The title of this blog was Jesus’ words to his disciples before He was arrested and killed. Now thousands of years later the Christians of India are seeing these words lived out against them. Tension between the Hindu majority and Christian minority in Orissa, India has long existed, but has never reached such a scale as it did last week. Orissa is one of twenty-eight states in India and is about a days train ride from Delhi. Orissa caught the attention of the international media in 1999 when an Australian missionary and his two sons where burnt alive after finishing a Christian fellowship meeting. After a Hindu religious leader was murdered last week by an unidentified man, violence broke out against Christians in misplaced anger. As of today, 558 homes and 17 churches have been burnt to the ground, and 16 pastors and church members killed. Another 12,000 people are relocated in relief camps where the government is offering protection, and a unknown number, estimated in the thousands, have fled into the jungle without food or water.
This type of persecution may only happen in what we think are far-off lives of pioneer Christians and missionaries, but it is the reality of many believers world wide. During an international conference a pastor of a Chinese home church was asked why there was so much persecution in China and not in America or Canada. He replied with a question, ” Do you daily submit your life to God and boldly preach the gospel?”…. where the gospel is being advanced there will ALWAYS be opposition. Persecution takes many forms, it is not all physical abuse, sometimes as westerners we fear the mockery and neglect of friends more than the physical abuse. Would we be willing to die for Jesus? Socially or physically?
Let us be united in prayer for our brothers and sister. Eph. 4: 3-6 “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit. Just as you were called by one hope, when you were called by one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Although one may be Indian, American, African, or Asian in God’s eyes we are one body working for the same purpose. Pray for strength, encouragement, and perserverance as their faith is tested.
