Persecution Blog

VOM's Jason Peters Featured on ChurchLeaders Podcast

VOM’s Dr. Jason Peters recently shared stories of Christians facing Islamic extremists with Andrew Hess of ChurchLeader’s Podcast.

They discussed the current state of persecution around the world, and specific ways that we can pray and support those who are experiencing persecution. 

Peters noted that in ISIS-controlled areas of the Middle East, Christians can “either convert to Islam or they can stand for Christ and lose everything they own, or maybe even their life.” When asked about the graphic photos and testimonies that often accompany persecution stories, Peters responded, “This is our family. We need to know their stories; we are not going to sugar coat what’s happening.”

He then shared a concern that many Christians have as they consider their own response to persecution. “I wonder, would I be able to stand up under this kind of persecution? I’ll be honest with you, the only answer is yes, because it wouldn’t be me, it would be Christ in me.”

VOM’s new book, “I Am N” shares riveting accounts of believers who choose to follow Christ.  As Dr. Peters reports, “We are not going to be paralyzed by fear because God has helped us embrace risk…God is glorified when Christians do things that just don’t make any human sense, they just, they don’t add up.”

Dr. Peters shares how persecution “purifies the church,” by sharing that persecuted believers frequently make statements like this: “When everything was stripped away and all I had left was Jesus, I realized that Jesus is enough.”

The interview concludes with a reminder for listeners that many of these persecuted followers of Jesus have a solid hope and eternal perspective. As fellow Christians, we should look forward to the day when we will meet these dear family members face-to-face.  According to Peters, “It’s going to be really neat in heaven one day to be sitting around and to be able to meet people who have been martyred.”  May we be inspired by their example to serve faithfully—wherever God has called us.

You can hear more challenging interviews like this every week on VOM Radio.  Subscribe today via iTunes or Google Play Music.

Be an "N" Leader in Your Church

Equip your church or small group to stand with persecuted believers like those whose homes were tagged by radical Muslims with a spray-painted Arabic letter ن, or “N.”

This collection of ministry resources will provide everything you need to lead your church, small group or class into fellowship with courageous believers who refuse to deny Christ. Be encouraged by your persecuted family members, who have so much to share about sacrifice, courage, joy, perseverance, forgiveness and faithfulness.

Get the I Am N Ministry Kit

These videos will introduce you to courageous Iraqi believers who were displaced by ISIS. As you learn their names and hear their stories, you will discover how your group can serve them and serve alongside them. Experience God’s work in some of the darkest places in the world through the stories of your brothers and sisters in Christ.

Your ministry kit includes a DVD of six inspirational videos with a Leader’s Guide, six I Am N books, six wristbands, six Christians Facing Islamic Extremists guides, six Participant’s Guides, and one I Am N music CD featuring artists such as All Sons & Daughters, Lincoln Brewster and Paul Baloche. Individual add-ons are available so you can customize your kit.

Build a Custom Kit for Your Group

Live Dead Joy: Collective Suffering

Jesus never intended for us to suffer alone. We may not be able to cross oceans or deserts and sit in lonely cells with colleagues, but we can traverse that distance spiritually and bear the burdens of our brothers in prayer. Knowing that they do not agonize alone empowers followers of Jesus under duress to bear unimaginable suffering. Collaborative suffering is bearable suffering.

Knowing from Scripture and from history that others have suffered and blossomed in pain is necessary preparation for our own trials. We can shore up our souls for trouble by reading and meditating on how those who have gone before us found strength to glorify Jesus before snarling beasts and men. The trials of others help us, and our trials, in turn, help others. “Blessed be…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God” (2 Cor. 1:3-4). Paul went on to explain that both sufferings and consolations abound in Christ, and because there is a collective experience of both, there is endurance for salvation and consolation.

If our collective prior suffering helps those now under pressure, their current anguish also comforts us. Our suffering helps others. When my Sudanese brothers and sisters suffer, it draws me to them. It puts my marginal trials in perspective and gives me courage for my challenges. God, too, participates in collaborative suffering—primarily because He suffered for us but also by allowing suffering so “that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). When our hearts are overwhelmed, God leads us to Himself, the rock that is higher than us (Ps. 61:2). Suffering collectively teaches the body of Christ to depend on Him and to anticipate life from death. Suffering is intended to be redemptive, and suffering for the gospel always results in unreached people responding to the gospel.

Excerpted from the March 2 reading in Live Dead Joy: 365 Days of Living and Dying With Jesus by Dick Brogden

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.

VOM's Jason Peters on CBN

Dr. Jason Peters, VOM's associate vice president of connection, was recently featured on CBN News talking about VOM's new book, I Am N.

 

VOM Guest on Leon Show

Recently VOM's vice president of connection, Dr. Jason Peters, appeared as a guest on The Leon Show to talk about the release of VOM's new book, I Am N, and the challenges that our brothers and sisters in the Middle East are currently facing.

Watch his interview below: 

 

Peters also shared recently on VOM Radio. Listen to the interview here.

VOM Radio: The Insanity of God

“The Insanity of God” by The Voice of the Martyrs | Free Listening on SoundCloud Nik and Ruth Ripken went to Africa as missionaries. They experienced great works of God, and also great hardship and loss. Malaria almost killed them. Four Christian friends were killed on one day in Somalia. Their 16-year-old son died suddenly. Amidst such loss and suffering, they wondered, “Is Jesus for the tough places?”

Seeking an answer, Nik and Ruth travelled the world to sit down with Christians faithfully enduring persecution. They went not as teachers but as students, asking simply to sit at the feet of persecuted believers and learn from them.

Your faith will be challenged as Nik and Ruth share some of the faith lessons they learned from the examples of our persecuted family.

 

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast.

 

"Supernatural Interventions"

Recently Dr. Jason Peters, VOM’s Associate Vice President for Connection and one of the executive editors for VOM’s new book, I Am N, sat down with Billy Hallowell of The Blaze to talk about the book, about the examples of our persecuted brothers and sisters, and about how God is at work even in places with the most intense opposition to the church.

Click below to listen to their interview, which aired on The Church Boys podcast.

 

You can also listen to Dr. Peters discussing his visit earlier this year to Iraq on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio.

VOM Book Nominated for 2016 Audies

When the Audio Publishers Association announced the nominees for 2016 Audio Book Awards ("Audies"), The Pastor's Wife by Sabina Wurmbrand was one of the nominees. Sabina (1913-2000) was the wife of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and the co-founder of The Voice of the Martyrs.

The audio version of The Pastor’s Wife was narrated by Sadie Alexandru and published by Voice of the Martyrs. The audio version was produced and released by christianaudio. It was nominated in the Inspirational Non-Fiction category.

Cory Verner, President and Publisher of christianaudio offers, “The Pastor's Wife is a gripping account providing background on the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry that serves the persecuted church. It truly is an honor to play a part in publishing these audiobooks and make them known to new audiences. Awards like this speak every bit as much to the underlying content as they do the professional narrators who read them. It is difficult to listen to books like... The Pastor’s Wife and walk away unchanged.”

The Audie Awards are the Audiobook Publishing Association’s highest honors. The Audies gala will be held Wednesday May 11 at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.

VOM Radio: I Am N Special

Cole Richards and Jason Peters served as executive editors for a new project from The Voice of the Martyrs: I Am N: Inspiring Stories of Christians Facing Islamic Extremists. This week on VOM Radio they share with us some of the powerful stories of these believers and their faithfulness, and the themes of their stories--Sacrifice, Courage, Joy, Perseverance, Forgiveness and Faithfulness--that inspire each of us in our own walk with Christ.

Habila forgave Boko Haram fighters that shot him in the face. A Syrian Christian father continues to serve Christ in spite of his son being kidnapped by radical Muslims. Jason and Cole give us a peak behind the scenes at the creation of the I Am N project, and worship leader Greg Sykes talks about writing and performing a new song inspired by the faith of these bold believers.

 

See all the I Am N resources available.

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio: subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast.

 

"The First Half of My Life Ended on February 29, 1948..."

Today is leap day, and it also marks the anniversary of Richard Wurmbrand's arrest by communist secret police in Romania. In honor of this date we share two excerpts from Richard's book, In God's Underground:

The first half of my life ended on February 29, 1948. I was walking alone down a street in Bucharest when a black Ford car braked sharply beside me and two men jumped out. They seized my arms and thrust me into the back seat, while a third man beside the driver kept me covered with a pistol. The car sped through the thin traffic of a Sunday evening; then, on a street called Calea Rahova, we turned in through steel gates. I heard them clang behind us.

My kidnappers belonged to the Communist Secret Police. This was their headquarters. Inside, my papers, my belongings, my tie and shoelaces, and finally my name were taken from me. “From now on,” said the official on duty, “you are Vasile Georgescu.”

It was a common name. The authorities did not want even the guards to know whom they were watching, in case questions should be asked abroad, where I was well known. I was to disappear, like so many others, without a trace.

_ _ _ _ _

I knew that I faced questioning, ill-treatment, possibly years of imprisonment and death, and I wondered if my faith was strong enough. I remembered then that in the Bible it is written 366 times—once for every day of the year—“Don’t be afraid!”: 366 times, not merely 365, to account for leap year. And this was February 29—a coincidence that told me I need not fear!

You can order your copy of In God's Underground here.