“Hussein**” has seen God work miracle after miracle as an evangelist and house church leader in Iran. Miracles like Iranian secret police raiding a house church meeting that had just received a shipment of 500 Bibles in three large boxes, which were still sitting on the floor. Police pulled pictures off of the walls and searched the apartment so thoroughly they literally picked up a needle that had fallen into a crack between the floorboards. But they missed the 500 Bibles!
Or the miracle of being sent to death row and being made a part of the leadership core of the gang that ran everything in that section of the prison. Some prisoners who’d been there five years were still sleeping on the floor, but Hussein slept on a top bunk from his first night there.
Or the miracle of having the radical Islamic judge fill out Hussein’s court documents for him, then tell him exactly where to go to file them and who to talk to. The judge even gave Hussein his personal cell phone number and told him to call if there were any difficulties with the case.
So when a Voice of the Martyrs worker asked Hussein if he worried about more encounters with the police because of his Christian work, Hussein was confident: “I think one of two things will happen. [The police] will either kill me or there will be more miraculous events like these.”
Then he smiled and asked, “Which one of those is bad?”
Hussein isn’t the first Jesus-follower to have that attitude. Paul wrote to the Philippian church that, “…Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Is it bad if I continue to live and serve the Lord and see Him work miracles in my life and ministry? No. Is it bad if I die—even at the hands of the police or radical Muslims—and go to heaven? No. True followers of Christ cannot lose. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Which one of those is bad?
**Name changed for security reasons.
Persecution Blog: Which One Is Bad?
Or the miracle of being sent to death row and being made a part of the leadership core of the gang that ran everything in that section of the prison. Some prisoners who’d been there five years were still sleeping on the floor, but Hussein slept on a top bunk from his first night there.
Or the miracle of having the radical Islamic judge fill out Hussein’s court documents for him, then tell him exactly where to go to file them and who to talk to. The judge even gave Hussein his personal cell phone number and told him to call if there were any difficulties with the case.
So when a Voice of the Martyrs worker asked Hussein if he worried about more encounters with the police because of his Christian work, Hussein was confident: “I think one of two things will happen. [The police] will either kill me or there will be more miraculous events like these.”
Then he smiled and asked, “Which one of those is bad?”
Hussein isn’t the first Jesus-follower to have that attitude. Paul wrote to the Philippian church that, “…Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Is it bad if I continue to live and serve the Lord and see Him work miracles in my life and ministry? No. Is it bad if I die—even at the hands of the police or radical Muslims—and go to heaven? No. True followers of Christ cannot lose. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Which one of those is bad?
**Name changed for security reasons.
Persecution Blog: Which One Is Bad?
