Persecution Blog

Weekend Reminder: Doing God's Work

A brief reminder to pray about and to carry with you into this weekend, from Sabina Wurmbrand, the wife of VOM's founder, Richard Wurmbrand. Sabina spent three years in a labor camp in communist Romania because of her Christian work alongside her husband. Pastor Richard spent 14 years in prison.

Order a copy of Sabina's book, The Pastor's Wife.

Jesus Freaks Radio: Psalm 13 Lament

Each month VOM produces "The Jesus Freaks Minute," a daily radio-PSA that shares the stories of the persecuted church with Christian radio listeners all over the United States and around the world. Here's the script for one of the recent spots, a spot entitled simply, Psalm 13 Lament.

[LYRICS:]  What will people think when they hear that I’m a Jesus Freak?  What will people do when they find that it’s true?   (:09)

[TOBYMAC:]  Hey, this is TobyMac with truth every Jesus Freak should hear from The Voice of the Martyrs.

[TODD:]  A word for persecuted believers everywhere:  More than half of the Psalms confirm that God wants us to cry out to him – even in despair.  And then ultimately to trust Him.

Psalm 13 begins with this lament:  “How long, O Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?”

Psalm 13 ends with this:  “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.  I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me.”

For more from The Voice of the Martyrs, go online to persecution.com.

[YOUR TURN:] Have you ever echoed the Psalmist's cry: How long? Did you also come to the Psalmist's conclusion? "But I trust." Share your story in the comments to this post.

Photo credit: Vintage beauty II - Radio by monogatari via Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.

Widow Shares How God Gave Grace to Forgive

Semse Aydin's husband, Necati, was one of three Christian men martyred for their faith and ministry in Turkey. The next day, on national TV in Turkey, Semse offered forgiveness to her husband's killers, along with the widow of one of the other martyrs.

Listen to VOM Radio this week as she shares how the Holy Spirit enabled her to forgive, and how God has sustained her and her two children since she gave Necati to Jesus. You’ll also hear how Necati dealt with family members who were still Muslims, and how he went to meet with his killers, even though he thought their motives might not be pure.

You'll be inspired by God's faithfulness and equipped to pray more for the nation of Turkey and for the families of martyrs this week on VOM Radio.

 

This interview with Semse was recorded live at a VOM Advance Conference; to find a conference in your area, visit VOMEvents.com.

Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast on iTunes or Google Play.

 

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.

Tibet: "I Could Only Rely on Jesus"

"Sister Amber" spent more than a decade in Tibet, providing vocational training to the people and sharing the gospel message of Christ’s love. She felt God's call especially to work among Tibet's nomadic tribal people, who jokingly call themselves "the roof on the roof of the world."

Amber watched as God brought about a great ministry breakthrough: people who'd been totally closed to her message were now asking to learn more about Jesus. But just days after the breakthrough Amber experienced persecution as police came pounding on her door.

Listen to VOM Radio this week as she tells the story. You'll hear how the Holy Spirit strengthened and spoke to her, and how God brought Amber from a place of terror to the point of being able to express Christ's love, even to the men violently persecuting her.

 

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

Remembering Bonhoeffer: "Only at the Hour that God Has Chosen"

On this date in 1945, German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was hung by order of Adolf Hitler in a Nazi concentration camp. The following is excerpted from a letter Bonhoeffer had written which was circulated to a hundred or so of his former students during World War II:

...To be sure, God shall call you, and us, only at the hour that God has chosen. Until that hour, which lies in God’s hand alone, we shall all be protected even in greatest danger, and from our gratitude for such protection ever new readiness surely arises for the final call.

 

Bonhoeffer is honored on The Martyrs Wall at VOM headquarters in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.

Who can comprehend how those whom God takes so early are chosen? Does not the early death of young Christians always appear to us as if God were plundering his own best instruments in a time in which they are most needed? Yet the Lord makes no mistakes. Might God need our brothers for some hidden service on our behalf in the heavenly world? We should put an end to our human thoughts, which always wish to know more than they can, and cling to that which is certain. Whomever God calls home is someone God has loved. “For their souls were pleasing to the Lord, therefore he took them quickly from the midst of wickedness” (Wisdom of Solomon 4.)

...Death reveals that the world is not as it should be but that it stands in need of redemption. Christ alone is the conquering of death.

...Only in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ has death been drawn into God’s power, and it must now serve God’s own aims. It is not some fatalistic surrender but rather a living faith in Jesus Christ, who died and rose for us, that is able to cope profoundly with death.

In life with Jesus Christ, death as a general fate approaching us from without is confronted by death from within, one’s own death, the free death of daily dying with Jesus Christ. Those who live with Christ die daily to their own will. Christ in us gives us over to death so that he can live within us. Thus our inner ding grows to meet that death from without.  Christians receive their own death in this way and in this way our physical death very truly becomes not the end but rather the fulfillment of our life with Jesus Christ. Here we enter into community with the One who at his own death was able to say, “It is finished.”

 

You can learn more about Bonhoeffer's life, ministry and death, read BONHOEFFER: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas.

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

"I Simply Trusted the Lord"

Over two episodes of VOM Radio earlier this month, we heard Australian John Short tell the story of his detention in North Korea after leaving gospel tracts outside a Buddhist temple.

This week we hear another side of the story, from John’s wife, Karen, who was at home in Hong Kong dealing with the media, praying for her husband and receiving encouragement from all over the world.

Listen in as Karen shares about how God ministered to her, how she and John stayed connected through Scripture even though they couldn't talk to each other, how journalists and others responded to her calm assurance and how she found out that her husband would be coming home. She'll also share the one thing she wishes she'd done differently during that time period—and it will surprise you!

The story of Karen's faithfulness will inspire you to trust more deeply in God and dive deeper into His Word, even if you're not planning a trip to North Korea.

 

If you missed our conversation with Mr. Short the past two weeks, you can listen here to Part 1 and Part 2.

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

 

Richard Wurmbrand: A Message for Good Friday

Seeing Beyond Suffering to Resurrection and Glorification

“When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. … He will glorify Me. …”

—John 16:13–14

As we approach Good Friday again, let us, who complain about many things, remember how much Jesus endured and how He took suffering.

VOM founders, Richard Wurmbrand (1909–2001) and Sabina Wurmbrand (1913–2000)

He entered this world in utter poverty, born in a dark cave fit only for beasts and cradled in a manger. Within months, Herod tried to kill Him. Immediately thereafter, for an unknown period, He was a stranger in a strange land. All His brothers refused to accept Him or acknowledge who He was. In fact, for 30 years He was ignored: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

When He went forth teaching and preaching, His words were warped and twisted to mean the opposite of what He intended. More often than not, His words and actions were met with ingratitude. His good deeds were misapprehended, even maligned. He knew loneliness and sorrow; even His closest friends were insensitive to His needs. He was betrayed with a kiss for a paltry sum….

In His hour of trial, all His close friends forsook Him and fled. Of the three closest, one denied Him vehemently. Condemned to a cruel, agonizing death, He felt deserted even by His Father in heaven. He who came as Savior of the world was mocked and derided for being “unable” to save Himself.

Nevertheless, “He opened not His mouth.” He endured to the end, knowing that beyond the cross and the tomb lay victory.  Through the Spirit of truth, God would glorify Him. Good Friday was followed inevitably by Easter, death by the Resurrection.

Christians who suffer in prisons nurture the same blessed hope. We commend to you, in all your difficulties, the faith that sees beyond suffering to resurrection and glorification.

(Excerpted and edited from the April 1982 VOM newsletter)

About Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand

When communists seized power in Romania and began to control or eliminate Christian activities, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife, Sabina, chose to continue their work as part of the underground church, meeting in the woods, in caves and in other secret locations. Both Richard and Sabina paid dearly for their evangelistic work. Richard served a total of 14 years in prison, enduring severe mental and physical torture, and Sabina was forced into slave labor for several years on the Danube Canal. In December 1965, Christian organizations paid the Romanian government a $10,000 ransom in order to get Richard and Sabina out of the country. Just under two years later, they started the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs with $100 and an old typewriter. Pastor Wurmbrand’s testimony is told in his acclaimed book Tortured for Christ, which is available from The Voice of the Martyrs.

What if Ananias Said No?

I have been reading the Book of Acts and read, again, the story of Saul’s conversation in Acts, chapter 9. I am always struck by how soon after Saul met Jesus that people were trying to kill him!

As I have been reading in Acts in recent days the Lord has really drawn my attention to the role that Ananias played in Saul’s conversion. We all remember the story, Saul is on the road to Damascus and he sees a blinding light and hears the voice of Jesus saying, “Why are you persecuting me?” Saul is struck blind and has to be lead into the city by his helpers. That is where Ananias comes in.

God tells Ananias to go to Saul and restore his sight. What does Ananias say? You can read the story in Acts, chapter 9, but basically he tells God, “That is a terrible idea. No, no, no, God! I know about Saul and he is a really bad guy. He has come here to arrest people in the church and now you want me to go see him?” The Lord tells Ananias, “Yes, I want you to go.”

So Ananias is obedient and he goes to see Saul and there are two things that struck me in a new way as I read the story this time. First, Ananias reached out and touched Saul and secondly, he called him Brother Saul, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus sent me to you.” Remember just four verses earlier Ananias was telling God what a terrible guy Saul was and yet now he obeys God, goes to Saul, reaches out to touch him and calls him brother, "Brother Saul.” Then Ananias sort of disappears from the story. We don’t know what happened to him, but we sure know what happened with Saul. He became Paul, the great missionary/evangelist and the author of so much of the New Testament.

How different is that story if Ananias says no to God?

Not too long ago one of our VOM staff was in the Middle East at a meeting of Syrian church leaders. They were talking about this very passage. Some of these believers minister in the city of Damascus. For them it is very easy to see Ananias’ side of the story. They talked about that very situation. What if a guy from ISIS calls and says he wants to meet? What if a fighter from Al-Nusra Front comes in the door of your church? “I have had a vision of Jesus and I need to meet with you to learn more.” What would these Syrian Christians do? What would we do?

Our Syrian brothers and sisters talked about that. Would they go to meet with a sworn enemy of the gospel? One-by-one they shared that it would be difficult, it would be scary, but that if they felt God calling them to go, they would go in spite of the risks. I am thankful for the example of Ananias who was willing to reach out and touch and call “Brother” someone who had been an enemy. And I am thankful for Syrian Christians who are willing to take that risk today. It is thrilling to know that God is reaching into the ranks of terrorists, even ISIS, and calling people to Himself.

We have had the incredible privilege to share some of those stories right here on The Voice of the Martyrs Radio. But those new believers, those Sauls, need an Ananias to help connect them to the truth and to a body of believers, and that is not an easy job. There is a lot of risk.

But it isn’t just former ISIS fighters that need an Ananias, it is people coming to Christ where you live, where I live; our neighbors, co-workers, students at our children’s school. I hope that you will pray with me that God will reach more Sauls among radical Muslim groups and also raise up more Ananias’ to disciple and teach them. I hope we will pray that we can be an Ananias for someone who needs a friendly face and a welcoming smile as they choose to follow Jesus Christ.

These comments were a part of a recent VOM Radio episode.

Todd Nettleton has served with The Voice of the Martyrs for 17 years. He’s travelled to more than 20 restricted and hostile nations and interviewed hundreds of believers who’ve faced persecution for their Christian witness. As VOM’s principle media spokesperson, Todd has done more than 2,000 interviews with media outlets ranging from Moody Radio to the BBC and Los Angeles Times. He is the principle author of Restricted Nations: North Korea and was part of the writing team for four other VOM books. He is the host of VOM's weekly half-hour radio program, The Voice of the Martyrs Radio, which you can find online at www.VOMRadio.net. 

We Probably Wouldn't Go Back

I shared in yesterday’s post about my annual reading goals, and introduced you to the last book I read in 2014, At The Foot of the Snows: A Journey of Faith and Words Among the Kham-Speaking People of Nepal by David E. Watters with Steve and Daniel Watters.

Today I want to offer another excerpt from the book, and it is at the low point of the story. David Watters, the Bible translator who went to Nepal and set about to reach the Kham people, and his wife, Nancy, are about to throw in the towel. But as they are about to give up; God shows up and changes their plans. David Watters tells it this way:

A letter arrived from Hasta Ram that summed up our sense of futility. “I have come to the conclusion,” he said, “that no one will ever come to the gospel. I made one friend, but he died within two months. I have tried everything, but to no avail. Now I go to the hillside daily, and I pray to God. Maybe he will do something.”

Yeah, maybe, I thought. Or maybe not. I had grown cynical.

* * *

February 1974 was a watershed month for us. We had decided that we probably wouldn’t go back to Nepal. How could we? There was nothing there for us. We had already failed.

One Saturday afternoon, after Nancy had spent a particularly discouraging week in bed, we felt inclined to kneel beside our bed and pray. This was a different kind of prayer for us. We realized that the heaviest burden we carried was not the burden of illness, but the burden of disappointment. We decided to give it all to God.

Once we started to acknowledge and lay down every source of discouragement, it became easier, and we were suddenly feeling a whole lot lighter and a whole lot freer. Our step quickened that day, and several months later, on April 24, we wrote a letter to our headquarters in Santa Ana, California. Following is an excerpt:

We had an encounter with God that Saturday afternoon. We gave our burdens to Him. It was a heavy load that Nancy was carrying—the illness plus the burdens. I’ll never forget how she gave them away. She named them one by one—all the disappointments, the worries, the wounds; and as she did, with tears streaming down her face, she held out an open hand to God, saying “And Lord, take that one too! And this one too, Lord! And Lord, don’t forget this one!” Before long we were sobbing with relief from the lifted burdens, and our souls were bursting with revival. Praise God! There really is a balm in Gilead! There really is a river whose streams gladden the city of God! There really is a tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the nations!

Come back tomorrow to see the results of their faithfulness as the gospel message began to take hold among the Kham.

Todd Nettleton has served with The Voice of the Martyrs for 16 years. He’s travelled to more than 20 restricted and hostile nations and interviewed hundreds of believers who’ve faced persecution for their Christian witness. As VOM’s principle media spokesperson, Todd has done more than 2,000 interviews with media outlets ranging from Moody Radio to the BBC and Los Angeles Times. He is the principle author of Restricted Nations: North Korea and was part of the writing team for four other VOM books. You can see all 26 books that Todd read in 2014 on his personal blog.

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.