Author: Tim Challies

This week the blog is sponsored by Help The Persecuted. “Can I have a Bible?” The guard studied Qasem. “If you paint the walls of every cell in this prison, I’ll get you a Bible.” “Where is the paint?” And so Qasem, enduring what would ultimately be a three-year sentence for running house churches throughout Iran, began the weeks-long process of repainting the walls of the prison that had become his home. The time passed quickly, so great was his longing for the Word of God. His path to faith in Jesus Christ had been hard. His parents, who were Muslims in Iran, divorced when he was little. As a 13-year-old, he woke up one day to discover his mother lying next to him, dead. Over time, he turned to drugs to cope and fell into a deep depression. At the height of desperation, Qasem asked Allah, the god of his childhood, to end his life. Instead, he had a chance encounter with a distant relative…who shared the hope of the gospel. Qasem instantly fell in love with Jesus, and his heart finally felt peace! He was discipled in the faith and started many house churches. One grew from four to 200 members—all converts from Islam—in a matter of months. Then the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence raided one of his house churches. Qasem was arrested and mercilessly blindfolded, interrogated, and charged with apostasy from Islam and conspiring against the government. In the midst of everything, a surge of hope rushed through Qasem when the prison…See AlsoOne Way To Know You’re Being PersecutedA La Carte (January 14)A La Carte (February 18)

If you have spent any time at all on YouTube, you have probably seen videos of people hearing for the first time or people seeing color for the first time—videos of people who, through the miracles of modern science, have senses restored that had either been missing altogether or that had become dull through illness or accidents. It is hard not to be moved as a child hears her mother’s voice for the first time or to be thrilled as a man gets his first glimpse of the world in colorSee AlsoA La Carte (November 10)Weekend A La Carte (September 19)KONY 2012