1) THE FIRST QUESTIONER – AIMURAT
Aimurat may well ask this question as he is just one of the many thousands of Christians who are being persecuted for their faith in Jesus Christ. His story is given to us in the Barnabas Prayer Diary, dated Thursday, 12th November 2009.
‘Please pray for the safety and an end to persecution for Aimurat, from Uzbekistan. In 2008, Aimurat was detained on charges of teaching religion without official approval and establishing or participating in a religious extremist organisation. During his time in prison, he was systematically beaten and told to deny Jesus. After a month, he was set free, covered in bruises and with several broken ribs, but still declaring his faith in Christ. This year, Aimurat got married and applied to have his marital status changed on his internal passport, a document which is essential for numerous transactions of daily life. Officials took his old passport but did not give him a replacement. This leaves him in an extremely vulnerable position in Central Asian society; the saying goes, “Without one’s passport, one does not exist.”’
2) THE SECOND QUESTIONER – JESUS CHRIST
The apostle, Paul, formerly named Saul, gives his testimony in acts 22:3 – 8.
Then Paul said: “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city. Under Gamaliel I was thoroughly trained in the law of our fathers and was just as zealous for God as any of you are today. I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished.
“About noon as I came near Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me. I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul! Saul! Why do you persecute me?’
” ‘Who are you, Lord?’ I asked.
We would have expected Jesus to ask: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute the Christians?’ But instead, he says: ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’
When we receive Jesus Christ into our lives as SAVIOUR and LORD, we become members of the ‘body of Christ’, the church. Jesus Christ is the head and we are the members described as part of the body such as the eye, the ear, the hand, the foot. (see 1 Corinthians 12: 12 -26).
Thus, when a Christian is persecuted, the head of the body, Jesus Christ himself, is being attacked. How little do the persecutors realise the horror of their actions – a personal assault on Jesus Christ, the Son of God the Father. How we need to pray for these persecutors, that they, like Saul, may meet the risen Christ and become dynamic Christians.
For further information, contact www.opendoors.org, www.barnabasfund.org
The Micah Mandate is a Christian-based public interest advocacy ministry that seeks a transformation of our nation through justice, mercy and humility.
