A Martyred Pastor, Mingled Sweat and Awake!

This is an e-mail that my wife and I received from a college friend, Clayton King, a few days ago. It was the type of letter that has a profound way of re-prioritizing your day. Clayton founded CrossRoads Worldwide over ten years ago. He travels extensively preaching the Gospel, holding student camps in the Summer and plugs volunteers into mission opportunities. I encourage you to check out www.claytonking.com for an introduction to this ministry. I trust his letter might prove insightful to your life and your soul.


Dear Friends,

We are admonished in scripture to remember those in chains as if we were in chains with them. It is with a heavy heart that I ask you to pray for the family of Pastor Prem Kumar in Andra Pradesh, India.

Prem Kumar was murdered on Thursday, June 8th by a group of men pretending to ask him to join in a time of prayer. His head was smashed with a large stone and his body was discarded in a jungle.

Pastor Kumar leaves a wife, two sons and a daughter. Their names are Sulochana, Sudhir, Sunit and Prem Latha, respectively.

Crossroads has been actively involved in ministry in India since 1996 and has sent hundreds of volunteers to Asia since that time. Our good friend, Dr. Samuel Thomas [of Hopegivers International, see www.hopegivers.org ] was recently released from prison after being held for nearly two months on false charges. He and his father, Dr. M.A. Thomas, both have $26,000 bounties on their heads and neither is able to move freely or enjoy basic human rights in their own native land. Samuel has not seen his two sons, Timothy and Steven, in months.

It is so easy for us to immerse ourselves in ourselves. Life moves along and we get lulled into apathy. The sounds of the radio or the images on a TV screen just put us to spiritual sleep. We daydream while the pastor preaches, we show up late because we can not find where we left our Bible after church last Sunday. We just coast along, complaining about traffic or taxes or slow service at Wal-Mart.

While we drone on obliviously, a pastor's skull was crushed and his life ended because of his allegiance to Christ. While I fuss over a Duke Power energy bill, a wife and three children are without a father in India. And in the time it took me to type this email, several hundred people in Africa died of malnutrition, malaria, dysentery, or AIDS. While my local radio station warns me to stay indoors because of high Ozone levels, another girl is sold into the world of human slave trafficking on the streets of Bangkok.

Prem Kumar died for one simple reason; THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. He believed it to an insane degree. The gospel is sickening and offensive to those who are lost in sin. It calls them out of their sinful stupor and shines merciful light on their disease. The gospel then showers them with grace; the opportunity to be forgiven, to be reconciled with God and man, to start new. Some will take the offer and run with it, while others will simply kill the messenger.

This is the Christ of the gospel. He makes demands. As Bonheoffer said, when Christ bids someone to follow Him, He bids them to come and die. What a tragedy to us, that a dear brother and laborer for the Kingdom leaves behind a hurting family. What a glorious arrival in heaven, though, as a martyr was welcomed with a crown of life. I wonder if Jesus stood up when Prem Kumar entered Heaven, as He did when Steven was stoned in the book of Acts?

My son, right now, is playing at my feet. He is 11 months old and is pulling on my toe, biting my leg, and laughing. What is the greatest wrong I could ever do to my son? I think it would be to teach him by my example to be an apathetic man. To turn the channel when the documentary makes me uncomfortable. To delete the email when I begin to feel conviction for my lack of compassion. To walk right on past the old gentleman at the market who can barely put one sack of groceries in his car without offering assistance.

What is the best I can do for my son? To live like Christ. To stop and pay attention. To offer what I have to those who have not. And to one day, if God desires, to lose my life for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. What greater legacy for Prem Kumar's children and grandchildren to know that he was faithful in life and in death.

Pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters. Then do more than pray. Write letters. Appeal to governments. Send money. Share the gospel. Push Congress and the White House to be agressive in rescuing the suffering in Sudan, Congo, Somalia, and Niger as much as they are in keeping gas prices down. And preach the gospel. Share the gospel. LIVE the gospel.

Here is where you can start...

www.persecution.com
This is the website for Voice of the Martyrs and is the definitive voice for the persecuted church worldwide.

www.persecution.in
This deals specifically with India and even has photos of burning churches and murdred Christians (Prem Kumar's photo is there).

Be a voice on behalf of those who pay a high price for their faith in Jesus Christ.

For Christ,

Clayton King


Lord, too often, I take for granted the freedom I have to live and love and worship and pray. I take lightly the cost of following Christ as scores of believers around the world consider carefully how their decision to gather with other believers may be the last time they gather with anyone on earth. They risk to worship you—live that you might be praised—though it may cost them their lives.

I recently spoke to a pastor that recently went to Senegal on a Mission Trip. He shared with me how he was crammed in the downstairs room of a house with believers. His “American” space was completely invaded and decimated as believers joyfully gathered together shoulder to shoulder with their sweat mingling in the hot summer night to praise their Savior. The pastor led the congregation in praise to God and then preached the Word all the while a “guard” was posted out front to watch for soldiers that may come to break up the meeting. Sweat mingling. Guards posted. O Lord, how easily I am distracted.

Awake me O Lord. Awake your church in America that is overly concerned about secondary [or “thirdinary”] things or worse yet, not concerned at all! Let us be awakened by the call of your Word to the primary thing. Let us, like King Josiah of old, be freshly reintroduced to your Word and your holiness in such a way that we tear our clothes and awake from our slumber. Let the asherah poles be removed from the seats of our hearts. Let us be salt. Let us be light. Help us, O Lord, to take the baskets off our heads. Be pleased to awaken your people for your glory. Let it begin with me Father. Let it begin with me. Amen.


Books4InsideYourHead

When it comes to using your life for and enjoying God’s glory, there is no better author than John Piper. His classic volume, Desiring God (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 1996), introduced readers to his credo, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” This volume, originally published in 1986, could reorient things for you. If you are looking for something a little more doable for the summer, let me suggest his slim book Don’t Waste Your Life. (No Christian College student should be allowed to graduate from school before reading this book.)

Last summer I discovered Praise Habit (Colorado Springs: Think Books, 2004) by David Crowder. Yes, the Crowder of the David Crowder Band fame! (I saw his hair once in person!)This is a collection of devotional thoughts on various Psalms. Good reading and much to edify your soul.

Have you ever thought to yourself, why can’t our team at work [or church, at school, etc.] be more effective? Why am I always so frustrated about it? The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2002) by Patrick Lencioni is a real gem if this is a question you have ever asked yourself. I was introduced to Lencioni at a Lead Like Jesus conference in November of 2004. You can find a video of him talking about this subject matter from the Willow Creek Association web site. This book is great for anyone who desires to see teams work more effectively and strategically. It is a good read because it is done through the means of story instead of the sharing of theory. I highly recommend it.