2 Timothy 3:12 “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
I came to faith through Scripture Union’s youth camps. We used to have a 12-minute Bible talk in the morning, and a 17-minute talk in the evening, and lots of fun and games in between. Then the Lord called me to work for SU in war-torn Burundi and I expected our youth camps to work the same way – but I found the spiritual hunger was so great that the students wanted to start at 6.30am and finish at 9pm, every day! The limited precious opportunity to learn and share together had to be maximized. Then I read Brother Yun’s ‘The Heavenly Man’, which tells his own story of dogged perseverance and faith amidst repeated torture and imprisonment. He is part of the ‘Back to Jerusalem’ missionary movement, and their methodology is much more boot camp than holiday camp. In their training, they major on three areas:
(1) How to suffer and die for the Lord
(2) How to witness for the Lord, and
(3) How to escape for the Lord.
He writes: “We know that sometimes it is the Lord who sends us to prison to witness for him, but we also believe the devil sometimes wants us to go to prison to stop the ministry God has called us to do. We teach the missionaries special skills such as how to free themselves from handcuffs, and how to jump from second-storey windows without injuring themselves… If you ever visit one of our camps, you will see how serious we are to fulfill our destiny in God. You may see people with their hands handcuffed behind their backs, leaping from second-storey windows!”
It strikes me how the ease of our circumstances tends to dictate the intensity of our spiritual hunger and commitment. Thank God we don’t have to experience what our Chinese brethren do, but may we still aspire to their deep hunger and commitment.
Lord, fill me with greater hunger and commitment for you today. Amen!
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