Shocked, the pastor began to share the Commandments. When he got to “Honor your father and mother,” the officer interrupted him. “Stop there. You Christians believe that God chose ‘Honor your father and mother’ as a very important commandment. Please look in the corner.”

The pastor turned to see an elderly woman chained and bruised beneath a pile of rags. She was the pastor’s own mother.

The guard inquired. “Look how much your mother has suffered. If you tell the secrets of the underground church, you and your mother can go free. If she dies from our torture, you will have failed to keep the commandment to honor her, and her blood shall be on your head.”

The pastor turned to his mother who was starting to regain consciousness. “Dear Mother, what should I do?”

Lovingly she replied, “Since you were a small boy, I have taught you to love Christ and his church. Do not betray God. I am ready to die for the Holy Name.”

The pastor looked back at the guard and said with renewed courage, “You were very right, captain…a man must obey his mother.”

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Praise God for Moms….especially those that cherish Christ more than their children.

Matt

story from www.persecution.com

At the police station, the evangelist was beaten again until he vomited blood. The officers beat his face with his own Bible, leaving him bleeding and barely conscious on the concrete floor of the cell.

When he was released seven hours later, he resumed his ministry. The next time he delivered a message to that church, seven PSB officers came in, shouting accusations against the evangelist. When they saw visiting Westerners with him, they left but returned fifteen minutes later with reinforcements. The officers dragged Li out and began to beat his head against a stone wall.

As of 2000, Pastor Li had already been jailed 13 times for sharing the gospel.  Here is an account of some of his time in prison:

Upon arrival to prison Li was immediately put in chains.  Unlike other prisoners the authorities shackled his ankles, not once, but two times.  His ankles were placed into steel cuffs and then cranked down by bolts on either side.  Then a second set of steel cuffs was put on above the ankle near his shins.  After this they then placed a large steel bar in between the cuffs that spread his legs wider than his shoulders.   In the center of this bar there was a ring.  His hands were then shackled and they were brought down to the bar between his feet and cuffed to the ring in the center of the bar.  This left his back in a bowed position.  He was left in this position for three days with no relief.

By the second day his back was in severe pain.  After three days they finally released his hands and he was able to straighten up.  He was thankful that his back was not injured during this time.  With his hands released they then forced him to labor.  He had to start every day at 6 a.m. and worked until 11 p.m. – 17 hours of labor.

On April 26, Li was released with a stern warning not to preach…

Voice of the Martyrs article of June 2000

But preach he does. As he says, “I will preach until I die.”

Pray for Pastor Li and for the Church in China.

Decius, the Roman emperor, stood by the rack where Vincent was tied. “You will die in terrible pain,” he told the young Christian.

“No death is more honorable than that of a martyr,” Vincent said to the king with conviction. “I see heaven, and I abhor your idols.”

Furious, the king called for the now-crippled Christian to be tortured even more. Yet they could not rid Vincent of his smile. He told the emperor through his pain, “You destroy only my body, which has to perish anyway. Inside of me lives another Vincent, and over him you have no power. That Vincent cannot be put on a rack and cannot be killed.” Vincent welcomed death with a smile.

Finally, the Roman soldiers pulled him from the rack, but his torments were not over. They stripped him of his clothes and threw him into a cell, the floor of which was covered with shattered glass. Unable to stand, Vincent was forced to lie on the ragged glass. Even there, God’s peace was with him. Guards later reported to the emperor that he rested on the shattered glass “as on a bed of flowers.”

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Those who see Heaven can smile.  Through anything.

Until this light, momentary, bed of flowers affliction becomes an eternal weight of glory-

Matt

story from www.persecution.com

“Now….think of His sovereign goodness toward His chosen people. O, my soul, go thou back into eternity and see thy name in God’s book of predestinating, unchanging grace! And then come down to the time of redemption, and see there thy Saviour bleeding and agonizing. O my soul, there were drops of goodness before, but O, rivers of goodness roll before thee now! When thou sawest the Son of God groaning, agonizing, shrieking, dying, buried in his grave, and then rising again, thou sawest the goodness of God. “I will make all my goodness pass before thee.” I say again, what a panorama! What a series of dissolving views! What sight upon sight, each one melting into the other! Could I stand here this morning, and borrow the eloquence of an angel; could I speak to you as I might wish—but, alas! I cannot break these bonds that hold my stammering tongue—could I loose these lips and speak as angels speak, then could I tell you something, but not much, of the goodness of God; for it is “past finding out.” Since I cannot utter it myself, I would invoke all creation to be vocal in his praise. Ye hills, lift up your voices; let the shaggy woods upon your summits wave with adoration. Ye valleys, fill the air with the bleatings of your sheep and the lowing of your cattle. Ye that have life, if ye have voices, tune his praise; and if ye walk in silence, let your joyful motions show the thanks ye cannot speak. O, ye trees of the field, clap your hands; ye winds, in solemn harmony chant to his glory. Thou ocean, with thy myriad waves, in all thy solemn pomp, thy motion to and fro, forget not him who bids a thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain, and write no furrow on thy ever youthful brow. And you, ye storms, howl out his greatness; let your thunders roll like drums in the march of the God of armies; let your lightnings write his name in fire upon the midnight darkness; let the illimitable void of space become one mouth for song; and let the unnavigated ether, through its shoreless depths, bear through the infinite remote the name of him who is ever good and doeth good.”

==================

Soon Ok Lee was a prisoner in North Korea from 1987 to 1992. She did not become a Christian, however, until she escaped to South Korea. When she first received Christ, she was overwhelmed by her memories of what she had seen and heard in prison.

It was the simple things, like the Christians who sang as they were being put to death. At that time, she did not understand and had thought they were crazy. She was not allowed to talk, so she never had the chance to speak with a Christian. She does remember hearing the word, “Amen.”

“While I was there, I never saw Christians deny their faith. Not one. When these Christians were silent, the officers would become furious and kick them. At the time, I could not understand why they risked their lives when they could have said, ‘I do not believe,’ and done what the officers wanted. I even saw many who sang hymns as the kicking and hitting intensified. The officers would call them crazy and take them to the electric-treatment room. I didn’t see one come out alive.”

It was the singing that stuck with her. Perhaps it was the singing of these precious saints that planted a seed in her spirit and eventually led her to Christ.

===================

It will be the singing that sticks with this world.

It will be the singing that proves our joy is rooted in something Greater.

It will be the singing that the gates of hell cannot withstand.

That you might, in the midst of opposition, darkness, confusion, and suffering….Sing-

Matt

story from www.persecution.com

Inquisitors from the king were sent to inspect the house of the mayor of Brugge to see if any Bible studies were taking place there. In their search, they discovered a Bible. All present denied knowing anything about it. Then a young maidservant came in. When asked about the Bible, she declared, “I am reading it!”

The mayor sought to defend her saying, “Oh, no, she doesn’t know how to read.”

But the maidservant did not wish to be defended by a lie. “It is true, this book is mine. I am reading from it, and it is more precious to me than anything!”

She was sentenced to die by suffocation, sealed in the city wall. Just before her execution, she was asked by an official, “So young and beautiful and yet to die?”

She replied, “My Savior died for me. I will also die for him.”

When finally one single brick remained to complete the wall, she was told again, “Repent! Just say a single word of repentance!”

Instead she voiced her last words, her single desire to be with Jesus and added, “O Lord, forgive my killers!”

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That you might love God and His Word more than anything-

Matt

“My first and chosen name is Christian. In the world I am called Carpus.”

“You know the emperor’s decrees,” the proconsul stated, “You must worship the all-powerful gods of Rome. Therefore, I advise you to come forward and sacrifice to them.”

    “I am a Christian. I honor Christ, the Son of God, who came not long ago to save us and has delivered us from the madness of the devil. I will not sacrifice to such idols. They represent ghosts at best, demons in truth. It is impossible for me to offer sacrifices to them.”

    “You must sacrifice; Caesar has commanded it.”

    “The living do not sacrifice to the dead.”

    “Do you believe that the gods are dead?”

    “They were never men, nor did they ever live that they could die. Those who worship them are caught in a grave delusion.”

    “I have let you talk too much nonsense and now have let you blaspheme the gods and his majesty the emperor. You must stop this now, or it will be too late. You will sacrifice or you will die!”

    “I cannot sacrifice. I have never sacrificed to idols and will not start now.”

    The proconsul ordered him to be hung up and have his skin flayed with tools of torture, as he cried out, “I am a Christian! I am a Christian! I am a Christian!”

 

That you might know who you truly are,

Matt

 

Story from VOM www.persecution.com

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The pastor had struck a deal with the Communists in the Chinese prison where they were being held. But the two Christian girls standing before him were resolved not to renounce their faith. A fellow prisoner who watched the terrible scene described their faces as pale but beautiful beyond belief—infinitely sad, but sweet. They were determined to face death rather than turn their backs on Christ.

The pastor reasoned, “Why should we all three die? If I kill you and they let me live, then I can continue to work among the churches.”

The girls spoke to him softly, “Before you shoot us, we want to thank you for all you have meant to us. You led us to Christ, baptized us, and gave us Holy Communion. May God reward you for all the good you have done. You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, don’t despair like Judas but repent like Peter. And remember that our last thoughts of you are not of hatred and anger, but of love and forgiveness. We all pass through times of darkness. We die gladly.”

But the pastor’s heart was already hardened, and he shot them. Immediately afterward, the Communists shot him.

=====================

To love at all is to vulnerable.  The reason these 2 ladies were able to love someone who betrayed them was because they knew a Love that would never betray them.  When we know Christ, we are free to lose, be hurt, be betrayed, even killed….and though these things will always be painful, they will never be a devastating blow.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?  As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Hallelujah.

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Story from VOM www.persecution.com