11And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. not loving their lives so much that they were afraid to die.
Revelation 12:11
I closed the previous Gem with two quotes from Immaculée Ilibagiza. I am not going to repost them here. The beauty of this amazing website is that everything is so interconnected. If you missed the last Gem or forget what the quotes were, all you have do is go to the bottom of this Gem and click the link on the left to the previous Gem.
Then I wrote: How could she do that? How could anyone do that? Find out in the last Gem of this series. This Gem: The Ultimate Miracle. Somehow it is fitting that this Gem is # 2299.
What is the ultimate miracle? Only one person wrote to me with their guess as to what the ultimate miracle is. Either the rest of you are overwhelmed with the length of the Gems or overwhelmed with the outlandish nature of the content. Or as a couple of people have told me, “I read the Gems but I don’t always click on the extra stories you give us.” Now that’s a pity, there’s gold in those stories.
Ross R wrote: We should not be afraid to die for our faith as we will rise again like the 2 witnesses did and go to heaven perhaps on a cloud. That is the [ultimate] miracle!
It certainly is a miracle Ross. It’s a no-brainer, isn’t it? The worst imaginable thing the enemy (satan) can do to me is the best thing for me: kill me and usher me into the Presence of the Lord in glory as a martyr. The very thing that Muslim Jihadis desire but which their Prophet doesn’t have the power or authority to grant. But no, that is not what I thought of as the ultimate miracle. Although, I must admit if there was an alternative, then it’s probably your choice Ross.
Just click God Story 31: The Greatest Miracle – Forgiveness
There, now you have a link to God Story 31 again. In the midst of the atrocities committed in Maluku in 1999, six Christians from the one church were brutally murdered for being Christian and asked to forsake Christ. The surviving members of the church later gathered clothes, food, and medicine for the people in the village responsible for killing their brothers. The perpetrators and their families were then isolated and being punished for what their men folk had done by the authorities. They were not allowed to bring their produce to market and so were suffering as a result. So the Christians from the New Covenant Church of Christ showed the love of Christ to those who had been responsible for the killings. The title of this God Story is ‘The Ultimate Miracle’ but it was not me who called it “The Ultimate Miracle”, it was Pastor Marty*, not his real name.
How amazing, that these believers could find forgiveness in their hearts to love the killers and their families enough to overcome their grief over the loss of their loved ones. This is not a normal human reaction. It takes the power and the love of God to overcome the horror of such brutal acts in order to do good for those who do evil to us. That without doubt is the greatest miracle! Forgiveness not only offers the ultimate gift to the perpetrator but also sets you free from feelings of retaliation and revenge.
That is what happened to Immaculée Ilibagiza whose story is told in the New York Times best seller Left to Die. Immaculée’s story was also told in brief in her testimony given at the Global Leadership Summit.
https://globalleadership.org/videos/leading-yourself/the-act-of-forgiveness-2
What is even more remarkable is the transformation of Rwanda as a result. Oh, not as a result of Immaculée’s message only, but rather the result of the Rwandan nationwide response to the genocide. In Rwanda’s case, a COUNTRY practised forgiveness, not just some individuals.
There is no greater proof of the existence of miracles that the depth, scope and speed at which my African homeland has been restored.
Immaculée Ilibagiza
The act of forgiveness was the guiding principle of the Rwandan government policy during the trials for the perpetrators of murder and genocide.
Immaculée Ilibagiza
Immaculée has been asked to speak in many countries to tell her testimony about the power of forgiveness which brought the message of Forgiveness to other countries where hatred and unforgiveness reigned.
President Paul Kagame, who was also the leader of the Tutsi rebel army which defeated the Hutu killers, declared it the national duty to forgive any killer who sincerely seeks forgiveness. – A remarkable response!
Left to Tell p 209-210
“Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”
Matthew 18:21-22
Forgive to the point of the perfection of the one who needs forgiveness or forgive until you, yourself, are perfected in your willingness to forgive.
Ian
The remarkable transformation seen since the holocaust in 1994 has been on both a national and an individual level and all accomplished by the power of forgiveness. As seen in the quote above from Paul Kagame, this president realised that Rwanda was only going to get past this dark period in their history if ALL Rwandans could forgive on a national and personal level. Rwandans: Hutu, Tutsi and Twa heeded the call and embraced the challenge of Paul Kagame. Within 20 years Rwanda has gone from utter devastation to remarkable transformation.
- The capital, Kigali, now has one of the highest ecomonic growth rates in Africa.
- Rwanda has one of the lowest corruption rates of any national government in the world.
- The majority of parliamentary seats are now held by women, who were once oppressed and downtrodden.
- Rwanda now boasts 20 universities as compared with 2 at the outbreak of the genocide.
- The number of high schools have more than tripled.
All of these achievements have happened since July 19th 1994, when Rwandan streets, towns and villages were littered with the corpses of a million people of all tribal descent and with the survivors left feeling intense anger and hopelessness. The genocide began on April 7th 1994 and ended on July 19th 1994, 103 days later. After 100 days over a million people had been slaughtered leaving the nation shocked.
The key to this transformation IS found in forgiveness!
Once again I have structured this Gem differently. The quotes all relate to Rwanda, hence I have placed them above and not at the end of the Gem as I normally do. I have another level to tell you about in this Gem which relates to a principle called ‘pela’ which is practised in Indonesia. It is claimed that the ‘pela’ system was practised only between the Ambonese Christians and Muslims. Pela is a mutuality of respect for practitioners of the other religion to the point where Christians guarded the mosques on Friday and the Muslims guarded the churches on Sunday. This was to ensure that saboteurs were not successful in stirring up strife and ethnic or religious repraisals following the covert action of those seeking to create mayhem. See God Story 68. It worked not only to thwart the saboteurs but also the radical members on either side of the religious divide. If you take the time to read this God Story, you need to know the events described took place on the island of Sulawesi. The system of ‘pela’ was not only practised in Ambon, it was wider than that.
I believe I have given you a balanced view of what happened in many of these examples of martyrdom, where atrocities were committed. There were Christians who attacked Muslim homes and worship places as well as the other way around. The authorities and Global Humanity Watch have documented most of incidents but realised the cause was complex. As God’s people, I believe we need to have a right balance between Luke 22:51 [Enough of that talk, no swords] and Matthew 18:22 [forgiveness until one of you is perfected].
After writing all these Gems on martyrdom, I believe, if I am faced with a demand for martyrdom, I would certainly not take up the sword or any other weapon, I would, like Perpetua and Felicia, run to my martyrdom boldly and if given the opportunity to talk I would say, “Kill me if you must, I will never deny Jesus Christ, but allow me to share a message from God for you before you kill me.”