Underground
It was a humid, Wednesday morning. I sat at the table outside Starbucks with my 11:00 a.m. appointment, a young missionary to South Dallas’ homeless and despondent. Like all the others I have had the pleasure of meeting thus far in the ministry, I saw that she was on fire for the Lord with a clear calling and a compassionate heart for the despairing and spiritually lost. We read from our Bibles, out in the open, never having to hush our voices. We openly discussed how to connect those with plenty who want to help and those with little and an ear to hear. We openly talked of how awesome and merciful and gracious God is. . .
. . .and then two policemen pulled up to the curb seven feet away from us.
My immediate thought, which also became my praise, was “Thank you, Lord, that they aren’t here for us for reading our Bibles. Thank you that we don’t have to take our conversation and our praise into underground churches.”
Three days later I went to the conference of a ministry called Voice of the Martyrs, hearing story after story of those imprisoned, tortured, and all too often killed for reading their Bible, worshipping Jesus, and refusing to renounce their Creator and Savior, their Giver of grace, their Deliverer.
Can you imagine? I cannot either. But as I read about the commitments of those in underground churches, of those imprisoned, desperate for the Lord and for His truth, when all they want is not freedom or a day without torture, but their Bible, I am saddened. Not only does my heart break for them and what they have endured for something that is perfectly legal here in the United States, but my heart breaks that I stray time and again from my first love. I want to be completely content with Jesus even if I had no one else or was in solitary confinement 24 hours a day. I want to be completely committed to getting the gospel out regardless of the cost to my health, body or very life. I want to be completely hungering for God’s Word more than any food, comfort or anything else I might fill up my free time with, including ministry (Luke 10:27). I want to live the passion of the underground church even here in America and in my home.
Is it possible to live that passionately about Jesus, the Great Commission and God’s Word without that persecution? Do you?
An interesting note: Although Urban Bible Outreach welcomes and utilizes gently used Bibles all the time, the majority of our ministry consists of new Bibles. We find that for those on the streets, on the run from abusive situations, or living in squalor, just the very act of giving them something new is a treasure in and of itself. Imagine the double blessing when they realize just what a treasure their new Bible truly is! But because we do not want any Bible to go to waste whatsoever, unless the Bible you donate is literally falling apart in our hands and cannot be repaired, we utilize it. For those Bibles that are tattered and torn, but yet able to be repaired somewhat, we send to persecuted brothers and sisters in these hostile and restricted nations through Voice of the Martyrs. What a blessing this partnership is, to know that every usable Bible is being offered for good somewhere in the world, if not in our own cities!
Watch videos of our persecuted brothers and sisters (and children) in Christ here.
Click here to view a prayer map for those Christians in hostile territories, and please remember to pray most of all.