This past Sunday, I preached from Revelation 22:1-5 about the new heavens and the new earth and all that we have in store for us once we die.  One of the promises in that passage is that there will be a tree of life, and that the leaves on the tree will be for the healing of the nations.  To any casual observer of world politics, you can appreciate the beauty behind this statement.  In that new world, when the curse is broken and the dwelling of God is with man, the nations will no longer be at war, but will at last experience healing from the divisions that have destroyed this world so many times over.

 Keeping that promise in mind, as well as this month’s focus on the persecuted church, and with Thanksgiving coming up this week, let me share another story of what is going on in this mad, mad world (courtesy WorldNet Daily):

Hindu extremist groups are offering money, food and alcohol to anyone who murders Christians and destroys their homes.
The violence is nothing new in Orissa, India, where India’s Communist Party estimates that more than 500 Christians have been killed by Hindu mobs in Orissa since late August, 12 times more than official government claims of only 40 homicides.
But now the stakes are even higher – and pastors have a bounty on their heads.
Faiz Rahman, chairman of Good News India, said Hindu militants are targeting Christian leaders, the Christian Post reported.
“The going price to kill a pastor is $250,” he said.
Rahman, a head of several orphanages in Orissa State, said he’s helped 25 pastors to leave refugee camps, but 250 Christian leaders are still in shelters.
“All of the pastors are high value targets,” Rahman told the UK-based Release International. “We’ve got to get them out of the refugee camps.”
An All-India Christian Council spokesman said, “People are being offered rewards to kill, and to destroy churches and Christian properties. They are being offered foreign liquor, chicken, mutton and weapons. They are given petrol and kerosene.”
One official said he personally authorized “cremation of more than 200 bodies” found in jungles after Christians were blamed for the death of Hindu leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati on Aug. 24. They continue to be persecuted even though Maoists openly admitted to murdering Saraswati.
Thousands of homes and churches have been destroyed, and an estimated 50,000 Christians have been forced to flee the violence. Mission Network News estimates 5,000 Christian homes have been burned and 200 churches ruined. According to the Christian Post, 30,000 people remain in government-operated refugee camps. Tens of thousands are living in forests – many seriously wounded.
Father Manoj, based at the archbishop’s office in Bhubaneshwar, said Christians remain in hiding.
“They are too scared to go home. They know that if they return to their villages they will be forced to convert to Hinduism.”
Religious rights group Barnabus Fund told the group Hindu militants “forced” Christians in Orissa to “convert” to Hinduism by threatening them with rape if they refused.
Neighbors reportedly gang-raped a Hindu woman after her Christian uncle refused to renounce his faith, according to reports.
Another Christian woman named Jaspina was told by neighbors, “If you go on being Christian, we will burn your house and your children in front of you.” She and her family were forced to eat cow excrement to “purify” themselves of Christianity.
Other Christians were doused with gasoline and told to participate in conversion ceremonies or be lit on fire.
This week, Hindu extremists said they have set a deadline for the capture of Saraswati’s murderers. If the killers are not caught by Dec. 15, they promised to begin a massacre on Dec. 25, Christmas day.
According to the latest report, Orissa’s Catholic bishops wrote an ominous letter to the state’s chief minister. It read, “This conflict is a calculated and pre-planned master plan to wipe out Christianity from Kandhamal in order to realize the hidden agenda … of establishing a Hindu nation.”

I simply can’t imagine being a wanted man simply for being a pastor.  $250 to have a pastor killed?  Are we really that dangerous?  I thank God that I do not face such opposition here in America, and pray for my brothers and sisters abroad that God would strengthen them in the face of such persecution.

Lord, we continue praying for your church around the world, especially those who find themselves persecuted simply because they are following you.  We know your heart breaks at the violence with which your children destroy each other, and we long for that day when the nations will finally experience healing.  Until that day, give us and our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world the strength and perseverance we need to follow you to the end.  May your justice and righteousness reign in India, and your kingdom come on earth as it is in Heaven.  Amen.

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