Why do I bring this up? Last Monday was International Religious Freedom Day. Why is this day
important? We live in a nation that touts religious freedom like it waves the flag. That’s why deaths like
Charlie Kirk’s make such big waves. Those kinds of things aren’t supposed to happen here. We need an
international day to celebrate religious freedom because the liberties we enjoy in the US are certainly
not enjoyed worldwide. Why should we care? Because everyone who confesses Jesus as Lord is part of a
worldwide Body of believers. I’ve worshipped with brothers and sisters all over the world and can testify
to the bond that exists between us. Language is a small barrier when it comes to the family of God. And
right now, many in our family are hurting.

All over the world Christians are arrested, beaten, threatened, and even killed for confessing Jesus as
Lord. The children of Christian parents are kicked out of school. Christian workers lose their jobs or are
forced into the jobs no one else wants. For example, Christians clean out the clogged sewer drains in
Iran. In China, Christians and their churches are under constant surveillance. The Chinese government
has installed between (best estimates from multiple sources) 700 million to 1 billion cameras around
their country. That number is staggering by itself. Think of the personnel required to monitor all of those
cameras and the enforcers required to follow up on their findings. Why would they do this? One main
reason: to find the locations of the illegal house churches. Christian parents in North Korea do not tell
their children about their faith until they believe they are old enough to keep quiet. Incentive programs
encourage family members to incriminate relatives when ‘suspicious activity’ is witnessed. Activity
deemed suspicious can include: praying, owning a Bible and teaching your own children about Jesus.
As dark as persecution can be, the Light of Christ always seems to lift the veil. Christians have been
persecuted from the very beginning. When Stephen was stoned for preaching the Gospel, the fires of
persecution began to spread. Remember, this was Paul’s life before he met Jesus! The first 300 years of
the Church’s existence was marked by death. But the Church also saw exponential growth during those
years. There will always be many faithful people living underneath the veil of persecution. The stories of
the reformers and groups like the Puritans are perfect examples, faithfully living out their life under the
threat of death. Christian missionaries have always gone into the darkest places with the Light of Christ.
This means they live and work under the constant threat of the enemy. One Christian pastor in Russia
was asked why he didn’t publish some of the persecution stories that are so common in his country. He
pointed to the sunrise and asked, “Do you wake up your children early, bring them to the window and

say, ‘Look! Have you ever seen anything so amazing!’ when a “no” inevitably follows? We don’t do that
because the sunrise happens every day. As beautiful as it is, it’s common. So, it is with persecution in our
country. It’s just the way we live.”

One of the greatest opportunities we have in the western world to be the Light of Christ under the veil is
to pray. Pastors in China wept when they discovered that churches all over the US prayed for them
openly and often. Pastors and leaders in Cuba desperately need our prayers for boldness. In the wake of
Melissa, they have an opportunity to lead like never before. Believers all over the Middle East are
bombarded with stories of dreams about Jesus. They need our prayers for wisdom and discernment as
they wade through the questions about the Prince of Peace. Prayers as Christian missionaries cross
Vietnamese borders are urgently needed. Right now, Bibles are being distributed in regions where the
possession of a Bible means jail time. Pray they fall into the right hands.

We have been given freedom for a reason. To ignore it is to abuse it. Exercise your freedom today and
pray for the persecuted Church. Check out organizations like Voices of the Martyrs and Open Doors.
They have a wonderfully large platform to tell the stories of our hurting brothers and sisters and they
leverage it for prayer. Will you engage? It’s good to be under God’s wings. Let’s pray more can join us
today.