Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. (Matthew 24: 12-14; NIV)
Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. (Hebrews 13:3; NIV)I live in the United States of America. One of the hardest things for me to imagine is an environment where I could be killed for thinking differently from someone else. I don't mean KKK status where there is a radical group of people who want me dead for who I am or what I think. I mean, entire community/governmental suppression of what I believe.
I read a book once called The Good News About Injustice by Gary Haugen, founder of the International Justice Mission (www.ijm.org). There are great injustices in the world. Girls not even in their teens are sold by the thousands as sex slaves every day. Children find themselves as bonded laborers for years - likely their whole lifetime - trying to pay off a family debt while their family is dependent on most of their wages just to survive. Men are held in prison for years with no idea what charge is placed against them (if their even is one). It's a powerful book; I recommend it as a "must-read" kind of book. In it, Haugen claims the fight against injustice if for everyone. One verse he points too often is Hebrews 13:3 (quoted above). Remember those in prison as if you were in prison. I've never been to prison. Remember those who are mistreated as if you were suffering. I've never been trafficked for sex or had to work for hours and hours in dangerous conditions that could leave me maimed or severely ill. I live in the U.S. I have no idea how to remember these people who have suffered like I couldn't even imagine as though I were in their situation. To be honest, I can easily go an entire day without even remembering they exist at all.
But still, that verse is there. I can pretend like it's not. I can move on and act like it doesn't apply to me. But it's there. And it does. I'm still working on that one. I still don't quite understand how I can apply it in my life, but I'm working toward it.
However, this recommendation isn't about injustice (per se). But I feel it's related. I think those of us who live in countries where we have freedom to believe in whatever we want have trouble remembering those who don't. I imagine those who hang around the church atmosphere have at least heard of the 10/40 window, even if you don't know what it is exactly. Basically, it's the regions of the eastern hemisphere that are between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator. The reason this 10/40 window is important to ministry is that it represents the areas of the globe with the greatest poverty, lowest quality of life, and a greatest lack of available Christian resources. This makes it one of the most difficult regions on the earth to share the Gospel.
My iPod has this awesome app. It's called YouVersion. From this app I can download dozens of translations of the Bible in English as well as many other languages for free. A lot of them are even available in audiobook format, so if I want, I can have someone just read the Bible to me. If you go to Bible studies long enough or hang out with Christians who actually like talking about God long enough, you'll eventually run into a translation war conversation; it's practically inevitable. You have your people who refuse to read anything but the KJV (or maybe they'll concede to the positive points of the NKJV). Some will cling to the NIV. Others will say that NIV is a terrible translation, because they translate sentence by sentence. Therefore, a word for word translation like ESV is far superior. Then there is The Message.
Granted, I have my own opinions on which translations I like and don't like, but it's rather humbling when I back my thoughts up a little and realize that while I'm having this conversation, there are people out there clinging to the few books of the New Testament they have in their language - probably afraid someone will find out they have even that and have them killed for it. Then there are people who don't even have pieces of the Bible in their language and may die never even knowing who Jesus Christ is (or will only know him as "Isa," some prophet Muhammad mentions in the Koran).
But again, I live in America. I couldn't even begin to understand how someone in an Islam-dominated country would feel. Maybe they are the only Christian they know - or all that's left in their community. I couldn't imagine being afraid that my own family would turn me over to be killed if they found out I believed that Isa (Jesus) was God. I can walk around in my C28 t-shirts with my cross necklace on and a Bible (of a translation I selected) in my purse while listening to Casting Crowns on my iPod and not think twice of it. The idea of doing even one of those things would cause these people to shake in fear of the consequences. I'm sure the idea of actually having the freedom to do so would bring even the strongest of them to tears.
Remember those who are mistreated as if you yourself were suffering. I'd say that qualifies.
What about those who are held captive by the religion of their nation? For many nations, especially those that struggle with poverty and a low quality of life, religion is something that binds them all together. While Christianity is freeing ("Then you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." John 8:32; NIV), these religions are not. Many worship their dead ancestors and live in fear of displeasing them - which makes Christianity extremely unappealing, since they are afraid to disrupt the balance of their community. In most of these situations, if someone were to convert to a different religion, they would be made an outcast by their whole community (who they depend on to survive) if not just straight up killed for it.
Remember those in prison as if you yourself were in prison. That sounds like a prison to me.
Still, God promises that all nations will know His name before the end of the world (see the verse at the top) and sent us out to make disciples of every nation (Matthew 28:16-20). Now, not every person can go out and be a global missionary. However, as Gary Haugen suggests about the fight for injustice, I assert about this. In the spirit of Hebrew 13:3, if each one of us tries to place on our hearts a burden for these people - a burden that our Heavenly Father Himself carries - mountains can be moved. We all can't become missionaries and actually bring the Gospel to all the nations, but we sure can pray. And that is why I recommend this resource presented by the Joshua Project (http://www.joshuaproject.net/), an organization focused on understanding ethnic groups in order to spread the Gospel to some of the most unreached places on the globe.
On the Unreached People of the Day site (http://www.unreachedoftheday.org/index.php) you can have daily emails sent to your inbox. Each email gives basically what you see on the site: a description about the people group, the obstacles to ministry, requests for prayer, and a little box of statistics showing what resources these people do and do not have available. Reading these descriptions give a good image of who these people are and the struggles they face, making it easier to invest yourself in the prayer (you feel like you're actually praying for specific people - a family member or friend - rather than just a concept or idea - non-Christians). It has also taught me a lot about global ministry: what kind of obstacles are there, what kind of people are they, what troubles do they face, can Christians really survive in areas where literally no one believes the same as them, does that situation even exist, are there actually countries where no one believes in Jesus, etc.
It takes maybe 5 minutes (if you read slowly or really analytically) to read through the post and say a little prayer - they tell you what needs prayed for so you don't even have to be creative. Nonetheless, it has really helped me establish a sense of what Gary Haugen calls "compassion permanence" for the those that do not know Jesus and do not have the same resources I do for learning about him.
Resources:
http://www.unreachedoftheday.org/index.php
The Good News About Injustice by Gary Haugen
I think about this a lot, how much things like this don't effect me at all and how I can just live life with out worries. Its things like these sites that make it easy to start caring, trying to help. Another good one that I go to first thing every morning is the hunger site. http://www.thehungersite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=1 It literally takes like 10 seconds to open the browser and click the donate a cup of food. Its completely free but every time you click that button, the hunger site donates a cup of food to starving people.
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