“Blessed be the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.”¹

In this age of ever-increasing terrorism, those of us who live in the free world need to recall what happened to ancient Rome—the superpower nation that ruled the then known world for 800 years. Timothy George in Christianity Today writes how, in the year 410, the city of Rome “was besieged and pillaged by an army of 40,000 ‘barbarians’ led by the Osama bin Laden of late antiquity, a wily warrior named Alaric. One can still see the effects of this cataclysmic event when walking through the ruins of the Roman Forum today.”²

“Before then, Roman coins bore the legend Invicta Roma Aeterna: eternal, unconquerable Rome. In many ways, Rome was like America prior to 9/11, the world’s only superpower. But in 410, Rome’s military power could not prevent its walls being breached, its women raped, and its sacred precincts burned and sacked.“When Jerome heard about the fall of Rome in faraway Bethlehem, he … sat stupefied in total silence for three days. ‘Rome was besieged,’ Jerome wrote to a friend. ‘The city to which the whole world fell has fallen. If Rome can perish, what can be safe?’”

A few short years later, “As Augustine lay dying in 430, a new wave of terror swept across the Mediterranean world. The Vandals, led by a ferocious warrior named Genseric, surrounded Hippo—bringing torture, violence, and disarray to its churches and its people. As Augustine chanted the psalms on his deathbed, he might have come across this verse in Psalm 31:21: ‘Blessed be the Lord, for he showed his wonderful love to me when I was in a besieged city.’”³

Most of us in the West know little, if anything, about being persecuted as are many Christians in today’s world. At most, Christians have been criticized while multiplied thousands, if not millions, in other lands are being raped, their homes and villages pillaged, and are being murdered and slaughtered for their faith in Christ.

As with the ancient Romans we in the U.S. tend to think such persecution couldn’t happen here. However, unless we realize our dependence on God, September 11, 2001, may just be the beginning of what is to come in the days and years ahead. Radical Muslims are determined to conquer and/or kill all non-Muslims—especially Christians, Jews and Americans.

So what can we do, not only in the U.S., but also throughout the free world? First, we who claim to be Christians need to be sure of our own faith and commitment to God and be ever thankful for our freedom and incredible blessings. Second, we need to pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being persecuted. Third,we also need to pray for their persecutors and the terrorists that they will pray to the God of Heaven to reveal to them the truth. Fourth, we need to support valid organizations that are ministering to the persecuted church. [See footnote.⁴]

Fifth, we need to pray for the leaders of the free world that they will also pray to God that they will see the truth of the world situation and act with great courage, wisdom, and integrity. And sixth, above all, you and I need to stand firm lest we fall.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, especially in this day and age of increasing terrorism around the world, help me to stand firm in my faith and trust in You, and please send a great spiritual awakening to my country so that our leaders will turn to and depend on You for guidance, protection, wisdom in knowing how to deal with terrorists. And help protect the persecuted Church no matter where it is. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 31:21.

2. Timothy George, “Theology for an Age of Terror,” Christianity Today, September 2006, Vol. 50, No. 9, Page 78. Online at http://tinyurl.com/pn4r8.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today.

3. Ibid.

4. NOTE: Organizations that minister to the persecuted Church. Open Doors at www.odusa.org/ and The Voice of the Martyrs at www.persecution.net/. These organizations were recommended by Dan Wooding of Assist News Service at www.assistnews.net.

Several months ago Faarooq (name changed), a Daily Encounter subscriber wrote to me saying, “I converted from I’lam to Christianity 10 years ago and had to be very secretive about it until I managed to flee my homeland and came to France.

“Now at the age of 32 I have gone public about my Christian faith and started a debate on the net with my parents discussing the teachings of I’lam which Mohammed claimed were God’s words. But now I am getting death threats.

“You see, the Koran says that people like me who were M’slims and converted to Christianity are worse than those born Christians. Ex-M’slims who were born in the M’slim faith and left it have to be slaughtered like cattle as a sacrifice to Allah, while those born Christians are lost but they’ll give them a chance first to convert to I’lam before they kill them.

“My problem is that my visa is about to expire and I can’t renew it. Returning to my homeland will undoubtedly be a death sentence unless I convert back to I’lam. Do you have any advice as to what I can and/or should do?”

Sadly, my only advice to Faarooq was to see if he could obtain a visa to a Western country. I don’t know what happened to him because I haven’t heard from him since.

I wonder what I/we would do if the current of radical I’lam fanaticism should sweep across the country where I live? Would I remain faithful to the Lord or, to save my neck, would I convert to I’lam?

To be continued ….

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, today I pray for Faarooq and the multiplied thousands who also fear for their lives because they are Christians. Please keep them safe and give them the courage to be lights in a dark world … and grant that their persecutors when seeing Jesus in them, will want You for themselves. And please give me the courage always to be faithful to You no matter what my circumstances might turn out to be. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. 1 Corinthians 16:13 (NIV).

“The Bible has changed the lives of more persons than any other book,” said W. Clement Stone. “It has helped countless thousands to develop physical, mental and moral health.”

In his book, None of These Diseases, Dr. S.I. McMillen said, “When God led the Israelites out of afflicted Egypt, He promised them that if they would obey His statutes [laws], He would put ‘none of these diseases’ upon them [diseases that afflicted the Egyptians]. God guaranteed a freedom from disease that modern medicine cannot duplicate.”²

Every rule, every law, and every principle in the Bible is there, not because God is a killjoy, but for our total physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.

For instance, the ancient Jews were told by God not to eat certain animal meats, including that of pigs (pork). Was this for any kind of religious ritual? No. It was because those particular animals carried diseases that caused serious sickness—such as were common in Egypt.

Still today, God’s Word gives us many instructions that are for mental and physical, as well as for spiritual, health reasons. We are instructed not to be jealous, bitter, hateful, resentful, unforgiving, and so on. The greatest physician who ever lived, Jesus Christ, pointed out 2,000 years ago the importance of forgiveness. When He encouraged us to “forgive seventy times seven,” He was thinking of our emotional and physical wellbeing as much as our spiritual wellbeing. Dr. McMillen also pointed out that a forgiving spirit could save us from “ulcerative colitis, toxic goiters, high blood pressure, and scores of other diseases”—all possible effects of resentment.

We disregard Gods laws to our peril. This also applies to his moral laws. For one example, think about STDs and AIDS. The reality is that we can no more break Gods moral laws than we can break the law of gravity. When we try to, we only break ourselves. God also has a law of sin and death …. We also defy this to our eternal peril. We will discuss this law in tomorrow’s Daily Encounter.

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, thank You for Your moral laws which You have given in Your Word, the Bible, for my protection and well being. Give me the wisdom to understand them, the faith to believe them, and the good sense and strength to obey them. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus’s name, amen.”

1. Psalm 119:105 (NIV).

2. Dr. S.I. McMillen, None of These Diseases, p. 7.