Chet Bitterman went in with his eyes open. He knew that sharingthe Gospel could be costly. It could cost everything. But hewillingly went to Colombia to bear the Good News. “…I findthe recurring thought that perhaps God will call me to be martyred forHim in His service in Colombia. I am willing.” Bitterman penned thosewords in his diary before he and his wife, Brenda, arrived in Colombia.Bitterman’s devotion to his Savior was evident: “I am willing.” When the gunmen came into the Wycliffe Bible Translators guesthouse in Bogotá, Colombia, early the morning of January 19, 1981, theywere looking for the mission’s leader, a more high-profile hostage whosecaptivity could somehow help their cause. Who they got instead wasChester A. Bitterman III, “Chet” to his friends. The next day PresidentRonald Reagan took the oath of office, and American hostages left Iranafter 444 days in captivity. Their ordeal was over, with the Bittermans’just beginning. They hadn’t been in Colombia long. Their mission career and theirtranslation work lay before them. They had gone to language school andhelped in various tasks for Wycliffe, including managing the guest house,serving as buyer for goods needed by mission workers and even as radiooperator. Finally, it seemed God was
Read MoreHe was young and brave, a Scotsman who believed that nohuman, peasant or king, was head of Christ’s church, butChrist alone. Hugh McKail said so in the last sermon he preached, on the Sunday before all Presbyterian Covenanters were deposed in favor of Charles II’s episcopacy. His words that day were food to the people but poison to the state. Young Pastor McKail fled to Europe and safety. Virtually nothing is known of McKail’s birth and growing years.After studying at the University of Edinburgh, he was ordained at theage of twenty, only a year after Charles II had rejuvenated the monarchyfollowing Oliver Cromwell’s failed experiment in popular sovereignty. McKail was a Scotsman. He could neither travel forever nor ignorehis calling to the Scottish church. Four years in hiding was enough. Hereturned to Galloway to watch and wait. When his fellow Covenanterstook up swords and clubs against the British, he couldn’t be content sitting quietly at his hearth. Whether McKail became a fighter is uncertain, but certainly heknew the Covenanter captains and likely traveled with them. In November 1666 he was captured and tortured for information, which apparently he withheld despite a metal wedge being hammered into his leg,shattering the bone.
Read MoreHe loved the sea, this rebellious Scottish lad. The fishing villageof Ardrishaig was his home, and the fishermen his friends. Thesea was wild when the wind blew strong, like young Chalmershimself. He breathed the sea air and wondered what lay beyond the rolling waves. Later, when God’s call to missionary service touched hisheart, he spent many perilous days on the sea, searching out peoples whohad never heard God’s story. Chalmers was eighteen when he converted to Christ in an evangelistic meeting led by two preachers from Ireland. Chalmers had come withfriends to break up the meeting, to mock the zealots, to make sport ofthe timid who sought their peace in religion. Perhaps the heavy rain thatnight dampened the youths’ recklessness, but Chalmers listened andbelieved. The message was from Revelation 22:17: “The Spirit and theBride say, ‘Come.’” It was an invitation to make his heart’s home in God;Chalmers gladly accepted. “I was thirsty, and I came,” he said later.A few years later he received pastoral training and a commission bythe London Missionary Society to serve in the Pacific Islands. Chalmersand his wife, Jane Hercus, were standing at water’s edge in New Guinea.Suddenly a mob of painted warriors surrounded them, demanding giftsand
Read MoreDemerara was one of three counties in the Caribbean colony ofBritish Guiana (now Guyana). Slavery was the rule in Demerara, the way of life, the engine of its sugar cane economy. Whatever else happened there, slavery was never to be questioned or threatened. Of those who might do so, missionaries were the most culpable. The London Missionary Society (LMS) sent John Smith to BritishGuiana in March 1817. In Demerara he took over from the ReverendJohn Wray, who had been transferred to neighboring Berbice County.Such transfers helped keep relations transitory between the missionarypreacher and the slave population. Bonds of sympathy were dangerousto the economy. Smith’s first interview with Governor Murray made it quite clear:Teaching the African slaves to read was forbidden. The job of the missionstation was to teach contentment, not to educate, nor to “insinuate anything which might… lead them to any measures injurious to their masters.” In British Guiana, sugar cane was lord and king. So the honorable Reverend John Smith set about his work in one ofthe most thankless, humid, and oppressive mission stations in theworld—far from the British homeland where William Wilberforce andother Christian leaders were challenging the foundation of slavery andmapping out its legalized extinction. Smith
Read MoreHis purpose was to bring as many people to Christ as he could—to point them to the Savior. It didn’t matter the danger. Godhad called him to this work, and he would follow to the end.So he packed up his belongings and began working in an outreach ministry with Campus Crusade for Christ in his native Bangladesh. Redoy Roy walked quickly up the stairs to his home in the late evening of April 23, 2003, after being dropped off by the rickshaw. It hadbeen a wonderful evening as he showed the JESUS film to almost twohundred villagers. He loved to watch the audience and the beautifulexpressions of fascination and hope that showed on their faces. And heloved even more when the film finished and some in the audience choseto follow this Jesus—their newfound Friend and Savior. Roy turned the handle, pushed the door open to his rented home, andmade his way through the dark house. Before he could reach the lightswitch, he was hit in the face and knocked to the ground. Angry radicalMuslims grabbed him and dragged him over to his bed. A couple more heldhim down as they tied his hands and feet to the bedposts. Roy screamed
Read More“The blasphemy law in its present form has become more of aninstrument of persecution and vendetta than of justice,” a Pakistani newspaper editorial stated. Blasphemy means showingextreme irreverence toward something sacred, and for centuries Christians have been accused of blaspheming Islam. Often in Pakistan, contrived witnesses with false accusations have spoken out against believers, sending them to jail and even to death. Such was the case with Samuel Masih, whose body was found bloodied and battered, his skull smashed. Masih spent his days as a whitewasher and painter. He had justfinished a job and stopped at the local mosque in order to use the restroom. As he returned outside, bystanders grabbed him and shoutedaccusations. Masih’s accusers, knowing he was a Christian, claimed thathe had spit on the walls of the mosque; two false witnesses confirmedthis story. Samuel was immediately arrested and put on trial. Under the maximum penalty for violating Section 295 of the Pakistani penal code, Masih could have been jailed for two years and fined,if convicted of “defiling a place of worship with the intent of insultingthe religion (Islam).” The pungent odor of urine and sweat filled the dirty prison. Thesounds of coughing and scuffling feet echoed along
Read MoreAn elderly man in his eighties sitting at a table eating dinner, Polycarp knew his life was in danger. A group of Christians had just been executed in the arena on account of their faith. But Polycarp refused to leave Rome. The Romans were executing any self-proclaimed Christians, and pagans were betraying those they knew to be followers of the Way. After the recent executions, the crowd in the arena had chanted for Polycarp’s death. A renowned follower of Christ and bishop of Smyrna, Polycarp hadbecome a Christian under the tutelage of John the apostle. Recently,the Roman proconsul had been looking for him for days. After arresting and torturing one of Polycarp’s servants, they finally learned wherehe was staying. The soldiers came into the house, but instead of fleeing,Polycarp calmly stated, “God’s will be done.” Polycarp asked that food be brought for the soldiers, and herequested an hour for prayer. Amazed by Polycarp’s fearlessness, especially for a man his age, the hardened Roman soldiers granted hisrequest. He prayed for two hours for all the Christians he knew and forthe universal church, and the soldiers let him. As Polycarp entered the stadium, several Christians present heard avoice from Heaven say, “Be
Read MoreIn contrast to most of the other apostolic figures, little confusionexists about the place of Paul’s death. He always had a passion topreach the Gospel in Rome, and he died there. Paul spent time in Rome twice, on both occasions at the expense ofthe Roman Empire. Neither his travel arrangements nor his accommodations were first class, but they suited the apostle well. Throughout Acts and his letters, Paul conveys an unmistakable sense that his time was short, and he was grateful for every moment he was given. Paul understood God’s grace, not simply as a great theological concept, but also as his own reason for living. He appreciated God’s grace because he knew he needed so much of it. His final thoughts had little to do with regrets and much to dowith the satisfaction that flows from grace-drenched living. He wroteto Timothy: “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, andthe time of my departure has come. I have fought the goodfight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Hence forth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day,
Read MoreSimon, son of John, grew up in Capernaum, on the north end of theSea of Galilee. Raised along with his brother Andrew in a fishingfamily, Simon seemed headed for a career in that business. ThenJesus came walking along the shore and invited Simon to follow Him intoa life of fishing for people. Simon accepted both the invitation and a newname given by Jesus—Peter (from the Greek word petros, meaning “apiece of rock”). For three years, Peter was Jesus’s constant companion. We find it easy to imagine Simon Peter, the rock, smiling over theimmense irony of Jesus’s call on his life as Peter wrote these lines: “As youcome to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosenand precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as aspiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: ‘Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame’” (1 Peter 2:4-6). Peter knew firsthand the depth of that promise of never being put toshame. He knew the unspeakable joy
Read MoreWhen the stones rained down on him, we don’t know whathe said, but he had good examples to follow. And the legacy of his death remains with us even today. Among the “James trio” in the New Testament, James, son of Alphaeus (or James the “Less”), has the smallest profile. He receives no creditfor a single question, comment, or action during his years with Christ.He was simply one of the Twelve. This James never stood out for ridiculeor praise. James, son of Zebedee (the “Great”), and James, son of Joseph,both held far more prominent roles in the history of the times. James,son of Zebedee, was one of the famous Sons of Thunder among thedisciples. James, son of Joseph and the half-brother of Jesus, eventuallytook a significant leadership role in the church of Jerusalem. But James,son of Alphaeus, lived in the background of the story. At some point, tradition tells us, the apostles assigned themselvescertain areas of the world as destinations for outreach. Syria was theappointment of James the Less. During the early persecutions of Christians in Jerusalem, one of the popular escape destinations was Damascus in southern Syria. So much so that when Saul began to run out of believers
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