WRONGS AND RIGHTS
July 3, 2024
Every year, the Voice of the Martyrs ministry observes the traditional date when the Apostle Paul was martyred for Christ. (June 29) They observe The Day of the Christian Martyr by recognizing a Christian who has recently lost his or her life for Jesus’ sake, and place that Christian’s name on a plaque on its “Wall of Martyrs” as a memorial to their faithfulness.
The Day of the Christian Martyr that just passed was different from other years in that not one, but many Christians were recognized.
In 2024, The Voice of the Martyrs recalled the terrible suffering of Christians in Mosul, Iraq, in the summer of 2014. During that summer, ISIS (the Islamic State) forced these Christians to choose between three options.
1 – Renounce Christ and embrace Islam.
2 – Leave their home and all their possessions.
3 – Remain in Iraq and be killed.
During that summer over one hundred thousand of our brothers and sisters fled, taking nothing with them but the clothes on their backs.
(Watch the video here: https://www.persecution.com/martyr/?_source_code=WEBI24F2 )
The suffering was terrible. Many of those who fled died on the journey out of Iraq. The injustice was also awful. Men, women, and children were wronged, their rights violated.
They lived out the story we read in Hebrews that describes first-century Christians who “accepted joyfully the seizure of [their] property, knowing that [they had] a better and lasting possession.” (Hebrews 10:34)
I’m thinking about all of this on July 3rd, the day before the day on which we observe and give thanks for the freedoms we enjoy in our own land. We remember the rights that are guaranteed to us, both in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights.
The proximity of June 29 to the 4th of July had not dawned on me before. Now I can’t unsee it.
The one is an altogether wonderful celebration of freedom; the other a sober reflection on those whose freedoms were taken away.
One is an observance of our rights; the other a remembrance of those who were wronged.
On this day – a day between June 29 and the 4th of July – I feel caught between two worlds.
Yes, I am grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in our nation and for those whose sacrifices made – and make – those freedoms a reality. Yes, I will give thanks to God for those freedoms tomorrow and every day. Yes, I will pray that those freedoms remain in place.
Even more, though, I am grateful to those members of our Christian family who did not cling to their rights, to their possessions, or even to their own lives. They released their claim on all of that because they were following a Jesus who did not cling to His rights. He gave Himself that we might live.
The author of Hebrews tells us who are not in prison for Jesus’ sake to [Hebrews 13:3] Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are badly treated.
On this, the day before the 4th, we remember those prisoners and pray for them.
Join me in praying that we will learn from them the matchless freedom from sin and to life that Jesus brings. Join me in asking that we will cling to Him, even if the day should come that our rights are wronged.
Yours…His,
Dave