The fire which burned in all these was so bright, so strong that not even death could extinguish it.
About 200 A.D. when the persecution was at full force and Christians were being persecuted left and right. If they would not renounce Jesus Christ, they were often burned or thrown to lions or other animals to be slaughtered.
It is said that near the end of the Roman persecution that so many had died this was that the beasts had grown fat and would no longer consume them.
A young woman named Perpetua lived during this time in Carthage, North Africa. The account of the deaths of her and two others is grisly and extremely disturbing.
But God had prepared her in advance for all that she would face, after being stripped and thrown to a mad heifer, ultimately dying after having her throat slashed, her testimony lives on eighteen hundred years later.
The true voice of her victory can be read in her own words, much like Ann Frank she had kept a diary, the details of her death later added.
She had embarked on her death march by singing hymns, she went to the aid of a young girl name Felicitas who had been sentenced to death with her, they kissed good-bye, and she is quoted as saying to her brother, these words, which still ring as true and pure as the day they went from her lips.
“You must all stand fast in faith and love one another and do not be weakened by what we have gone through.”
Mirror this to another fascinating lady, Jael, from Judges 4,
She probably invented the old adage that you catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar, while Sisera was busy terrorizing everyone, he made the bad mistake of thinking that her home would be a safe haven, after making him comfortable and providing greater than he had asked for, verse 22 tells us this, “Then Jael, Heber’s wife took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary, so he died. There is a wonderful song about her in Judges Chapter five.
So what’s with all the ancient history? Ecclesiastes 1:9
” The thing which that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
According to one source. one out of three girls and one out of four boys are sexually assaulted during their childhood, according to 2010 research every seven minutes a woman is raped, countless children sold into slavery, countless animals are tortured and abandoned, abortions are responsible for millions of sanctioned murders every year.
Leaving also in the wake the soul stripped child mothers who were coerced into this “easy fix” for their “problem”.
Elder abuse, rampant domestic violence, not to mention homelessness, hunger, the list to go on forever.
So many hurting, lost people in our world who feel so helpless and so hopeless.
What can we do? Do not turn a blind eye to them, pray for awareness, through the indwelling of the Holy spirit your prayers can cover people you will never meet.
The blood of the Lamb you can pray over all these. God called us to be intercessors.
 I am not suggesting nailing people’s heads to the ground or radical empowerment, I am suggesting this:
2 CORINTHIANS 3:4:” FOR THOUGH WE WALK IN THE FLESH, WE DO NOT WAR AFTER THE FLESH: FOR THE WEAPONS OF OUR WARFARE ARE NOT CARNAL, BUT MIGHTY THROUGH GOD TO THE PULLING DOWN OF STRONG HOLDS.
Think of the faith and courage these and others had, let God rise up in all of us and lead us into a prayer that will change the world!
Original Date:01/19/2013. All rights reserved. Rev. Nina Brown Johnson  2015 REVISITED 02/09/22 Φλογιζω  Also listen to podcast at https://anchor.fm/phlogizo

Also for complete series: OF MADMEN, MARTYRS AND MAIDS/ PART1 and OF MADMEN, MARTYRS, AND MAIDS/ PART 2