Day: 1
The Journey Ahead
“Send out your light and your truth; let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling!”
Psalm 43:3 (ESV)
My Background
Thank you so much for signing up for The Last Words of the Martyrs devotional series. Though this is a standalone series, I recommend that you read the book in addition to the devotional to learn more about the incredible lives of persecuted brothers and sisters all over the world.
Since 2003, I’ve served the persecuted church with International Christian Concern. The Lord has done a great work in my life through the martyrs and the persecuted. After spending so much time working with and for them, they have utterly transformed my view of the Christian’s spiritual journey and I feel burdened to share that with you.
My desire in writing The Last Words of the Martyrs was not to sell books. I wanted to take you on the same journey of self-development and spiritual awakening that the Lord has taken me on.
It will take time for the lessons of the martyrs to move your heart and mind. This forty-day devotional will give you time to think about and process what the Lord wants to do in your heart through the lives of the martyrs.
The Two Whispers
My journey with the persecuted Church began with a dream.
That’s right! I was called to ICC through the means of a miraculous dream. I won’t go into more detail here, but it served as an unmistakable call from God to work among the persecuted. It was the most powerful spiritual experience I’ve had, next to giving my life to God. The radical clarity of that dream has kept me from swerving off God’s intended path for me for the last 16 years.
Even though my calling was rock-solid, I have to tell you a secret: for years, I wondered why God assigned me to this work. You see, I’m an evangelist at heart. I’m motivated by the desire to share His gospel and to call believers to the deep waters of their faith.
But the Lord didn’t call me to that work; instead, He gave me the keys to this, and told me to tend to His garden – the persecuted church.
Don’t get me wrong, I am immensely honored and humbled by the assignment; it just never seemed like the job I would have picked for myself. Over the years, I was often driven to ask the Lord why I was called to the persecuted: “Why the persecuted, Lord? Why ICC?”
In the beginning (after “the dream”), this question wasn’t at the top of my mind. But, after spending 16 years working one small, often ignored plot of land – tending to the soil under a hot sun – I had time to wrestle with God. I eventually teased out the “why” in the meaning of my assignment.
Over time, I noticed something while working with the persecuted: contact with the persecuted church is incredibly transformative. I’m not speaking about just me. I’ve seen this transformation in everyone – from my staff to Anglican pastors to Francis Chan!
Everyone who is touched by them gets a new pair of glasses to see the church, their own faith, and the world differently.
For me, this transformation came from what I call “the whisper.” Actually, I should say whispers, because, from the very beginning of my work, there were always two messages…
The first was from the Lord. It came as a repetitive tapping on my shoulder. If I had to put it into words, His message was this: “My suffering church has something of great importance to teach you and the Free Church. Listen to them.”
The second whisper came from the martyrs and the persecuted themselves. It took longer, much longer, to understand. I strained and strained to understand their whisper but couldn’t seem to make it out at first.
Given enough time, even a blind squirrel can find a nut, and I finally did! It took a dozen years or so and then a few more years of trying to articulate it in written form; but once I got it, I had to shout it out!
That is how The Last Words of the Martyrs came into focus.
Your Journey
We are all trying to follow the footsteps of the Lord to the mountaintop of our spiritual journeys.
If your path is anything like mine, God’s footsteps are often hidden by the cloud that hovers around the mountain, rarely lifting.
My journey with the persecuted blew away this cloud, revealing God’s pathway and its endpoint. For the first time, I saw God’s final destination for me at the top of the mountain!
The study you are embarking on is my attempt to show you a few simple but profound truths that were revealed to me as I served the persecuted.
I hope to clear away the clouds around your path, so you too will see where the Lord is taking you on your spiritual journey.
Life, Not Death
The journey I’m about to take you on may be very hard, especially if you have a sensitive heart. But I urge you not to turn away from the suffering body of Jesus.
I think you will find, as I have, that while these stories about martyrdom involve death and suffering, their hidden message is all about life. The real life that you desperately thirst for. The life that the Lord longs to bring to you.
So thank you for beginning this journey. Please spend time asking the Lord to open your heart and eyes to whatever truths or transformation He would like to pursue in your life as you commit to the The Last Words of the Martyrs daily devotional.
For Further Reading
“And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”
Colossians 2:6-7 (NLT)
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.”
Proverbs 3:5-6 (ESV)
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.”
Jeremiah 17:7 (ESV)
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 (ESV)
“And God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’
Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, ‘Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?’ And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’
God said, ‘No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year.’”
Genesis 17:15-21 (ESV)
“But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.”
James 1:25 (ESV)
“Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established.”
Proverbs 16:3 (ESV)
“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
1 Timothy 6:12 (ESV)
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you.”
John 15:16 (ESV)
