Nowhere in the New Testament do I find that Christians are to expect to be easy, popular, comfortable and successful in the eyes of this age. The servant is not better than his Lord. And Christ was despised… In many parts of the world today, it still means suffering to become a Christian. When you become a Christian in some areas of the world today, it means that you are thrown out from your family and home and friends. It means that you become a spectacle of the world…

He invited us not to a picnic, but to a pilgrimage; not to a frolic, but to a fight. He offered us not an excursion, but an execution. He said that we would have to realize death to self, sin and the world… Salvation is free; but discipleship costs everything we have…

Never has the devil been in greater control than today. Christians are a foreign influence in a minority group in a heathen world… You are a Christian if you have received Christ. But you have not been living a fully committed, surrendered life to Christ if you have no scars of the conflict or battle. I beg of you to surrender your personality to Christ and be ready if necessary to bear His reproach without the camp and suffer and die if necessary to live this Christian life. Sometimes it is easy to die for Christ, but it is difficult to live for Christ. God wants men and women today that will live the Christian life and in living the life you may find that you will have scars.

Billy Graham, Hour of Decision 1955

Christians continue to face persecution today. Join us in praying this week as the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Franklin Graham host the first-ever World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians.