SPEAKER_00: Good morning, it's Dan and welcome to your daily walk.
SPEAKER_00: Today's scripture is Philippians 1:14, which says that most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
SPEAKER_00: What I'd like to talk to you about today is something that sparks interest in a cause faster than almost anything, and that is persecution in the form of imprisonment.
SPEAKER_00: If you're gathering a large following in your cause and you are wrongfully arrested and sent to prison, your followers will make their voices heard and the civil authorities will bemoan the fact that they sent you to prison in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: For example, when Nelson Mandela was put in prison for fighting apartheid, that poor man spent 27 years behind bars, but his long imprisonment turned him into a symbol of freedom and strength.
SPEAKER_00: In the early 1900s, Emmeline Pankhurst was arrested in England several times for fighting for women to have the right to vote.
SPEAKER_00: Soon, other women who supported her cause were arrested as well.
SPEAKER_00: While in prison, Pankhurst and her friends went on a hunger strike, which led to harsh treatment by the guards.
SPEAKER_00: And then media attention caused public opinion to swell in her favor, so much so that in 1918, women in Ireland and England were finally granted the right to vote.
SPEAKER_00: Then who can forget Martin Luther King Jr., who was jailed in Birmingham, Alabama, for peaceful protests?
SPEAKER_00: He wrote a famous letter from his jail cell about civil rights, and his arrest galvanized national attention and support for his movement.
SPEAKER_00: So, if you're ever persecuted for the sake of the gospel, your suffering can cause a community to act with greater boldness and faith.
SPEAKER_00: This is what happened in the case of Paul when his imprisonment served to motivate the Philippian believers to be bold in their proclamation of the faith.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray that we would share the same boldness today.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining me and have a great day.