A REAL TESTIMONY….FROM WHICH GROUP ARE WE?

This happened recently in my country- maybe less than a month. A very dear brother called Estefanos (meaning Stephan) he is in his mid twenties and is a powerful preacher of the gospel. He choose the eastern part of Ethiopia mostly populated with Muslims and went there with the gospel of Jesus and converted many. Then at one incident while he was traveling in a country bus with four of his Christian friends to another town to preach the gospel, a band of armed Muslim people wearing masks surrounded the bus. Then they told the travelers to come down one by one and they want each traveler to proclaim “There is no God but Allah and Mohamed is his prophet” and each traveler did so. When it was the turn of Stephan and his friends, his Christian friends betrayed their faith and said “there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet” then came Stephan, and said “There is no God but God Almighty and Jesus Christ is Lord and his Son!” at that point they set him aside- until they finish with the other travelers- Stephan knew his hour has arrived and begun to proclaim loudly the gospel of Jesus Christ and called all to repent and believe in Him! Then while the other travelers along with his friends watch, they shot him with many bullets and killed him. When the news reach the other Muslims in town they were very much grieved and even many more came to the faith after he died!Praise the Lord the era of Martyrs is beginning! Stephan went to his lord in glory but are we like his friends or Stephan? The Lord really challenged me- How about you? Your sis. Mek.

Wow! he is my contemporary hero! But you know it was the blood of the martyrs that fueled revival in ages past. ginnyrose

Hallelujah!

This is a very challenging testimony for me. I often wonder what I would do in a situation like this. I really still hold on to a lot of this life here on earth. I often times want to pray for what doesn't even matter and what does matter I have to remind myself of often so as to pray about what really does have some eternal significance. It's easy to preach boldly in a city like Dallas but would I be just as zealous and bold to preach if I was in this brothers country? I like to think that the Lord is preparing me for that day when I may be killed for my faith so that someone else can believe. Luk 9:23 And he said to [them] all, If any [man] will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.I take this to mean that we are all supposed to deny ourselves daily to the point of denying even the love of physical life on this earth if it were to come down to it. Just like in the book of Revelation when the martyrs were killed for not taking the mark of the beast and had their heads cut off. There will probably be millions of martyrs like these in heaven. I would hate to pass up the chance to be one of them if I were in the same situation.

Glory to God! It's about time someone was not ready to ditch Jesus for the praise of men. Great news. Thank you.

Mekdi:I thought you'd like to look at this site: Voice of the Martyrs It has an abundance of stories from your country and others of such men as noble Stephan. May we also seek to glorify God with our words, actions, and the power and full conviction of the Spirit (1 Thess. 1:5). God keep you as you strive to follow Him, and His Spirit pour out immensely in your life (Joel 2:28,29; Isiah 11:2).

Thanks Bro. I’ve seen the website and its really touching. May the Lord make us all like the dear saints who preached the gospel with their blood!Your sis. Mek