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Moscow church held prayer for the Persecuted Church

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, which falls on Sunday, November 9, is a special time when Christians from around the world gather to pray for their brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted for their faith. Believers in 130 countries participate in this day of intercession, and the Good News Churches in Moscow and Kiev joined their voices to the chorus of prayer on behalf of the persecuted, reports Rick Renner Ministries.

The World Evangelical Fellowship and a core group of 7,000 churches were the first to set aside this day for prayer. Today, more than 100,000 churches in the USA, as well as thousands more internationally, now participate. In the former Soviet Union, believers are all too familiar with persecution. In fact, many Good News Church members and leaders were involved in the underground church, and they vividly remember the afflictions believers faced under the oppressive and violent rule of Communism.

Because believers were often imprisoned for their faith at that time, churches were forced to meet secretly in homes, and Christians were afraid to witness openly for fear of persecution. Many church members were arrested and stripped of jobs and possessions, while their children were barred from access to schools and other opportunities.

For believers in these nations, persecution was a fact of life. However, in the face of this seemingly insurmountable opposition, the Church in the Soviet Union still learned to grow and prosper, strengthening their faith and reliance on God. For example, one group of home churches had a small printing press, which they used to print Bibles. At the end of each printing session, the press was dismantled and each member of the group took a piece of the press home. That way, if a believer was caught by the authorities, this courageous group only lost a small piece of the press and kept the rest of the machine out of the hands of the government.

Today the Church in Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union no longer faces this manner of calculated, widespread persecution. The new laws allow for religious gatherings, and Bibles and teaching materials are now widely available. Russian and Ukrainian believers share the Gospel boldly, constantly thanking God for the opportunity to do so. Yet they know that this is not the case around the world and that many of their fellow believers don't enjoy these same freedoms. When the Good News Churches joined with believers worldwide on November 9, lifting up the persecuted church before God in prayer, they did so with a firsthand knowledge of what these believers are experiencing and of God's power to strengthen the human spirit in times of tribulation.

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TAGS: Russia International Day of Prayer Persecuted Church Rick Renner Ministries

[11/23/2008]

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