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If you guys don't mind, I thought I might share some info on martyrs that I read about. I find it to be quite encouraging to read about those who have stood firm in their faith.... especially on the days when I'm thinking I have it rough..... :-\

John Hus
"One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution."

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"The condemnation took place on July 6, 1415, in the presence of the solemn assembly of the council in the cathedral. After the performance of high mass and liturgy, Hus was led into the church. The bishop of Lodi delivered an oration on the duty of eradicating heresy; then some theses of Hus and Wycliffe and a report of his trial were read. He protested loudly several times, and when his appeal to Christ was rejected as a condemnable heresy, he exclaimed, "O God and Lord, now the council condemns even thine own act and thine own law as heresy, since thou thyself didst lay thy cause before thy Father as the just judge, as an example for us, whenever we are sorely oppressed."

An Italian prelate pronounced the sentence of condemnation upon Hus and his writings. Again he protested loudly, saying that even at this hour he did not wish anything but to be convinced from Holy Scripture. He fell upon his knees and asked God with a low voice to forgive all his enemies. Then followed his degradation-- he was enrobed in priestly vestments and again asked to recant; again he refused. With curses his ornaments were taken from him, his priestly tonsure was destroyed, and the sentence was pronounced that the Church had deprived him of all rights and delivered him to the secular powers. Then a high paper hat was put upon his head, with the inscription Haeresiarcha. Thus Hus was led away to the stake under a strong guard of armed men. At the place of execution he knelt down, spread out his hands, and prayed aloud. Some of the people asked that a confessor should he given him, but a bigoted priest exclaimed, a heretic should neither be heard nor given a confessor.

The executioners undressed Hus and tied his hands behind his back with ropes, and his neck with a chain to a stake around which wood and straw had been piled up so that it covered him to the neck. Still at the last moment, the imperial marshal, Von Pappenheim, in the presence of the Count Palatine, asked him to save his life by a recantation, but Hus declined with the words "God is my witness that I have never taught that of which I have been accused by false witnesses. In the truth of the Gospel which I have written, taught, and preached I will die to-day with gladness." There upon the fire was kindled with John Wycliffe’s own manuscripts used as kindling for the fire. With uplifted voice Hus sang, "Christ, thou Son of the living God, have mercy upon me." Among his dying words he proclaimed, “In 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” His ashes were gathered and cast into the nearby Rhine River.

Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of John Hus had come true!

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-hus.html (http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-hus.html)

Please sister, feel free, to post about our brethern. Who have stood against the evils, of the world for Jesus.

I have read about this in the past but forgot about it. Thanks for the rimnder. Yes it is great to be reminded about the trials and tribulations others have had to go through that have gone through so much more than we have. It makes us appreciate what we have so much more. It also reminds me that no matter what we might have to go through that the rewards in the end are so much greater.

Thank you! I even thought it would be neat to read about those who are standing strong today! The odd thing is that centuries later, much hasn't changed! There are still those who would try and silence the Good News!  >:(
But News this Good can't be silenced!  :D

And we sometimes ten to forget that we will have trials and tribulations!
When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. Matthew 13:21

But how wonderful to know:

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10

May we all stand strong!  :D

Damare Garang - Sudan

Damare was captured by Islamic soldiers when his Sudanese village was attacked. Only 7 at the time, he was sold as a slave to a Muslim family. He became a camel boy even though he knew nothing about caring for them. His master enforced his learning with beatings. One day a camel got away. The master threatened to kill Damare for this mistake, but something restrained him. The next day when he found out that Damare had sneaked away to attend a Christian church in the village he became determined to punish this boy.

The master found a large board, several rusty spikes and a hammer and dragged Damare out to the edge of his compound. He forced Damare’s legs over the board and drove the long nails through his knees and feet. Then he turned and walked away, leaving the boy laying in the field screaming from pain.

A man passing that way heard Damare’s screams and sneaked into the compound and carried this boy to the local hospital where the nails and board were removed. A year-and-a-half later, Damare and the man who saved him were in a village that came under attack, and they were separated. After the defense forces managed to drive away the Islamic soldiers, Damare was left standing along. When the commander heard him speak, he realized that he was from the Dinka Tribe and took him back to their camp. After hearing his tragic story he tried to locate some of Damare’s relatives. When none could be found, the commander adopted the former camel boy and took him to his home.

Today Damare is 15 and lives in Mario Kong. He cannot run fast like the other boys, but he says he has forgiven the man who nailed his legs to the board. He knows that Jesus was nailed to a cross so all our sins could be forgiven. He asked the Christian children in America to remember to pray for the children of Sudan.

http://www.persecution.com/basic/feature.cfm (http://www.persecution.com/basic/feature.cfm)

And the news shall never be silenced!

Psalm 147:15 He sends forth His commandment to the earth; His word runs very swiftly.

Revelation 3:10 Because you have guarded and kept My word of patient endurance [have held fast the lesson of My patience with the expectant endurance that I give you], I also will keep you [safe] from the hour of trial (testing) which is coming on the whole world to try those who dwell upon the earth.

But most of all,
Matthew 24:14 And this good news of the kingdom (the Gospel) will be preached throughout the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then will come the end.

John Bradford
It is not uncommon to hear someone repeat a well-known saying upon seeing someone in worse condition than himself. "There, but for the grace of God go I." Few realise these words first came from the mouth of an English martyr when he saw a criminal going to execution for his foul deeds.

John Bradford was born in 1510 and received a good education in a grammar school in Manchester. He was able to earn a good living serving under John Harrington, paymaster to the English forces during the wars of Henry the 8th. For a time he studied law but through the influence of a fellow student he was converted to Protestant Christian faith. Because of this he left the study of law and began his study of theology at Cambridge.

Though he would only live seven more years he was often referred to as "holy Bradford" not in derision, but from respect to his unselfish service to God and those around him. In 1550, during the reign of Edward the 6th, he was ordained by Bishop Ridley to be a "roving chaplain". Following Edward's early death, England was ruled by Mary Tudor who was zealous to bring back the Roman Catholic religion and to discipline "heretics."

Before Mary's reign was a month old John was arrested on a trivial charge and confined to the Tower of London, never to be a free man again. His time in prison was not wasted as he continued to preach to all that would listen and to write letters and treatises that would encourage fellow believers. During his two-year imprisonment he was cast for a time into a single cell with three fellow reformers, Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. Their time together was spent encouraging one another and in careful study of the New Testament. All three were to become martyrs.

Finally on January 31st, 1555 Bradford was brought to the notorious Newgate Prison to be burned at the stake as a heretic. Though the burning was scheduled for 4 AM, there was a great crowd, made up of many who admired Bradford, who had come to witness the execution. He was chained to the stake with another young martyr, John Leaf. After begging forgiveness of any he might have wronged and freely forgiving those who had wronged him, he turned to fellow-martyr, John Leaf, with these words, "Be of good comfort brother; for we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night!"
A writer of his period recorded that he endured the flame "as a fresh gale of wind in a hot summer's day, confirming by his death the truth of that doctrine he had so diligently and powerfully preached during his life."
http://www.britannia.com/bios/bradford.html (http://www.britannia.com/bios/bradford.html)

AMEN and AMEN again!!!!!!!

Brother Alex - Colombia

Salvation in Christ is often birthed in tragedy, and so it was for Brother Alex. He received Christ after FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) seized his family farm and assassinated his father 12 years ago. Alex’s faith has been tested repeatedly since his father’s murder, but his greatest challenge came four years ago as he traveled to work by bus with 26 other banana farm laborers. FARC regularly threatened the workers, because many were sympathetic to the paramilitaries who opposed and fought against FARC. FARC apparently coveted the banana plantation and wanted to claim it for their Marxist movement.

One morning as the banana workers traveled to the plantation, some of FARC’s forces stopped the bus. When the four guerrillas armed with AK-47 automatic rifles forced their way onto the bus, Alex felt a check in his spirit. “When I saw them, the Holy Spirit witnessed to my heart that they were going to kill us; and I began to shake, and I knew death was near,” said Alex.

Alex suddenly felt an overwhelming peace and joy. He began singing songs of praise while the guerrillas herded the laborers off the bus and lined them up along the side of the road. He thanked and praised God and sang to the Lord with all his heart. “Great is your faithfulness, O God, there is none like You.” Alex’s response to death came natural to him. “Isn’t this the normal reaction of any Christian who deeply loves Jesus?” Alex asks. “It’s the time of death, the time to enter into His presence, so I was worshipping and praising Him.”

The guerrillas tied the hands of each laborer with ropes used for tying up bundles of bananas. They separated the workers into three rows and forced them to kneel on the dew-covered grass. The armed men became agitated as Alex continued to sing praise songs. One of them struck Alex with the end of his rifle to shut him up.

A coworker cried out: “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I am totally innocent!” Alex says he became impatient with the brother and asked him, “Why are you seeking life from these men if the only owner of our lives is God?”

An eerie silence descended on the captives. Suddenly, a blaze of gunfire erupted, shattering the silence. The gunmen emptied their automatic weapons on the hostages. Alex expected a multitude of bullets to pierce his body, but to his surprise only one grazed his arm. He experienced no pain. Warm blood and brain tissue belonging to the two women kneeling beside him splattered his face and soaked his shirt. The guerrillas moved to the front of the line and sprayed gunfire along the row where Alex kneeled. A bullet struck Alex between his nose and eye and blew out the right side of his face. His eye exploded, but Alex did not lose consciousness.

As he lay on the ground immersed in a pool of blood, the guerrillas—now armed with machetes—began severing the heads of many of the fallen laborers. “At the moment they approached me, I suddenly realized I had not told them about Jesus,” recalled Alex. “Though I was drowning in my own blood, I could hardly speak; and I was totally blind. With all the strength I could muster, I cried out to them: ‘Jesus loves you! Jesus loves you!’” An angry gunman silenced Alex by shattering his jaw with the end of a rifle.

More than 60 FARC guerrillas participated in the massacre that day. Twenty-five of the banana plantation workers perished in the attack. Alex survived and since has had several reconstructive surgeries on his face. A desire to share his testimony with others led him to Medellin’s Bella Vista prison, where he met and witnessed to several of the FARC guerrilla gunmen who had participated in the massacre. Alex says he has no animosity, evil or harmful thoughts toward the men who attempted to kill him. “Many years ago God taught me how to forgive. Forgiveness is the basis of our relationship with God,” says Alex. “I feel love and compassion for these men because the devil has locked them up in prison—their own prison—and doesn’t want to let them go. I can be an instrument of freedom for them.”

When Alex first visited the prison, the guerrillas were uneasy. As he continued to share the love of Christ with the Marxist murderers, many of them softened and started to cry. They now have a deep respect for Brother Alex and look forward to his regular visits. Because Alex forgave his attackers and told them about Jesus, some of them have now come to Christ.

Alex recently graduated from seminary. Although he was blinded in the attack, the young evangelist says he clearly sees the call God has on his life: to continue sharing the love of Christ with the Marxist guerrillas and other hurting Colombians. God has given him a vision to set the captives free!
http://www.persecution.com/basic/feature.cfm?Archives=12 (http://www.persecution.com/basic/feature.cfm?Archives=12)

Tortured for Christ, Richard Wurmbrand

The extraordinary story of 1 man's victory over Communism

He was an outspoken anti-communist with the scars to prove it, a man raised Jewish who embraced Christianity with uncommon devotion, and a visionary whose life was dedicated to helping believers who suffer for their faith.

He was Richard Wurmbrand, founder of leading Christian-persecution organization The Voice of the Martyrs.

Wurmbrand began Voice of the Martyrs in 1967 after enduring years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of Communists in his native Romania.

As a young married man in 1937, Wurmbrand and his wife, then Jewish, traveled to a small village in Romania where Christian Wolfkes, an old carpenter who had been praying that he migth share the Gospel with a Jew, gave them a copy of the New Testament. Wurmbrand and wife Sabina eventually converted to Christianity.


Richard Wurmbrand

As a pastor in Romania during World War II, Wurmbrand sought to reach out to occupying soldiers with the Gospel. He and Sabina, however, suffered repeated beatings and arrest by the Nazis. Jewish family members perished in Germany's concentration camps.

A decision in 1945 would shape the rest of Wurmbrand's life. A bio on the Voice of the Martyrs' website states:

1945: Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand attend the "Congress of Cults" arranged by the Romanian Communist government. As many religious leaders come forward to swear loyalty to the new regime, Sabina Wurmbrand tells her husband to "wipe the shame from the face of Jesus." Richard, knowing the outcome of such an act, steps forward. The delegates believe he too will praise the new leadership, but, to their surprise, Richard tells the 4,000 delegates that their duty as a Christian is to glorify God and Christ alone.

That act of obedience to his God caused Wurmbrand's eventual designation as "Prisoner No. 1" by the Romanian government. He was arrested by police in 1948 on his way to church on a Sunday morning. Three years were spent in solitary confinement.

In 1950, the communists arrested Sabina for helping with the underground church she and Richard had begun and forced her to work on the Danube Canal. Her 9-year-old son, Mihai, was left behind and forced to live on the streets.

After three years, Sabina was released and told her husband had died in prison. In 1956, however, after serving eight and a half years in prison, Richard was released, having withstood horrific torture. Despite warnings not to do so, Richard again began working in the underground church in Romania.

After being turned in by an associate, Wurmbrand, in 1959, again was arrested. He served in prison for another five years.

In his book "In God's Underground," Wurmbrand describes the various horrors he suffered in prison: sleep deprivation; starvation diet; forced to race around his tiny cell for hours until he collapsed; beatings with truncheons and boots; water funneled down his throat until it filled his stomach, which was then violently kicked; the soles of his feet flogged Inquisition-style; guards urinating and spitting into his open mouth; drugged into delirium; and terrorized by dogs kept inches from his throat.

In 1965, the Wurmbrands were "ransomed" out of Romania for $10,000. They traveled to Scandinavia, England and eventually to the U.S. The pastor's captors warned him upon leaving Romania that he was not to speak against communism, a warning he did not heed.

The next year, just one month after arriving in the U.S., Wurmbrand testified before the U.S. Senate Internal Security Subcommittee, where he stripped to the waist to reveal 18 wounds on his neck, back and chest – evidence of the torture he had suffered at the hands of the Communists.

Talking about his time in solitary confinement, Wurmbrand told the senators: "For years I … never [saw] sun, moon, flowers, snow, stars, no man except the interrogator who beat [me], but I can say I have seen heaven open, I have seen Jesus Christ, I have seen the angels and we were very happy there."

Speaking requests poured into Wurmbrand after his Senate appearance, and he became committed to sharing about the atrocities Christians were subject to in Communist countries. Wurmbrand became known as "The Voice of the Underground Church" and "The Iron Curtain St. Paul." At the same time the Romanian secret police was plotting to kill the pastor.

In 1967, the Wurmbrands began Jesus to the Communist World, which later became The Voice of the Martyrs. The ministry's first monthly newsletter was published later that year. Richard also released "Tortured for Christ," the story of his persecution by his Communist captors.

In the ensuing years, Wurmbrand expanded his work of helping persecuted Christians and educating the West about abuses, with activity eventually in 80 nations.

In 1989, Wurmbrand's home country, Romania, gained its freedom after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the ousting of the oppressive regime of Elena and Nicolae Ceausescu.

After 25 years of exile, in 1990 Richard and Sabina returned to Romania and helped set up a Christian printing facility. In fact, the city of Bucharest offered one of the very cells Wurmbrand had been held to store Christian books.

In the early '90s, Wurmbrand worked to get the Gospel and Christian literature to former Communist countries, including Albania, Romania, Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria. At the same time, Wurmbrand led new efforts to help Christians in Asia and Africa.

Sabina died in 2000, and less than a year later, Richard succumbed, at the age of 91.

Besides "Tortured for Christ," Wurmbrand wrote several other books, including "From Suffering to Triumph," "If Prison Walls Could Speak, "Marx and Satan" and "The Church in Chains."

Wurmbrand's Voice of the Martyrs ministry was a way to help suffering Christians as he had been helped in his time of need. When asked how he survived as an illegal pastor in Romania, Wurmbrand told the Senate panel:

"The Christians sustained me everywhere. I had no salary. I had no regular salary, but the Christians everywhere sustained me. In Romania the first question asked of a pastor or a priest of any denomination is: Has he been in prison? If he has been in prison he is all right. All the Christians sustain him."

Tortured for Christ (http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=45245)

And we're afraid to witness at work cause we might get fired??  :-[

AMEN BROTHERS AND SISTERS!

I'm trying to catch up on reading, and I'm glad this was part of it. YES!, we need to be reminded to always give thanks for our freedoms to worship, study, and witness. It's very sad that there are growing hosts of modern day examples of Christians being killed, tortured, or put in prison just for owning a Bible or attending an underground church service. We should never take for granted any of the freedoms and blessings that God gives us. So, I would ask every Christian with freedom to give thanks for it and pray for those around the world who are persecuted and hunted.

Love In Christ,
Tom

Ephesians 3:14-19 NASB  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Heh heh, I did at work, as I was the manager I could, and often did.

Muslims attack Indonesian pastor

Voice of the Martyrs helps man get new teeth after machete assault
Posted: February 3, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

"Santoso," a farmer and a pastor for a small village church in Indonesia, was attacked on the way home after sharing Christ with Muslims on a farm in the city of Poso.

He and a friend, both on motorbikes, were hit with a machete wielded by a Muslim who jumped from a bush. The Muslim tried to cut off his head but missed, hitting Santoso in the mouth. He ran to his village holding his face. Because of the attack, Santoso lost 10 teeth and damaged his tongue; his friend's fingers were cut off. This was the third attempt on Santoso's life.

The Voice of the Martyrs medical staff has flown him to Java twice for treatment and is happy to report Santoso now has teeth implants. Before going into his last surgery, he told VOM: "I read Ephesians 1:19 which promises God's great power to us who believe. God sends me power so I can bear suffering. We rejoice that one Muslim has come to Christ."

Christians across the 3,000 inhabited islands of Indonesia are suffering increased attacks, church burnings, imprisonment and threats from angry mobs because of their faith in Jesus Christ. Much of the world would like you to believe that Christians are no longer persecuted, but Santoso would disagree. Now you can stay informed of what is really happening to your Christian brothers and sisters in countries like Indonesia and discover practical ways that you can get involved.

Muslims attack Indonesian pastor (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48641)