One of the ministries of The Voice of the Martyrs is inviting people to intern at the ministry for the summer. This year we have a new intern named Stephanie and this is her first offering for our blog. Enjoy!
What do you pray for?
Last night, I read from Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ. Several times, I had to put the book down. Even now, my stomach twists with his words,
“The tortures were sometimes horrible. I prefer not to speak too much about those through which I have passed; it is too painful. When I do, I cannot sleep at night… What the Communists have done to Christians surpasses any possibility of human understanding. I have seen Communists whose faces while torturing believers shone with rapturous joy. They cried out while torturing the Christians, ‘We are the devil!’ We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers of evil.’”
I have always heard the phrase, “Love the sinner but hate the sin.” Until last night, it held no real meaning for me. I have never had injustice placed upon me the way persecuted Christians have. When I have heard this phrase in the past, it usually referred to someone doing something as a personal act of choice.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin,” takes a whole new meaning for Abuk, whose upper chest, shoulder and back were stabbed, sliced and mutilated with red hot knives. She still suffers from her massive wounds and is in constant pain. Because of a lack of proper medical help, there is often infection in the many scars she carries.
The phrase means something deeper for Gladys Staines, whose husband and two young sons were burned alive in their station wagon in India.
Dominggus Kenjam, whose head was nearly cut off by Muslim extremists, has said of his attackers, “If I ever meet them one day, I will them about Jesus. And Jesus said we are to forgive our enemies, so I have forgiven them.”
We as Christians must adopt this love. While Richard Wurmbrand was in prison, a minister who had been horribly beaten and half-dead was thrown in his cell. Blood was streaming down the minister’s face and body. The other cellmates washed the minister, and some began cursing the communists. Groaning, the minister pleaded, “Please, don’t curse them! Keep silent! I wish to pray for them.”
This man, who did nothing wrong, but only proclaimed the truth of Jesus Christ, prayed for the men that almost killed him. We forget the martyrs if we forget that they loved those who killed them. Our brothers and sisters in Christ, who died for their faith, prayed for and witnessed to their murderers.
How can we not do the same? Pray for all persecutors, that they might see Christ. Let us pray that all eyes are opened to the truth.
As Wurmbrand once said, “Christ, the Incarnate Love, wants everyone to come to Him.” This excludes no one.