This morning I sat down and finally picked up this month's issue of "The Voice of the Martyrs". This particular issue I was really interested because they were focusing on all the countries in North Africa, which happens to be the part of the world I am most interested in visiting. I heard about this magazine from a wonderful friend, ex coworker, and blogger Kate. If you are looking for a great blog to read, highly recommend.
This magazine is (free) and fantastic. I am always blown away by the stories and interviews. It's completely challenging to my own relationship with Christ because I realize how often I risk nothing. It's really easy to robotically say 'well obviously if I were tortured, I would still choose Christ'. And then you think about how often you could have said more about your relationship with Christ, but didn't. Personally, I wonder how I would respond. I do think there's an amazing strength that comes when the need to stand arises. However, in America, it is too easy to be complacent. I don't feel any pressure to be as blatant as I could be, which is terrible. And I always get so caught up in the fact that 'I'm not that good of a Christian. I don't want people to think I'm a hypocrite." So I just say very little. Not impressive.
Interestingly enough, I started this as a way to show I'm thankful I don't have to worry about dying for my faith. You know what though, I'm not sure how thankful I am for that. Sometimes I think it'd be good for me to have a little more fire under my rear to share. That day may come one day. But for now, I am thankful that today I am going to take Jude to church and hang out with friends from church and read my Bible and none of those things will be done in secret.
And if you are interested, click the picture at the top. It will link you to persecuted.com. You can get this magazine for free about every month I think. It's challenging, and these people certainly need our prayers. I for one am thankful to Kate for blogging about it awhile back :)
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