Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 18 that they were to forgive those who sinned against them 70 times seven, an excessive number with which he meant that forgiveness should be unlimited. The issue of offering forgiveness to our persecutors has been central to VOM’s ministry since the beginning. VOM’s founder, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand, often spoke of forgiving our enemies to reach them with the gospel, and he exemplified this approach in his own life.

In January, 2007, the Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, publisher of the political weekly newspaper Agos, was shot to death on the street in Istanbul. The murder was the work of extremist Turkish nationalists. Hrant Dink was no evangelist. For a long time he had lived pretty aloof of the faith of his Christian Armenian people. When he died, it became known that his wife Rachel Dink was a believing Christian and that Hrant Dink had also personally accepted Christ in the last years of his life.

What’s your plan for your life after you hit 65 or 70? Do you anticipate finally being able to relax, live off your 401k and play golf all day long? In my 20s, I’d never given much thought to that period of my life until I discussed it with a friend one day. She told me she didn’t think Christians had a right to “retire,” at least in the sense that we tend to think of it, where we live lives of leisure on the money we’ve saved up.

Peace.

“The Church…as the bearer of the gospel…is at variance with…all human cultures without exception.” —Lesslie Newbigin

In last month’s post, I encouraged you to overcome fear and perfectionism by extending hospitality to a Muslim. Because the home is a safe environment, your Muslim friend may feel comfortable opening up to discuss deeper issues. But how can you move conversations from sports and the weather to the Gospel and Jesus?

In 2005 I went to Eritrea to meet with Christians there. One of the Christians I met was “Letay,” who spent six months in a military prison camp because of her faith in Christ. The particular camp where she was held was out in the desert. It was miserably hot, and the facilities were primitive.

Before his conversion, Chang Shen had been known as a gambler, womanizer, and thief. When he was stricken blind in midlife, neighbors said it was the judgment of the gods for his evildoings.

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh spent 259 days in Iran's notorious Evin Prison. Their “crime” was following Jesus Christ and encouraging others to follow him. While in prison, they received letters from believers around the world who had heard about their arrest.

Last Dec. 19, Chinese officials arrested two men involved in setting up a new Christian bookstore in Taiyuan, China. Wenxi Li, a bookstore worker from Beijing, traveled to Shanxi province in 2012 to help local Christians, including Lacheng Ren, stock, set up and open a new bookstore. He brought several hundred Christian books with him from Beijing. But police raided the bookstore and confiscated all the books Wenxi brought.