Archive for November, 2010

Why has God blessed us with freedom?

Monday, November 29th, 2010

Religious freedom in the former Soviet Union, never a sure thing, is fading away. In Kazakhstan, a woman was deported to Uzbekistan for “carrying out missionary activity without local registration.” Her crime? She gave a Christian children’s magazine to a 12-year-old girl in her neighborhood. The Kazakh government is openly supporting more laws restricting religion, working to pass a law requiring all churches to register, even though a similar law had been ruled unconstitutional by the country’s Supreme Court.

In Uzbekistan, the government is actively cracking down on Christians. Some have been fined 50 times their monthly wage after being found guilty of “attracting believers of one confession to another. “ The Christians fined were distributing religious literature without permission and had gathered for an “illegal religious teaching meeting.”

In Ukraine, believers can still worship and teach openly, but subtle changes in the government’s attitude to religion are causing many to be watchful, to be in prayer, and to think about how they are using the freedom they currently have.

There is much debate in the US about the government trampling our civil liberties and constitutional rights. These liberties and rights are precious gifts I have enjoyed and at times taken for granted. When I think about the plight of believers suffering around the world, I need to remember to pray for them and to consider just what I am doing to protect my freedom, and how I am using it for God’s kingdom.

http://persecution.com

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Protector, Defender, Redeemer

Friday, November 26th, 2010

Hard pressed on every side, we are never hemmed in.

2 Corinthians 4:8

Alexei Brynza, a Baptist pastor serving in Soviet Union, knew about pressure. Not only did he have his own congregation to care for, but he oversaw the activities of 30 other churches. He was the shield for the churches and their members, protecting them from the effort of the government to stamp out religion.

The Soviet authorities no longer relied on terror to do this; they only killed or imprisoned enough people so no one forgot what could happen to those who refused to embrace communist teachings. Mostly, however, the officials relied on petty rules, constant harassment and interference, fines, and social pressure from neighbors and coworkers to drip on people like drops of water on a rock until all resistance has been worn away.

Alexei would stand up for church members who were harassed and persecuted, complaining to as many officials in the bureaucracy that he needed to in his efforts to defend and protect the believers. Sometimes he was successful in helping a believer fired for their faith to get their job back, sometimes he wasn’t.

How grateful I am that I also have a protector, a defender, and a rescuer. Mine is not an earthly man, limited in what he can do to help me. My protector is the Lord of all, who fights my battles not just in the earthly realm, but in the spiritual one as well. I don’t always know what He is doing, and sometimes the battle is painful. But I know that the battle is the Lord’s, and the victory is already won. I may feel trapped by my circumstances, but He knows the way out.

Lord, help me to trust you as you make the way for me in all my trials, and that you will show me the way to victory over every circumstance.

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Building in Vain

Friday, November 19th, 2010

Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain.

Psalm 127:1

Building a church was no easy task in the Soviet Union. When the Khortitsa Baptist Church members tried to purchase a house to renovate into a church building, the government opposed them at every step. Every time they found a suitable house to buy, either the fire department or some other agency would interfere, with excuses about fire safety or building codes. Or they would convince the owners not to sell the church.

Once a house was bought, the real work began. Since most believers were poor, there was no money to hire people to do the remodeling work. Church members would work their shifts in factories or offices, and then put in a few hours working on the renovations to the building. They didn’t know when they would finish the job; they just knew that God was leading them and they would follow. Through the whole process, they prayed, laying their plans and needs before the Lord, allowing Him to guide them, allowing Him to be the builder.

How I wish I could be more like them. I make my plans, and consult God as an afterthought. Or I struggle mightily to get something done. Only when I’m at the end of my strength do to turn to God and ask for help. And usually He solves the problem, without any help from me. He is the one who builds and toils, not me.

Lord, help me to seek your will first and build nothing apart from you.

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Civil Liberties Seeping Away

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

While the debate over naked body scanners, “enhanced” pat downs, and airline security rages, a poll is released stating 85% of the public is in favor of using scanning technology. Very scary.

Little by little, we are allowing our civil liberties to seep away. This latest intrusion is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects us from unreasonable searches without probable cause. Unless the TSA can demonstrate they have reason to suspect a particular passenger, demanding to see an image of that person’s naked body or to grope them in search of who knows what, the TSA is stripping that citizen of their constitutional rights.

A man who objected to all this last week was informed by a TSA supervisor that “by buying [his] ticket [he] gave up a lot of rights.”

Is that how the TSA views all this? That if we want to travel, we give up basic constitutional rights?

And they don’t bother to explain how all this will make us safer, since neither the scanners nor the groping can detect anything hidden in body cavities. When the next attempt is made using this method, what will be the TSA’s response? What new screening will they come up with then?

People living in communist countries had their rights violently destroyed. We are allowing ours to vanish, as one Amendment after another is shockingly violated.

Will we as a nation notice before it’s too late?

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God Will be Exalted in All the World

Wednesday, November 10th, 2010

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46:10

The released prisoners like Lena’s grandfather brought wonderful news back to the believers in Ukraine. “Stalin thought he was hurting our churches, taking away the leaders,” they said. “But all he was doing was sending out thousands of missionaries, all over Russia and Siberia.” The fruit of their labor was scores of new churches scattered across Siberia, around the prison camps and in nearby towns. What Stalin meant for evil, God used powerfully for good.

Governments and rulers around the world set themselves up, often opposing God’s word and God’s people. As we read the news of believers beaten for their faith, falsely accused of crimes, hounded from one village to the next, enduring poverty, watching their children grow up in fear, we can start to wonder. How long will God allow this to go on? And will He act?

But like in the Soviet Union, during the years when it appeared that the atheistic government was working unchecked, God was moving though His people, those who remained faithful to Him. Only years later was the extent of God’s victory revealed. He is not interested in an earthly kingdom; He is more interested in seeking and saving those who are lost. And He can use any circumstance, no matter how dreadful, to do accomplish His ends.

And in the end, those who are faithful and endure to the end will receive the crown of life. God will exalt them, just as He will be exalted in all the earth. On that day, every knee, even those who opposed Him so bitterly, every knee will bow and all will confess that Jesus is Lord of all.

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It Couldn’t Happen to Me, or Could It?

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

A clerical error creates a non-existent ensign. No one wants to tell the general, and Lt. Kije is quickly promoted up the ranks from lieutenant to all the way to colonel. The tsar, hearing of Kije’s exploits, summons him to an audience. The army officials, not wanting to reveal the mistake, inform the emperor that Kije has died, and stage an elaborate funeral, complete with a mourning wife, hired for the occasion.

This Russian tale poking fun at bureaucracy was set to music by Sergei Prokofiev in 1934. Prokofiev had just returned to the Soviet Union after years in the west. Smitten with the romance of the Soviet ideals, Prokofiev returned to his homeland to participate in the great communist experiment.

Tragically, he had no idea of what lay ahead of him. Stailn tightened his grasp on Soviet life and culture, demanding that all art be created in the style of Socialist Realism. Everything should depict the heroic, the constructive. Artists were to create works that promoted the communist state.

Prokofiev believed that none of that would apply to him, and that the suffering so many fellow composers and artists endured would not happen to him. His last years were consumed by a struggle with failing health as he attempted to defend his music to increasingly harsh censors. To preserve his life, he churned out several uninspired but politically acceptable works. Dying on the same day as Stalin, Prokoviev had a much more modest funeral than the fictitious Kije.

A reminder for us all. Rhetoric can paint a pretty picture, but the reality behind it may not be so appealing. And as much as we’d like to think otherwise, the laws of the land, whether we agree with them or not, apply to us too.

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Laws, Government, and the Lord of All

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?
The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Psalm 2:1,4

Lena and her brothers attended an illegal Sunday school. The Soviet authorities enforced laws prohibiting the teaching of religion to children. One of the women in Lena’s church organized meetings for the children at her house. She taught them songs about Jesus, had them memorize poems about God, and let them take turns reading from the Bible. Had this woman been caught, she could have ended up in jail.

At other times, believers used children’s birthday parties as a way to teach Bible stories to the children. If the police came to investigate, prompted by a call from a neighbor, the parents could present their child’s birth certificate to prove that they were having a legitimate birthday party.

All around the world, many governments try to limit the worship of God. They never succeed completely. Believers find a way to worship, whether in the middle of the night or out in the forest or by some other means; many persevere through horrifying persecution.

Even in our own country laws are cropping up that limit our religious freedom. At least we have some recourse; we can vote for new legislators if we are unhappy with what the old ones have done.

We may or may not like the laws our Congress passes. We might see some as necessary and just. Some we might find inconvenient. Some we might find morally repuganant. Some we might think tax us unfairly or limit our personal freedom.

We might become anxious and fearful, thinking the laws are taking away our civil liberties, and with them, our right to freely worship God.

But those who plot such things plot in vain. God’s power is infinite, and His sovereignty does not depend on votes or the will of the people or even if the rulers of this world acknowledge His existence. His plans will unfold in His time; He is mightier than any powers or principalities, seen and unseen. We can rest in His promise that He will give justice to His faithful people, and will cast down the wicked.

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A Right we take for Granted

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

The old woman lying in the hospital bed began to cry. “This is first real election I’m able to vote in. And I probably won’t last until the next one. You just have to let me vote.”

It was 1996 and Russia was holding its first true presidential elections. During the time of the Soviet Union, the people only had the choice of communist party candidates. The 1992 elections merely served to confirm Boris Yeltsin in his position as president. But the ’96 elections offered voters the chance to choose from candidates of many different parties.

Election representatives were sent to the hospitals to allow the patients to cast their ballots, as long as they had their internal passports with them to prove their identity. The old woman had forgotten to ask her son bring hers in. The officials waited while she telephoned him, and agreed to come back later.

She and many others proudly cast their ballots that day, not as concerned with the outcome as with the fact that for the first time in their lives, their votes meant something. They recognized the power of their votes, and the priceless gift the right to vote is.

For many in the west, we take this right for granted, not bothering to research the candidates and issues, so we can make an informed choice. Sometimes we don’t bother to vote, thinking the election isn’t that important. Wars have been fought; many have died to ensure our right to vote.

God blessed us with civil liberties that are the envy of many; it is our duty to protect them by participating in the process. Just because we have the hope of eternal life does not mean we are to withdraw from engagement in this one. How else can we follow the command to be salt and light to lost and hurting of this dying world?

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