Yesterday, as a part of our study on the book of Ephesians we came to chapter 4. We studied the first 6 verse which are all about being unified. In verse 4 we see that there is One Body. As I prepared for this sermon, God began to speak to me about the many Christians around the world that are in desperate need of Western support as they face persecution. I thought of Pastor Saeed Abedini who is in prison in Iran and Kenneth Bae who is in a work camp in North Korea. Lord, I pray for their freedom.
I communicated that my prayer was that we would not simply look at our community of Swannanoa as the only place that we should care about. We have Christian brothers and sisters in difficult areas like Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan. We have Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria and the Sudan. We have fellow believers who fear for their life in China and North Korea.
I pray that we would not become so isolated to think that because we are safe there is no persecution. I find it comical and sad when Christians are trying to figure out the end times. They say things like, "We are supposed to go through a great persecution, but I haven't seen it yet." Try telling that to some believers in other parts of the world. We mustn't bury our heads in the sand and think that someone else will handle it. We as believers must be alert to Christians around the world suffering.
What can we do?
1. We can pray for them. I read an article before Christmas that asked the question from Middle Eastern Christians "If they killed us all, would the Western Christian even care?" You can read it here. They need to know we care and that we need to pray for them.
2. Contact your representatives about Saeed and Kenneth Bae.
3. Use any social media that you can to make other believers aware.
We are One Body in Christ Jesus, no matter if we are from Swannanoa, North Carolina or anywhere else in the world.
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