According to Frontier Alliance International (FAI), more Iranians have become Christians in the last 20 years than in the previous 1,300. They call it the fastest growing church in the today’s world. FAI offers this wisdom:
“While many of us would instinctively pray for the Islamic regime to fall and free Iranian Christians to worship publicly, leaders within the movement urge us not to do so. They attribute the growth of the Gospel in Iran to the persecution of the Church at the hands of the regime.”
The Church grows bigger and stronger, it seems, when being a Christian is dangerous.
Lord, it comforts us to pray for freedom and comfort of our Iranian brothers and sisters. Make us more like them, willing to be uncomfortable for Your sake. Grow their faith, strength and numbers–and ours–even if it requires persecution.
Lord, we’d like a life of ease,
but that isn’t what we need.
If it’s You we want to please,
we’re gonna have to bleed.
The easy faith of coffee houses,
and TVs tuned to Billy Graham
provide a sleep balm that douses
what we require, a burning flame.
We need the heat of desert places
where believers are routinely killed
to understand the deeper graces
that in First World go unfulfilled.
It’s neither fancy nor predilection
that our grounding is God’s Crucifixion.
Yes, Andrew, “we need the heat of desert places.” We’ve become too accustomed to our air-conditioned comfort.