THOUGHTS ON FREEDOM

I just finished meeting with the pastor of our Armenian-Iranian church that meets in Glendale. Technically Pastor George Hovsepian is a staff member of our church who is in charge of the Armenian department. In reality, while I provide some oversight, Pastor George is pastoring an almost separate church where they speak Armenian and Farsi. Pastor George is a former pastor with the Assemblies of God in Iran. His older brother, Haik Hovsepian, was the Superintendent of the Assemblies of God when he was martyred by the Iranian Secret Police over a decade ago. While there he was taken captive by the Secret Police himself and threatened with death if he did not stop telling non-Christians the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ.

All of this got me thinking about how much we take for granted both our freedom from persecution and our freedom in Jesus Christ. The freedom from persecution is obvious. The fact is that no one has ever been killed by our government for preaching the gospel here in the US. I do not wonder from week to week if our church services will be broken up by the police. I am not worried for my own personal safety. These are great blessings for which we can thank God. But even more wonderful is the freedom we have in Jesus Christ. This is a freedom that is not dependent on governments. Our freedom from sin is granted by God himself and cannot be taken away by any government. Perhaps that is why average attendance at the main Assemblies of God church went from around 30 in 1978 before the Islamic Revolution to almost 1,000 within less than a year of the Revolution. And, where we have perhaps 1,500 believers in A/G churches in 1978, today, even when so many have fled to the US and other western countries, there are now more than 100,000. Everyone of them is at risk in Iran. And everyone of them has experienced the freedom that comes from God in Christ and cannot be taken away by this world. Praise the Lord!

Pastor Ken