Charlotte Hornets’ Jeremy Lin asked fans to intercede for “global Christian revival” in his latest prayer request email.
“Please pray for global Christian revival. Specific areas that I feel God has put on my heart are Asian-Americans in the U.S. who are lukewarm in their faith, the billions in China who don’t know Christ and Taiwan/Hong Kong. I obviously care about many other places, but these are very near and dear to my heart!” Lin wrote.
The Chinese government has been cracking down on Christian activity recently, amping up persecution against pastors who stand for faith.
Evangelist Franklin Graham announced an international summit to defend the persecuted.
“2015 was just reported in the media as the worst year for Christian persecution,” Franklin Graham wrote on his Facebook page Wednesday. “More than twice as many Christians were killed for their faith than in the previous year—making it the worst in history since these statistics have been tracked.”
Graham met with Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church last year to discuss the plight of Christians around the world.
Kirill even bridged 1,000-year rift between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches when he and Pope Francis came together to raise awareness of persecution.
“Our gaze must firstly turn to those regions of the world where Christians are victims of persecution. In many countries of the Middle East and North Africa, whole families, villages and cities of our brothers and sisters in Christ are being completely exterminated,” the two said in a joint statement.
But the two also believe, like Lin, that revival is possible. Kirill and Francis look to today’s youth to bring about godly change.
“Today, in a particular way, we address young Christians. You, young people, have the task of not hiding your talent in the ground (Matt 25:25), but of using all the abilities God has given you to confirm Christ’s truth in the world, incarnating in your own lives the evangelical commandments of the love of God and of one’s neighbor,” according to the joint resolution.
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