WHAT IS YOUR LEVEL OF COMMITMENT IN YOUR FAITH?

Some of my best reading has been books or testimonies devoted to the lives of Martyrs, of whom have given their very lives for the sake of the gospel and as a witness to their captors of their personal faith in Jesus Christ. Their stories are all heart-rendering, alarming and convicting as they cause us to pause and question our own level of commitment to the One who died for us.

One book that was required reading for me in Bible college was called No Time For Tombstones. The story picks up during the Vietnamese New Year celebration of 1968. Some US citizens were indignant to learn of an attack made by North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong upon South Vietnamese cities and towns. An attack in which several Protestant missionaries were murdered and others kidnapped. In the book it’s authors tell the story of the assault on Banmethuot in the Central Highlands. They focus their story upon the capture of three Americans, two of them  missionaries, Hank Blood and Betty Olsen. Mike Benge, was an USAID agricultural advisor.

Being falsely identified as U.S. Military collaborators, the three were chained together and force to march through the jungle for many months. Their most relentless enemy proved to be malnutrition, as the captives were denied basic food necessities and medical care. Debilitation took its toll on them all as first Hank, then Betty, died agonizing deaths during their capture. However, before their death, their great witness for Christ shined through in their unwavering courage and forgiving love for their persecutors.  Their love touched not only some of their captors, but also the man that became their eternal friend. Mike Benge's heart became broken and convicted and through the two missionaries spiritual light, Mike too found his own faith in God. Eventually released from a Hanoi prison camp, Benge told his story to the authors of No Time For Tombstones.

In the Book Tortured for Christ, a Romania pastor shared his story of his imprisonment, solitary confinement, torture, constant sufferings form hunger, cold, the mental anguish of brainwashing and mental cruelty and more. He shares that in 1949, when Soviet propaganda was asserting that free Christian worship was being tolerated behind the Iron Curtain, the Communists arrested him in Romania for secret Christian activities.

His wife Sabina Wurmbrand’s also shares in another book about her efforts to get her husband released, her subsequent imprisonment and, above all, her unceasing efforts to help build a Christian Underground Church in restricted areas around the world. The Communists to this day cannot tolerate genuine Christianity, and are still executing or imprisoning underground Christians.

In my own reading and understanding of what a true Martyr is, I believe that it is not their death that is so awesome, but that the fact that they live a life of love before their captors. To me this is what distinguishes a Martyr. One that can indure hardships with grace and love.  T.S. Eliot an American- born English poet, playwright, and literary critic gives one of the best descriptions that I have ever heard and needs to be rendered not only on behalf of the Martyr, but to every child of God. He describes a martyr as one “who has become an instrument of God who has lost his will in the will of God; not lost, but found it. For he found freedom in submission to God. The Martyr no longer desires nothing for themselves, but only God be glorified."

The original Greek word for martyr means witness. The scripture tells us in Acts 1:8, “You shall be witnesses (martyrs) to Me in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” For the most part when we think of Martyrs we think of Christians that die because they refuse to deny Christ. Yet, we should also view the martyr as one who lives for and reflects the love of God in spite of their situation and circumstances. While there is no doubt that the Martyr that dies for their faith should be applauded, his work before his death is what really counts.... in the words of one of the greatest Martyrs….to live is Christ….to die is gain! I will let you figure out who that was!

Our level of commitment should be that of letting our light so shine before men daily....that they may see our good works and glorify our Father. That means to die to what we want; and live to do what He wants!

Hold Fast,

Bren