Meditation
Christian women in Dogo Nagawa, near Jos, Nigeria, scene of a terrible anti-Christian massacre in March Secondly, the evil that happens to us is not final, however grievous it may appear now. The harm caused to us by our painful trials does not have the last word in our lives; the Lord sets a limit to the pain we endure today. God is aware of it and will help us through our ordeal if we trust Him. Even the threat posed by death is nullified by the promise
that Christ will save us from the second death. So our suffering in this age is limited by the Lord Himself, and we know that if we die for Him He will deliver us from eternal death and give us eternal life. I have been amazed by the stories that have emerged from an earlier outbreak of anti-
Christian violence in Borno, northern Nigeria. A well-coordinated attack on Christians triggered by Boko Haram (a Muslim extremist group) left churches and homes destroyed by fire and many Christians dead. Perhaps the most striking story concerned the brutal murder of two pastors who refused to convert to Islam to gain their freedom and save their lives. One of them, George Orjih, preached to the leader of the militants about Christ before his martyrdom. A fellow kidnap victim who was later released reported: While we were lying there, tied up, George turned to me and said, “If you survive, tell my brethren that I died well, and I am living with Christ. And if we die we will know that we died for the Lord�. George is said to have been singing and praying throughout the ordeal, encouraging the believers not to give up but to be faithful even to death.
A boy beside a car burned out in anti-Christian violence in Nigeria
Not even death, not even martyrdom, has the last word in the lives of Christians. The second death cannot touch us, and there remains for us a resurrection to eternal life. BARNABAS AID JULY/AUGUST 2010
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