"If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you."

Once again, from the news pages:

The Times reports: Hindu Groups in India Offering Rewards to Kill Christians

Extremist Hindu groups offered money, food and alcohol to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to Christian aid workers in the eastern India state of Orissa.

Jesus told us plainly that we faced at least the possibility of persecution. Many of us can thank God for His protection that we are not facing persecution. However, we have many brothers and sisters in Christ that are facing persecution today not unlike what the Master faced 2,000 years ago. These brothers and sisters have taken the "Great Commission" to heart and are taking the good news of the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ into the very heart of countries hostile to the gospel.

"The going price to kill a pastor is $250," said Faiz Rahman, the chairman of Good News India.

A spokesman for the All-India Christian Council said: “People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties. They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are given petrol and kerosene.”

Ram Madhav, a spokesman for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the largest hardline Hindu group, denied the claims. “The accusation is absolutely false,” he said.

Orissa has suffered a series of murders and arson attacks in recent months, with at least 67 Christians killed, according to the Roman Catholic Church. Several thousand homes have been razed and hundreds of places of worship destroyed, and crops are now wasting in the fields.

Despite the denial of the validity of the story by the RSS in the article, this sort of persecution is not unheard of. Some of the stories, like this one, even make it to prominent news sources, but you might only find them in short news briefs hidden away on a back page. Missionaries have faced persecution in spreading the gospel for thousands of years.

The nationals in these countries that receive Christ face even more dire persecution from forced "re-conversion", to torture, to death itself for them and even their families.

You may recall the article from October 2005 of 4 young Christian girls in Indonesia, aged 15 to 17, were attacked by 5 men weilding machetes while on their way to school one morning. Only one of the 15 year old girls survived the attack because she was able to escape when she fell down a ravine after being seriously wounded by a failed beheading attempt. The other girls were slain and their bagged heads thrown onto the steps of a church.

There is a book that I recommend that gives a glimpse into the struggles our Christian brothers and sisters face in areas of the world. The book is "Secret Believers" by Brother Andrew. Their names and origins have been changed for their protection, but their lives are telling the stories that they and many others live out. These people faced, and continue to face, the very things this news article addresses.

Those of us who thank God that we are not persecuted must not ignore the afflictions and hardships these brothers and sisters are faced with. Let us support them by whatever means that may be available to us, but particularly in our prayers.

There are various websites that cover news and events of persecutions of Christians around the world, some are listed below:

** http://www.secretbelievers.org/ **
http://www.persecution.com/
http://www.christianpersecution.info/