Introduction to Martyrdom for Jesus Christ

This part of my blog is dedicated to presenting myself and a ministry that I support. Christianity can be very complex to understand. You know the saying the shortest distance in a person to travel is from their heart to their head. The longer distance is our emotions being spurred on by our intellect returning to our heart to feel what makes sense. In Christianity it is no different. There are truths in Christianity though, that causes even Christians to cringe and to belief that the longest distance is from the heart to the head and back again. At times it is easier to stay in the head than to do our reasoning with our heart. I want to create some awareness first with this dynamic to prepare both your intellects and your hearts. I do this to call attention to our perceptions and feelings surrounding the topic of persecution. That should not be too hard for those of other faiths to accept. Persecution is usually synonomous with retaliation or some kind of counter attack. We are born and bred into a world culture that advocates an eye for an eye or protect your own at all costs. From the information presented to us by different mediums of delivery, we see, hear, and read of many instances where groups who are persecuted for their gender, sexual orientation, nationality, faith, career choice, etc usually are well prepared to respond to such attacks. In fact, most captions or headlines of persecution inform us that the group being persecuted has already issued a statement, begun a protest, thrown a rock, or declared a war. The next generation is already well educated on how to respond to ostracization, ridicule, or non-acceptance. Just like the groups mentioned already, I belong to the faith of Christianity. In my faith we too have already been well prepared intellectually to respond to persecution. We too have a response that we are all to follow. As in any group we look to the leadership to set the example for us all to follow. In women's rights it was the suffragettes. In sexual orientation choices it could be the gay rights activists. Within a country it might be a rebel general in a coup d'etat. In Buddhism it might be the Dalai Lama. In Islam, it might be Mohammed. In Christianity it is Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ teaches that His response to persecution was to love His enemies. To do good to them. To pray for them. To even bless them. Incredulous as it sounds He spoke these words before He was killed for living them in His own life before His persecutors. Talk about going against the status quo. To be completely honest, as a Christian, I have a hard enough time with the simple offenses of life. Like being cut off in traffic, or receiving poor service in a restaurant, or being testy at times with my wife due to stress at work. While I am glaring at fellow drivers, complaining about dirty glasses, and being flippant with my wife about her shopping habits, Jesus Christ allowed Himself to be mocked, tortured, spat on, and killed. For every Christian who thinks on the sacrifice of Christ for us all, this comparison makes us all stop short observing our own behaviour.
Today in many countries around the world, even at the time of this writing, their are old men & women, young men & women, and even children being mocked, tortured, spat on, imprisoned, and killed for wanting to tell others about how Christ died for us all. That part is important. How He died for us all. We are all going to die. We all live today. These brave Christians are choosing today to live a life that is worthy of dying for Jesus Christ. Scary stuff. Real stuff. Throughout the world there are many Christians who are accepting that to share their story of how they were set free by choosing Christ, they may be shunned, robbed, beaten, imprisoned and killed. Freedom from what...? I don't know...Jesus or drugs, Jesus or lying, Jesus or stealing, Jesus or fear of death, Jesus or beating their family...fill in your own blank of what Jesus has or could do for you. These Christians are so full of joy that their own homes, jobs, families, bodies, and lives mean less to them than the chance to tell one more person about the Way out of suffering. To be able to share the love of Christ and be a witness to that persons freedom. Just the chance to celebrate with someone else what freedom in Christ is.
I learned of this incredible love that Jesus Christ can give to us all through a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs. I started getting their magazine. I began reading real stories of incredible hardship and persecution. Caring, loving, and honest people were being lied about, beaten and killed for this desire to share the love of Christ. I cried alot of tears and had alot of questions for God. I have applied myself more to the understanding of what God says about persecution in the bible. I discovered that I am not exempt. In choosing to follow Jesus Christ, telling others of His love in my life, I am accepting that my home, property, wife, and even my precious daughter could be lost for my choice to share my joy and freedom of what I choose Jesus Christ over. It is easy to pretend that it is not happening, cannot happen, or will not happen to me. I can base my hope on the freedom of Canada and it being a democracy with freedom of religion. Or I can begin to pay attention close attention to the signs around me where the rights of Christians are already being superseced by the status quo.
Rather than staying on the sidelines and watching how this will all turn out, I have opted to volunteer as an Ambassador for the Persecuted Church. What that means is I have joined a network of Ambassadors, across Canada, through Voice of the Martyrs. Using all our resources of time, money, energy, and talents we pursue opportunities to tell others about the suffering and persecution of Christians in other countries or persecuted Christians here in Canada. We offer ourselves to small groups, bible studies, schools, universities, conferences, or churches for the privilege to bring peoples attention to the plight of our suffering friends. That is what the VOMambassador blog is all about. This blog is another resource to build awareness and attention about not just the persecution part. As I stated earlier the distance from the heart to the head is easily travelled. No the most amazing part is why are people of all ages accepting the worst that a person could do to another? To share the most precious gift of love that they have received with the very people who take their land, homes, jobs, imprison them, torture, rape and kill them or their family members . These martyrs, count all these things loss compared to the love Christ showed them and the joy of telling others that Christ wants to share His joy with them as well. That my friends is news that must be shared. Whether you have accepted Christ or not, how can people choose to live to die this way for those who are trying to destroy them? That is the undeniable truth of Christ. It is my privilege to tell you, my friends, about this amazing love that our Saviour Jesus Christ offers to us all. A love that will not be intimidated by any kind of suffering. A love that does not fear death because, like Him, it will never die.
As with all my blogs Jesus Christ says what I want to say much better in His own words:

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinte value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all garbage, so that I could gain Christ Philippians 3:8

But you are willing to listen, I say love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse. Pray for those who hurt you. Luke 6:27-28

So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy. John 16:22