and to die is gain
April 14, 2010 (Wednesday)
When I woke up last night, I thought it was time to get up, but was surprised to see the clock, which told me it was not yet 3:00 a.m. So I got up, got a glass of water, and sat down in the living room. I eventually went back to bed at 4:30 and slept another two hours, but before doing that, I turned on the T.V. and watched Comcast’s Channel 17, which was broadcasting a program about Haik Havsepian, pastor of the Assembly of God Church of Tehran, Iran. He was an outspoken advocate for Christian freedom and known for his love of people—Muslims as well as Christians. He was abducted and brutally murdered on January 19, 1994. I was touched by the story, especially as interviews and pictures of his beautiful family were presented. He was indeed a martyr for Christ.
That program was followed by one about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was also a Christian martyr. He was brilliant theologian and Lutheran pastor who understood being a Christian as something much more than just becoming a believer. He saw that a true believer must become aware of the many injustices in the world and try to do something about them. During World War II in Nazi Germany, he continued to live by that principle and was arrested and put into prison awaiting trial for two years. As Berlin lay in ruins and Hitler hid in his Bunker, a mock trial was held at the prison and the next day he was executed on April 9, 1945. He also was a genuine martyr for Christ.
I read a comment on such people this morning from a man named Eric Highland: “In the past 2000 years, since the time of the earliest of Christian martyrs, the world has been revolutionized. Unfortunately, the persecution of Christians in areas hostile to the gospel of Jesus Christ remains largely unchanged. Many heroes of the faith have paid the ultimate price for our faith; the list of our heroes is too voluminous to mention.”
When I think about people who have died for their faith, I recall reading a comment from a writer whose name I cannot recall, “I read in the Bible that Jesus ‘went about doing good’; I am ashamed when I realize that I just ‘go about.’”