"Remember Those Who....."

    I have to return to this topic from time to time, in my own mind if nothing else, and I don't do it as often as I should, and I'm the lesser man and the poorer Christian for it. Ultimately our problem here in America is that....well it's that if God does not intervene then America is near its end. If we do not look to Him as a people then we will have been proved ingrates for all of the sacrifices made for our freedom and liberty. It's an almost unbearable thought. If we go down our children will be consigned to live in a Marxist and atheist nation. This is unbearable. As bad as this is it's not the topic I'm writing about. As I write, brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus are persecuted, maimed and killed. Pakistan is in the news today, the Middle East often, and many other parts of the world continuously. Christians are not the darlings of the liberals nor the poster children of the United Nations therefore their stories are not worthy of review. Often they are just defending themselves and wind up being reported as merely one of two bickering religious groups. In most cases all they have to do is renounce God to avoid persecution....yet they do not. And I sit here outraged over our own predicament. No, I'm not saying to ignore our situation... to let go of our heritage or to let down our posterity. Quite the opposite, for if we do then we most certainly will be persecuted, for the hatred of God is pandemic. All I'm holding myself up to is keeping our problems in perspective and our priorities straight. We can learn from these our brothers and sisters in Christ for they are far beyond us. We can be so much a part of the world that we can no longer see what being a peculiar people is. I'm including myself here and if you are above this then I'm thankful for that but I have no such resume and no such biography as missionaries who have travelled far and sacrificed much. Praying for our persecuted brethren can open our eyes to our own failures. Praying for them can alleviate their suffering and increase their faith, for God hears our petitions. This I believe is fundamental to Christianity, that we uphold our brothers and sisters who are in need, who are persecuted and downtrodden, who have few of the worldly comforts that we do and who know that their faith may bring about their martyrdom.