from Pakistan---


If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny Himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me...Luke 9:23

---The Lord Jesus Christ---


I die daily...1 Corithiabs 15:31

---The Apostle Paul---

Why do we pray for the persecuted church?

We pray because their faithfulness inspires us.
We pray because we feel their pain.
We pray because Scripture tells us to.
We pray because it strengthens the persecuted
church.
We pray because they are our family.
We pray because they are our brothers and sisters.

...Source unknown...


With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

...Ephrsians 6:18...

Because we feel we are bound with them. We are one Body.


Heb 13:3 Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Why do we pray for the persecuted Church?

Because we love them.

... Let love of the brethren continue...Hebrews 13:1