Forward Movement is an official, non-profit agency of the Episcopal Church whose mission is to create compelling content for Christian living. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.
WEDNESDAY, January 13 (Hilary of Poitiers)
Hebrews 2:11-18. Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.
Just living in Sudan is a test. Everyone in the country has suffered, everyone has been tested. Because of that, the gospel, particularly Jesus' suffering, takes on a greater significance here. When we read of Jesus' suffering from a place of comfort, it is historical, dispassionate. Here it is personal.
Watching the movie The Passion of the Christ, a movie that sparked some controversy in the U.S., I was amazed to see my Sudanese friends weeping. These were not little tears sneaking down their faces; my friends openly wept and sobbed at the pain and agony of Jesus' torture.
And it is this suffering, this torture, that the Sudanese speak of when they evangelize. "Jesus suffered," they say. "He suffered for you! He was beaten as we have been beaten, he was whipped as we have been whipped, he was killed as we have been killed. And he did it all for us!" It is the most powerful witness I have ever seen. How can anyone resist this call to faith, to love, to hope? This is why the gospel is alive and well here, because it is so personal.
PRAY for the Diocese of Akure (Province of Ondo, Nigeria)
Ps 119:1-24 * 12, 13, 14; Genesis 4:1-16; John 1:(29-34)35-42
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Fifteen years ago, I visited an orphanage in Guatemala. The children there were happier with almost nothing than our children in the U.S., mine included, who have it all. There's a lesson in that and I pray that God will continue to remind me of all that we have to be thankful for in this country and to understand what "true suffering" is like, as Jesus and the people in Sudan and other parts of the world know all too well.