A second-grade North Korean schoolboy witnessed his parents reading a passage from the Bible each evening before hiding it under a floor tile, because owning a Bible is forbidden in North Korea.
One day there was a theme day at school and the theme was ’that truly matters’. The little boy had seen how important the Bible was to his parents, and in secret, he had fished the Bible up from the floor and taken it with him to school. When the boy came home from school, his parents were gone, taken by the police. Unlike other Christian parents in North Korea, they had not hidden from their child that they were Christians, precisely to prevent their child from revealing them at school.
For us at Danmark, reading the Bible is not dangerous. Meeting with persecuted Christians has time and again shown me their joy, trust, and zeal for God’s true and saving Word.
How we find fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ in worship, silence, congregational community, and private reading can look quite varied. The most important thing is to let God's saving and liberating word shine on our path and in our lives.
We read in For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bear and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bear fruit and put forth seed, so shall my word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” And Jesus adds: Whoever loves me will keep my word.John 14:23).
Let us bear witness of Jesus with our persecuted brothers & sisters,’that really matters’, and let's draw the power hither into His living and life-giving word.
By Anders Graversen
Parish priest at Kingos Church and chairman of Danish Europe Mission
