Facing Persecution

Believers in Tobo aren’t so much excited and joyful but fearful and nervous as they anticipate the baptism on Thursday. Some of the believers who have indicated that they will be baptized have faced mockery, anger and threats of harm if they follow through with their intention.

For many of us in the West, it is hard to fathom such persecution.  As I have prepared to teach a course at NTBI on Missions in Church History, persecution has been a theme of Christianity from the start.  So, Tobo believers being threatened in this way shouldn’t be a surprise.

Our prayers can only be ones composed by faith rather than experience.  Paul can guide us. 

2Co 1:9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

May the Tobo believers truly experience God’s deliverance and yet, by this experience, be helped to rely on God and not on themselves.