GRAHAM STAINES – “A LIVING SACRIFICE”

Today is one of the blackest days in Indian Church history. Very rarely has the Church in India had witnessed such brutal and cold-blooded murder since the beginning of Christianity in 52 AD. It is a clash between two positions. On the one side is the Christian love, service and sacrifice for the poor, the needy and the untouchable lepers. On the other side is the fanaticism, fuelled by fear of losing people to Christ the Redeemer.

This day, the 23rd January, in 1999, a good 27 years back, Graham Staines and his two sons, Philip [10] and Timothy [6] while sleeping in their jeep, were burnt alive by a mob of fifty religious fanatics. The brutality of this ghastly murder is in the fact that, when Graham and his two sons, tried to escape the flames and death, the frenzied mob forcefully pushed them back into the burning jeep. Such was their lust for their blood, which reflects their intense hatred for Christ and His people.
– “10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” – Matthew 5:10-12

Graham Stuart Staines (18 January 1941 to 23 January 1999) an Australian Christian Missionary, visited India for the first time in the year 1965. He was working in the Evangelical Missionary Society of Mayurbhanj, among the leprosy victims of Mayurbhanj, in Orissa, India. He met Gladys, his future wife, in 1981 while they both were working with the leprosy patients. They got married in 1983, and had three beautiful children – Esther, Philip and Timothy. Graham, was also involved in the translation of a part of the Holy Bible into the language of the Ho people of Orissa. He did cross-check the entire manuscript of the New Testament.

– Graham Staines poured out his life as “A LIVING SACRIFICE” while serving His LORD, as His disciple, His witness and an instrument of help in the hands of His Master and Saviour. 
– He is much loved and very fondly remembered as a gentle, kind and loving Christian man, by the people whom he served.
– Gladys, the widowed wife of Graham Staines, is a strong pillar of Christian love, forgiveness and witness, in the wake of her husband and two children’s brutal murder.
– She chose to openly forgive the killers of her husband and her two children.
– She chose willingly and joyfully to continue the good work of her husband.
– She chose to walk the path that the LORD Jesus had laid down for His disciples to follow, just like her husband, Graham Stuart Staines.
– “In forgiveness, there is no bitterness and when there is no bitterness, there is hope. This consolation comes from Jesus Christ.” – Gladys Staines

In the times to come, many of us will be compelled to offer our lives as “A LIVING SACRIFICE” because of our faith in the LORD Jesus Christ, just as did Graham Staines and his two little sons, Phillip and Timothy. May the LORD grant us His strength to be His true witnesses in the face of blood-thirsty mobs, who will be bent upon killing Christians, as their “noble” and “rightful” duty. This is no fiction, nor some demented fantasy, greatly desired by some crazy Christians. If we are able to see, this is the general direction of the course of events, all across the world, more so like ours.
– “18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.” – John 15:18-21
Therefore, let us seek the LORD for His grace and strength to stand up for Him, as His witnesses. Even so, the LORD help us.