International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church: Unite with the Persecuted

While I am not in any way drawing a parallel between Nero and any American president, I am reminding us as Christians what our responsibility is before God and man. These passages in Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 that were inspired and written through Paul and Peter could not be clearer. These truths from God stand eternally fixed in the heavens, whether or not the person on the political throne over us is of our party or the other, is conservative or liberal, or is for us or against us. It is still true that “the authorities that exist have been established by God.” But God reigns! He is still on the throne and “sovereign over all kingdoms on earth” (Daniel 4:17).

We do not live in a perfect theocracy today, but in a faulty democracy. Only Jesus Christ was the perfect incarnation and consistent demonstration of the principles He taught. All other leaders are flawed by sin, tarnished by the flesh, and manipulated by the devil.

Make sure you vote. Don’t throw your vote away when untold thousands have died on the battlefield to give you this freedom and responsibility. There are millions the world over who would give anything to be able to live in a democratic country where they could have a meaningful vote for the government officials who rule over them.

Before you go into the voting booth, go into your prayer closet. Don’t let your focus be on the person, but on the principles, policies, and political platform that best represent the heartbeat of God as revealed in His Word. Also, give thanks this Election Day for our country and the freedoms and peace we enjoy. And let us be faithful to pray for the president and his family. Pray for their safety, for godly wisdom, and for joy. God Bless America!

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Unite with the Persecuted

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church— First Sunday in November

Remember my chains. Colossians 4:18

With these three compelling words above, Paul closed his letter to the Colossian church, a church he had never personally visited. It had been planted by his partner and co-worker, Epaphras (1:7). Paul was now writing to them from Rome where he was under house arrest (Acts 28:30). During this same time he wrote what are commonly called his Prison Epistles: Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians. Through them the Holy Spirit gives His deepest revelations on the nature of Christ and His Church.

In these letters, Paul also appropriately addressed the matters of persecution and suffering in the Christian life from his own personal experience. To the church at Ephesus Paul wrote: “I am an ambassador in chains” (Ephesians 6:20). He reminded the Philippian Christians: “I am in chains for Christ” (Philippians 1:13). But Paul knew his imprisonment was by God’s design. “What has happened to me,” he wrote, “has actually served to advance the Gospel” (Philippians 1:12).

A few years later and shortly after Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, he was executed by the Romans. Tradition tells us that he was beheaded. But like righteous Abel and all others who have lived and died by faith, Paul “still speaks, even though he is dead” (Hebrews 11:4).

As a child I used to spend hours reading the Christian classic Foxe’s Book of Martyrs and looking at the often gruesome pictures of past saints who were “faithful, even to the point of death” (Revelation 2:10). It had a profound impact upon my young life. As I looked at the pictures, I often asked myself if I had the kind of courage to die for my faith.

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