As he slowly came around, his eyes adjusted to the smoke. He cried out for his pastor, but no one answered. Horrified, he quickly began digging his way out of the pile of flesh and rubble.

The cold water sprayed over the crowd in front of the Indonesian village mosque. Gun-toting, white-clad jihad warriors surrounded the place. The ritual washing was a forced preparation for the group to convert to Islam. The crowd knew that they would convert or be shot or beheaded on the spot.

The following devotion is from the wonderful book Extreme Devotion, which you may purchase in our bookstore at www.vombooks.com

The ropes at his wrists and ankles stretched further until Roman Christian Vincent felt his arms pull out of his shoulder sockets and his hips come out of joint.

Nikolai Khamara was arrested for robbery and imprisoned for ten years. Khamara watched the Christians and wondered what kind of beings they were. They were men, but they would show joy despite their suffering and would sing in very dark hours. When they had a piece of bread, they shared it with someone who had none. Their faces would shine as they spoke to someone whom Khamara could not see.

To Dinh Trung has put hundreds of miles on his bicycle, traveling bumpy dirt roads to minister to the K’Ho tribe. This is one of sixty tribes in Vietnam that the government forbids visitors to evangelize. As he entered the village on April 4, 1995, police suddenly pulled him off his bicycle and started to beat him. They videotaped him and ridiculed him in front of the villagers.

John the Baptist never failed to speak for righteousness. When King Herod Antipas put away his own wife to take the wife of his brother, John called his hand. He told Herod he would disobey God’s laws if he did so. Herod grew to hate John for his rebuke, but he also feared John because the people regarded him as a prophet. Herod wanted to kill John, but he dared not lay a hand on him and risk the public backlash. Under pressure from his new wife, Herodias, however, he did the next best thing to killing him put him in jail.

“What happened?” asked the North Korean mother as her son walked through the front door with a look of shock.

“Chant this song [a Muslim creed], or you will die,” cried the Northern Sudanese soldier. The captive Christian could see the hate in his eyes and wondered how many lives he had taken. The soldier pressed a large knife to the Christian’s throat.