The last thing I saw before my eyes shot open this morning was an elderly man being burnt alive as I lay on the ground bruised and bleeding thanks to the large armed guard that stood nearby. Each night, my nightmares take place in a shoddy prison camp in which I am being held captive with about 20 other Christ-followers and an elderly Jewish man. We have been imprisoned for refusing to renounce our faith in Jesus and the gray-haired man has been imprisoned for being considered of a lesser pedigree. Day after day, men armed with assault riffles and pure hatred enter our holding cell and try to wear us down to a point of the renunciation of our faith. They spit in our faces and drive the butts of their guns against our heads as they scream threats against our lives and the lives of our families that we have not seen since our imprisonment. Because they need to make room for more prisoners, each day they come in and burn one of our fellow inmates alive as we are forced to stand by and watch. This morning, they came to kill the elderly Jewish man who had become my dear friend. Days before, he had begun to ask me about this man Jesus on whose behalf my friends and I were willing to endure such pain. Over the course of a few days, I had the opportunity to tell him the story of God's great love for mankind and His plan of redemption through Jesus Christ. As my friend was being bound to the platform to be burned, I shouted out to him, "Remember the story I've been telling you! It's not too late! Jesus is here, surrender your life to Him! He is your only hope!" I began to sob violently as my dear old friend cried out, "Jesus, come and be the Lord of my life! I believe that you died for all of my sins and that you were raised back to life! I need you!" And with that, I saw my friend breathe his last and felt the force of the gun being brought down on the side of my head. Then, I woke up.
How could I possibly shake that off when it is the reality of so many believers around the world? Each year, approximately 105,000 believers are put to death for their belief in Jesus, and hundreds of thousands more are daily tortured in prison for their faith. I attribute my nightmares to the fact that I am in the process of reading the book The Insanity of God by Nik Ripken. In his book, Ripken tells the stories of the persecuted church in Somaliland, Russia, and former nations of the Iron Curtain. He records firsthand accounts of pastors who spent decades in prison being beaten, starved, and deprived of every human right. He tells of their love for Jesus that is so strong that they would willingly offer up their lives and the lives of their families if it meant Jesus was glorified through their testimony.
What do we know about a faith like this? For most of us, the answer is nothing. The majority of people who will read this blog, though possibly not all of you, live in a nation where it literally costs us nothing to be a follower of Jesus. Some may argue that I am incorrect in saying this. They would argue that it costs them their time, or a friendship, or their reputation among their peers. Seriously? We need to get over ourselves. There are people dying, watching their wife and kids be gunned down in the streets, being beaten and forced to eat human waste. These people are experiencing the cost. At the first sign of social pressure, most of us would run and hide. What are we going to do when the persecution of Christ followers makes its way to the west? What are we going to do when we have a decision to make between faithfulness to Jesus or the lives of our children? We have to recognize the price that has been paid for us. Jesus was beaten, mocked, and killed unjustly for something that WE did. He was obedient to death so that when we die, it is not the end. For us, their is no pain in death. We should count it an honor to suffer as our savior suffered, an honor to die for His name. The most man can do is take our life, and that is to no definite end, because to be absent from our bodies is to be present with God.
So fall in love with Jesus. Let nothing be of greater worth. Remember those who are suffering as though you were in prison yourself, because my nightmare is a reality for our brothers and sisters around the world.
