He has also set eternity in the hearts of men. Ecclesiastes 3:11

In a message recorded at a recent VOM conference (www.VOMEvents.com), VOM Radio host Todd Nettleton shares stories of some of the witnesses (Acts 1:8) for Christ that he’s met during 17 years of service with The Voice of the Martyrs.

When Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship I doubt that he realized that he would actually live out what he wrote. He had profound insight and foresight into what true discipleship actually meant. He was personally and theologically ready to pay the price for obedience to Christ and that was required of him. Perhaps no theologian has so faithfully lived out the premises of a theology of suffering, persecution, and martyrdom as did Bonhoeffer.

A couple weeks ago, I went horseback riding for the first time in nearly 10 years. My parents own a horse, and when I was younger, I’d ride pretty frequently – until one day when I fell off the horse. Getting back up was hard and, to be honest, two weeks ago was the first time I’d ridden a horse for more than a couple minutes since I’d fallen.

I recently returned from an iCommit conference hosted in the state of Washington. While there I heard a young man named Gilbert Hovsepain share his testimony. Gilbert is one of the sons of Rev. Haik Hovsepian, who was martyred in 1994 in Iran. The documentary A Cry From Iran , tells the story of Rev. Haik and his family.

I really like elephants. I have spent hours riding on the backs of elephants in different countries, and I am always amazed by their sheer strength and mass. Riding atop an elephant makes many people feel like a king. Other riders are too distracted by the sheer terror of the experience to spend much time reflecting at all!

Many of us, when we encounter persecution in other countries, begin to wonder about our own freedom, security, and prosperity when others are suffering. How can we enjoy our freedom and painless Christian walk while others are suffering so much for Christ, we think? In some countries, some Christians enjoy freedom while others, in the same country, are being persecuted. We can only attribute this to God’s sovereignty and purpose. When it comes to suffering for the Lord, there is no randomness nor is it entirely the malevolent actions of evil men. God ordains suffering and if we are not suffering for Christ at the moment, it means that God has other plans for us.

Recently I met with a worker in a restricted nation. He related the story of a Muslim woman who had an amazing dream that changed her life forever.

There was a time when Christians would complain that we were ignored or misrepresented by mainstream media. That is no longer entirely true. The events in this world are so explicitly clear regarding the persecution of Christians that it is nearly impossible to ignore it, mainstream or backwater media. The idea, I suppose, was that in the past Christianity was so dominant in our culture that it was getting a lot of attention and now it is time to turn our attention to other religions, cults, and bizarre organizations in order to be equitable. But world events have not cooperated with this new attitude and mainstream media is forced to report the targeting of Christians for violence in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, it is taking radical acts of violence against Christians to get Christianity back into the news.

As I write this, I am flying at 30,000 feet on my way to a restricted nation in North Africa to meet with some of our sisters and brothers. It is an incredible honor to serve alongside people who are willing to advance the Kingdom in the most difficult places on earth.