"For Your sake we are killed all day long. . ."

Among the manifold calamaties Islam is presently visiting upon the world, one of the least appreciated is the perversion of the word "martyr."

Five hundred years before Mohammed was a twinkle in his bedouin father's eye, Christian men, women and children were being murdered for their faith. The New Testament used the term "martyr" to describe them, which simply means "witness."

Through their quiet willingness to suffer death rather than renounce their Savior, Jesus Christ, they bore witness to His resurrection and grace. These true martyrs didn't didn't walk into pizza parlors and crowded buses wearing explosives. They didn't fly planes into buildings filled with secretaries, stockbrokers and sous-chefs.

They simply wanted to live in peace but were prepared to be killed. Paul described their plight when he wrote: "For Your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." (Romans 8:36)

Those lambs are still being slaughtered. "Beheaded Girls Were Ramadan Trophies" was the headline in an Australian newspaper on Friday.

"THREE Christian high school girls were beheaded as a Ramadan "trophy" by Indonesian militants who conceived the idea after a visit to Philippines jihadists, a court heard yesterday.

The girls' severed heads were dumped in plastic bags in their village in Indonesia's strife-torn Central Sulawesi province, along with a handwritten note threatening more such attacks."

Did you find that story in your local paper? Katie Couric's newscast? Me neither.

According to the Bible, we owe a special measure of concern for the welfare of our fellow believers--even those on the other side of the world. Galatians 6:10 says, "So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Whereever Islam ascends, Christians suffer. Find out more—and even better—a way to help at the Voice of the Martyrs web site at www.persecution.com

Posted by David at November 11, 2006 08:00 PM