Trouble – 7/1/2025
How much trouble are we willing to put up with as we live the Christian life? What if the trouble comes because we act out on our Christian principles? How much of a difference is there between living as a Christian in America vs. professing Christ openly in, perhaps, a Muslim country?
When they hear a knock on the door, Karwan sends his wife to answer it. After all, Islamists in Iraq are less likely to kill a woman than a man, and death threats against Karwan are both persistent and credible. Karwan started a church which has grown to over a hundred, most of them former Muslims.
Karwan was raised to be a zealous Muslim, but had questions in college that his Quranic teachers would not try to answer. “In Islam, it is very dangerous to ask about Allah. People say you are not good if you ask about Allah.” Pouring over Islamic sources, but also writings from Hinduism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism, he found no help. But then he found the New Testament and a sense of peace filled his heart. He put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and immediately began to tell his friends and family . . . who became enraged. They set his books on fire.
The Lord led Karwan to start a church, facing great opposition. Local officials have closed down their meetings multiple times. Death threats are a way of life. One of his friends, a new convert, was murdered. Karwan’s children are insulted by their peers. Karwan explains, “They were looking to kill Christ. We are not higher than our teacher. If he died, if he was executed, of course it will happen for us. It is normal.”
Yet, Karwan is determined, relentless, to preach the Gospel. “Even if I am sure that we will die, it doesn’t matter. We are like soldiers for Jesus Christ. This is our responsibility in this body, to share the Gospel. This is the day. Let’s work and let’s share God’s kingdom.”
Karwan’s story is featured in the June 2024 issue of Voice of the Martyrs, a monthly magazine featuring Christians under persecution all over the world. The magazine is free – you can request it through vom.org. My wife and I have supported VOM with a small monthly check for many years. VOM has done us much good . . . how can we not be diligent in our small efforts in an America which is still free and prosperous, while our brothers and sisters in Christ suffer much to spread the Gospel under the most vicious persecution?
Gabriel shares the Gospel everywhere he goes, trains church leaders, and helps to plant churches in Cuba, working against Communist persecution – Communists hate the Gospel which points people to Jesus, rather than to the all-powerful State. Gabriel’s story is reported in the April 2024 issue of VOM magazine.
Cuba is filled with atheists, but also suffers the darkness of spiritism and other occult practices. Cubans are oppressed politically and economically, with jobs and resources scarce, with no hope, no motivation, with many desperately seeking to leave the country. Gabriel says, “In the middle of this context, we tell them there is hope in God, there is salvation in God.”
Gabriel grew up in a tiny, dirt-floor house, with severe asthma. Grandma and many of the neighbors were into occult practices, but a relative had taught Gabriel’s mother about the Christian faith. “One night, when I was dying of asthma, my mom raised up her hands to heaven and said, ‘Jesus Christ, help us!’ The presence of God came to our room . . . and I started to feel relief.” Night after night, mom sought God’s help as Gabriel suffered and God answered her prayers. Months later, they started attending a church a few miles away.
Gabriel’s whole family came to Christ and seeded a new church in their village. At 16, Gabriel dedicated his life to planting churches. He felt called to a wicked town, filled with the occult, alcoholism, and sexual immorality. “It was a hard town.” Discouraged, he read about a missionary who inspired him with the idea that God did not require success, but faithfulness. He began to see that God worked, God transformed. People got interested, and many were saved.
Over the years, Gabriel invested in discipleship training groups, establishing thousands throughout the island. Today there are perhaps 2,500 house churches sprung from these discipleship groups.
Gabriel recalls a prison official who chased him away when seeking permission to conduct services there. But eventually the official’s heart softened, allowing chaplains to preach and minister. “You can’t ever burn a bridge. Do not reject anyone, because the one who is not with you today may be with you tomorrow. Never, never repay anyone evil for evil. There are people who have been my enemy and have turned to the Lord.”
Nurettin was raised Muslim in a Kurdish family in eastern Turkey. As an adult he did not take Islam seriously, focused rather on Kurdish politics and making money. He was introduced to a foreign worker, a Christian, who gave him a Bible. He was intrigued, resonating with the Lord’s promise he found in Matthew 7:7-8. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
His new Christian acquaintance called him by mistake, thinking he had dialed the number of another fellow who had seemed more receptive. But Nurettin wanted another meeting and so began to learn and to grow. He had a conversion experience while reading the book of Revelation. He felt the Lord called him to share his faith, so he began to do that, except for his family. He knew his family would tolerate him if he declared atheism, but becoming a Christian? No.
I had an analogous experience as a teenaged Roman Catholic. When I turned to atheism, it disturbed my parents and my relatives – slightly – but a few years later when I became a born again Christian, and was open about it, then the trouble came. (Albeit ‘American’-level trouble, not the kind that Muslim converts to Christ suffer in Islamic countries.)
Nurettin was arrested and interrogated at length by police, both for his Kurdish activism and for his faith. Even though he was still a new Christian, he seemed to find wisdom from the Lord to answer the challenges put to him by his interrogators. Sentenced to two years in prison, ostensibly for his political activities, he studied the Bible and grew stronger in faith. He led his wife to the Lord during this period.
Upon release, he distanced himself from politics, but got arrested again after just 18 months, now for a 2 ½ year stint. Mature in his faith, he shared with other prisoners openly and obtained Bibles for many. “They knew I was a follower of Jesus, so they would always ask me questions and I would answer them.” He didn’t see any conversions among his fellow inmates, but insured that everyone heard and understood the Gospel message.
After getting out of prison again, Nurettin trained to become a pastor and now leads a church of Kurdish believers. He finds a growing interest in the Christian faith within the Kurdish community. A Kurdish church is unusual enough that reporters write about it in the local paper.
“God willing, I will spend the rest of my life preaching his Word until I reach eternal life.”
Ten years ago Susan was rescued from certain death at the hands of her Muslim father in Uganda. Professing Christ at age 11 and getting baptized provoked her father to beat her repeatedly and finally to imprison her in darkness, leaving her to die. Sustained in secret by her brother, she was eventually rescued by authorities. Emaciated and crippled, she has endured many surgeries and hospitalizations since then.
Early in that process a Christian woman, “Mama Dreda,” befriended her and took her into her family. When VOM workers met Susan, they were encouraged by her strong faith and positive spirit. “If you did not know her story, you would never assume she would have been through what happened to her. It is an amazing testimony not only of Susan’s and Dreda’s faithfulness but ultimately the Lord’s.”
Recently, Susan has begun to talk to her father, knowing the Lord expects her to forgive him. “There are times I just look at him and get angry, but then I stop and remember I have to forgive him.” She prays for him all the time.
Susan feels connected to Ezekiel 37, where the prophet has a vision of a valley full of dry bones. “It talks about the dry bones coming back to life. That is what I pray the Lord does for me physically and what he has already done for me spiritually.”
VOM organized gifts that enabled Susan and Dreda’s family to buy a small house near Susan’s school in a peaceful neighborhood. Dreda, laughing, said, “When I heard a home was going to be built for us, I was overwhelmed. When I told my family, they said, ‘God is good!’”
Indeed, God is good. He’s good to believers in America, too. Such freedom we have to proclaim the Gospel and to speak truth every day, on all subjects! We must not neglect this freedom!
The challenge I see and experience in America is faithfulness in personal evangelism despite woeful results. America has grown harder spiritually even within the last few years. Yes, there seems to be more ‘God’-talk recently, especially since the 2024 election. But adult Americans actually willing to repent, trust Christ, and openly live the Christian life? That’s rare. About as rare as the number of Christians who are interested in sharing the Gospel boldly.
The churches don’t have an evangelistic culture, as I’ve written about much over the years. Yet any individual Christian can choose to make a difference. Start by handing out Gospel tracts. (See my Tracts essay.) And look for, and then create opportunities to simply talk to people and share your faith. EVERYONE is either saved or lost. Love the lost enough to warn them they need the Saviour. Love the saved enough to encourage them to obey the Lord by getting busy as the days draw down before the Lord Jesus returns.
- drdave@truthreallymatters.com