Prayers for the Persecuted Church
Introduction
Hebrews 13:1-3
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
The point is that we should do our best to identify with those in need, to try to put ourselves in their places. We know that if we were starving, we would want someone to feed us, and that if we were imprisoned, we would want to be visited. We should do for them what we would want done for us were we in prison with them. It is the principle of Jesus’ golden rule: “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12).
The Bible does not teach, as do some eastern religions, that the person in touch with God transcends physical pain, hardships, and other such realities. Our true home is heaven, but we are still in the body. We still get hungry, we still get lonely, and we still hurt, physically and psychologically. Our own hungers and hurts should make us more sensitive to those of others. Instead of seeing our own troubles as an excuse for not helping, we should see them as an incentive for being more helpful. Our own troubles should make us more sensitive, hospitable, and loving, not less.
Voice of the Martyrs / Open Doors
“We Are Only Here for a Few Days”
Mira Jarali
Mymensingh, Bangladesh
1997
The thirty Christian families stood in front of the mosque, surrounded by five hundred Muslims. “You’d better leave Christianity and become Muslim again,” the crowd yelled. “If you do, we will help you. If not, we will beat you.”
Mira Jarali and his family stood with the others. “We were all new converts from Islam, which makes them really angry,” he said. “Second-generation Christians do not upset them as much.”
On that morning, every believer, including women and children, had to stand before the Muslim leaders for four hours while each family was questioned. When Mira’s turn came to stand before the court, he said, “In your religion there is no salvation, no hope for going to heaven. I have Jesus, and now I am whole. Now Jesus has forgiven my sins and I have hope for heaven.”
Following the hearing, all of the Christian families were forbidden to get water from the village well. From that day on, they have had to walk and carry their water more than a mile every day. Then the villagers accused Mira and several others of stealing water. “The police beat me, kicked me, and put me in prison for thirty days. I was tied to the back of another Christian man. We were beaten for four days then locked in a cell with sixty Muslim prisoners.”
The Muslim prisoners were sympathetic. “It is better that you are Christians,” they told Mira. “It is a good life. Muslims are not at peace; they are always fighting each other.”
Mira’s land was confiscated by the village’s Muslim leader, even though Mira’s wife was expecting a baby. Members of his family have been beaten several times. When they walk through the village, people throw mud at them. The Christians have also been attacked in their little house church. Even though they are all new believers, they are not shaken by this harsh treatment.
“We give thanks to God that these things cannot destroy our spirit,” Mira said. “Jesus told us that we are only here for a few days. We have eternal life and will stay with Him in heaven. He will take care of all of this.”
“More Love to Thee”
Pastor Kim and his congregation
North Korea
1950s
For years, Pastor Kim and 27 of his flock of Korean saints had lived in hand-dug tunnels beneath the earth. Then, as the Communists were building a road, they discovered the Christians living underground.
The officials brought them out before a crowd of 30,000 in the village of Gok San for a public trial and execution. They were told, “Deny Christ, or you will die.” But they refused.
At this point the head Communist officer ordered four children from the group seized and had them prepared for hanging. With ropes tied around their small necks, the officer again commanded the parents to deny Christ.
Not one of the believers would deny their faith. They told the children, “We will soon see you in heaven.” The children died quietly.
The officer then called for a steamroller to be brought in. He forced the Christians to lay on the ground in its path. As its engine revved, they were given one last chance to recant their faith in Jesus. Again they refused.
As the steamroller began to inch forward, the Christians began to sing a song they had often sung together. As their bones and bodies were crushed under the pressure of the massive rollers, their lips uttered the words:
“More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee
Thee alone I seek, more love to Thee
Let sorrow do its work, more love to Thee
Then shall my latest breath whisper Thy praise
This be the parting cry my heart shall raise;
More love, O Christ, to Thee.”
The execution was reported in the North Korean press as an act of suppressing superstition.
Jubilant Dance for Jesus
Russian Captain
Romania
1940s
“Christianity has become dramatic with us,” wrote Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, a leader of the underground church in Communist Romania. “When Christians in free countries win a soul for Christ, the new believer may become a member of a quietly living church. But when those in captive nations win someone, we know that he may have to go to prison and that his children may become orphans. The joy of having brought someone to Christ is always mixed with this feeling that there is a price that must be paid.
“When I was still living behind the Iron Curtain, I had met a Russian captain. He loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had never attended religious services. He had no religious education, but he loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.
“I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy, proclaiming, ‘What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ?’ It was the first time that I saw someone jubilating in Christ.
“Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it. When he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified, and that in the end He died, he fell in an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead!
“I looked at him and was ashamed that I had called myself a Christian and a pastor, a teacher of others. I had never shared the sufferings of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him was, for me, like seeing Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross or at the empty tomb.
“Then I read to him the story of the resurrection. When he heard this wonderful news, that the Savior arose from the tomb, he slapped his knees, and shouted for joy: ‘He is alive! He is alive!’ Again he danced around the room, overwhelmed with happiness!
“I said to him, ‘Let us pray!’
“He fell on his knees together with me. He did not know our holy phrases. His words of prayer were, ‘O God, what a fine chap You are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You Your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all my heart.’
“I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from this Russian officer. When this man received Christ, he knew he would immediately lose his position as an officer, that prison and perhaps death in jail would almost surely follow. He gladly paid the price. He was ready to lose everything.”
Die With Us!
Haim and his family
Cambodia
circa 1970s
All during the night, the members of Haim’s family comforted each other. They knew they only had a few more hours to live on this earth. The Cambodian Communist soldiers had tied them all together and forced them to lie down on the grass.
Earlier that day, Haim’s whole family had been rounded up for execution. Because they were all Christians, the Communists considered them “bad blood” and “enemies of the glorious revolution.”
In the morning, they were made to dig their own graves.
The killers were generous. They allowed their victims a moment of prayer to prepare themselves for death. Parents and children held hands and knelt together near the open grave.
After his family finished their prayers, Haim exhorted the Communists and all those looking on to repent and to receive Jesus as Savior.
Suddenly, one of Haim’s young sons leapt to his feet, bolted to the nearby forest, and disappeared.
Haim was amazingly cool as he persuaded the soldiers not to chase the boy but to allow him to call the boy back. While the family knelt, the father pleaded with his son to return and die with them.
“Think my son,” he shouted. “Can stealing a few more days of life, as a fugitive in that forest, compare to joining your family here around a grave, but soon free forever in paradise?”
Weeping, the boy walked back.
Haim said to the executioners, “Now we are ready to go.” But none of the soldiers would kill them.
Finally, an officer who had not witnessed the scene came and shot the Christians.
A minister I had heard of in Romania had been horribly beaten and was thrown back into the cell with the other prisoners. He was half-dead, with blood streaming from his face and body. As some of the prisoners washed him, others cursed the Communists. Groaning, the minister said, “Please, don’t curse them! Keep silent! I wish to pray for them.”
Richard Wurmbrand
Spent 14 years in a
Communist prison
Romania
1940s, 50s, and 60s