A DISCIPLE’S LOVE

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:26

A Christian medical doctor in China shares his experience when he refused to bow down or "kowtow" to an image of Mao because of his love for Jesus. After severe beatings did not succeed in influencing him, the authorities resorted to a more subtle strategy by getting his whole family to stand around him and weep. Here is the story in his own words:
I had seven children as well as my wife all surrounding me and weeping. Crying bitterly, my wife said to me, “If you don't kowtow you will surely die and then what will we do?” For three days they stood around me weeping until my wife’s eyes were dreadfully swollen. “After you have died, what will happen to these children? Please, for the sake of your family, just kowtow.” They cried and cried. I really did not know what to do. I felt that I had no more strength so I prayed, “Lord I have no strength left, what must I do?”

On the third day, the Lord’s word [Luke 14:26] came, Hallelujah! There is no word of the Lord that is without power. The Lord through His Word filled me with the life and power of God. I said to my wife, “Stop crying. It’s no use your crying. I am the Lord’s disciple. For the Lord’s sake I am ready to die!”
Then the day came when the authorities called me and said, “You had better consider your situation carefully. If you want to live, you must kowtow otherwise it will mean certain death for you. Tonight we will make you eat the “steel bean” (bullet). You will be executed! This is your very last opportunity!” And so he sent me back to think it over.
There was, however, no need for me to think it over. I was ready for the bullet. But the night passed without my being called. Next day I saw that outside folk were running hither and thither and I wondered whatever had happened to cause such alarm. Later I was to learn that immediately after I had left the office, black swellings appeared on the prison warden’s legs and it was frightfully painful. Because he was the chief, all the doctors in the hospital were rushed to his side to give him aid. But within twenty-four hours he was dead.
The doctor was later released from prison and returned to his family and medical practice.

I AM VALUABLE

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

She hadn’t laughed for nearly two years, ever since her father’s tragic death in August, 2009. Even though she still liked sports and talking with her friends, Ruth’s eyes didn’t shine anymore, like other teenagers. And she never returned their laughter. Never again, Ruth thought, would she feel the joy she once had, before her father was killed. A fourteen-year-old girl at the time, she still believed two years later that she was to blame for the murder of her father, a well-known church leader in eastern Colombia.

The day the guerrillas shot him, he was waiting for her in an isolated place. Her parents had given Ruth permission to go play soccer. But she was late coming back, so her father had gone looking for her. Bitterness started to fill her heart, as she became angry with herself, convinced she had caused her father’s death. At her fifteenth birthday party, she couldn’t stop her tears from falling. “I don’t want to live anymore!” she sobbed. Suicidal thoughts became part of her daily life, as she kept fighting with her sisters and wrestling with an unhappiness about everything that made her life unbearable.

Her widowed mother, who was receiving regular emotional and material support through Open Doors’ program for martyrs’ families, admitted that although all four of her children were struggling with problems over their father’s death, Ruth’s condition was the worst.

But God turned things around for Ruth in July, when she was one of thirty widows’ children invited to an “orphan encounter” camp sponsored by Open Doors for children and teenagers from six different regions of Colombia. For three days, God used counselors to confront Ruth with the reality of her pain and start her on the path of healing.

At one point, she was asked to write down on some papers all the things that she wanted to fill her heart. “I want to fill my heart with forgiveness for myself, and for those who killed my father,” Ruth wrote. Then she went on to tell the others what she had written, something that she had not had the courage to talk about publicly before. Together the children and teens sometimes smiled over what they’d shared, along with tears as they released their need to cry out their pain. As they faced the words of Scripture taught to them and prayed together, the walls that Ruth had built up in her heart started to fall down.

Overjoyed, Ruth said, “It is so hard to find people who really take care of me. I thought there weren’t any! But now I realize that there are some, and even that I’m valuable for those who I don’t even know! I would like to be a good Christian and serve the Lord with all my heart.”

THE BODY OF CHRIST AT WORK

…so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. Romans 12:5
Training for Christian women in Pakistan, where poverty and illiteracy abound, has proven to reflect the character of the body of Christ.
A student says, “It’s important for me to be here so I can learn to read and write. Then I can read the Bible for myself, which is the most important thing for me. I want the Gospel to spread throughout our country. Now I study hard and I can write my name. I intend to stand before the people and read the Bible by myself so that other people may be encouraged to learn to read and write in the same way.
One teacher named Gladys says, “I have a gift for sewing, cutting, and embroidery. The other gift God has given me is to share with other people and tell them about Jesus. That is the opportunity I have and that is what I am doing here. When I began here, I said to them, ‘I am not educated. I can’t teach anyone.’ But then the Lord said to me, ‘This is My work. I will use you.’

“We do face discrimination because we live in the midst of people who don’t want us to move forward, people who keep trying to push us down so that we will always be in slavery. But the women testify to what God has done for them in their lives. From the time they first come here, I can see God changing their lives because the way they speak changes and they talk about the love they’ve been shown and how that has affected their lives. If someday a mother’s children are Christian because I taught her, I would be so happy because I would know that God had done His work through me.
Another teacher reports, “I first came to the center to learn sewing skills. But my father took me out of the center. He sent me to work for a Muslim family who lived in Turkey. The family said that I should give up my faith because it was no good. I told them that God had blessed me through this faith, and that I could not find such a blessing anywhere else, and that my faith meant everything to me.
“Then one time, when their daughter was ill, they taunted me and said I better pray for her and see what Jesus would do. So I did pray for her, and she was healed. They knew I had prayed to my God for her and so they exclaimed, ‘Glory to God! Surely your Jesus does answer prayers.’
Before I left them, I testified to them, and they said that my prayers work, but I told them, ‘It’s not my prayers. It is the Lord who causes us to pray and it is the Lord who heals.’ And they had to admit that it was true, and that my God truly does work.”
Another student concludes, “The Church is the body of Christ. We have to help each other to share the love of Jesus as He has shown us.”

Job’s Performance Review

Job 22:1–30
Recommended Reading: Numbers 16:3; Proverbs 6:16–19; 2 Corinthians 8:20–21
Former hockey goalie Jacques Plante once quipped, “How would you like a job where, if you make a mistake, a big red light goes on and eighteen thousand people boo?”
Job didn’t face eighteen thousand booing people. Just a few so-called friends who made false accusations about his performance as a righteous man. Eliphaz started his attack on Job by criticizing his supposed lack of holiness. He accused Job of withholding water from the thirsty, keeping food from the hungry and turning away widows. Eliphaz claimed that Job’s problems stemmed from his wicked heart.
However, Eliphaz’s criticism was unfounded. God wouldn’t have made Job the poster child of righteousness if he’d really committed such horrible acts.
We all deal with criticism. But how we respond to it often determines how we feel about ourselves. Most of us respond in one of three ways: (1) We deny the accusation; (2) we become defensive and feel victimized; or (3) we look for what might be true about the criticism and weed out what’s not true.
Quite often critics just want to help solve problems—they’re not out to get the person they’re evaluating. If someone’s criticism carries a seed of truth, we need to acknowledge our mistakes and make corrections in that area of life. By doing this, we honor the critic’s judgment. And we show a willingness to take responsibility without feeling victimized.
However, some critics use words to degrade and control others. We don’t have to let them make our lives miserable. Job allowed Eliphaz to vent, but Job didn’t let the criticism define him. He was secure in the integrity of his actions, and that allowed him to deflect unfounded criticism.
Poet and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Criticism should not be querulous and wasting, all knife and root-puller, but guiding, instructive, inspiring.” False criticism never needs to define your self-worth. If someone throws an unjust accusation your way, don’t let it get under your skin. Look past it and move on. But if a critic’s words ring true, use them to make yourself a better person.

To Take Away

• How do you handle criticism?
• How does pride affect the way you respond to criticism?
• Would you describe your words of criticism toward others as cutting and destructive or as guiding, instructive and inspiring?

DISCOVERING JESUS

And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. 2 Timothy 2:2
Camping experiences for me were always positive experiences. There you must live and practice your Christian faith twenty-four hours a day. And that deeply impacts the other campers.
Around the world, Open Doors sponsors camps—especially for discipleship training for young people. Twenty-three-year-old Roton is one of those youths who attended a camp in Bangladesh in early 2011 for young believers from Muslim background (MBB). He said, “To attend this camp, I traveled for seven hours. I walked thirteen kilometers before getting on the bus. It was exhausting, but I wanted to know more about Jesus.”
In a brief encounter with Open Doors during the camp, Roton shared that he felt pressure when he was just a new follower of Christ. “Many times, my Muslim friends would ask me why my family and I became Christians. They wanted to know how much [money] we got for converting. They asked me if the people who converted me stepped on the Koran or ate pork. I lost all my Muslim friends; everyone hated me and my family.”
Roton’s father was the first believer in the family, and boldly shared his faith with others. He read from the Koran, searching for portions that mentioned Jesus. Later on, however, his eye sight deteriorated to the point of blindness. So, he asked young Roton to read to him every day some passages from the Koran that specifically talked about Jesus.
“I just followed what I was told to do. In the beginning, I was reading for my father. But after few days, I realized that I was becoming more curious to find the truth myself. Because of the witness of the Koran, I found myself believing Jesus as the Holy one, the Messiah. I became a Christian soon after; I gave my life fully to Jesus,” Roton testified.
Discrimination soon followed Roton’s new found faith. His religion teacher mistreated him. When the school principal learned of his conversion, he was watched and compelled to recite Muslim prayers. People questioned him about Jesus Christ, but all that Roton knew about Christ he learned from the Koranic passages he read for his father. It was time to learn more. Instead of succumbing to the religious pressure he experienced, Roton—with encouragement from his father—set out on a journey to learn more about his Lord and Savior.
“I am so happy to be in this MBB youth camp. It’s my first. I saw that I am not alone! Many work together for Christ. In this camp, I discovered Jesus in the Old Testament. I will read the Old Testament more—together with the New Testament—so that I am prepared to answer questions people ask me. Someday, I want to study in a Bible school, so that I can help others who are on the same road as I am.”

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Mastering the Waves of Adversity

"God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!" Psalm 46:1-3 (NLT) My son and his friend made an excited dash toward the ocean with their brand new inflated boat. They were determined to ride in it, despite the unusually gusty winds. I watched as the raft flapped wildly in the air, nearly lifting the boys off the ground. The boys tried to get in the boat for quite a while, but the strong winds made the water more like tidal waves than a gentle tide. The few times they made it in the raft, the rolling surf spit them out like limp seaweed. After being sucked under the rough waters multiple times, they finally admitted defeat. The waves had taken a toll on their spirits and the raft, rendering the boys and their boat deflated and helpless. Watching their frustration and defenselessness against the whitecaps, I was reminded of a season when I felt powerless to master the waves of adversity that had come crashing against me, one after another. It wasn't just one thing that was causing stress and worry, but a toxic mixture of problems. The economy was going downhill and severely affecting our family. My mother lost her job. My sister's chronic illness had gotten worse. Cancer tormented a loved one. One of my children faced a serious health issue, coupled with the normal daily challenges of raising three kids. The washing machine broke, the transmission in my car died, and a hailstorm seriously damaged our roof. Each day it seemed a new swell of problems engulfed me, adding to the accumulation of my concerns and stress. It was a long season in which I felt sucked under by a raging current, barely able to hold my head above water. I was completely deflated and helpless, just like that little raft. During that time, I clung to Psalm 46:1-3, "God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble. So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!" (NLT) These verses offer wisdom about persevering through our difficult times. They serve as a reminder to stay aware of our need for God, and that none of us are equipped to handle life on our own. You see, no matter how strong we think we are, there will come a time when stress gets overwhelming and we desperately wish we had somewhere to hide. Somewhere to take refuge from the storms, with Someone who understands what we're going through. I understood the frustration of two little boys who wanted to ride in their raft boat. After they rested and the wind lessened, I encouraged them to go back in the water. They tried again and finally found themselves floating in the boat, instead of hanging from it. God understands what we're going through. His Word promises He will help us in times of trouble. When adversity strikes, God offers the refuge and strength we need to weather life's storms. No matter the problems tossing us about today, we don't have to feel like we are simply hanging on. Instead, we can put our trust in the One who offers peace and strength to carry us through until we get to calmer shores. Dear Lord, I feel beaten down by storms of life, drowning in a sea of adversity and stress. I commit today to depend on You as my refuge. I place my hope and trust in You and commit to hanging on to You at all times. In Jesus' Name, Amen. Related Resources: Do You Know Him? Today's devotion is based on Stressed-Less Living: Finding God's Peace in Your Chaotic World by Tracie Miles which releases today! If you purchase the book before October 7th you'll receive 7 FREE GIFTS to further help with managing our stress! Click here for more info. Visit Tracie's blog to sign up for her free "10 Day Stress Detox" and enter to win a copy of her new book, Stressed-Less Living! Would you like to bring the message of this devotion to the women of your church? Click here to find out how to bring Tracie's Stressed-Lessed Living to your next event. Reflect and Respond: Have you felt tossed around by life, getting damaged in the process? Have you asked God to be your refuge, strength, and help? Have you been trying to master the waves of adversity in my life, or have you been putting your hope and trust in God? Power Verses: Psalm 107:29, "He calmed the storm to a whisper and stilled the waves." (NIV) Psalm 9:9-10, "The Lord also will be a stronghold for the oppressed, A stronghold in times of trouble; And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You." (NASB)