In 1967 Richard Wurmbrand wrote:

"The message I bring from the Underground Church is:
"Don't abandon us!"
"Don't forget us!"
"Don't write us off!"
"Give us the tools we need! We will pay the price for using them!"
This is the message I have been charged to deliver to the free Church."

 

We hear far too little of the widespread persecution of Christians taking place in the world today.  Shamefully most of the reports that we do hear aren't from the mainstream media.  More shamefull is the fact that many American ministers are ignoring the atrocities. 

The church I have been attending allowed a few minutes of prayer for persecuted Christians this past Sunday.  How I longed for the minister to really address the suffering of our brothers and sisters... to stir us up so that our thoughts wouldn't drift back to the mundane a few moments later.  There was no offering for the persecuted.  This church has a rock band instead of a choir.  How I wanted them to just suddenly stop the "feel good" music and shock everyone with dead silence while they dropped to their knees and pleaded with God. 

 

If we don't cry out for persecuted Christians, the shame is ours.  Who will will cry for us when persecution ramps up on our own shores?  If we don't provide shelter and relief when it is needed now, who will do it later?

 

Here is the story of Richard Wurmbrand, founder of The Voice of Martyrs ministry.  The brief story below is quoted from http://richardwurmbrandbio.info/

 

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand was an evangelical minister who spent fourteen years in Communist imprisonment and torture in his homeland of Romania. He was one of Romania's most widely known Jewish Believer leaders, authors, and educators.In 1945, when the Communists seized Romania and attempted to control the churches for their purposes, Richard Wurmbrand immediately began an effective "underground" ministry to his enslaved people and the invading Russian soldiers. He was eventually arrested in 1948. Richard spent three years in solitary confinement, seeing no one but his Communist torturers. His wife, Sabina, also Jewish, was a slave laborer for three years. Due to Pastor Richard Wurmbrand's international stature as a Messianic Jewish leader, diplomats of foreign embassies asked the Communist government about his safety. They were told he had fled Romania. Secret police, posing as released fellow prisoners, told his wife of attending his burial in the prison cemetery. Pastor Wurmbrand was released in a general amnesty in 1964. Realizing the great danger of a third imprisonment, Christians in Norway negotiated with the Communist authorities for his release from Romania. The "going price" for a prisoner was $1,900. Their price for Wurmbrand was $10,000. In May 1966, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand testified in Washington before the Senate's Internal Security Subcommittee and stripped to the waist and showed 18 deep torture wounds covering his body. His story was carried across the world newspapers in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Read a portion of this report. Communist Exploitation of Religion Pastor Richard's Testimony from 1966.

Pastor Wurmbrand has been called "the Voice of the Underground Church." His books are best sellers in over fifty languages. You may receive a free copy of the Pastor Wurmbrand's book, "Tortured for Christ" by receiving the new― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christsletter. Click here for details or call Voice of the Martyrs at 1-800-747-0085. You can get a free copy of TORTURED FOR CHRIST.

 Wurmbrand said... “I tremble because of the sufferings of those persecuted in different lands. I tremble thinking about the eternal destiny of their torturers. I tremble for Western Christians who don't help their persecuted brethren. In the depth of my heart, I would like to keep the beauty of my own vineyard and not be involved in such a huge fight. I would like so much to be somewhere in quietness and rest. But it is not possible... The quietness and rest for which I long would be an escape from reality and dangerous for my soul... The West sleeps and must be awakened to see the plight of the captive nations.”
― Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured for Christ

 

I watch for the rapture and impatiently wait for it.  But in the meantime if that's all I am going to do how impoverished will I be when He does come?

 

YBIC

Bruce Baber