Letter: Standing up for beliefs, and enlightening one’s self

Could I introduce you to a wonderful lady who came to share a difficult truth with us this last month? Darcie (last name omitted) is her name and glorifying God is her passion. Darcie is, quite literally, the hands and feet of Christ.

She goes into the areas where claiming Jesus is cause for great persecution, which is more than 70 percent of our world today, and she brings the tales of our faithful brethren back to us.

She’s been there to witness many miracles and bone-melting tragedies in China, Laos, Korea and more. Yet, she is filled with hope and joy, because the people she’s seen have radiated the same with certain strength. Despite the horrors that many of these Christians have seen and experienced, horrors that would most certainly rock our faith, theirs is strengthened by the rock of Jesus Christ.

And yet, Darcie reiterated that these were not super-humans in any way; that they were mothers, fathers and children who worried about losing their homes, their lives or each other, just like we would be in that situation.

But, what would we be like in a similar situation where standing for Christ meant losing all our worldly possessions? Or simply owning a Bible was cause to be thrown into prison and beaten? Would we, after doing all we could do, continue to stand?

Darcie closed her presentation with an illustration about a shrimp-loving family who lived by a brackish river. Relevance? The brackish water, is by nature, composed of fresh water and salt water and not ideal for all aquatic life. However, some have learned to survive and adapt, even though this habitat was not what was intended for them. Knowing this, the family would throw rock salt from their dock to entice the shrimp into an environment that they were created for, and there they would soon relocate.

Her point was, have we, the church, adapted to a lifestyle and habitat that is not what we were created for?

These persecuted brothers and sisters stand as the rock salt being sprinkled into our brackish living ... are we going to recognize what we were created for and stand with them?

Check out www.persecution.com for current accounts of imprisoned believers and what we could do to help them continue to stand strong.

Praying signing petitions, and receiving their free newsletter is just some of the simple ways we can enlighten ourselves, while assisting them.

Tawnya Bulger, Beach

Tags: opinion, letter, letters