Be a Voice

Visit this website:
http://www.prisoneralert.com/

It is here that you can take part in serving our brothers and sisters in chains. Write letters of encouragement that will be sent to the imprisoned. Write letters to the government officials pleading to release them. Most importantly, pray for them.

Three people are highlighted each month.
Click on the link above and find out about Gao, Gulsher, and Sandul.

White Martyrdom

The threat of which our brothers and sisters in chains face each day for the sake of Christ. These believers praise Jesus from behind prison bars, from under the harsh persecution of officials, from the abandonment of blood relatives. They praise Him with swollen feet that carry the Gospel to remote towns, with frail and depraved bodies just released from merciless captivity, with scars relating stories too gruesome to be told. The praise on their lips is the very nourishment that sustains their wounded bodies and spirits. They are under attack.

American Christians are also under attack. We do not have to endure physical persecution or the threat of imprisonment and death, but we are daily faced with the decision to lay aside our weak flesh and follow Christ no matter what the cost.

A sensual scene, a licentious lyric, a tasteful treat. I've given in to temptation.
A knowing glance, a warm touch, a binding word. My thoughts run away with me.
An escape, an addiction, a crutch. I'm looking everywhere for freedom.

They may be bound in chains, but they are free in Christ. We are free to roam, but we are bound by the selfishness and greed that sustains our country. It's not about changing the system; it's about changing our hearts.

Whether it costs us our blood or our manner of living, we will surrender all.
White or red, we will be martyrs if we endure.

All riches and honor and glory to Jesus, the Blessed Redeemer.

Persevering through the pain

As of tonight, flossing is my new habit. I have been flossing now for about 5 months, ignited by a particularly painful visit to the dentist. At first, my newfound discipline was painful. My gums would bleed every time I flossed for at least the first two weeks. If this is supposed to be so good for me, why does it hurt so much? I often thought. But, standing in front of the mirror each night, gingerly flossing my softened gums, I was reminded of my conviction after the last dentist visit and I pressed on. Initially, my motivation was to avoid pain during my next visit and to avoid the familiar scolding from the dentist. Superficial motives, but they have sufficed for the past few months. It was only tonight that my motivation rooted itself deeper than self-love and human affirmation. I realized that after my next dentist visit, I would again be faced with the decision to continue flossing because my previous motivation would have been satisfied. Would the same motivation be as effective the second time? and the third? and the fourth? I would have to develop a more solid rationale for flossing if I expected this habit to remain. It came to me tonight as I was standing in front of the mirror, nonchalantly flossing my seasoned gums, that I will continue flossing because I want to be a good steward of the healthy teeth I have been given. There we go. That will do.

Had I decided not to continue flossing, it would eventually take a toll on my body. So, one may argue, why put myself through the pain in the first place if my teeth will eventually rot out of my mouth. Why prematurely enforce pain in my body which wouldn't otherwise have been there to achieve some long term, out of sight benefit?


It is time. It is time to stop making excuses. It is time to stop skirting pain. It is time to stop rationalizing. It is time to stop falling into old habits. The hurt may linger and try to convince me otherwise. In these times, brothers and sisters, keep me from falling again. Sure, my motivation may be childish now - obey a will not my own, a command in contradiction with my heart - but soon I will be feeding on solid food, my character strengthened and my testimony a guidance to others. Sure, it may be painful now, but it will pass and the dough kneaded firmly will rise higher than the weakly kneaded.



It is time to make new habits.

It is time to believe that "all discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness." (Hebrews 12:11)