Dear Friend of the Persecuted Church--

            What would you think if you lost a twenty dollar bill?  Would it be a budget-breaking disaster, or just a minor annoyance? 

            The answer depends on your particular perspective.  And there are a lot of perspectives in this world.

The political season is certainly good for showing us the wide variety out there.  Swirling all around us are perspectives on fixing economic problems, working with other nations, obtaining energy resources, and a slew of other issues.  Perspectives can originate from life experience, or from logic, or from end-game goals.  But what perspective we have goes a long way to determine our actions.

I would be the first to admit that I do not understand all perspectives.  In fact, I saw one perspective in this week’s persecuted church news that blew me away: “We will make our district like Orissa.”

Orissa, in case you have been living far outside the realm of the news for the last few weeks, has been the site of some of the most violent and destructive persecution in recent memory.  Churches have been destroyed, men and women beaten, violated, and killed, families split up, and many turned in to refugees.  It has been the location of very real heartbreak, and tragedy on a massive scale – that, at least, is my perspective.  Apparently there are those that glorify this outrage as the way things should be.

I suppose that I shouldn’t be surprised that such perspectives are very real – after all, they give rise to the very persecution we pray against – but it is still shocking to see this overt hatred and love of violence proclaimed so openly.  It is a perspective that can come only from the father of lies.

                As Christians, our perspectives must be shaped by the Word of God.  That Word gives hope to the persecuted, because on the eternal time frame their suffering is worth the glory that is to come, but that Word also calls us to pray for them.  The same eternal perspective that gives them hope gives us the reason to sacrifice our time and energy to intercede on their behalf.

Pray this week for India and for Iraq, where violence continues to grow and spread.  But don’t stop there; pray that God would hinder the workers of evil and empower the Body of Christ all over the world.

Yours for the Body of Christ,

Gabriel J. Waddell
Executive Director

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