Martyr Monday

"EXTREME CHAINS
Cuba: A Christian Prisoner

"Sign the statement!" screamed the Cuban officer, forcing a pen into the Christian prisoner's hand. "Sign the statement!"
The written statement in front of the prisoner contained accusations about other Christians. His signature was all the government needed to arrest the others.
"I cannot sign this paper," the Christian said, calmly lookin the officer in the eye.
"Why not?" asked the captain, with exaggerated calm, before swearing at the man. "Do you not know how to write your own name?"
"It is because of the chain, my friend. The chain keeps me from signing this."
Grabbing the prisoner's hand roughly, the officer held them in front of his face. "But you are not in chains, you idiot!" he screamed.
"Oh, but I am," said the Christian believer. "I am bound by the chains of witnesses who throughout the centuries have given their lives for Christ. I am yet one more link in this chain, and I will not break it."
Though he was threatened and roughed up, the prisoner refused to sign.

Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses... let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Hebrews 12:1

Christian martyrs leave behind a rich testimony of incredible poise in the midst of horrific circumstances. Their strength is heroic. Their words are wise. Their calm is unshakable. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "Words pronounced by the martyrs before authorities are not human words, the simple expression of a human conviction, but words pronounced by the Holy Spirit through the confessors of Jesus." Life by life, link by link, the words spoken through the power of the Holy Spirit in the midst of oppression are forming a powerful testimony. You, too, have the potential to add your own chapter to the pages. You, too, are a link in the chain of belivers. Will you hold it together?"

(White, Tom, comp. "Extreme Chains." Extreme Devotion. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2001. 68.)