Page 22 - Voice of the Persecuted Christians - Oct-Dec 2022 - 120

THE WORD
Prisoners of faith know what it is to hold on to the promises of God. We can do the same, writes Release International’s Imtiaz Ashraf
FAighting the good fight
s I reflect on the past couple of filled with joy, singing praises to God fought the good fight, I have finished
years, especially the period of in prison.
the race, I have kept the faith’.
Covid lockdown, many people struggled and found this experience difficult. Yet for Christians it gave us a glimpse of the plight of our brothers and sisters who are imprisoned because of their faith. It has shown us what it’s like to live in isolation from friends and family and the church.
On another occasion, knowing his life Although Paul is in prison, awaiting was soon coming to an end, Paul in his death, he has no regrets. He prison writes to Timothy to encourage knows he has faithfully completed him to remain strong in his faith and the race God has set before him and be willing to suffer for the gospel. has fought the good fight.
Although Paul may have felt lonely and As we remember Christians in
‘Nothing in all creation prison and their families, who also
suffer in so many ways, let’s pray for over the years, I have been brought will be able to separate them but also let’s learn from them.
During my ministry in Pakistan
to tears by what I have seen and heard from those who have suffered imprisonment because of false allegations of blasphemy. I have seen their faith but also their broken hearts. One thing they always ask for is prayer.
us from the love of God in
They know what it is to hold on to the promises of God, for example, that nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 38,39).
However, although life is difficult for them, I have noticed that they behave more and more like Jesus.
abandoned, his words to Timothy are not of a discouraged or a fearful man. They are words of a man who did not view his execution as a tragedy, or a life being taken away.
If you have lost heart and are weary, like them fix your eyes on Jesus and remember that nothing can separate you from His love. He will carry you through life’s storms.
In his book Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand tells how in the midst of pain and suffering in prison Christians continued to preach the gospel to the atheists, knowing that they would suffer if caught.
He saw his life as an offering and lived as a sacrifice to God and now he was ready to depart this world for his true home in heaven. As he looks back on his life he says with confidence: ‘I have
Christ Jesus our Lord’
INSPIRING FAITH
‘Christian love is always universal. With Christians there is no partiality. Jesus said that the sun of God rises over the good and the evil. The same is true about Christian love.’
Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was imprisoned for 14 years in communist Romania in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 he inspired the founding of Release International, which today continues his ministry to serve persecuted Christians around the world in the name of Jesus.
Once I was very moved to see a Christian prisoner wear a cross in
a cell where there were Muslim prisoners. Although it had been difficult for him, he was not ashamed of the gospel.
The faith of these amazing Christians reminds me of the apostle Paul’s two imprisonments. In Acts 16:26 we read: ‘About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.’ This must have been amazing to witness how after being arrested and beaten these men were praying and
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