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.

Good morning. Grace and peace to you.

Today’s Kindle deals include a long list of good books.
Logos is kicking off a new month with a sale on many of the best commentaries you can get. (Also, use the code EXTRASAVINGS to get $10 off a purchase of $100, $25 off $200, $45 off $300, or $75 off $500.)
(Yesterday on the blog: Fourteen Signs That You Might Be Legalistic)
Supreme Court Issues Ruling Protecting Religious Free Speech
Joe Carter explains an important Supreme Court decision. (See also Denny Burk)
Money Makes a Horrible Master and a Valuable Servant
Randy Alcorn: “Money has social and economic benefits that can be used for the betterment of people. As a plow can be used for honest labor and a sack of grain for feeding a family, so money, which simply represents their value, can be used for good.”
The Story of Us
Shane Rosenthal writes about words and stories and other important things.
Yearning for Oneness: A John 17 Meditation
What does it look like to yearn for oneness with God, and how do we get there? That’s the topic of this article.
Why Is it Better That Jesus Went Away?
“God never leaves his people. If the Holy Spirit has been God’s tangible presence among his people throughout their history, surely the Spirit’s descending on Jesus at his baptism and the pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost are continuations of the same story. We see this promise coming to fruition in John 14–16.”
Not THAT Kind of Homosexual Behavior? (Video)
This is a good answer to a very common (but misguided) understanding of some Greek words.
Flashback: The Utter Horror of the Smallest Sins
…our hearts are so desperately wicked that there’s no area of life in which we won’t express our rebellion against God.

There is a difference between the preaching of someone who is, in disposition, on his knees before you and someone who is on his feet lording it over you. —Sinclair Ferguson

Good morning. The Lord be with you and bless you today.
I added some new Kindle deals yesterday and hope to dig up some more this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: A Difference-Making Ministry for Any Christian)

This article shows how the existence of hell, and the Bible’s warnings about it, are meant to motivate holiness.

Keith Mathison reminds us of a lesser-known benefit of the Lord’s Supper. “When we come together for the Lord’s Supper, it should remind us of the oneness of the body and spur us to compassion that we might do what we can to share the burdens of our brothers and sisters in Christ.”

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase meaning “before the face of God.” The phrase is often associated with John Calvin and other Reformers who summoned the Christian to live all of life in God’s presence (Ps. 56:13). More specifically, pastors have been charged in the presence of God to preach the word (2 Tim. 4:1-2). This conference (which features Kevin DeYoung, John Piper, H.B. Charles Jr., and others) aims to remind pastors of our great God, to recharge the preacher for teaching with clarity and conviction, and to reinvigorate the weary soul for a life of ministry faithfulness before the face of God. (Sponsored Link)

“We don’t like the ten plagues in Exodus, they feel like exactly the sort of thing we secretly wish wasn’t in the Old Testament because they afflict our innate sense of fairness and our unexpressed desire for God to be kind to everyone—even those who hate and afflict his people.”

“We must entrust our friends to God, even when it’s not how we pictured it. This is yet another way we love our friends in knowledge and discernment—in recognizing our lack of wisdom, sovereignty, knowledge, and even love for our friends compared to our Heavenly Father.”

Writing for TGC Africa, Thomas Endjala tells how the prosperity gospel distorts the true gospel. “No one wants to suffer. In my culture, and in most African cultures, suffering is seen as a sign of bad luck; or proof that you did something wrong.”

Susan encourages her readers to focus on someday and to know that it is not all that far away.

Ephesians 6 is a powerful call to be aware of the enemy and his army; it teaches that there is an enemy who devotes his entire existence to the destruction of God’s work and God’s people. Every Christian is engaged in battle against him.

God is not worshipped where He is not treasured and enjoyed.
—John Piper