***Originally posted in November, 2008 on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I’m reposting because the other day I posted a tweet from Paul Washer. For those unfamiliar, I thought I’d re-post a couple of his videos. The video quality isn’t that good by 2011 standards, but you’ll get the point.***
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. We should all set aside some time to pray for those brothers and sisters in Christ who don’t live in countries with the religious freedoms we enjoy here in the United States. I posted earlier about how we take our freedoms for granted and suffer a persecution complex and gave a couple of examples of real persecution. I want to add to that that the American Church (TM) is also lazy and comfortable. And our faith suffers for it.
Below is a controversial sermon brought to my attention a while back by another blog. If you don’t have the patience to watch the whole hour of it, I posted an interview of this brother (that’s right, I’m calling him ‘brother’) with Kirk Cameron that’s only ten minutes. And if YouTube isn’t your thing, check out his ministry.
And the interview that cuts right to the heart of it (check out Kirk Cameron’s reaction at the end!)
And if your faith isn’t challenged enough by all of that, check out what’s really going on overseas, where it’s not comfortable to be a Christian. Voice of the Martyrs catalogues persecution in the global church and HOPEworldwide gives inspirational stories of Christians serving where it’s least comfortable to do so.
Today is a day to challenge our comfort level, to challenge our faith. Pray not only for the Persecuted Church, but also for our own faith, and for God to provide the opportunity to be uncomfortable for the cause of Christ. That’s a hard prayer, and we might not like His answer, but that’s the only way for the American Church (TM) to grow, Christ to be preached, and God to be glorified.
“Everything is possible for him who believes.”
“I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mk 9:23-24)