It was getting late, and the Soviet officer had beaten and tortured Paulus for many hours. “We are not going to torture you anymore,” he said, smiling brutally when the Christian looked up. “We will send you instead to Siberia, where the snow never melts. It is a place of great suffering. You and your family will fit in well.”

He’d heard the rumors. In fact, Thomas had heard it directly from other disciples who had seen the Master alive. At least that’s what they had said. “When I see his hands and put my fingers into the nail holes, when I put my hand into the hole in his side made by that Roman spear, then I’ll believe he is risen,” Thomas had said.

When Ercan Sengul committed his life to Christ in the Muslim nation of Turkey, some saw it as turning his back on his heritage and nation. When he said that he would do anything for God, he had meant it then. But what about now?

“You are saying it wrong,” the exasperated guard instructed the elderly Chinese believer. “You are supposed to say ‘Prison is good,’ not ‘Jesus is good.’”

“Kill her! Long live Diocletian!” echoed in Zoe’s ears as she stood in the middle of the Coliseum before the angry crowd.

It was midnight when officers burst into their home and abruptly awakened Eskinder Menghis and his wife and three children. They walked out to find agents with Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Interior ransacking their home.

What made them really angry, angry enough to murder, was that this convert used to be a terrorist like them.

Today's Extreme Devotion is about Ignatius of Antioch. As I read through this wonderful devotion I was totally inspired to do a little research on Ignatius. The first thing I found was the picture you see below. That is a depiction of Ignatius being eaten by lions. Although, I'm pretty sure it didn't really look like that.

Wow....read this.

Where there is no cross, there is no crown. This lesson cannot be learned from books, and men do not usually taste this sweetness. This rich life does not exist in a comfortable environment. If the spices are not refined to become oil, the fragrance of the perfume cannot flow forth; and if the grapes are not crushed in the vat, they will not become wine.