From a letter sent in by a VOM reader:

How valuable is God’s word to a Christian in prison? More valuable than gold!

The following is excerpted from a letter written by German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer and circulated to a hundred or so of his former students during World War II:

One evening, when most prisoners were outside, the door crashed open and the guards flung in a pickpocket, known to everyone as "Fingers." He rolled on the floor, gasping and groaning, as I helped him to his bunk. Soaking a rag in water, I began to wash the blood from his swollen mouth. It seemed he had been pilfering from the kitchen.

When a Christian brother we'll call "Bilal" died last spring in a small Nepali city, it was important to his family that his body be buried. For Nepali Christians, burial is not only a way to dispose of a body but also an "Ebenezer" (1 Sam. 7:12), a permanent landmark of a person's faith and God's faithfulness. But in Nepal, where 75 percent of the people are Hindus, cremation is the expected ritual following a death.

Monday is the day where I like to leave you with some devotional inspiration. Today's thought comes from the website Grace Gems. Read on and be inspired!

Today I would like to share with you all a convicting devotion that I received a few days ago from Grace Gems. Normally, I post an excerpt from the wonderful book Extreme Devotion, but today I thought I'd mix it up a little and share with you this powerful thought from J.C. Ryle called The Cost.