On vacation one summer, the...
Illustration
On vacation one summer, the pastor and his wife attended church school at a church of a denomination different from their own. The discussion drifted to the area of our rich, abundant society. Within a short time, the class members transferred their thoughts from society in general to the church in particular. The class members began to contrast the rich American church to the poverty-stricken world. One man suggested that the church would never learn how to use its abundance on behalf of the world until too late; and that perhaps Christians would have to suffer before we could empathize; or even sympathize, with the world's plight. Someone asked him if he were suggesting that it might be a good thing for the church (the people of faith) to lose everything that it holds so dear to its heart. He responded by quoting a statement of a South American missionary. The missionary insisted that the church would have to suffer before it would understand. He recommended, for the church's salvation, that it ought to "pray for persecution." Dietrich Bonhoeffer put it this way: "When Christ calls a person, he bids that person to come and die." -- Keller
