MALABAR , INDIA -- Persecuted Christians soon willingly forget hardships and forgive torture and beatings they have experienced when they see the unlimited number of lost souls who are coming to Christ and experiencing Salvation.
That was the thrust of a message by Pastor Paul Ciniraj Mohamed, the Director of the Salem Voice Ministries (SVM), based in Kerala, India, as he inaugurated a day of fasting and prayer for persecuted Christians at the annual conference of the SVM held in Malabar, India on Friday, January 12.
Ciniraj likened the experience of these believers to that of a woman forgetting the intense pain of labor during childbirth, and rejoicing when she sees the baby she has given birth to.
Ciniraj said Christian missionaries to the Muslim world and converts to Christianity from Islam are facing severe persecution around the globe.
"Many are murdered, shot dead, burned dead, beaten, kidnapped, lose their houses, lose their children and their families. But their blood is becoming the seed of the church and millions of million Muslims are converting to Christianity day by day."
Salem Voice Ministries is involved in this great task to evangelize and establish the underground house churches in different nations, Ciniraj explaimed.
He continued: "There are about one billion and six hundred million Muslims all over the world. You may think is it possible to evangelize them? Yes! It is possible and within few years all of the Muslim nations will accept Jesus as Lord. Because our Lord 'is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, ' " (2 Peter 3:9).
Ciniraj said that each and every believer must possess a missionary spirit to convey the Gospel of the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Muslims "without pride, prejudice and fear."
He also described how Salem Voice Ministries approach Muslims with the Gospel.
"Allah and Yahweh are not the same God," he said. "If one did not believe in Jesus as the living God then it is impossible to say they are the same God. We, the Christians must be clear that Muslims believe in Jesus, although not the same exact Jesus of the Bible, and (must) be direct and unabashed about our faith when we witness to Muslims."
Ciniraj said the Islamic concept of Jihad is prescribed in both the Koran and Hadith, "But there are some specific protocols in Islam, like women do not carry out Jihad. And also Islam has a lower view of woman than Christianity.
