Remember Ambassadors

As of today, Remember is transitioning into an entirely volunteer-based organization.  For the past couple of years, I have been the person profoundly blessed to be paid to do this work, but in following the call of the Lord, this is my last day of full-time work with Remember.  This ministry has always functioned on the backs of its volunteers, and as of tomorrow, I will be one of them!

While we will keep this blog up in the foreseeable future, the posting on it will be sporadic at best.  If you would like to stay up-to-date on Remember’s ministry, sign up for our Intercession Alert!  The Intercession Alert will be a monthly e-mail, with “news bulletin” e-mails as persecution news breaks across the world - a tool to remind you to pray for the needs of suffering saints.

Serving with you,

Gabe

China Aid is reporting a new crackdown against house churches in China.  While stories of persecution are commonplace, this latest crackdown looks like a concerted effort to abolish the house church movement!

We can be certain that no action of the Chinese government will ever abolish the working of God, but our brothers and sisters are hard-pressed.  Pray for them - and pray against the workings of evildoers!

NEWS ALERT: China “Abolishes” House Church Alliance; Major Crackdown Reported

We met Brother J in Jordan, a soft-spoken man whose gentle demeanor belied the incredible story that he told us.

His father was kidnapped first, a terrible, but not uncommon, situation for Christians in their home nation of Iraq.  The kidnappers called Brother J, pretending that they wanted him to go pick up his father for rescue from their evil.  When he went, though, they kidnapped him as well - and that was only the beginning.  They subjected him to unbelievable torture.  Masked militants held a knife to his throat and threatened him with death.  They strapped him down, attached wires to his bare flesh, and ran electric shocks through his body.

These kidnappers held him for three weeks, subjecting him to this brutality.  While all human expectation would be for him to give up, or to become bitter and angry, Brother J did none of those.  In fact, as he  showed us pictures taken shortly after the experience - legs covered with massive bruises from the beatings and electricity - and explained that he still could not walk without pain, he constantly referenced his gratefulness for the love and faithfulness of our God.

All of this torture, he told us, actually brought him closer to God, and taught him to truly pray.  Even more than that, he said, he even had a chance to witness to his kidnappers!  Imagine that - being chained to a chair, being brutally tortured, and witnessing to those evildoers of the eternal plan of salvation!

What a testimony.

Sharia law is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, causes of Christian persecution in today’s world.  Sharia is the system of law based on Islamic holy writings - the system of law that governs, to one extent or another, in every Muslim country.

But Sharia is not just a system of law with Muslim underpinnings or a general Islamic worldview.  It is an imposition of Islamic values on everyone it controls - Muslim and  Christian alike.  In fact, Sharia puts a very real and overt pressure on any non-Muslim, and stringently denies anyone but a Muslim the freedom of religion.  While Sharia does not make it a de facto crime to simply be a Christian, it makes it a crime to convert from Islam, or to evangelize among Muslims.  In some cases, these “crimes” of converting and witnessing are punishable by death.

But Sharia law is not a static force.  As Islam expands, so does the impact of Sharia’s persecution - and hardline Islamic fundamentalists are determined to spread Islam by any means possible, including violence.  We’ve talked about Nigeria before (link goes to PDF document), where in recent years the Islamic incursion has brought very real terror and destruction to the Christians.  In other places, too, Islamic influence is growing - Indonesia and Malaysia, central Europe, even western China.

The latest stories are coming out of Somalia, where fundamentalist Islamic rebels are taking over the country piece by piece.  Wherever they go, they impose a drastic, almost unimaginable version of Sharia law.  They’ve made recent news by stoning a teenager to death for the crime of “adultery” after she was forcibly raped, and for murdering aid workers.

As the world kind of looks on at this growing persecution of Christians, let us pray.

I’m sure that you have breathed that wonderful sigh of relief when you return home from a trip.  Even if you enjoyed the trip, there is something wonderful about returning to the familiar and friendly place you call “home.”

I have to wonder what it would be like to return home after leaving because of persecution - something that Christians in Mosul are experiencing right now.  What would it be like to return to the neighborhood and city that had been so hostile, so full of fear and violence just weeks previously?  What would it be like to live in a place where your life was threatened simply because of your faith?

I can only imagine the answers to these questions, but as I ponder them, I am reminded that as Christians, their real home is not in Mosul.  In fact, it’s not on earth at all.  During their pilgrimage here, they have been put in tough circumstances, but their hope is not in stability and peace here, but in heavenly eternal peace.  How hard it must be to focus on this future hope in the presence of present suffering and fear!

As we pray for them, let’s pray that they would keep their focus on eternal hope.

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is only days away - are  you ready?

While praying for the persecuted church should not be a one-day-a-year event, the IDOP is a special day to join with thousands of believers worldwide to jointly intercede for the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters.  Don’t miss this special opportunity on November 9!

The theme for this year is “Refined in Fire,” a very accurate description of what Christians in so many countries are experiencing.  Though their fires can be very diverse, their refining takes them to one place - closer to the character of Jesus.  Let us pray for their resolve, their commitment, and their faithfulness through the fires.

The IDOP website has a number of resources available for download that you can use to get you started.  If you’re looking for country-specific information, and information on how you can pray for Remember’s work, visit our resources page, too.  Feel free to download and distribute all of the information that is there.  Make sure your church family knows about the IDOP!