Encouragment After IDOP

The Christianity Today website today has an outstanding article called Cure for the IDOP Holiday Blues: It's not just about hearing sad stories and lamenting and you need to read it.  Here are a few highlights.

Those who regard Christianity as something more than a topic in the cafeteria of ideas, however, will hurt when other members of the body hurt. As a relationship with the God who was tortured to death, Christianity has persecution at its core. Hence the annual International Day of Prayer (IDOP), like Christmas or Easter, is something that is always with us, even if we recognize it officially but once a year.

A different kind of story needs to be told; the kind that a Vietnamese pastor known as Silas recently told. Local authorities warned that if his church continued to meet without a permit, he could expect to see trouble. "Be careful," one official told him. "Watch out."

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This was a threat as much as a warning. In Vietnam, as in many other Communist (and some Islamic) countries, governments commonly deny or delay church permits, then jail Christians for meeting without a permit.

Silas shot back: "I don't have to watch out or be careful; God will care for us." He went on to thank the official for the harassment and opposition that Vietnamese authorities had meted out, as it unified the country's Christians.

"Your persecution has made us stronger," he told the officer.