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希伯来书11:35-40:35有妇人得自己的死人复活，又有人忍受严刑，不肯苟且得释放（释放原文作赎），为要得着更美的复活。36又有人忍受戏弄、鞭打、捆锁、监禁各等的磨炼，37被石头打死，被锯锯死，受试探，被刀杀，披着绵羊、山羊的皮各处奔跑，受穷乏，患难、苦害，38在旷野、山岭、山洞、地穴、飘流无定，本是世界不配有的人。39这些人都是因信得了美好的证据，却仍未得着所应许的。40因为神给我们预备了更美的事，叫他们若不与我们同得，就不能完全。
凯拉·穆勒是一名在叙利亚工作的基督徒援助工作者，她一心想拯救那里百姓的生命。她被恐怖组织“伊斯兰国”绑架，而且被这个组织的头目囚禁了。他们让她听洗脑录音带，但她拒绝放弃她的基督信仰。她被那个恐怖组织的头目多次性侵。2015年，她被杀害了。你简直无法想象这样的事情发生在21世纪，但它确实发生了。希伯来书的作者写道：“他们本是世界不配有的人。”
他们被称作殉道者是有原因的。殉道者这个词本来是希腊语，意思是做见证的人。上帝的子民用他们的生命，甚至是死亡，为他们的信仰作见证。在古罗马，基督徒被拖进角斗场，当那些野兽撕碎他们的时候，他们却唱起赞美诗。角斗场的观众为他们眼前的景象而颤抖。让他们颤抖的不是野兽，而是这些基督徒面对死亡时心中所存的盼望。
总有一天我会和这些殉道者一起站在上帝的宝座前。我会亲眼看见这些基督信仰中的英雄，他们为自己的信仰勇敢地活着并勇敢地死去。当我把自己和这些勇敢的基督徒相提并论的时候，这似乎有些奇怪。但我之所以能够这样说，因为我知道我也是唯独靠信心称义。我祷告我的生命能一直反映出我所相信的。我希望自己也能成为一名殉道者，就是那为基督信仰作见证的人。
祷告：天父，我知道我是你亲爱的孩子，因信耶稣而被称为义，在圣洗礼中我披戴耶稣基督。在我们即将结束关于信心的英雄这一章内容的时候，我祈求你也能让我成为一名殉道者，就是为我的信仰作见证的人；不论是生还是死，我所做的一切都归荣耀给你。阿们。
Hebrews 11: 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning;[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. 39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Kayla Mueller was a Christian aid worker in Syria who only wanted to save people’s lives. She was kidnapped by ISIS and held captive by their leader. They made her listen to propaganda tapes, but she refused to give up her Christian faith. She was raped repeatedly by the leader of Isis. In 2015 she was killed. You can’t imagine these things happening in the 21st century, but they do. “The world is not worthy of them,” the writer the Hebrews says.
There is a reason they are called martyrs. Martyr is the Greek word for witness. By their lives and even by their deaths, God’s people give a witness to what they believe. In ancient Rome, Christians were dragged into the arenas and they sang hymns as wild animals tore them apart. The people in the arenas trembled at what they saw. It wasn’t the beasts that made them tremble, but the hope that these Christians had in their hearts when they died.
Someday I will stand with those martyrs before the throne of God. I will see these heroes of our Christian faith who so boldly lived and died for what they believed. It seems strange that I can actually say that I will be with these brave Christian people. Yet, I can say it because I know that I am righteous by faith alone. I pray that my life will always reflect what I believe and that I will be a martyr, too, a witness to my Christian faith. Prayer: Father, I know that I am your dear child, righteous by faith in Jesus, clothed with Christ in my baptism. As I finish this chapter on the heroes of faith, I pray that you will make me a martyr, too, a witness to what I believe, so that in all that I do, either in life or in death, I will give you the glory you deserve. Amen.