For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for
my departure is near. 2 Timothy 4:6
On the last day of an Open Doors seminar in South Africa, students shared how
they thought the church should prepare for persecution. One man shared his son’s
story and its impact:
It was at the time when the pupils rioted, burning schools, churches,
shopping centers, town councillors’ houses and mercilessly attacking anyone whom
they regarded as a ‘sell-out.’
Each morning his sturdy, neatly dressed, thirteen-year-old Christian son
wound his way through the mounds of rubble towards school, amidst the mocking of
other youths wandering the smoke-filled streets. Later he would walk home, while
the teachers, frightened by the threatening mobs, locked themselves in their
homes.
One particular morning, after the family devotions, his parents watched as he
walked off to school. At the school grounds, a mob blocked the gate. He walked
undeterred through the gate and greeted them with a nod and a friendly
smile.
He was in the center of the mob when they closed in around him blocking any
further progress. One older gang leader, tall and powerfully built, grabbed the
strap of his school bag and pulled him to a standstill. He glared at him and
growled, “As a Christian you have always been on time for school, never late,
never missing a day. You have always been praised by those ‘sell-out’ teachers
for knowing and doing your school work in spite of our revolutionary slogan,
‘liberation now, education later.’ Today, you will have to decide for our
revolution or else.”
“I have decided to have nothing to do with your revolution,” the boy replied
unwaveringly. He remembered what his father taught on compromise in times of
persecution.
With a curse the bully pushed him backwards into the mob. Blows rained on him
and he tried in vain to ward it off, then a knife flashed in the sun, a second,
and a third. Hours later, a policeman knocked on the door of his parent’s
home.
The father still lives in that house and preaches the love of Christ to the
same community. Peace has returned to the township, but hardly a day passes
without a passer-by, or a message scribbled on the garden wall, reminding him of
that day.
The father says, “I greet them and smile at them in the hope that the
testimony of my life and my willingness to forgive will eventually carry the
light of Christ into their hearts, replacing the spirit of bitterness darkening
their lives. I know by going back there to train the church leaders I am at risk
of my life being ‘poured out like a drink offering’ just like the
apostle Paul.”
RESPONSE: Today I will not live in fear nor compromise my faith no matter
what Satan throws at me.
PRAYER: Pray for courage for those whose lives today may be poured out
like a drink offering.
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