Voices of the Faithful

Two years ago I went on my first missions trip to Denver.  My group was led by two amazing young women, 'B' and 'M', and at the end of the week M suggested this book, Voices of the Faithful, to me before we said our goodbyes.  She had impressed me over that week, and so I was really interested in whatever books she could recommend that had impacted her life.  However, Voices of the Faithful is one popular book!  I was on a waiting list for about six months before I found out that I could get a copy on BookSneeze for free!  Of course, I ordered it right away.

Voices of the Faithful wasn't really what I had expected.  I didn't know it was a devotional for a whole year.  I expected it to be longer stories about martyrs and missionaries.  While it was about such people, the stories were significantly shorter than I had hoped.

Each month had a different theme, such as 'Compassion' or 'God Working'.  I enjoyed how the book was set up like that.  On the whole, I would have preferred if the stories were longer and more informative.  I know it's difficult to do that in a 366-day devotional, but perhaps a half-year devotional would have been better in allowing more room for the stories?  In the end I did enjoy the book, but not so much that I'll be ordering its sequel, Voices of the Faithful - Book 2, anytime soon.

Thanks for reading!

Four Questions

“That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death.” Philippians 3:10 (NASB)

This was the second group of leaders we had trained in two weeks.  The training had been going well even though many of the believers were young: some young in years and some in their faith.  A couple of them were only 15 and 16 years old.  Some had only been Christians for a few months.

The teaching for the morning was on baptism, and a 15-year-old girl wanted to be baptized.  She had been a believer from a young age but had never been immersed.

Four questions are asked during a baptism: (1) Do you believe in Jesus? (2) Has He forgiven your sins? (3) Do you promise to walk with Him always?  But there is one more question.

I watched and listened to the father, who would be performing the baptism.  Calmly, and with much joy, he asked the first, second and third questions.  Then I heard a surprising question.  The father asked the fourth question, “When they come into our house and take us away, when they beat us and try to get us to deny Him, will you still follow Jesus?”

There before my eyes, a father was asking his daughter to be willing to be persecuted for her faith in Christ and to be willing to see him persecuted for his faith.  With a sense of awe, I prayed that I might be more like them.  I think they understood more clearly what the Father felt when He sent His Son to die for us.

* excerpt taken from "Voices of the Faithful" by Beth Moore, page 192