The mob banged drums, shouted taunts and harassed the Christians already inside the church. Some threw stones and were shouting "Allahu Akbar". Others were calling them kafirs (infidels) and pigs and yelling obscenities. Some carried sticks, and others shouted "Burn the church! Close it down!"
Tears streamed down the cheeks of late arrivers as they joined the other worshipers, who were already singing Christmas carols. People were singing and crying. Joyful Christmas songs turned to tears.
The attack on the church signals a spread of persecution in this southeast Asian country. The pastor of the church says the persecution has actually been a blessing to his church family. "Before, believers seldom came to church. But when the persecution came, the believers gained incentive to come to church and pray and gather together in unity. Maybe the Lord has allowed this so the believers will have unity. I cannot tell you what will happen, but I see that my congregation has a commitment to keep doing the service, because the church is not a building; the church is the believers."
(from Voice of the Martyrs)
A young man in a southeast Asian country was thrown into prison for armed robbery. Although he was a Muslim, he wanted to learn more about Christ. A Christian inmate gave him a Bible, and he read it at night while his cellmates slept. He had nearly finished reading the entire Bible when a Muslim cellmate discovered it hidden near his bedside. He was called into the warden's office for questioning. The warden demanded to know where he got the Bible. He was then beaten for four hours following the interrogation, and was then locked in a prison isolation cell.
The prisoner became more and more committed to Christ because of his time in the isolation cell.
Before he accepted Christ, he made fun of Christians and called them infidels. Through beatings and isolation, he experienced what many of our Christian brothers and sisters around the world experience for their faith in Jesus.
"There's an expensive price to be paid for being a Christian," he says. "I'm proud to have been persecuted for Christ."
(from Voice of the Martyrs)
While watching television one New Year's Eve in a Southeast Asian Muslim country, a van crashed into Lydia's living room!! While she was pinned beneath the van, a man in a brilliant white robe appeared as if from nowhere. Lydia, who was seven months pregnant at the time, and who years earlier quit the Islamic school where her fundamentalist parents had enrolled her, says the man gently touched her stomach and said, "You are safe. Follow Me." She says she immediately felt peaceful and free from pain.
After rescuers had pulled her from beneath the vehicle, Lydia began to search for the man in the white robe. When a rescuer asked her what she was looking for, she sat down and said, "I want to see the one who saved me." Her puzzled rescuers replied, "No, we are the ones who helped you."
Lydia told her Christian nephew about the experience, and he suggested that it was an encounter with Jesus. He gave her a Bible and taught her about faith in Christ.
"I read in the book of John the words of Jesus, who said, 'I am the true way and follow me'", Lydia says. "Those are the same words he said to me at the time of the accident."
(from Voice of the Martyrs)
"We have to have something inside that is heavenly,
if we are to have something outside that is genuine."
(Dr Robert A. Cook, Walk with the King today, and be a blessing!)
