counting the cost...and going anyway

Some words from Beth Moore today...

Our nation today knows very little about persecution. We too rarely hear
accounts of people like John and Betty Stam, missionaries to China, who
were beheaded just one month after their arrival in Tsingteh, leaving
behind a three-month-old infant. Or, what about Peter and Lydia Vins,
missionaries to the former Soviet Union? Peter was imprisoned and
never seen again. Lydia's imprisonment followed later. Such a heritage
might be enough to dissuade a child from faith in the gospel. Not so.
Their son, Georgi, surrendered his life to the same pursuit, on the same
field, and was ultimately imprisoned as well. Enough is enough, right?
Nope, his son, Peter, Jr., grew up, dedicated his life to Christ, and
followed the same path to prison. In 1979, under Jimmy Carter's
leadership, the surviving Vins family members were released
from prison, and they continue to serve faithfully in the United States
and abroad. Consider this excerpt from The Hidden Price of Greatness,
written by Ray Beeson and Ranelda Mack Hunsicker:

It seems a paradox that the death of Christians could be the key to
church growth. Yet as surely as the cross of Christ was essential to our
salvation, the sacrifice of believers is crucial to world evangelism. That
is as true today as ever. In fact, the rate of Christian martyrdom has risen
dramatically in recent years. The World Evangelization Research Center
estimates that there were approximately 35,600 Christian martyrs in
1900 compared to an estimated 325,000 in 1989.Martyrdom is a fact of
life in at least fifty countries. The Center concludes from its research that
out of the two thousand or so plans for global evangelization by A.D.
2000, martyrdom is probably the most potent and significant factor of all.

When we read such accounts, we wonder if people like the Stams had any
idea what their commitment might cost them. Would they have dared
surrender to such a sentence? Consider this excerpt from a speech
delivered to the Moody Bible Institute graduating class of 1932:

Let us remind ourselves that the Great Commission was never qualified by
clauses calling for advance only if funds were plentiful and no hardship or
self-denial involved. On the contrary, we are told to expect tribulation
and even persecution, but with it victory in Christ...It is ours to show, in
the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in personal communion with
Him, a joy unspeakable and full of glory that cannot be affected by outside
circumstances.

The speaker? John Stam, just before his departure to China.