Three Special Days This Special Week
This week three days appear on the calendar worth noting. I am generally not one for special days, since the very practice of recognizing them as special again and again make them, well, less special. But this week I remember three days I hope you will pause to reflect on as well. The first was this past Sunday, November 9: The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. While we sit in safe America, rejoicing in our freedom (or whining about the recent past election), perhaps we should remember the fact that over the past two thousand years the vast majority of Christ followers had nothing like the freedom we enjoy, let alone the right to vote. At www.persecution.org you can read the reality of persecution facing believers globally.
I keep on my wall in my office a balloon (not inflated) covered with the Gospel of Mark in Korean. It was given to me by Tom White, American head of the ministry Voice of the Martyrs. VOM sent thousands of those balloons filled with helium over North Korea several years ago, timing the lift with wind currents, which would drop the balloons all over the nation about the time the helium evaporated. It is a reminder to me of the oppression facing believers there and other places around the globe. I just received a facebook message from a former student serving in a difficult land. He told me of seeing firsthand those who had faced much difficulty for the gospel. As a result these persecuted believers like those in the New Testament have responded with joy and boldness (see Acts 4:29-31; I Thess 1:5-6). Would you take time today to pray for the persecuted church?
The second day is today. Veterans Day reminds me of the freedom I enjoy, the freedom my family has to live unashamedly for Him. I am grateful for the sacrifice of so many to provide a nation where we can live for Jesus and share Christ. While I would rather grasp my Bible than drape myself in the American flag, I have not missed the fact that God in His Providence had me born in the U.S., and not in Tibet.
The third day may not be as well known, but due to social networks like facebook has spread like a wildfire. Thursday, November 13, is the 2d Annual To Write Love on Her Arms Day. Not a month has passed since I heard of this movement without my encountering young people who have struggled with cutting themselves in search of help for their despondency. I have met college students in megachurches and high schoolers in rural towns who struggle with this. I wrote about this in an earlier post, but I wanted to remind my readers this week to pray for the many all around us who have no hope, who need redemption. Just yesterday I spent time with a young adult who has struggled with this. They are all around you. Go to www.twloha.com and read their stories.
Three days. Three different themes, but all related. Some are persecuted, some have sacrificed to protect others from persecution, and some persecute themselves in search of hope. Some have found freedom in the middle of oppression, others fulfillment in securing freedom, while some yearn mightily to be free.
I have never faced great persecution for my faith. I have not served in the military. I have never injured myself physically or emotionally because of depression. But I have known and now know people involved in all three of these. So today I will give time to pray: intercession for the persecuted church, gratitude for the veterans, and for those who need to replace the scars on their arms with LOVE.
Hope comes from Jesus. Hope comes from truth, not circumstances. As Robbie Seay puts it in a song:
I will sing a song of hope sing along
God of heaven come down, heaven come down
Just to know You are near is enough, God of heaven come down.
I pray those who are persecuted and oppressed from without or within will find solace in those words.