While we were on the mission field in Kenya, news arrived on our doorstep of several Christians martyred for their faith just north of us in Yemen.
For me, this was the first time I really had to sit with and process through the concept of personal persecution…
Of course, I’d read of others who were martyred for faith in Jesus, but the reality of living in a foreign country where opposition to the gospel presented itself on all sides, caused me to dig a little bit deeper into the “what ifs” that might come my way.
As news reports and letters with information began to reach our mission station, one thing stood out to me above all others.
“Those who died did not have their lives taken, their lives were freely given.”
(as reported by the IMB of Southern Baptists)
The reports reminisced each missionary’s call to the field, their sending service at their home churches, the messages of each victim as they reminded their churches that as the call came and they answered, they knew the risks, they counted the costs.
Each spoke of going to serve whole-heartedly with lives on the altars – declaring fervently that the Lord could do with their lives as He chose in order to advance the gospel and see souls enter the Kingdom.
AND…this is exactly what happened at that hospital in Yemen. As locals came to receive help and medical treatment, the gospel was dispensed along with the much needed medication and surgeries provided.
Because of these who’d freely offered their lives on the altar to serve, the response to the gospel, even in a Muslim country, far exceeded expectation.
I realized that what I did not know outweighed what I did know.
God sees the unseeable future and He knows the lasting outcomes that we will only know about in eternity.
What I did not truly know or comprehend:
God uses everything, even tragedy (which breaks His heart) to see the gospel proclaimed and kingdom followers multiplied.
(Because of Christ, our suffering is not useless. It is part of the total plan of God, who has chosen to redeem the world through the pathway of suffering. RC Sproul)
Then, months later, one of my dear friends was murdered a mile away from our home during a robbery gone wrong.
She and her husband also served the Lord in a strong Muslim based city in south Kenya.
As the thieves determined she’d seen too much, they began viciously beating her alongside the road, out of greed, anger, fear, and ignorance.
As a car coming down the highway, scared them off, and her nearly unconscious husband, crawled to her side to cradle her, my friend’s final words were:
“They just need Jesus.”
Oh, the heart harbored within her that beat passionately for the lost!
What truth…they just need Jesus.
My friend lived and died that others, who needed what she possessed, might have their emptiness filled.
At her celebration of life in that Muslim community, where the folks dearly loved her, we received reports of over 500 men and women who gave their lives to Jesus.
Sometimes, what we don’t see, know or understand, in our sorrow and suffering is how Jesus redeems tragedy by bringing the lost into the fold.
Sometimes, what we don’t see goes deeper than what is obvious on the surface.
We may sow with tears, but reap with great joy later.
Sometimes, what we don’t see is that the price we pay in sorrow and suffering might be worth the cost for what is reaped on the other side.
“They just need Jesus.”
So many do!
How do we, then, live in our suffering that others might see Him and find their way to the cross?
Jesus endured His suffering in order to redeem His people. But those He redeemed are not thereby delivered from all pain and misery. Indeed, as we shall see, we His people are called to participate in His suffering.”
― R.C. Sproul
