Describe the work of a modern day persecuted Christian?
MAXIMILLIAN KOLBE
Maximillian Kolbe was a catholic priest who ministered to people living in Poland in 1939. At the time Adolf Hitler the German leader was marching his Nazi troops towards his homeland. They invaded Poland and Maximillian used his church building as a hospital and a haven for Polish refugees. It was for this reason that a group of German soldiers arrested him and all but two of his Co-workers. They were taken into live stock trailers and later to Amitiz prison were they suffered horrible conditions and were still able to survive. After a few weeks they were released and returned to the church were Maximillian again begun to minister to the people of his community.
After a year and a half the Nazi told Maximillian what to preach, but he didn’t listen to them and continued preaching the word from the bible. He was once again arrested and taken to the dreaded Auschwitz concentration camp were he was assigned timber detail, he was to carry trunks of fallen trees from one place to another at the pace o a trot. One day Maximillian fell under the weight of the wood he was carrying and the guards whipped him with their whips and kicked him with their leather boots. He was then stretched out on a pile of wood and shoved into a ditch covered with branches and there he was left to die. Miraculously he survived and was taken to a different barrack where he continued to minister to his fellow prisoners.
It was while he was in this barrack that one of the prisoner escaped and several prisoners from his barrack were going to be sentenced to death because of his escape.
The commandant and his assistant choose 10 men who were to be execute, who were to be put in the starvation bunker. One cry and mourn over his wife and children. Suddenly Maxmillian stepped out of the line and begun to address the commandant so that he could take the place of one of the men. He was given a chance to choose the man who was cried.
While in the starvation bunker unlike other prisoners who had been there, they sang and worshiped God instead of fighting as others had done before.
The bunker was needed for new occupant, but they were still four of the ten left of which one was Maxmillian who was the last one to die when the German Doctor injected the four in order to finish them. When it was Maxmillian’s turn he smiled at the Doctor and died.
His belief and faith helped him and the other prisoners to die a peaceful death and to overcome everything that came before them. His effects changed other people’s lives like the man who cried though he died not show any gratitude to Maxmillian, he cared less.
Maxmillian was a person to be admired, he always made decisions to benefit others, even if they were going to get killed. I admired his love. He showed love even to his persecutor
Explain how Jesus gave persecuted Christians an example to follow.
- Mark 8:34-38
This passage is about Jesus telling his disciples what they should do in order for them to go with him to Heaven. He says that a person gains nothing if he wins the whole world but loses his life. It’s better that person loses his life for Jesus; by doing this he saves his life.
This can help a persecuted Christian in that it tells him that by doing good deeds he is losing his life for Jesus and the gospel is saving it and it shows that he is not ashamed of doing Jesus’ work so Jesus will not be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his father with the holy angels
- Mark 10:29-31
In this passage Jesus is saying that if anyone leaves home or his family and all his treasures and riches for Jesus and the gospel he is going to receive a hundred times more of all his treasures and family.
This helps a persecuted Christians in the sense that the more persecutions the person goes through the more he adds up to the riches for he surely will be rewarded for everything he did while he was on earth when the day of judgement comes
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Mark 13: 9-13
In this passage Jesus tells about what will happen to the disciples when he dies and tells them to be on guard because they will be persecuted for preaching the good news and that children will turn against their parents and how everyone will hate them for preaching the good news
Explain How Jesus’ Own Sufferings and His Resurrection Is a help to Persecuted Christians.
Jesus’ own suffering can help a persecuted Christian in many ways but the main way is to hold onto the faith and never give up.
His friends betrayed him and let him down instead of hating them he forgave them and showed his love for them. This is what happens to many persecuted Christians and to overcome their persecutions they have to show love to their enemies and forgive them.
When he was beaten and mocked he didn’t say a word or defend himself in any way even though he had the power to save himself with a word, he was humble which is a good example to follow when persecuted because of saying the truth. “THE BEST LIFE IS A QUITE LIFE.”
A persecuted Christian can overcome persecution by following Jesus’ ways. He was always showing love to his enemies and forgave them, even when he had the power to show them he was the Son of God, he remained humble and said nothing. His ways can help Christians to realise that there is a reward in Heaven for all the work you had done while on earth and all the persecutions you had overcome and that there is eternal life.
