I am a Christian!

³² So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, ³³ but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.  ³⁴ “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. ³⁶ And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. ³⁷ Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸ And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Scripture comes to life in many ways.  Just reading a familiar scripture brings a particular truth or teaching into our minds.  Listening to someone teach scripture opens our minds in other ways.  But, nothing opens our minds to the teaching of a particular scripture like seeing it enfleshed.  

Saeed Abideni is a name that may be familiar to you.  He is the Christian minister who has just recently been sentenced to eight years in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, Iran.  He was formally charged with being a nationally security threat.  His real “crime” is being associated with a Christian house church movement that is spreading through Iran.  He participated in this effort in the early 2000’s when the house church movement was not considered a threat by the Iranian government and more especially, Islamic extremists.  Times have changed.  He was recently identified on a recent trip involving humanitarian aid and subsequently arrested.  He is 34 years old, has a wife and two small children.   Sources from within the prison say that part of his interrogation involves undisclosed torture for the purpose of locating the house churches.  He will be given his freedom, allegedly, if he gives up his brethren.  Other Iranian Christians and ministers have been imprisoned for the same reasons.  

Each time I hear a story like this one it brings a lot of things to my mind.  It reminds me that our faith is a “confession.”  To be a disciple of Jesus Christ means that we stand behind the truth about the gospel with our “lives.”  Confession is more than something we say before baptism.  It is a mantra we pick up and carry with us everyday.  Paul said, “We carry in our bodies the dying of Jesus” (2 Corinthians 4:10).  

Stories like this one remind me that faith is not lived out in isolation from other believers.  We are bound to each other by the Holy Spirit based on our confession of faith and obedience to Christ.  Christian community is anchored in a conviction about what God has accomplished and promises only in Jesus Christ.  I doubt the Iranian house churches have time for “bickering, slander, rudeness, and anger” given the circumstances in which they live.  With Satan prowling about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour through Islamic extremists, I can only imagine how much they depend on and treasure each other in prayer, encouragement and worship.  

Stories like this one rebuke and encourage me.  They bring scripture from the page and set it starkly and passionately in my mind awakening my imagination about what it means to be a Christian.  Such stories sharpen my confession and show me the true purpose of Christian community.  

We should pray for Saeed and his family.  We should pray for ourselves, too.  We should pray that in a land of peace and protection we can possess such a faith as theirs.

O Father, we live in blindness sometimes and call it sight.  Use your Word and your Spirit to drop the scales from our eyes so that we can see the majesty and power of our confession that Jesus is Lord.  Our world needs us to live with such conviction so that they might know Christ and the power of his resurrection.  Because of Jesus….Amen

Randy Daugherty

Stephenville, Texas