GSI Articles:
Your Persecuted Family
Modern Martyrs
Paying the Ultimate Price
© 2000 Sid Galloway BS, M.Div.
Just an old sheepdog of the Good Shepherd
Genesis 1:1
Communicating conclusions from 100's of PhD scholars
Supporting the authority of His Word & the consistency of His character
Human Rights? Slavery? - Animal Rights? Cruelty?
What about God's right to command compassion for all of His creatures?
Have you forgotten?
Can you see their faces?
Can you feel their suffering?
Have you shut your ears to their cries?
What are you doing to help them, to rescue them?
Will it only matter when it's you in the arena?
"By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.
And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him."
1 John 3:16-19
Our Father in Heaven has chosen to allow "Christian" America to be blessed materially beyond most other countries. Why do you think He did this? Just for us? Or could it be that He wants us to show the world His nature by sacrificially sharing our excess with those who need?
Have you ever stopped to think of how much we American Christians spend on ourselves? I've caught myself sometimes going to the store not to get what I need, but to indulge in what the Lord would call covetousness. Please, next time you go to Stuff-Mart or Pleasure Depot just look around at the swarm of people filling their baskets with non-essential goodies. Yes, I know, too often it's me that goes into the store for one item and comes out with half a basket full. But I'm learning and growing - hopefully like Father like son. Remember, sometimes it might be you. The temptation to please self is powerful, so we need one another to provoke each other to sacrificial action. Accountability and discipline are rare dimensions in our Western churches. But we must learn to © L.E.A.D. one another to restoration and real maturity in Christ, by [Loving, Equipping, Accountability, Discipline].
I remember taking a family trip to Mexico as a little boy and being shocked at the poverty of the "people" in the village, compared to the gold and glitter of the cathedral that stood in its center. Now I wonder if the current use of the blessings God has given to us as American Christians could be a stumbling block to the suffering church around the world, or even the impoverished inner-city church around the corner.
Is it impossible to train our children to want to be a part of church with a heart motive to fight the good fight, instead of just being content to either sit in a pew or be entertained? What kind of adult Christians do we produce when they grow up inadvertently expecting their church's primary role to be to serve as their source of recreation.
Please understand, I'm not implying that we should live in sack cloth and ashes, but simply that our Father expects His ekklesia to gather for a different (holy) reason. This is war, not vacation! One day we will meet our precious, persecuted little brothers and sisters in our Father's house, and then what will we say? How does this sound, "Sorry, I was too busy trying to organize all my stuff."? Wouldn't it be wonderful if instead of that, many of them ran up to us saying, "Thank you for sending that money to rescue me from the hands of the torturers!"? Or "Thank you for skipping a lot of those fancy restaurant dinners, and using the money to send us copies of our Father's Word!"
Please pray about it.
Please act on it.
Throughout History (His-story):
- Foxes Book of Martyrs (a classic historical survey)
- THE PILGRIM CHURCH: Tracing the pathway of the forgotten saints from Pentecost to the Twentieth Century.
"It ought to be obvious to even the casual observer of history that the real story of the church is not the one recorded in secular history. This classic work by E. H. Broadbent demonstrates that the true heart of this amazing drama is not even recorded in church history books.
This is the saga of those intrepid believers, "of whom the world was not worthy", who not only were persecuted by civil authorities, but were denounced, defamed, and decimated by the professing church.
Who were the Waldensians? The Lollards? The Stundists? The Anabaptists? These names were given by their enemies to those who claimed only the name of Christ, and who were prepared to suffer for His cause rather than submit to those man-made traditions that they believed contradicted the Word of God.
Written in an engaging style, the author will thrill your heart with the stories of unknown heroes of the faith. It will spur you on to greater devotion to the Lord Jesus and a deeper concern for His suffering people in many countries today"
China Accused of Torture, Killings in Crackdown on Unregistered Christians
Monday, February 11, 2002 Associated Press
BEIJING —
Chinese authorities have killed 129 people and arrested nearly 24,000 in a crackdown on Christian churches that operate outside government control, a group of Chinese religious activists said Monday. In a report released in New York, the Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China published what it said were official documents outlining a campaign that includes torture to stamp out independent worship. The report accused senior Chinese leaders of approving the violence.
See also:
Please, let our big brother, the Lord Jesus, live His sacrificial love through you, your family, and your church - for them.
Please don't wait until its too late!
Then I looked again at all the acts of oppression
which were being done under the sun.
And behold I saw the tears of the oppressed
and that they had no one to comfort them;
and on the side of their oppressors was power,
but they had no one to comfort them.
Ecclesiastes 4:1