“Today, I remember the Good Shepherd in light of the persecuted church. As I write, headlines tell of the murder of some 147 students in Kenya. At 5:30 AM on Thursday, April 2, students attending Garissa University College—a school seated near the Kenyan/Somali border—were battered by gunfire.”

Persecution of African (and Middle-Eastern) Christians continues to increase, as does the gradual cultural degradation of historic Christianity in the West. This post is a prayer to the Lord, our Great Shepherd. May He raise his rod and staff high and bring comfort to his persecuted flock around the world. He is the God of both our green pastures and our shadowy valleys.

The Lord is my shepherd (Psalm 23:1). I ask that you read this sentence with an intentional stress on the word “Lord.” For indeed, Psalm 23 as a whole is a series of unsupportable claims without the word “Lord” as the subject noun of the first sentence. The entire psalm only makes sense if the Lord is indeed the shepherd; for in that case, the sheep surely shall not want.

The character and the ability of the shepherd is what gives assurance, and our Lord is a shepherd who is both good and strong (Psalm 62:11-12). He is the Lord Almighty and his faithfulness surrounds him (Psalm 89:8). He will never leave nor forsake his own (John 14:16-20). God’s attributes prove the certainty of Psalm 23 as they do the whole of Scripture; therefore, in him we rest assured.

Today, I remember the Good Shepherd in light of the persecuted church. As I write, headlines tell of the murder of some 147 students in Kenya. At 5:30 AM on Thursday, April 2, students attending Garissa University College—a school seated near the Kenyan/Somali border—were battered by gunfire. The 15-hour siege ended with nearly 150 dead; most were identified as Christians—shot execution style as they lay face down on the ground, according to reports from the Telegraph.

Their killers were fighters from the Islamic militant group Shabab. The gunmen’s first stop, upon arriving on the campus, was an early morning Christian prayer meeting. 29 students were gathered in a circle for prayer when the barrel of a gun appeared at the door. The first target was the young woman leading the prayer. The Los Angeles Times reports that of the 29 assembled, only seven survived to tell the tale.

Indeed, Christians in many parts of the world are daily treading the valley of the shadow of death. At the start of the year, the Huffington Post reported increased persecution of Christians worldwide. While we’ve heard a great deal (and rightfully so) about the murder of Christians in the Middle East, sub-Saharan African Christians face increased threats from radical Islamists. Last year alone, 2,484 Nigeria believers were killed by Muslims for their faith. The Huffington Post says in this report, regarding the spike in Christian persecution, “Even Christian majority states are experiencing unprecedented levels of exclusion, discrimination and…violence.”

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on raanetwork.org – however, the original URL is no longer available.]