Journey Day 358

So today I was making a powerpoint for the China presentation I'm giving this Sunday at my parent's church, and I found out some really awesome things about China and the spread of Christianity and I thought maybe you would want to share in my joy! China is a closed country which means some serious restrictions and little freedom. This sounds like it would bode very badly for Christianity, but as the bible says, what man means for evil, God uses for good. So God has used this political discontent and religious persecution to start something awesome in Asia. Christianity has increased 100 fold since 1949. Back then there were around 500,000 christians, most of which were Catholic. Now there are close to 130 MILLION Christians, and that number is still growing! It is being predicted that that number could double or even triple in this generation! At this rate Christianity will have a hand at shaping China... in other words when there are Christians in positions of power whether it be politics or even entertainment, China will be changed for the better! That made my little heart very excited. God is doing such an incredible work in a country that was once so closed off to Jesus. It just shows that no man, woman, or government can stop what God wants to do! He works in the best and the worst of circumstances and makes something beautiful : )

Journey Day 240

You know what I think? I think American Christians are spoiled... me being one of them. Although we experience small amounts of persecution it is nothing compared to what Christians in other countries experience. For example, right now there is a man named Said Musa who is on trial for being a Christian. Because he believes in Jesus, he could be sentenced to die. All over the Middle East our brothers and sisters are being persecuted because they left a false religion to enter relationship with the one true God! In Iran, Yousef Nadarkhani, a pastor of a church there, was convicted and given a death sentence for being a Christian. The worst part? There is no Iranian statute that prohibts Christianity, the judge is basing it on "Iranian law scholars". All over the world people are dying and being tortured for the name of Jesus. Said Musa is a father of six children and he used to work for the red cross, fitting people with prosthetic legs. But Said Musa was filmed with many others, worshipping Jesus, and once he put in for leave at the Red Cross he was arrested! The deputy secretary of the Afgan parliament is calling for everyone in that video to executed publicly and the authorities tried to make Musa renounce his Chrisitanity on public television BUT he wouldn't do it!!!! He suffered every abuse you can imagine while in jail, all because of his faith in Jesus Christ. No Afgan lawyer is willing to defend him, and he has been denied access a foreign attorney. But here in America I can shout Jesus's name from a building without fear of later being arrested and executed. I can go to church in my Sunday best, and have a bible study in the middle of a coffee shop without any negative consequence. Don't we take that freedom for granted? People are DYING all over the world for the name of Christ, and I sit here in comfort. A lot of us have no real concept of what it really means to die to self everyday, or to take up our cross and follow Him. Our faith is lukewarm because we don't have to fight for it. If someone said to you, "Renounce your faith in Christ or you die!", what would you say? Would you stand firm and claim Jesus? Or when put to the test, would your faith crumble? These Christians know "to live is Christ and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) To read more on Said Musa and others: Musa 1 and Musa 2