Love AND Strategy in a Crisis
More thoughts on 375-Multiplying Disciples While the Bombs Drop. The episode hasn’t shown up on Apple podcasts yet. Working on a solution.
Lebanon is a divided society with different religions and people groups—Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Catholic Maronites, Greek Orthodox Christians, and Druze.
The key to breaking into an unreached community is finding a God-prepared insider.
God gave Mohammed a Muslim-background disciple who began strong until his family disowned him and his brothers tried to kill him. Their rejection shook his faith.
But God’s grace and Rick’s love and persistence got him through a very dark time. He came out the other side and he’s back to sharing the gospel faithfully, making disciples and raising up workers.
When the latest war broke out there was a well-equipped team of guys like Mohammed ready to risk their lives and enter the chaos. Several died sharing the gospel as the bombs fell.
We were out of the country at the time having a baby. When we returned I sat down with Mohammed. He really wanted to talk.
We opened Zechariah chapter 13 and read together.
In it the Lord says the sheep are going to be struck and scattered. A third of you I’m going to throw in the fire. I’m going to refine you like silver is refined and test you like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them (Zech 13:7–9).
I said, "Mohammed, you’re going through the refiner’s fire." We talked about that.
In a crisis we keep training, we keep working the strategy, but there’s another side to this. God has been working in Mohammed’s heart through persecution and danger. He took some steps back when his family persecuted him and then he moved forward again despite the danger. God is shaping him.
This is going on all the time in our leaders’ lives.
I’ve been working for four years out in the valley. Jamal is one of our most faithful leaders; his wife threatened to divorce him unless he stopped following Jesus.
At the beginning, she left him but came back because they were raising their daughter. Now the daughter has left home, and the wife has decided to stop tolerating this infidel. She went back to her family and gave him 48 hours to renounce Jesus and stop sharing the gospel.
Jamal told her, ‘You’re not giving me a choice. I can’t deny Jesus.’
He told James, "I feel numb. My wife hates me. Her family hates me, and they’re trying to kill me."
Some of his wife’s relatives are militant Muslims. Jamal was driving to a meeting on a back country road with no traffic. Suddenly, a Jeep Cherokee with black tinted windows came out of nowhere, rammed him, and sped off. His car flipped. Fortunately, no one was injured.
Some of his wife’s relatives are militant muslims. Jamal was driving to a meeting on a back country road with no traffic. Suddenly, a Jeep Cherokee with black tinted windows came out of nowhere, rammed him, and sped off. His car flipped. Fortunately no one was injured.
Jamal went through a dark depression, but he’s coming out of it. He’s going to be okay.
We read 1 Peter—anybody who suffers as a Christian ought to do so with honor, with dignity. We read 2 Timothy—"Be a good soldier. Share with me in suffering."
As Jamal and other disciples suffer and allow their lives to be shaped by the Scripture, they are going deep with the Lord. They wouldn’t make it without the Word; my words of encouragement can’t touch what they are going through.
We read Isaiah 53 together. They understand how Jesus was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. All our guys are walking through this but they’re not walking through it alone. Jesus is with them.
God has been shaping a generation of leaders who have endured persecution and can serve as living examples. In their suffering, the Bible comes alive to them. They read it with new eyes.
They are learning what it means to serve as elders when their people are getting beaten and are in danger of death.
They keep working the strategy; they keep getting the gospel out, knowing that the people who believe will also suffer.
Most of James and Rick’s time is spent serving these leaders as they serve their people. Working on character and encouraging them to persevere. Showing them they love them.
The Bible was written for persecuted people like these, to remind them they are not alone.
