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

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).

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving;Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.For the Lord is the great God,And the great King above all gods.

What would it be like to live in a village that was nearly impossible to drive to? When visitors manage to travel to this type of village, people come pouring out of their homes to see what all the commotion is about.

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

The Apostle Paul asked the Thessalonian church to pray that he, Silas, and Timothy be delivered from wicked and evil people (2 Thessalonians 3:2-3). Jesus prayed in John 17:18 that the Father not take his followers from the world, but that they be kept from the evil one. How do we harmonize Paul’s expectation to be persecuted and even Christ’s statements that all of his followers will be persecuted (John 15:20) with the prayer to avoid persecution?

Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6:17

During a staff meeting this morning one of VOM's executives shared a devotional on the life of great missionary C.T. Studd.

But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God.” Acts 4:19