This week I received an email from a Christian contact in Turkey. He shared the news that, under authority of a new Turkish law, the five men who murdered three Christians in 2007 were being set free. Their court case has dragged on and on and on, and the new law says that if a court verdict is not reached within five years, the accused should be set free until the verdict is reached.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked to teach a missions class at a Christian university. The topic was “Smuggling” and it was an excellent opportunity for me to share our perspective on a controversial topic. One of the reasons that the topic of smuggling is so hotly debated in Christian circles is that many misunderstand a biblical hierarchy of authority.

Believers in hostile and restricted nations must often pray and worship in secret. They risk their freedom, their physical and emotional well-being, and even their lives for sharing the gospel message with others in their families and those around them. They trust the words of Jesus when He said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

People who thrive on competition enjoy opposition; it is what motivates and inspires them. Conventional wisdom says that competition brings out the best in us, and to a degree that is true. When opposition, however, is serious and life-threatening, most people shy away from it, usually because opposition implies something negative and difficult, if not personally devastating. Opposition can be devastating.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Matthew 5:11

Christians in Indonesia continue to worship at the Bait el Dokulamo church, eight years after jihad extremists burned their church building and killed 35 people.

Media reports early this week stated that Australian Christian John Short has been expelled from North Korea after being detained there last month, allegedly for distributing Christian literature while visiting the secretive nation as a tourist.

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: