To These People, Jesus is Precious

I encourage you to read about the persecuted church more often.   No matter how bad a day you may have had in America, your day was probably pretty good compared to them.  Or are they the ones blessed with the most glorious days, being counted worthy to suffer for His sake?  May we pray for them more . . .

“Lateef,” was born and raised in a Coptic Christian family. He became a quiet Christian. In Egypt, where proselytizing is illegal, Lateef rarely shared his faith. Then in 1994, he says he heard God’s voice compelling him to tell others about Christ. That is when he zealously began sharing the gospel with Muslims in his Upper Egyptian villiage. Soon after, Lateef was arrested and jailed. When released, he returned to evangelizing. He was put back in jail. This has gone on for the last 14 years, with Lateef’s most recent arrest and release occured in the summer of 2008. Often when Lateef is arrested he undergoes extreme torture. During one arrest in 1996, an Egyptian state security officer punched him in the mouth and broke two of his teeth. “He shouted, ‘Don’t talk about Christ, don’t preach, don’t evangelize,” recalled Lateef. “He said, ‘This dog will no longer talk about Jesus!” Once, he was locked in a toilet stall where guards urinated on him. Repeated electric shocks injured his feet and his lower abdomen was sliced so severly with a knife, his intestines spilled out. Guards allowed jailed Muslim soldiers to extinguish their lit cigarettes on Lateef’s arm and shoulder. But Lateef could not remain silent. Even imprisoned he shared Christ. On one occasion, while he was in jail, incarcerated Muslims asked Lateef to lead prayers from the Quran. They assumed he was part of a conservative Islamic group, The Muslim Brotherhood. Lateef agreed, but he was praying using Bible verses. He was able to do this for four months. Many Muslims do not know what is in the Quran; they only know what Muslim teachers have told them. One inmate even told him how Lateef’s prayers were the first time he had heard prayers that were real. When Lateef was caught evangelizing in prison he was tortured. Once he was tied to a ladder with ropes and the ladder was turned upside down. Lateef said, “Three security officers beat me all over my body with wooden sticks and said I was a kaffir (unbeliever) and deserved the beatings.” “I prayed for my persecutors because they did not know Jesus. I asked God to reveal the truth to them.” Lateef says God has allowed his repeated imprisonment and torture in order to be glorified. “I’m like garbage. The glory is for the Lord only.”

(From Voice of the Martyrs Magazine, March 2009)

www.persecution.com