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 guard promised him a Bible. When every inch of prison walls gleamed with new paint, he went to the guard and asked for it.
“No, of course not!”
Qasem’s face fell as he thought back to the weeks of labor. Perhaps it spurred the guard to a rare moment of compassion.
“But you normally get six minutes of phone time each day. I’ll give you fifteen from now on.”
It was enough.
Knowing that someone on the other side of the world was praying for him strengthened Qasem’s heart. Share
Day after day, Qasem smuggled a pen and paper to his phone time, where a friend would dictate the Bible to him in their native Persian. Soon, he had most of the New Testament. He shared it with his fellow inmates, many of whom came from extremist Islamic backgrounds and had never heard about a compassionate, loving God. Conversions to Christ came in droves.
The guards, alarmed by the growing number of Christians in a country where people are executed for apostasy from Islam, quarantined all the Christians in a single block in the prison.
Unable to evangelize, Qasem grew weary and discouraged in his faith. When his Christian friends were denied their rightful release, he went on a hunger strike that lasted 60 days to get the judge’s attention.
On one of his worst days, battling extreme hunger and sadness, Qasem received a postcard in the mail from Denver, Colorado. He later learned that hundreds of postcards had been sent to him over the years, but only this one ever arrived. It said, “I prayed for you today, that our heavenly Father will comfort you, give you peace, and heal you.” Knowing that someone on the other side of the world was praying for him strengthened Qasem’s heart. To this day, he says this postcard saved his life.
Qasem’s friends were released, and a few months later, he was, too. He was told if he remained in Iran, he would be imprisoned again—or worse. He fled to Turkey, where he serves persecuted believers, many from Iran, with the ministry Help The Persecuted, which rescues, restores, and rebuilds the lives of persecuted believers in the Islamic World.
Help The Persecuted has on-the-ground ministers, including Qasem, in 13 countries, the vast majority of whom have faced imprisonment, torture, and death threats for their faith in Jesus. Every week, they meet with persecuted believers like themselves, providing spiritual support and tangible help. In addition, they record the specific prayer needs of each person. Every Saturday, Help The Persecuted sends out a prayer newsletter including 10 of the most imminent prayer requests.
We invite you to join Help The Persecuted’s Prayer Network and commit to praying weekly for the specific needs of persecuted Christians as well as for the growth of the Church in the Islamic World. There are so many more believers like Qasem for whom prayer makes all the difference. Join their Prayer Network here.

May the Lord be with you and bless you on this fine day.

The highlight of today’s Kindle deals is Alistair Begg’s Brave By Faith.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Family Update for an Especially Noteworthy Week)
Baptisms in the Jordan River: A Pet Peeve
Clint may be a bit of a self-confessed curmudgeon when it comes to baptisms in the Jordan, but I very much agree with him.
We had a baptism: here’s what we were actually doing
Speaking of baptism, here’s what baptism is all about (from a baptistic perspective, at least).
Finance Professionals Make Great Missionaries
You may think that a career in missions means you would need to serve as a church planter or evangelist. This couldn’t be further from the truth. (Sponsored Link)
The Audacity of Disability
“You might have gotten the diagnosis beforehand, when the beautiful process of growth in the womb turned fearful. Or maybe it happened like it did for us, entering the hospital with excitement, only to discover something terribly wrong in the delivery room. Or perhaps it was a few years later, when you began to notice that something wasn’t quite right. However it happened, however you learned of it, disability entered your world, unexpected and unwelcome.”
Songs Are Discipleship
It’s important to consider the songs we sing. “How does this song build up the body of Christ? How does this song edify a seasoned saint? How does this jingle build up the newly-born believer? How does this worship leader understand his role and responsibility? We must take seriously the theological development of the individuals we call worship leaders because they are disciples too.”
Oneness not just faithfulness
What’s the goal of marriage? Is it procreation? Happiness? Or something else…?
The Godliness of a Good Night’s Sleep
“Sleep as healer, sleep as teacher, sleep as giver — these three give us abundant reason to actively seek a good night’s rest. In light of them, many of us may need to acknowledge how much sleep we really need and to consider some basic tips for falling asleep and staying asleep, especially in our caffeinated, sedentary, digital world.”
Flashback: If I Was the World’s Only Christian…
It’s beautifully and wonderfully true that our God is the God of all kinds of people and that he is building a kingdom of young and old, great and poor, black and white, wise and simple, famous and unknown.

The Bible…wants to introduce dissonance into your thinking, to stretch your understanding. It wants to reveal a mosaic of the majesty of God one passage at a time, one day at a time, across a lifetime. —Jen Wilkin

I have been blogging at Challies.com on a daily basis for over 19 years now. That long commitment has allowed me to write thousands of articles and hundreds of book reviews while also sending millions of visitors to other sites through the daily A La Carte feature. Of course I’ve also written a number of books, though through it all the blog has remained the “main thing.” Much of the blog’s content is now also translated into Spanish, French, and a number of other languages.

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