Welcome to the Hackberry House of Chosun. My name is Bob, and I'm reading today first from the November issue of the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter. Our story today is entitled, Prepare Your Children to be Crossbearers. It's written by Richard Wurmbrand. Remember, all of November 2022 was about the children who are serving the Lord. And here's Wurmbrand telling us to get our children ready for this. He quotes Deuteronomy 28 verses 1 and 4, and if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, blessed shall be the fruit of your womb. He says, I thought about this promise of God when I read the second volume of the Gulag Archipelago by Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn, who was expelled from the Soviet Union by the communist government, tells the story of 10-year-old Zoya Leshcheva, the person whose parents, grandparents, and brothers were sent to concentration camps because of their Christian faith. The Leshcheva children had been richly blessed with parents who hearkened to the voice of God, even when it meant heavy suffering. Zoya was first placed in a home for children whom the government thought needed re-education. Refusing to part with the cross pendant her mother had given her just before being taken away, Zoya tightened the cord of her necklace at night to prevent communist authorities from taking it. As a result of her stubbornness, she was sent to a home for developmentally disabled children, where she continued the fight for her cross and the Savior that it symbolized. When other children encouraged her to blaspheme and steal, she replied, my mother should not have a criminal child. Sentenced to death at age 14, Zoya's punishment was later reduced to a long imprisonment. Her parents and brothers had long since been freed while she remained in prison. When we read in the Bible that blessings are promised to children of the faithful, some of us expect a good position at work, a happy marriage, academic success, or some position of honor. But the Bible often defines blessing another way. The Lord Jesus said, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, Matthew 5, 10 and 11. As parents and grandparents, we search our hearts to determine what is best for our children and grandchildren, but what we should desire most for them is that they would share his sufferings and become like him in his death so they may attain the resurrection from the dead. Obviously, not everyone will go to prison for his or her faith, but as Christians, we must remember our family members like Zoya Leshteva, as though in prison with them, Hebrews 13.3. Do you wish for your children earthly possessions, fun, enjoyment, good careers? none of which are to be entirely despised, or do you think primarily about preparing them for the highest blessing, to become like Zoya and thousands of others, partakers of Christ's passion? It is not enough to take children to Sunday school and church or to have devotions with them in the home. They must come to understand what it means to be a Christian, a cross-bearer who views suffering with Christ as pure joy. Obey the Word of God and prepare real blessings for your children. Instead of giving them riches and recreation, prepare them to endure sufferings gladly while sharing in the sorrows of Christ. There is no higher blessing than this. This is the path to glory. I'm sure you know who Richard Wurmbrand was. They were imprisoned in communist Romania for their faith in Christ. Richard lived to 2001, his wife only to 2000. But after their release from prison in Romania, they sought ways to serve persecuted Christians. In 1967, they founded the Voice of the Martyrs, and you can read his story in Worm Brand, Tortured for Christ. The complete story, it's available at torturedforchrist.com. And while we're talking about Voice of the Martyrs, let's go to the book that they put out quite a few years ago, a devotional called Extreme Devotion. And I want to read one of these articles every time we come together with the Persecuted Church. We happen to be in Romania again in the same prison that Mr. Wurmbrandt was in. We're going to be talking about Archimandrite Giyush in a communist prison that was especially harsh, Jalava. The broken windows let in the bitter winter cold. Some of the prisoners had even frozen to death. There was no sympathy for Christians at Jalava. In fact, they often endured special beatings from the cruel guards. One of the new prisoners, Archimandrite Ghiuș, was a pastor in the city of Liberty, Romania. As Archimandrite anxiously looked around his new home, he noticed a familiar face, a man who had served with him in Liberty. It was Pastor Richard Wormbrand. How could he still be alive? Archimandrite wondered. No one has heard from him in nearly eight years. The two faithful pastors embraced. Archimandrite smiled, grateful for an old friend to help him through the horrific sufferings he was about to endure. But Pastor Wurmbrand did not smile. He felt saddened to see such a fine pastor in prison. He began to worry about him. Would he survive the cold and the cruel treatment? Would he go mad as others had done? After eight years in prison, Wurmbrand knew what was to come. The two friends sat silently for a while, and finally Richard broke the tension and softly asked, Are you sad? To his amazement, Archimandrite simply replied, Brother, I know only one sadness, and that is not being fully given to Jesus. 2 Corinthians 7, 9 says, Yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance, for you became sorrowful as God intended. It is difficult to read the true stories of Christian martyrs without feeling emotionally drained. The natural reaction is one of sadness and a sense of pity for the innocent who died such horrific deaths. However, the heroes and heroines of the stories would wish for an altogether different response. They hoped their sacrifices would inspire others toward like-hearted commitment, not pity. Certainly their deaths touch our hearts, but the realization of our own paltry faith ought to break our hearts in two. This is truly sad. Are you challenged beyond earthly sympathy toward repentance for your own complacency? Do you have a divine sense of determination as a result of your reading? Ask God to stir your resolve to live for Him daily. If you'd like to be put on the mailing list of Voice of the Martyrs and receive free your own copy of the VOM newsletter or magazine, just contact them at vom.org. Or for your own copy of Extreme Devotion, which is not free, email voiceofthemartyrs at thevoiceatvom.org. This is the Hackberry House of Chosun, and this audio is being released on the 8th of January, 2023. Lord willing, we'll talk again real soon. Bye-bye.