The recent stories of the radical Islamic group ISIS indiscriminately and sometimes intentionally killing children has been on my mind these days, especially as we focus on children during the Christmas season. It is hard to comprehend what it takes for an adult to kill children for whatever reason but it is most incomprehensible when it is done to make an ideological/political statement to the world.

A Ho Chi Minh City Bible school that has often been the target of police activity in recent years was attacked and destroyed for the seventh time on Wednesday, Nov. 12 by hired thugs accompanied by the police. The thugs used hammers and metal cutters to destroy doors, walls, and furniture. Police then raided the college and arrested nine Christians who did not have proper paperwork — documents that had been confiscated by police in earlier raids. The Bible school leader, Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, said this was the seventh attack on the college since June 2014.

Hope is birthed out of some of the most surprising of places.

Next week, my wife, Peggy, and I will be traveling to spend Christmas with our children and grandchildren. We’re already looking forward to celebrating the birth of our Savior with our family. We love the looks of joyful anticipation on the faces of our grandkids on Christmas morning. Yes, there will be gifts!

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 spots that will air next month, a spot entitled God's Handiwork:

“The humble man has learned the secret of abiding gladness. The weaker he feels, the lower he sinks, the greater his humiliations appears, the more power and the presence of Christ are his portion, until, as he says, "I am nothing," the word of his Lord brings even deeper joy...it is indeed blessed, the deep happiness of heaven, to be so free from self that whatever is said of us or done to us is lost and swallowed up in the thought that Jesus is all.” (Humility: The Beauty of Holiness by Andrew Murray, p. 86, 89).

Many American children are looking forward to the arrival of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve, bearing presents for good little boys and girls. But most of those celebrating don't know that there is a real man behind the story of Santa Claus, and that real man was a Christian persecuted because of his faith and actions.

The New Testament speaks about being persecuted for the name of Christ as a blessing, something that's hard to understand for many American Christians. But after they had been imprisoned and harassed by the religious leaders, the Apostles departed, "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name" (Acts 5:41).

I have been moved this week by the story of the South African Christian family attacked in Afghanistan last weekend. The father, Werner Groenewald, and his two teen-aged children were killed. The mother, Hannelie, is a doctor and was serving in a clinic when the attack happened, sparing her life. I cannot even imagine the grief and loss that this dear sister is enduring.