Worldwide, two hundred million people currently suffer persecution because they are followers of Christ. They are arrested, evicted and attacked because of their faith. They are intimidated, interrogated and imprisoned. They are beaten, burned, beheaded, starved, stoned, raped, knifed and killed.
These modern day Christian martyrs are nameless to the outside world. Their sacrificial dedication to follow Jesus has brought them no earthly fame or notoriety; they are unheralded sufferers for Christ. Having forsaken all, these anonymous individuals counted the cost and decide they would rather join the ranks of those who “suffered mocking and flogging, chains and imprisonment, with those who were stoned, sawn asunder, and slain with the sword—of whom this world is not worthy” (Heb. 11:36-39, ed.).
The reason I am writing this is that earlier this week, an Iranian Court convicted a 32-year old pastor of a 400-member church in Tehran of apostasy—sentencing him to death for renouncing his Muslim faith. The story was only given a few lines on page 5 in the SJ Mercury News. And I have seen nothing since. It seems he is about to become one more of the anonymous martyrs of this present day. What can you and I do? “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Heb. 13:3).
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