Have You Read Your Bible Today?

Jesus said, Blessed are the persecuted and they are suffering big time right now. This is Bible League International and 19-year-old Aria was beaten by her own father and violated by local authorities. You know what her crime was?

Simply that she gave her life to Jesus Christ after leaving radical Islam. They need Bibles in order to endure and persevere. And that's why Truth Network and Bible League are teamed up to send God's Word to 3500 persecuted believers around the world at $5 a Bible, $100 Synth 20. Call 800-YES-WORD, 800-YES-WORD, 800-YES-WORD, or give at truthnetwork.com. Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast, where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network.

This is the Truth Network. Have you read your Bible today? Something so simple. Read your Bible, pray every day, and you'll grow, grow, grow. But what if you don't own a Bible?

What if you really want one? You love Jesus, you just want to hear from him, and you don't have a Bible, not because you're lazy or despondent or apathetic, but because you could lose your life in a country where Christians are persecuted. And that's why I'm so honored and excited to interview and introduce our next special guest, Michael with the Bible League. I'm telling you, brother, Michael Woolworth, you guys are doing some amazing work, and our listeners can just pop out five bucks and give someone a Bible and literally make a dream come true. How can it be that easy, Michael?

Come on. Well, Stu, you've been a great friend of Bible League. Listeners, you've been incredibly kind to us over the years that we've worked together. We've asked you to send Bibles half a world away to brothers and sisters in the faith that simply cannot access God's Word. Stu, we're addressing today what is arguably the number one issue facing the global church today.

What is that? The loss of religious freedom? It means that Christians all over the world pay a heavy price simply because they believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Listen, as we kick things off here, let me share three quick statistics from Pew Research. They keep a finger on the pulse of religious persecution around the world.

They'll tell us three things. Number one, the year 2021, the most violent year on record for the religious persecution around the world. Number two, there's no group that's persecuted more than evangelical Christians. And then number three, they'll say that every five minutes somewhere outside of the U.S., a Christian is martyred simply because of his or her faith.

Now let me give you some perspective. By the end of the average hour-long worship service in America on a given Sunday, that statistic means what? Twelve Christians outside of the U.S. will die, again, simply because of their Christian faith. Now I'm not saying that death is associated with every case of persecution, but I can tell you at Bible League, now in our 84th year of ministry, we know Christians by name in specific villages in regions of Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America who are singled out, targeted, monitored. They've been beaten, jailed, threatened with death. Many have died, Stu, again, simply because of their Christian faith. And so what Truth Network and Bible League are doing, we're coming alongside these believers who are, again, persecuted.

They're mistreated by members of their own family, members of their community. Oftentimes the governments, the majority of religions are in on this. Persecution takes no rest.

It's all the time. I mean, I know here in America we don't really have to worry about if we're going to be beaten or jailed. We may face some social persecution, but it's an altogether different level around the world. The importance of the Bible for these believers, Stu, is that when you can open God's Word and you can read scriptures like Romans 8, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come. If you can read 1 Peter 1 and the testing of your faith, that is the persecution, you rejoice because God now and in glory.

And Stu, one more comment before I toss it back to you. As I've traveled the world on behalf of Bible League and I've met with these, I call them heroes of the faith, I find that there's two things that characterize Christians who are persecuted. They love their enemies, they don't see those around them as people to be hated, but they see them as the mission field, people to be loved and pointed to Christ.

That's number one. And then secondly... Now Michael, let me just... you lost me, you didn't lose me, but you got my mind going in a million directions when you used the word martyr. Because we don't think about martyr in modernity. Christians martyred for their faith.

That is sobering. So you mean to tell me that Christians are actually killed in the world about every five minutes, which is, even during the recording of this program, during a regular church service, if you extrapolate the minutes out, that's multiple deaths of saints being killed for their faith in Jesus over even just such a brief period of time. But the Word of God, Michael, I mean, this is sobering, but the Word of God talks about this. The very Bibles you're giving to people could be their death wish, right? Their death warrant.

Well, I mean, actually, we're all acquainted with even recent years. Think about Jim Elliott, the Nate Saints, the men that were martyred by the Auca Indians down in Ecuador. That's a story that comes to mind. If you appreciate your English Bible, you may know the man that translated that into English, William Tyndale, was persecuted. He was burned at the stake. He simply wanted English speakers, Stu, to be able to read for themselves that just shall live by faith. He paid a tremendous price for this, but we're saying today that about a hundred thousand Christians die every year for no other reason than they simply believe Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And so we want to come alongside them and send them exactly what they're praying for. That's not an end to their suffering. It's for the Word of God to be able to endure and persevere. Stu, throw the words Christian persecution in the news into a search engine right now.

Here's what you'll find. In the country of Nigeria, a Christian woman, a college student, was falsely accused of blasphemy against Islam. You know what they did? They beat her with a plank, they set her on fire. They did the same thing to a 74-year-old man, same reason in another part of that country. And then in India, Stu, a pastor that we supported bibally, he uses our study materials and Bibles.

The man was tied to a fence post. About 150 radical Hindus, including many kids in school uniforms, beat this man nearly to death. I mean, there is a price to be paid, as I said earlier. Ours is a social persecution. You say to somebody here in the States, hey, I follow Christianity.

They say, who cares? Or you say, I'm a Jesus follower. Oh, you mean that religion that's full of judgment, you know? That's kind of the degree of our persecution here, but it's in an altogether different level around the world. And again, when you can open your Bible and be reminded of God's precious promises, you have a perspective, you understand?

Jesus says they'll hate you because they hated me first. You know, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed. These are the people that we're talking about right now who live out their Christian faith without a Bible.

They've been denied God's word, but on top of that, they're persecuted. And so we want to, again, come alongside these believers. We've said together as Truth Network and Bible League, can we do this for 3,500 persecuted believers? Stu, your listeners in baseball speak.

They hit it out of the park. They've done that for about a thousand Bible-less persecuted believers to this point. By the time we hit July 4th, when we celebrate our independence, we'd love to be able to say to these 3,500 persecuted Bible-less believers, hey, your Bibles, they're coming, they're coming.

What number can they call, what number can our listeners call, Michael? They want to make a $5 donation, a $500 donation. It's five bucks a Bible to get to a persecuted believer or a believer that's a Bible-less believer in countries all over the world. You know, inflation's on the rise, but we're not raising those to eight bucks, Stu. They're $5 a Bible.

That's the average cost to put a Bible into the hands and hearts of a persecuted believer. They can call 800-YES-WORD. That's 800-Y-E-S-W-O-R-D. Let me spell that out for you. It's 800-937-9673.

800-YES-WORD. You can call that 24-7. Or you can find the banner to stand with them, Bibles for the Persecuted Church. Just click truthnetwork.com.

Again, July 4th is our end date. We want to do this for 3,500 persecuted believers. Already truth listeners, you've done that for a thousand, so we're well on our way. Stu, again, thanks for being such a wonderful advocate for Bible league. And again, your listeners, they get this. They see the special place of God's Word in their own lives.

What you guys are doing is tremendous. 1-800-YES-WORD. W-O-R-D. We'll get the Word. We'll be you saying yes to getting the Word to a Bible-less believer.

Which, isn't it interesting, the irony, the contrast? We have plenty of Bibles, no persecution. These believers across these densely populated, non-Christian countries, they have tons of persecution, but no Bibles. So, Bible league... Wow, it's ironic, and Michael, you're doing something about it at Bible league. 800-YES-WORD listeners can give a a small donation. Whatever God wants them to give, it's not their money anyway. And you can bless someone with a Bible. We want you, when we come back, Michael, to tell us a little more about what that Bible is going to do.

We went ahead and put a big link up at truthnetwork.com. You guys have been around how long, Michael? This year marks 84 years in ministry.

And that's something. Giving the Word of God, giving the Word to the world. I tell you, does our world need anything more than the Word of God? We come back, we got a special question from one of our Truth Warrior interns. We're with Michael Woolworth of the Bible league, how you can get involved in a couple really cool testimonies. We kind of got into the persecution, and the dark stuff, and the painful stuff. We're going to talk about some really neat testimonies of what God's done. Just do a simple Bible, a little New Testament, or a little Bible in someone's own language that changed their life. Right here on Truth Talk, I'm Stu Everson.

Hang on, more coming up right after this. You're listening to the Truth Network and truthnetwork.com. How has the Word of God changed your life? Everything I do today, everything I am today, is because God wrote a book, and that book changed my life. I was a little younger than the guys in the room with me, our Truth Warrior interns, when I started really reading this book seriously. I'd heard about it, I learned it, I memorized scripture growing up, but that all just came into my spirit, my soul, and my mind, and God just opened my eyes. So many people have been impacted by the Bible. Michael Woolworth with the Bible league, tell us a story, a testimony, for what's actually happened when one of these Bibles, someone calls in, they say, I want to give five bucks to give a Bible to a Bibleist believer under persecution in the world, or someone calls in and says, I want to give 500 bucks to give 100 of them Bibles.

But give us a testimony of the end result of that, Michael. Yeah, let me take your listeners to India. This is the second most populated country in the world, 1.3 billion people call India home. This is the land of Gandhi, and I can tell you, a long gone are the days when Gandhi promoted a non-violent Hinduism. This is a place where it is essentially against the law to share your faith.

If you do that, Stu, you can be tossed in jail. People have been martyred for that. I mean, it's absolutely a horrific place to live out who you are in Jesus Christ, but I can tell you the gospel's going forth. Christians are living out their faith in very admirable ways.

Let me tell you a couple things that come to mind. A pastor that we supported at Bible league that used our materials, our Bibles that you've sent in previous campaigns, he was falsely accused of converting Hindus to Christianity. Now listen, it wasn't true, but they took the entire family, the man, his wife, their four children to a reservoir. They drowned these people to send a message that there is no room for Christianity, we're not going to have room for Christianity within the walls of India. Stu, one of the most humbling things that I've heard is of a seminary outside of Karnataka, India. Bible league supports these men that are graduating. We provide them Bibles so as they share the faith and grow churches, they've got the Word of God in their languages, but they will take these men after graduation, the same day they graduate, they'll take them to the outskirts of town, they have shovels, they will dig their graves, not the actual grave they'll be buried in, but this is to signify we may have to die, we may have to suffer, we'll definitely have to suffer to see the gospel go forth, and that little demonstration shows they're willing to do that, they're willing to suffer for the cause of Christ. Let me tell you about somebody who's done that, a man by the name of J.M., not too many years ago was a radicalized Hindu, he would burn churches, assault Christians, he hated God, but God had a different plan for him, he brought him to saving faith, he became a pastor, received some theological training, went through Bible league's church planner training program.

What is that? Well, there's emerging groups of communities where there's no church, we help provide the opportunity to see churches develop in places like India. He gets on his bicycle, he rides into a village where as far as he knew, never a Christian, never a church, he begins to share the gospel, I'm going to fast forward quite a bit here, I can tell you, today in a village of a thousand people, Stu, more than 500 follow Christ, but lest you think it came easy, this man J.M., his house has been burned down not once but twice, his wife has been raped, many in the congregation were assaulted, many have been killed, again simply because of their Christian faith, but I can tell you today with conviction, that man J.M., on behalf of that congregation, can say with conviction, it is a joy to suffer for the Lord Jesus, and there's a need right now for about 500 Bibles in the Tamil language in the country of India, and I can tell you as the eyes and ears of Bible league, I'd love to be able to let J.M. know who's not a praying for an end to the supper, and he knows that God's working through this persecution, I would love to be able to say, look the Bibles you need, they're on their way, they're on their way. It's just one phone call, 800-YES-WORD, I love that phone number, 800-YES-WORD, Michael Woolworth with the Bible league, our special guest today on Truth Talk, I'm Stu Everson, you can call that number, this is, we do this occasionally where we bring a ministry that needs help, that's trying to reach people, and you may not go to a dangerous part of the world where you could risk your life, you may not be able to go, may not even have a passport, but God may have blessed you with a little more money or some tax money that you got back, or an estate that's settled that you got 100 grand you weren't expecting, and you may want to give this to give a Bible.

You phone these guys 800-YES-WORD and the Bible, you tell them how much you want to pledge or give them a credit card, however that works, or you send them a check and then they will mail $5 a Bible. So hey, our Truth War intern Colby Hales has a question for you, Michael Woolworth of the Bible league, I'm going to put him on real quick with his question. Yeah, so Bible league has been around for 84 years, and the Bible has been around for a lot longer than that, but I have to ask, I heard you earlier in the segment say that 2021 was a tough year for the persecution of the church, and we've seen if we read the Bible that the persecution of the church highlighted in Paul's ministry quite a bit, are these trends continuing to grow each year where more and more people are persecuted, or are they around the same number each year? And if so, how can we pray for them, and how can we help impact them?

Yeah, that's a great question, Colby. People ask, why is persecution on a rise? Well, if you look at your own Bible in Revelation 13, the devil has declared war on the bride of Christ. He said, I'm going to disrupt the church, I'll do it two ways, false teaching through false teachers, and then secondly through suffering, namely through persecution.

You know, he has limited time, and so that's why you see an increase here. You even talked about Paul's ministry, you know, as he sat in a Roman prison awaiting execution by Nero, he wrote to young Timothy, he said, Timothy, anyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ can expect to be persecuted, and that's why when you're characterized as somebody who's singled out, targeted, monitored, threatened with death, beaten, you're awaiting execution, you need to be able to open your Bible and be reminded of God's precious promises. Again, where Jesus says, you may be persecuted, but you're not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. And then, you know, in the Great Commission, he says, what, I'm with you always. I mean, for these persecuted believers, Colby, in countries where Evangelical Christianity makes up maybe 1% of the population, I mean, to know that God knows you intimately is everything.

It's what fueled these believers. You were saying earlier, it's amazing, we have plenty of Bibles here in the US, but our church growth, it's on the down trend, but I can tell you, three things we notice around the world where the church is growing is the evidence of three things. Number one, true Christian churches, people that actually believe the Bible. Secondly, godly preachers and godly hearers who take that message and take it to the world.

And thirdly, you know what it is? Persecution. When you find those three things put together, you will see a church that is growing, and that's what Bible League is uniquely positioned to do, is to bring the Word of God to these persecuted believers. As Truth Network and Bible League, we've said, let's solve this for 3500 persecuted believers. We want to do it by July 4th, and so as we throw hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill and celebrate our independence, we want to be able to say that these 3500 persecuted believers, your Bibles, they're coming.

They're coming. Amen. What a blessing.

Give us the number one more time. Michael Warwick with the Bible League encouraging all our listeners to support this. Get the Word of God in someone else's hands. Think about what impact it's made on you. Think about what we would be if we didn't have Bibles.

Michael, what's the number? The need is great. We're so grateful for what you're doing. Well, we're grateful for Truth Network listeners.

Again, you've hit it out of the park. Let's do it again on behalf of the persecuted church. Five dollars sent to Bible. How many can you send today by calling 800-yes-word? That's 800-y-e-s-w-o-r-d. 800-937-9673.

That's 800-yes-word. Or just click the Bible League banner. You can find that at truthnetwork.com. We'd love to invite you to help support the persecuted church. We'd like to do that by July 4th. You can do that for only five dollars a Bible.

Okay, awesome. And the Truth Warrior interns are going to help me in here. Michael, I'm going to go to the website right now, and I'm going to try to do a donation. I'm going to try to give, let's see, I'm going to give 10 Bibles right now. A hundred dollars.

That'll give 10 Bibles. Thanks for doing that. Well, we've got to do it, man.

I've got to put it under my mouth. Hey guys, if you can put a decimal point in the wrong point, you know, if that ends up being a ten thousand dollar gift, that's okay too. But anyway, I love everything that you're doing. Every time we do these programs, it generates in giving, and we don't take that for granted. We know you've built trust and loyal, and your listeners are loyal. They care about these things, and so we're just thrilled to partner with you all right now. Well, the reason we exist, and the reason that we are the Truth Network and TruthTalk, and all of our amazing affiliates that carry this show, the reason we're all doing this thing under different names of different entities and ministries and whatever, is to get God's Word out. So there's nothing more central to that than what you're doing, and so we're just honored to to be a part of it. Michael, thank you, and thank you for being a blessing to us today on TruthTalk.

Everyone, learn more. Find out all about Bible League, and go to the website, I guess, truthnetwork.com. We've got a good, they've got a good big link for them there. And then also go to, you know, you can go to the phone number and give that number one more time if you would. Yeah, it's 800-yes-word, 800-y-e-s-w-o-r-d, that's 800-yes-word, or just click the banners. The Bible League banner says, stand with them, Bibles for the First Church. I just found it, and I just clicked on it, $100.

You can find that at truthnetwork.com. Thanks for making that gift. You're not asking your listeners to do anything you're not doing, and brother, we really appreciate it. Yeah, it's filling, it's filling up. I'm filling all the little buttons in here, and I'm going to turn, hand this over to these guys, because they're a lot better. They got, my chubby little fingers aren't as clear. Well, they're young, they understand this stuff, right?

That's right, they may get this decimal point wrong, per your advice here, we got to watch that. Michael Woolworth of Bible League, God bless you. Folks, whatever you do, read your Bible, study it, share it, memorize it, meditate on it. Go to Psalm chapter 19, those six amazing attributes and deliverables of God's Word.

The first one is, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. And that's what happens, Romans 10-17 backs that up, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. So are you in the Word of God? Is the Word of God in you?

And what are you doing about it? And what am I doing to share the Word with the world? And I'm so grateful for Bible League. What a blessing to be with you, Michael. God bless you, my friend. We'll talk soon, okay? God bless you still here, man. This is the Truth Network.