SUFFERING CHURCH

Resurrection Hope

 

                          

It was during last year’s Easter season.  Saleema, a seventeen-year-old Pakistani Christian girl, took her Muslim friend Raheela to a Good Friday worship service. At that service, Raheela became a Christian. But because Raheela began reading the Bible and praising God she was severely persecuted by her family. Refusing to marry the Muslim man her parents had arranged for her, Raheela ran to Saleema and her pastor for counseling. Thinking she was kidnaped, Raheela’s family had Saleema and her pastor arrested. Then the enraged parents killed Raheela. In prison, Saleema was whipped and received other terrible forms of torture.   Placing her hope in Jesus, she said, “I have seen the world, and it has nothing good. Jesus is my only peace.”

 For so many in our culture, Easter is a celebration of springtime, a time of bunnies, eggs, making an Easter appearance at church, wearing new clothing, and even an “Easter bonnet."  As we enjoy the Easter season, let us remember our brothers and sisters who suffer as Christians throughout the world.  Just think what Easter means to them!  Having little hope for a good life in this world, they look with joy and anticipation toward the next. 

 

                                                 

 

Imagine you are suffering persecution.  You have lost everything for being a Christian, your family has forsaken you and deprived you of any inheritance; authorities may soon cart you away to prison; former friends, along with the entire community, despise and persecute you.  You remember how your Lord was also persecuted -- as a matter of fact, His crucifixion was the culmination of all His hateful persecutors’ efforts against Him.  Yet, He arose triumphantly, your resurrected Savior and King.  How much more would Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and resurrection mean to you if these imaginings were true? 

                                       

We are so dull and sleepy in the West concerning our hope.  Let’s rouse ourselves to truly celebrate our resurrected Lord’s supreme victory over spiritual darkness and death.  And, let’s remember to pray faithfully for our brothers and sisters who are being persecuted for Christ in so many places in the world.