Although I do think things are increasingly hostile toward devout Christians in the United States, here’s a good reminder of what real persecution is:
Last May, this Christian couple in a predominately Muslim country was having breakfast and devotions together when they heard an angry knock at the door. Two men, who were Islamic fundamentalists, came into their residence and forced the husband out to a waiting vehicle. The wife pleaded with the men, insisting that if they were going to take her husband, they had to take her as well. The men obliged, and she was thrown into the vehicle with her husband.
The vehicle traveled for three days. Once they reached a particular city, the couple was placed in a hot, dark room. While in that room, different people would come into the room and beat the husband, during which time they demanded he leave his wife and reject Christianity, enticing him with offers of a new home and a business. However, the husband refused to give in to their offers.
Their captors gave the couple three days to think about their offer, after which they brought their spiritual leader in to speak to them. After his attempts to sway the husband’s faith failed, the Islamic leader ordered the wife to speak some sense into her husband. However, the brave man insisted his wife could do as she wished, but that he would not forsake his Jesus. Consequentially, the Islamic leader insisted that the husband should be put to death because he was blasphemous.
Over the next several days the couple endured extreme persecution. I won’t go into much detail, but the torture involved cutting, burning and worse. At times the wife wanted to appease their captors and make the suffering and degradation stop, but she remained strong, partly because of the unfaltering faith of her husband.
Remember to pray for Christians in countries less free than America. While it’s good to pray “generically” for persecuted Christians, you might find it easier and more meaningful to get specific. Check The Persecution Blog regularly for more specifics on who to pray for and how.
Is it all right to want vengeance after reading that. My God, may it end badly for the ragheads that did that.
I can certainly understand your sentiment. I read a story of a family in Israel that made me sick to my stomach. The terrorists were seen to be approaching so the father put the wife and baby up in a crawl space, but there was no time to put their preschooler up there before the terrorists entered the apartment. Other people in the apartment complex were with them too. The terrorist stayed in the apartment for a little while during which time the mother held her hand over the baby’s mouth to keep her from crying. Then they took the husband and other child out to the beach where they killed them. In her efforts to keep the baby quiet, the mother had smothered her own baby, and so lost her entire family in one night.
The terrorist who led that “mission” was later released from jail after only a few years. Wish I could remember more specifics or find a link…
The point is that there are a thousand stories like that. It’s awful. A so-called Christian group named The Lord’s Resistance Army is doing similar things in Africa.
It will end badly for the people who do these things. They’re going to hell. There’s no greater punishment. We just need to remember that although we may not see justice immediately, it will be done eventually.
Still makes me angry, though.
I understand. I sometimes read the Psalms where David “goes off” on his enemies, wants God to do all kind of things to them, and it feels the same today as I read about each atrocity that’s committed.
A little OT, but who was it who said that he wanted America to become a “Christian Sparta”? I wish we would become that, that our foreign policy would be based off the unofficial Marine Corp motto of “no better friend, no worse enemy.”
I’m not sure, but you may mean this: