The Hamilton Corner

February 23, 2026 · 52:40

Todd Nettleton, Vice President of Voice of the Martyrs, steps into “The Corner.”

Politics & Policy

Show notes

0:00 - 15:00. 2 Timothy 3:12. The matter is not a question of “if,” but rather “how” and “when.” 15:00 - 31:00. Todd Nettleton, Vice President of Voice of the Martyrs, steps into “The Corner.” 31:00 - 48:00. The LORD warned His church would face persecution, but by His grace we overcome. or call: 800-326-4543 To donate call : 877-616-2396

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Transcribed with OpenAI Whisper (base.en). Timestamps are approximate. Lightly cleaned for readability; quotations from on-air callers may include filler words. Use the audio player above for the authoritative recording.

  1. 1:01This is not an affirmative force simply reoccupies the space vacated by the light.
  2. 1:06This is the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  3. 1:11It should be uncomfortable for a believer to live as a hypocrite.
  4. 1:15Delivery people out of the bondage of mainstream media.
  5. 1:18And the philosophies of this world.
  6. 1:20God has called you and me to be his ambassador.
  7. 1:24Even in this dark moment.
  8. 1:27Let's not miss our moment.
  9. 1:28And now, the Hamilton Corner.
  10. 1:31Good evening everyone welcome to the Hamilton Corner. My name is Abraham Hamilton the third host of this program
  11. 1:39We are broadcasting right now from the floor of the exhibit hall at the National Religious Broadcasters
  12. 1:47Convention this is an annual gathering that takes place this year. We are at the Opry Land
  13. 1:53Hotel and Convention Center and we're looking forward to having a wonderful program today Ben. We've been here this entire week
  14. 2:01It really is amazing to see what God is doing all over the world, but in particular in our
  15. 2:07own nation.
  16. 2:08At this very moment, at this very moment, many of you are making your transition from your
  17. 2:13part-time jobs where you generate an income to your full-time jobs, where you cultivate
  18. 2:18an outcome.
  19. 2:19And as you do so, I want to remind you to do so with intentionality, recognizing the primacy
  20. 2:26that God places on family and allowing his view to govern, guide, guard, and direct your
  21. 2:34engagement in your families.
  22. 2:37I say on a regular basis and I will continue to say that what goes on in your house is far
  23. 2:42more important than what goes on in the White House.
  24. 2:45My purpose in saying that is not to denigrate with transpires in the White House, but to
  25. 2:50aid us in recalibrating our thought lives.
  26. 2:53our culture works feverishly to get us to be
  27. 2:57conformed to the world around us instead of first
  28. 3:00being transformed by the renewing of our minds
  29. 3:03and having that transformed mindset to dictate how
  30. 3:08we do life.
  31. 3:10And so what you do when you leave your income generating
  32. 3:13capacity is your full time jobs because outcome
  33. 3:16cultivation, in my full time job frankly, outcome
  34. 3:19cultivation is our job.
  35. 3:22We will never be able to be out politic.
  36. 3:26We'll never be able to out Supreme Court opinion,
  37. 3:29to out lobby, to out voter register,
  38. 3:33persistent deficiencies that abound in the home.
  39. 3:36We must, we must be about our father's business
  40. 3:39starting right in our homes.
  41. 3:41If the Lord, if we would welcome the Lord
  42. 3:44to capture us in our homes, there's no question
  43. 3:47as the would transpire, what could transpire in our societies.
  44. 3:51I've been saying this quite a bit,
  45. 3:52I'm going to continue to say this as well.
  46. 3:54I am grateful for people who are in the front lines
  47. 3:57engaging in civic matters.
  48. 4:00And we live in a constitutional republic
  49. 4:01with democratic features by God's divine providence.
  50. 4:04And so we must be salt and light in that area.
  51. 4:07But however, if we get all of the right candidates that we want,
  52. 4:10and we have all of the people running for office that we want,
  53. 4:15but we are not making disciples on the ground in our society,
  54. 4:19we are actively working against ourselves.
  55. 4:21to kind of punctuate that reality.
  56. 4:23I asked this question often.
  57. 4:25If we are citizens in our American Republic,
  58. 4:29guaranteed by Article 4,
  59. 4:31where each citizen has the lawful right and duty,
  60. 4:35I would argue, to select and elect our servant leaders.
  61. 4:39But our populace is increasingly wicked.
  62. 4:41How long should we expect an increasingly wicked populace
  63. 4:47to choose God the leadership?
  64. 4:51The answer seems pretty obvious.
  65. 4:52seems pretty plain and we should understand that.
  66. 4:57This is not an either or proposition, however.
  67. 4:59I'm not saying do this and don't do that.
  68. 5:01But I'm saying yes, continue to do this,
  69. 5:04but we must make disciples at the exact same time.
  70. 5:08So as we are contributing ourselves
  71. 5:10and investing ourselves in the execution
  72. 5:12of the Great Commission, we must do so with intentionality.
  73. 5:17We must do so with intentionality.
  74. 5:20With that, let us turn to the Word of God.
  75. 5:22Second Timothy chapter three, verse 12 is the text that we're going to go to today.
  76. 5:27Second Timothy chapter three verse 12.
  77. 5:29Excuse me, I had to get the first knees out of the way.
  78. 5:32That's all right.
  79. 5:33People used to be sneezing.
  80. 5:34I had to say they used to be sneezing.
  81. 5:36Second Timothy chapter three verse 12, you'll recall as we talked about this, that this is an
  82. 5:40epistle that Timothy wrote to the latter part of his life shortly before his execution at
  83. 5:45the hands of Nero.
  84. 5:47And he makes this statement.
  85. 5:49Paul writing to Timothy says this.
  86. 5:51indeed, verse 12, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ
  87. 5:56Jesus will be persecuted.
  88. 6:00I'm going to read it again.
  89. 6:01Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be
  90. 6:07persecuted.
  91. 6:08Notice the text doesn't say, might be persecuted.
  92. 6:12The text doesn't say, there's a chance, depending on who you are,
  93. 6:15where you are, when you live, that this might happen.
  94. 6:17Note the description says, all who desire to live godly in Christ
  95. 6:20Jesus will be persecuted.
  96. 6:21It should be instructive for us
  97. 6:24that this is coming from an incarcerated Timothy writing to,
  98. 6:27I'm sorry, an incarcerated Apostle Paul writing to Timothy.
  99. 6:31The same one had a reminder,
  100. 6:33hey, I understand Timothy, you could be a little shook up.
  101. 6:37But God has not given us the spirit of fear,
  102. 6:39the lea because Timothy is facing the reality that,
  103. 6:44hey, my servant service to Christ could result in me being
  104. 6:49me being imprisoned just like Paul to which the apostle would say yes, but it's
  105. 6:57worth it. The cause of Christ is worth it. The reality brothers and sisters very
  106. 7:04plainly is not a matter of if we will face a persecution. The question is when,
  107. 7:10how, and to what degree we will face persecution. Right now I was just
  108. 7:16having a conversation with the sister and this might not seem like it could be
  109. 7:20along the trajectory of persecution, but there's always soft persecution that
  110. 7:25precedes hard persecution and she was talking to me about her young son, he was
  111. 7:3020 years old, got married a week before his 21st birthday, right? This young man
  112. 7:38is a Christian, lived to chase before the Lord, he and his wife, and as they were
  113. 7:45preparing for marriage, yeah, some of you already know where I'm going, he had lots
  114. 7:51of unsolicited opinions expressed, lots of people sharing their two cents, lots of,
  115. 7:58wow man, you sure you want to do that?
  116. 8:01You know, certainly that's not overt physical hostile persecution.
  117. 8:07But it also is not comfortable and welcome, especially coming from people.
  118. 8:11You expect me, you know my testimony, when Marie and I met, I had no discouragement from
  119. 8:18peers and coworkers, you guys know we met in the office where I was working here at the
  120. 8:23district attorney's office. It was not until I had proposed to Maria and we're
  121. 8:27preparing for marriage. I proposed her a couple of months after we met and we were
  122. 8:31married less than a year following that proposal. There are lots of people that
  123. 8:35I was saying, y'all don't need to get married. You're too young for this. And I'm
  124. 8:38like, what are you talking about? This young couple I mentioned, I was not 20
  125. 8:42years old, but this young man was 20 years old and I was talking to his mom just
  126. 8:45now and she was just telling me, you know, Abe, that was hard. That was a
  127. 8:48challenge because you had lots of people that were people that he respected and
  128. 8:52looked up to and they were discouraging him from getting married.
  129. 8:55Think about that.
  130. 8:59Our culture gives a lot of relationship advice,
  131. 9:03but they object to people getting married,
  132. 9:05but what does the scripture say?
  133. 9:06Marriage is honorable before the Lord.
  134. 9:09Now, I am by no means representing that,
  135. 9:11again as overt hostile physical persecution,
  136. 9:15but is it not a challenge to maintenance
  137. 9:19of a biblical worldview?
  138. 9:21Is it not a challenge to a personal commitment
  139. 9:24to be chased until marriage?
  140. 9:27And no doubt about it, it is on that trajectory.
  141. 9:30Some of us, we're not facing over at hostile physical
  142. 9:33persecution, some of us, we're facing nasty comments
  143. 9:37on social media.
  144. 9:39And we don't want to say what the truth is because
  145. 9:43we don't want to deal with the nasty comments.
  146. 9:45Some of us, and I did a whole program on people like James
  147. 9:50Alarico who are lying about the scriptures as he's running for office.
  148. 9:53People are twisting the scriptures in our presence.
  149. 9:56All of that are steps that precipitate the overt hostile physical persecution.
  150. 10:01And all of it is opposition that must be stood against.
  151. 10:07The same apostle Paul said, to Timothy, another portion of his epistles to Timothy, that we
  152. 10:11must train ourselves for godliness.
  153. 10:17ourselves for godliness, train ourselves to live counter culturally, train ourselves for
  154. 10:23peculiarity. Why does the scripture give us that admonition? Because it doesn't come to
  155. 10:29Adam naturally. It doesn't come to the fallen Adam naturally. So as Paul is talking about
  156. 10:35this in the verse that proceeds, verses that proceed, Paul says to Timothy, you know all
  157. 10:40of the sufferings I went through an Antioch and Iconium and Lystra and Derby, you know what
  158. 10:45we faced in all of those areas, why would Paul say that?
  159. 10:47Because that's what Timothy was from.
  160. 10:50And he said those things because he knew Timothy was aware
  161. 10:54of all of those persecutions.
  162. 10:55My point in sharing this with you now is for this audience,
  163. 11:00for us to understand persecution is a reality
  164. 11:05that every believer will have to confront.
  165. 11:08Some of you listen to me,
  166. 11:09you're the first believers in your family.
  167. 11:11So you know what that comes with,
  168. 11:13that comes with a challenge to your ability to live life.
  169. 11:21Like how are you gonna educate your children?
  170. 11:23What do you believe about parenting?
  171. 11:24What do you believe about spanking?
  172. 11:25Some of you, you're on the opposite end.
  173. 11:27You are in an inheritor of a Christian legacy,
  174. 11:31but like anything else, you look at the scriptures.
  175. 11:34I've been talking quite a bit about what is revealed
  176. 11:37in the book of Judges and how you have descendants
  177. 11:40of Israelites who have questions that Gideon had.
  178. 11:44You could be a beneficiary of a legacy of a Christian family,
  179. 11:49but confronting the temptations to drift,
  180. 11:53to approach the truth of God with a casualness
  181. 11:57that would undergird the vitality of your life in Christ.
  182. 12:00The scripture says, indeed, all who desire to live God
  183. 12:04in Christ Jesus will face persecution.
  184. 12:09Because that is the truth, my question for us is,
  185. 12:12are we ready for that?
  186. 12:16Have we yielded ourselves to the Lordship of Christ
  187. 12:19and some of the most challenging aspects of our lives?
  188. 12:22And when I'm talking about these challenging aspects,
  189. 12:24I'm not talking about the lights and camera moments
  190. 12:26where there's broad audiences
  191. 12:27and there's a bunch of people around watching.
  192. 12:29I'm talking about in the quietness of your own hearts
  193. 12:33and the quietness of our own hearts
  194. 12:35when there is nobody else around.
  195. 12:37Because the real us is who we are when nobody's looking.
  196. 12:41In those moments, who are we?
  197. 12:43Have we developed the muscle memory of being able
  198. 12:46to stand in the face of hostility?
  199. 12:49Have we developed the muscle memory
  200. 12:52to stand in the face of temptation?
  201. 12:56Indeed, all who live God in Christ Jesus,
  202. 12:58in Christ Jesus will face this.
  203. 13:01Are we ready for it?
  204. 13:03I often reflect on the reality of the Hebrew boys.
  205. 13:06Azariah, Miss Iyel, Hananiah,
  206. 13:10standing before Nebuchadnezzar.
  207. 13:11If you're going to truly understand the quality of their witness before an African
  208. 13:16desert, you can't start at the fiery furnace.
  209. 13:19You have to go back to the 10 day table of testing.
  210. 13:22It is because they became fully persuaded as to who God was in the overarching sense,
  211. 13:29but in a more particular reality as to who he was to them.
  212. 13:33The reality of the conviction that they cultivated in anonymity is what they were
  213. 13:37able to draw upon in the light's camera action moment before
  214. 13:41Nebuchadnezzar.
  215. 13:42Indeed, all who live godly, all who desire, all who desire to
  216. 13:48live God in Christ Jesus will face persecution.
  217. 13:51How will you deal with it?
  218. 13:53When we think about persecution, there's some of the overt
  219. 13:55things that are happening that we've talked about in Nigeria,
  220. 13:58for example.
  221. 14:00Some of the overt hostile things we've talked about that the
  222. 14:02Iranians are facing currently.
  223. 14:04All over the world that are being faced.
  224. 14:07and there is an appreciable uptick of what's happening in our own country.
  225. 14:11Hostility towards a Biblical worldview.
  226. 14:14The way that Christians often are mocked, not if they profess to be Christians, no, no,
  227. 14:20no.
  228. 14:21No, if you profess to be a Christian, you have a Bible, you read it and you live according
  229. 14:25to what is revealed herein, then, then you're brought into the realm of mockery.
  230. 14:33I was looking not too long ago at an interview that former US Senator Ben Sasse did with Peter
  231. 14:40Robertson at the Hoover Institution.
  232. 14:45And Pete asked former Senator Sasse a question.
  233. 14:48You're facing death as a result of a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
  234. 14:52And yet you're saying that you're now at this stage, you're willing to commit yourself
  235. 14:57to prayer.
  236. 14:59How could a modern man of the 21st century say he's committed to prayer?
  237. 15:03the sense of the sense of the sense of the sense of the sassist answer was simple.
  238. 15:08It's because God's word is true.
  239. 15:13If you have not pondered this notion, pondered this biblical admonition indeed all who desire
  240. 15:19to live godly in Christ Jesus will face persecution.
  241. 15:23I encourage you to do so now to settle your heart, resolve it in your heart, that come
  242. 15:29with me that I will stand.
  243. 15:31In addition to that, to set our hearts as well, having the freedom that we endure currently
  244. 15:37in our nation, the resources that God has entrusted to our care, that we do all that we can to support
  245. 15:44persecuted brothers and sisters all around the world. If you are a member of the family
  246. 15:47of God, you are a member of the eternal family of God, which is not confined to borders or
  247. 15:53any parochial considerations, but that you are a part of the universal family of God,
  248. 15:59glory to His wonderful name.
  249. 16:00Hiding to the darkness, this is the Hamilton Corner, an American family radio.
  250. 18:13Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner, my name is Abraham Hamilton III and I am excited to
  251. 18:17have on the program with me here on the exhibit hall floor of the National Religious Broadcasters
  252. 18:212026 Convention, vice president of message for Voice of the Martyrs, none other than Todd
  253. 18:28Nettleton who is seated to my right.
  254. 18:30Physically Todd, thank you for joining me here in the program.
  255. 18:32It is a blessing, thanks for having me.
  256. 18:34Oh, it is truly my pleasure.
  257. 18:35I personally use Voice of the Martyrs' resources.
  258. 18:38in the major ways I do so, is in trying to inculcate
  259. 18:41within my own family a real notion that we are members
  260. 18:45of the universal body of Christ, that even with my four-year-old
  261. 18:49that we pray for the brethren in places like Nigeria
  262. 18:52and Iran and all over the world, and so your resources,
  263. 18:55your ministry's resources have aided me in doing so
  264. 18:57and I commend our audience to do the same.
  265. 19:01But I wanted to start our conversation
  266. 19:02by just giving those who may not be familiar
  267. 19:05with the voice of the martyrs, and if you're not familiar
  268. 19:06with it. Where have you been? Where have you been living under a rock? You must be
  269. 19:11familiar with Voice of the Martyrs, but just if you don't mind, share a little bit
  270. 19:14about the founding of Voice of the Martyrs. I know a person dear to my heart though I
  271. 19:18never met him personally. His life and witness has impacted me. He and his wife
  272. 19:21Richard and Sandra Wormbrand, would you share a little bit about how your
  273. 19:24ministry was founded? Yeah, so the Voice of the Martyrs is a ministry to
  274. 19:27persecuted Christians. We are working today in more than 70 nations around the
  275. 19:32world helping Christians who face persecution. As you mentioned, our founders were persecuted
  276. 19:38Christians. Pastor Richard Wernbrand spent 14 years in prison in communist Romania. His
  277. 19:43wife Sabina spent three years in prison, including many of the months of her imprisonment were
  278. 19:49in a labor camp building the Danube Canal. So you can actually go into the history books
  279. 19:54and look at the history of the Danube Canal. It was a failed project, but she was building
  280. 19:59the Danube Canal and when they came out of Romania, the communists were still in charge,
  281. 20:05they were actually ransomed out of the country.
  282. 20:07So the Christians in the West paid $10,000 to the Romanian government to get them out.
  283. 20:14At the time, the going rate for a political prisoner was $1,500.
  284. 20:17So Richard Wormbrand, this pastor, was seen as like a high-value prisoner.
  285. 20:22It's going to cost $10,000 to get him out of prison.
  286. 20:25Before they left Romania, the secret police took them aside.
  287. 20:28He said, listen, Pastor, and we're in the West.
  288. 20:30You can talk about the Bible all you want, you can preach,
  289. 20:32you can talk about God all you want,
  290. 20:33but don't talk about us.
  291. 20:35Don't talk about what we did to you.
  292. 20:37He came to the West and did exactly what they told him not
  293. 20:40to do.
  294. 20:41I was tortured.
  295. 20:42And he's a man.
  296. 20:42I spent three years in solitary confinement.
  297. 20:44I have the scars literally before a US Senate committee.
  298. 20:47He took off his shirt to show the scars of the torture.
  299. 20:51And more important than just I was tortured,
  300. 20:55He said, hey, there are still pastors in those prisons.
  301. 20:58And when you hear that, when I hear that,
  302. 20:59we say, well, how do we help them?
  303. 21:01What can we do for those pastors?
  304. 21:03That's really how the voice of the martyrs was founded,
  305. 21:05was to be the answer to that question.
  306. 21:07How can we help them?
  307. 21:08How can we get assistance and encouragement and aid to them?
  308. 21:11And on the other end of the line,
  309. 21:13how can we bring out their stories,
  310. 21:16the stories of their suffering,
  311. 21:17but their faithfulness and God's faithfulness?
  312. 21:20How can we get those stories out
  313. 21:22and get them into the hands of American believers?
  314. 21:24That's what the Voice of the Martyrs has been doing now,
  315. 21:26almost 60 years.
  316. 21:28So.
  317. 21:30That's phenomenal.
  318. 21:31One of the things that I was so excited,
  319. 21:33you don't know this, but I've been praying about having a guest
  320. 21:36on to help me kind of articulate this even more
  321. 21:38so of our audience here, because the world is standing kind
  322. 21:41of with baited breath watching what's happening
  323. 21:43in Iran, for example, as much as possible with their
  324. 21:46intermittent access to the internet and things
  325. 21:48of that nature and the government's pinching
  326. 21:50for miscalculating or under calculating certain atrocities.
  327. 21:54but we've known here in this program for quite some time
  328. 21:57that the largest number of people coming to faith
  329. 22:00in the world is happening in Iran.
  330. 22:02And when you think about our own nation's history,
  331. 22:05the American Revolution was really precipitated
  332. 22:08by the Great Awakening, really.
  333. 22:10And so it put in my mind, hmm,
  334. 22:13I wonder how much the gospel being propelled in Iran
  335. 22:18has contributed to the citizenry's willingness
  336. 22:20to stand up against the regime of the Ayatollahs.
  337. 22:23and you have some information that I was unaware of,
  338. 22:27that helps to answer that question.
  339. 22:30This is such an amazing story,
  340. 22:31and I hope it's an encouragement to people who are listening,
  341. 22:34because sometimes we think,
  342. 22:35well, if the government turns against us,
  343. 22:38the church will be destroyed.
  344. 22:39No, no, no, no.
  345. 22:40That ain't gonna happen.
  346. 22:41So you look at 1979, the Islamic Revolution in Iran,
  347. 22:45the mullahs take over the government,
  348. 22:47they are the Islamic leaders, the Islamic teachers,
  349. 22:50they're running the government,
  350. 22:52and they're telling Iran's people,
  351. 22:54we're gonna do everything just how Islam teaches us to do it.
  352. 22:57We're gonna do it exactly how the Quran says to do it.
  353. 23:00So that was 1979.
  354. 23:01Now we're 45 years down the road,
  355. 23:04the economy isn't shambles.
  356. 23:05Iran has one of the highest drug addiction rates
  357. 23:07in the world.
  358. 23:08The people see the corruption of the government,
  359. 23:11and they're like, if that's the Islamic way
  360. 23:14of doing things, well, what are the other options?
  361. 23:16Like what else could we do?
  362. 23:17Because clearly Islam doesn't work.
  363. 23:20And so you have an entire generation of Iranians who look at that and say,
  364. 23:23well Islam doesn't work.
  365. 23:24I saw it in my government and they're looking for something else.
  366. 23:28They're looking for answers and thousands of them have become atheists.
  367. 23:31Like, hey, I don't believe in anything.
  368. 23:33That's a lie.
  369. 23:34But hundreds of thousands of Iranians are following Jesus Christ because they were
  370. 23:39looking, hey, Islam doesn't work.
  371. 23:41What are the other options?
  372. 23:43We have broadcast partners at the Voice of the Waters that are sending in the
  373. 23:46gospel on satellite television and radio and internet and even in chat rooms like
  374. 23:51social media outreach and Iranians are hungry for something that is true that
  375. 23:57does work. I've had Iranian Christians tell me the greatest missionary in the
  376. 24:01history of Iran was the Ayatollah Khomeini and you know it's like how could he be
  377. 24:08the greatest fit like he wasn't even a Christian and they're like no he showed
  378. 24:11the people the true face of Islam and it made them want something else and you
  379. 24:15You know, so we talk about that with Iran,
  380. 24:17and I want to encourage people,
  381. 24:18that pray that for Afghanistan, with the Taliban,
  382. 24:22pray it for the new government in Syria,
  383. 24:24as they see what Islam looks like there.
  384. 24:27Pray that for these governments that are showing the face
  385. 24:31of Islam, that it will make the people hunger
  386. 24:33for something different.
  387. 24:34We've seen it happen in Iran, we know God answers that prayer.
  388. 24:37Let's pray that he does it again in some of these other places.
  389. 24:40Now you said something that will be a bit jilting
  390. 24:44and we'll be novel for people listening when you say
  391. 24:47that one of the highest rates of drug addiction
  392. 24:49is actually in Iran.
  393. 24:52That's remarkable to consider.
  394. 24:54When people are hopeless and desperate,
  395. 24:57what do they reach for?
  396. 24:59That's one of the things they reach for.
  397. 25:01And you know, you've got Afghanistan right next door,
  398. 25:04clearly a big crop heroin-producing country.
  399. 25:07So it's not hard to get,
  400. 25:10but it's that heart issue, that hopelessness in the heart.
  401. 25:13And so it is, it's one of the highest,
  402. 25:15the places with one of the highest drug addiction rates
  403. 25:18in the world.
  404. 25:18It's amazing.
  405. 25:19Now I know voicing the martyrs has been involved
  406. 25:21in helping to get Bibles into Iram.
  407. 25:24Would you speak a little bit about that?
  408. 25:25Yes, we have.
  409. 25:26And actually I was in a meeting just last week
  410. 25:29and our Central Asia person announced
  411. 25:32that last year 2025 we were able to deliver 100,000 Bibles
  412. 25:36into the nation of Iran.
  413. 25:38And I always remind people, you know, it's a close nation.
  414. 25:40And by the way, they had a war with Israel
  415. 25:43in the middle of the year, and yes,
  416. 25:44we still got 100,000 Bibles into Iran last year,
  417. 25:48and our brothers and sisters there are hungry for God's word.
  418. 25:53They're hungry to have God's word as a tool
  419. 25:55to reach out all these desperate people
  420. 25:57who think Islam is hopeless.
  421. 25:59I'm hopeless, what do I do?
  422. 26:01What if their neighbor had a Bible?
  423. 26:02What if they could give it to them?
  424. 26:04So it is such an important thing to get God's word
  425. 26:08in the hands of his people, even in places like Iran.
  426. 26:11And the other thing that I would just encourage people
  427. 26:14to think about is if you're distributing Bibles in Iran,
  428. 26:17you're risking going to prison.
  429. 26:19Like you know at the end of this road is prison.
  430. 26:22At some point they're gonna discover who I am,
  431. 26:24they're gonna know who I am,
  432. 26:25and I'm probably gonna pay for this.
  433. 26:27And yet you have these bold brothers and sisters who say,
  434. 26:30no, this is so important that even if I do go to prison,
  435. 26:34it's worth it.
  436. 26:34I want you to have God's Word.
  437. 26:36I want to put this in your hand.
  438. 26:37And so that's the thing that I'm so encouraged by.
  439. 26:40is just the boldness and the courage
  440. 26:43and the faithfulness of our brothers and sisters
  441. 26:45who say, yep, I probably will go to prison sometime.
  442. 26:48But this is so important, it's worth it.
  443. 26:50You know, this is the first time we've met in person,
  444. 26:53so I know you don't know this about me,
  445. 26:54but this is near and dear my heart.
  446. 26:56I grew up as a young man.
  447. 26:57I was blessed as a boy really to grow up in a church
  448. 27:00where some of, we call them the season saints in our church.
  449. 27:04Older, retired women, we supported an underground church
  450. 27:07network in China.
  451. 27:08This is in the 90s.
  452. 27:09Wow.
  453. 27:10And I personally was able to witness several of our older seasoned
  454. 27:15grandmothers and great-grandmothers smuggling Bibles into China.
  455. 27:20Yeah, and literally.
  456. 27:21I love your church.
  457. 27:22I've never been there.
  458. 27:23I love your church.
  459. 27:23Yeah, literally being there as they were strategizing to tape
  460. 27:28Bibles to their bodies the way that unfortunately,
  461. 27:31don't deal as smuggled drugs into America.
  462. 27:33and seeing that and having the suitcase giving time
  463. 27:41for these sisters who are going, all women, all women,
  464. 27:44and praying for them, and then celebrating
  465. 27:47as they returned home with empty luggage
  466. 27:51that has stuff in it but no Bibles.
  467. 27:53And so that's a part of my formation as a child.
  468. 27:56So hearing about that and seeing that is something
  469. 27:58as a part of who I am.
  470. 27:59And so when you talk about over 100,000 Bibles
  471. 28:03to China just last year in the midst of war and a close country and all of these things,
  472. 28:07it overwhelms me.
  473. 28:09It overwhelms me because the Word of God is just that, the Word of God.
  474. 28:14And as you said, no matter how much government of hostility, the Lord has already said that
  475. 28:19the gates of hell won't be able to against his church.
  476. 28:21Amen.
  477. 28:22You about to say something but I started going.
  478. 28:23I was just telling people when you go through a border checkpoint like that with a suitcase
  479. 28:28full of Bibles, it is the best thing for your prayer life that you will ever experience.
  480. 28:33because you are there like Lord,
  481. 28:34you gotta get me through this.
  482. 28:36I don't wanna go to jail.
  483. 28:37And so it is one of those things.
  484. 28:39And I love it to hear that your church was part of that,
  485. 28:42that it was something like your whole church was invested in.
  486. 28:46That makes me excited.
  487. 28:47I wish that was contagious.
  488. 28:49I hope more churches can catch that.
  489. 28:51That one of the things we really emphasize
  490. 28:54at Voice of the Martyrs is the fact
  491. 28:55that we're part of the body of Christ.
  492. 28:57And so our brothers and sisters in Iran,
  493. 28:59they're part of us.
  494. 29:01They're part of our family.
  495. 29:02Our brothers and sisters in China are part of our family.
  496. 29:05And so once I understand that,
  497. 29:08you don't have to try to guilt me or manipulate me to care
  498. 29:13or to pray or to do something.
  499. 29:15That's my family.
  500. 29:16Of course I'm gonna do something.
  501. 29:17Like it's the most natural thing in the world
  502. 29:20because it's our family.
  503. 29:21And so one of the things,
  504. 29:23and it sounds like your church got that from the get-go.
  505. 29:26Not every church does.
  506. 29:27Sometimes it's like, oh yeah, that's a problem to solve.
  507. 29:29Or that's a cause that we should pick up.
  508. 29:32No, no, no, it's not a cause.
  509. 29:33It's our family.
  510. 29:34It's our brothers and our sisters.
  511. 29:36Once we understand that, man, we're all go to help them.
  512. 29:39Now you have a resource in your hand.
  513. 29:42I do.
  514. 29:43That you manage to make available free of charge for people.
  515. 29:45Would you share a little bit about that?
  516. 29:46We do. So this is our brand new 2026 Global Prayer Guide.
  517. 29:49The first thing Persecuted Christians ask us to do
  518. 29:52is to pray for them.
  519. 29:54And the Global Prayer Guide is a tool to help you do that.
  520. 29:57And all it is, every country where Christians are persecuted
  521. 30:01is listed in the prayer guide and it tells you,
  522. 30:03hey, who are the persecutors?
  523. 30:04Is it the government?
  524. 30:05Is it your family?
  525. 30:06Is it some terrorist group?
  526. 30:07Who's gonna persecute you if you're a Christian?
  527. 30:10What does it look like to be a Christian?
  528. 30:11Are you gonna go to jail?
  529. 30:12Are you gonna get beaten up?
  530. 30:13Are you gonna lose your job?
  531. 30:15And how hard is it to get a Bible?
  532. 30:16Like we talked about with Iran and China.
  533. 30:18How hard is it if you're a follower of Christ
  534. 30:20for you to get access to God's word?
  535. 30:22And the goal is to help people.
  536. 30:25I love the prayer, God bless persecuted Christians.
  537. 30:28I will never complain about anyone praying that prayer.
  538. 30:30but I want to help you pray, God bless our brothers and sisters in China who are in prison
  539. 30:35for their faith and here are their names.
  540. 30:38And God bless our brothers and sisters in prison and Eritrea and here are their names.
  541. 30:41And Lord, help Bibles to get into these countries because I see how hard it is to get a Bible.
  542. 30:47So it just helps you to be more specific in your prayers, which then I think helps you be
  543. 30:52more consistent because it's easy to say, God bless persecute Christians, but it's also
  544. 30:56easy not to say that.
  545. 30:57Like if you do that every day,
  546. 30:58this helps you pray more specifically.
  547. 31:00And again, I would just hit this point one more time.
  548. 31:03The first thing they ask us to do is to pray for them.
  549. 31:05It is not, you know, bring me to America.
  550. 31:08It's not, hey, protest against my government.
  551. 31:10It is, pray for us, pray for us, pray for us.
  552. 31:12It's the first thing that persecute increases us.
  553. 31:14That's the first thing they want us to do.
  554. 31:17Now you mentioned different mechanisms
  555. 31:20of the persecution, whether it's governmental,
  556. 31:22whether it's familial, would you just share
  557. 31:23a little bit of those distinctions?
  558. 31:25Because in our country, it's easy
  559. 31:26to kind of paper over it and to say what's all government
  560. 31:29towards all this source, but that's not always the case.
  561. 31:32It's not always the case.
  562. 31:33So we think about China.
  563. 31:35It is a communist government that is opposed to the church.
  564. 31:38They want you to wake up every morning and think,
  565. 31:41how can I serve the Communist Party today?
  566. 31:43If you wake up every morning and think,
  567. 31:45how can I serve Jesus?
  568. 31:46Well, you're a problem for them.
  569. 31:47You're a threat to them.
  570. 31:48And so that is government persecution.
  571. 31:51They arrest you, they put charges against you,
  572. 31:53they put you on trial in the court and you go to jail.
  573. 31:56In other places like, for instance, Northern Nigeria,
  574. 32:00you are likely to be persecuted by Boko Haram,
  575. 32:03which is a terrorist group,
  576. 32:04but it's not the Nigerian government.
  577. 32:06And so you're not charged with a crime,
  578. 32:09your church gets blown up, or you get shot,
  579. 32:11or there's a car bombing or something like that.
  580. 32:14That's more of a terroristic kind of persecution
  581. 32:17from an entity other than the government.
  582. 32:20A lot of times, and I think particularly of North Africa,
  583. 32:23but a lot of times in an Islamic context,
  584. 32:25The first line of persecution is not any government or police or anything.
  585. 32:29It's your family.
  586. 32:30It's your dad, it's your big brother, it's your uncle who comes to you and says, listen,
  587. 32:35we're a Muslim family and you say you're not a Muslim anymore.
  588. 32:39We got to solve this problem.
  589. 32:40Like you got to come back to Islam because otherwise you can't be part of our family.
  590. 32:44And so sometimes that is sort of ostracizing them, pushing them out of the family.
  591. 32:50But other times it is like we're going to lock you in a room until you decide to come back
  592. 32:53to Islam and we're not going to feed you.
  593. 32:55So, you know, how many days are you gonna wait?
  594. 32:58That kind of persecution, but again,
  595. 33:01not from a government, from a family.
  596. 33:04Before we get too far, how can people keep up
  597. 33:06with Voice of the Martyrs and what you're doing
  598. 33:08in addition to that, to get the prayer guide
  599. 33:11that you just mentioned, how can people do that?
  600. 33:13Come to all of those things, I should say.
  601. 33:14Yes, come to persecution.com.
  602. 33:16That's the main Voice of the Martyrs website.
  603. 33:18Easy one to remember, persecution.com.
  604. 33:21One of the ways you can connect with us
  605. 33:23is through a free monthly magazine.
  606. 33:24So we send that out, it's actually right at the top of the page, it says Free Magazine, just
  607. 33:28click on that.
  608. 33:29The other place besides Persecution.com, we actually have an app for your phone.
  609. 33:34It's just called the VOM app.
  610. 33:35If you search for the Voice of the Martyrs or VOM app, you'll find it every single day,
  611. 33:40a new prayer request, a specific prayer request for Persecutor Christians.
  612. 33:44Our prayer guide information is in the app.
  613. 33:47We have videos, we have eBooks and audio books, lots of material inside the app, and that's
  614. 33:52all free.
  615. 33:53VOM app or come to persecution.com and make sure you sign up for the magazine.
  616. 33:58VOM app, the VOM app or come to persecution.com to sign up for the magazine.
  617. 34:04That is one of the tools my family used.
  618. 34:05We got the map out of the magazine.
  619. 34:07Put it up on the wall and the house and we utilize that in our home.
  620. 34:11My guest is Todd Nettleton.
  621. 34:12This is the Hamilton Corner.
  622. 34:13You do not want to miss the rest of this interview.
  623. 34:16We're going to talk a bit about a podcast episode coming up and I want to talk to Todd
  624. 34:20about an op-ed he wrote for the Christian Post not too long ago, sharing a cool story
  625. 34:24of how Bibles are being utilized, the Gospel is advancing, but this time we're talking
  626. 34:29about in Vietnam.
  627. 34:31Stay with us, we'll be right back.
  628. 34:33Y'all know how it goes.
  629. 34:34The disrespectful clock is even with us here in Nashville at NRB.
  630. 34:38We'll be right back after this great Todd Nutterman.
  631. 34:40Vice President of Voice of the Martyrs is our guest.
  632. 34:43Stay with us.
  633. 37:06A Hamilton Quarter podcast and one-minute commentaries are available at afr.net.
  634. 37:12to the Hamilton Corner on American Family Radio.
  635. 37:16Welcome back to the Hamilton Corner.
  636. 37:17Todd Nettleton with Voice of the Martyrs is our guest.
  637. 37:21We're having a wonderful conversation.
  638. 37:22I wanted to invite you, Todd, to share a bit
  639. 37:24about a recent podcast episode, what it's about,
  640. 37:29and how people can tune into it.
  641. 37:30Well, I know some of our listeners
  642. 37:31will have heard it last Sunday, but if you didn't,
  643. 37:34be sure you listen.
  644. 37:35We have had the last two weeks a pastor
  645. 37:38from India named Pastor Paul.
  646. 37:39And I actually went to South Asia, sat down with him.
  647. 37:42We recorded it there.
  648. 37:44His English is spectacular.
  649. 37:45So even people here can understand him telling the story.
  650. 37:49He was arrested.
  651. 37:51He was put in a jail cell that was doubled as a latrine
  652. 37:55for the police.
  653. 37:56So literally he's sitting in like puddles of urine
  654. 37:59on the floor of this prison cell.
  655. 38:01There were thousands of mosquitoes that bit him.
  656. 38:03He was miserable.
  657. 38:05And God sustained him through that.
  658. 38:08And one of the things he prayed that was really beautiful to me
  659. 38:11is he said, even as he was being beaten,
  660. 38:14he was praying, Lord, help me to forgive them.
  661. 38:17I don't wanna be bitter towards them.
  662. 38:18I don't wanna be angry towards them.
  663. 38:20Help me to forgive them.
  664. 38:22And the Lord answered that prayer.
  665. 38:23And the other thing he prayed that I've never heard
  666. 38:26another persecutor Christian tell me before.
  667. 38:28He was sent to prison the first few weeks he was doing good.
  668. 38:32Like the Lord was watching out for him.
  669. 38:33He actually they had kind of a big brother
  670. 38:35who took him under his wing.
  671. 38:36And he's like, oh, the Lord's looking out for me.
  672. 38:39This is great.
  673. 38:39Thank you, Lord.
  674. 38:40And then, you know, a week turned into a month,
  675. 38:43and then it was like four months.
  676. 38:45And his wife came to visit him.
  677. 38:46He was very, very sick.
  678. 38:48The food was terrible.
  679. 38:49He was very, very sick.
  680. 38:50And he honestly said, he said, when I told my wife goodbye
  681. 38:53after she came to visit, I just thought we'd see each other
  682. 38:55in heaven again.
  683. 38:56Like, I didn't think I would see her again.
  684. 38:58And he became so discouraged and downtrodden
  685. 39:01that he prayed this prayer.
  686. 39:03He said, Lord, I need another Christian.
  687. 39:05He was in a prison of 1200 people.
  688. 39:07He was the only Christian.
  689. 39:09He said, Lord, I need some Christian encouragement here.
  690. 39:11Would you allow another pastor to be arrested
  691. 39:15and come to the prison and comfort me and encourage me
  692. 39:19and we can minister together.
  693. 39:21That way I'll be stronger if I have another brother here
  694. 39:23with me.
  695. 39:24And the Lord answered that prayer.
  696. 39:26Another pastor got arrested.
  697. 39:28Then he got sent to this prison of 1200 people.
  698. 39:31Then he got assigned to the section of the prison
  699. 39:33where our brother was housed.
  700. 39:35Then he got assigned to the bed right across from his.
  701. 39:38So there's two Christians in this entire prison
  702. 39:40and they just so happened to have the beds
  703. 39:42right across from each other.
  704. 39:43And he said, it was exactly what he had prayed.
  705. 39:45He said, this brother came in and said,
  706. 39:47you've got to hold on brother.
  707. 39:48Don't give up your faith.
  708. 39:49Don't give up hope.
  709. 39:51God's gonna do something with this.
  710. 39:53And it is just a phenomenal story of a faithful brother.
  711. 39:58And the other thing that blew me away
  712. 39:59is at the end of our time together,
  713. 40:01he said, would it be okay if we pray?
  714. 40:02Of course I'm like, yeah, I would love for you to pray.
  715. 40:05his prayer and we actually share this in the podcast episode.
  716. 40:11He said, Lord, thank you that you allowed me
  717. 40:14to go and minister in that prison.
  718. 40:16Thank you for giving me that experience
  719. 40:18and that opportunity.
  720. 40:21And I just thought, I don't know that I could come
  721. 40:24to the point of being thankful for prison, blood like,
  722. 40:27but he was so genuine and so blessed.
  723. 40:29And he saw it as an opportunity.
  724. 40:31Like the Lord has blessed me to allow me
  725. 40:34to come to this dark place and be a representative of the
  726. 40:37gospel. So I would just so encourage people find voice of
  727. 40:40the martyr's radio, wherever you listen to podcasts, our radio
  728. 40:44website is vealemradio.net. You can find it there too. His name
  729. 40:47is Pastor Paul. Go listen to this. You will be encouraged 100%
  730. 40:53guarantee money back guarantee for our free episode. You will be
  731. 40:57encouraged. Wow. Man, it's I'm just thinking about this because
  732. 41:02I started to show off today with second Timothy chapter 3 verse 12 when Paul is selling Timothy
  733. 41:08Indeed all who desire to live God in Christ Jesus will face persecution and sometimes that communication
  734. 41:14Can fail to land with people in our own country?
  735. 41:19If it's even preached on and like that's not a verse you hear a lot of sermons on in our country
  736. 41:24Yeah, and sometimes I think we can misconstrue
  737. 41:28through the reality of persecution
  738. 41:30can take several different forms.
  739. 41:32You know, we often think facing a latrine slash cell
  740. 41:37as being a source of persecution.
  741. 41:40And I wouldn't say this is persecution,
  742. 41:42but this is a challenge in and of itself.
  743. 41:44How do we handle being in a nation as prosperous as ours
  744. 41:47and still remain faithful to the Lord
  745. 41:50without having, without your, for the Lord, blunt it?
  746. 41:53You know, I've been talking quite a bit on our show
  747. 41:56about how do you have a people who walk through the reds
  748. 41:58and you on dry ground and then generations later,
  749. 42:00even after memorials are erected,
  750. 42:02to remind you what Christ has done,
  751. 42:03would you have a getting to say,
  752. 42:04what is it about this God you told us about?
  753. 42:06How does that happen?
  754. 42:07I don't think in many ways we're living in that,
  755. 42:09in our own nation.
  756. 42:10You know, would you want to say anything about that?
  757. 42:12Because I see you smiling and nodding.
  758. 42:14Well, I am reminded I met a Chinese pastor
  759. 42:18who had spent 20 years in prison.
  760. 42:20And so it was one of kind of the great saints
  761. 42:22of the Chinese Underground Church.
  762. 42:24And he said, and I'll never forget it,
  763. 42:26he said, you know, in China,
  764. 42:28Satan uses persecution against the church.
  765. 42:31He said, but in America, Satan uses prosperity
  766. 42:34against the church.
  767. 42:36And I was like, wow, what an insightful comment
  768. 42:40from this brother who, again, 20 years in prison,
  769. 42:43like he knew persecution, he knew what that looked like.
  770. 42:46But to say, no, that can be a tool
  771. 42:48that Satan uses against you as prosperity.
  772. 42:51Well, but we want prosperity.
  773. 42:53Like we like prosperity.
  774. 42:54But how could you say that that's a tool of Satan?
  775. 42:57But it is, like you say, we get distracted
  776. 42:59and we forget the past and we forget the Lord
  777. 43:02and somebody's got to come along and bang the drum
  778. 43:04and say no, no, come back to your first love.
  779. 43:06Amen, amen.
  780. 43:08You wrote an op-ed not too long ago that was published
  781. 43:11by the Christian Post, which was greatly heartening for me.
  782. 43:16And I encourage everybody to read it,
  783. 43:19but as you explain it, share the title if you will,
  784. 43:22so people can read it.
  785. 43:23but just to show how God and his divine providence,
  786. 43:26he protects his people even some of the most,
  787. 43:28the least ideal circumstance he protects his people.
  788. 43:31Amen.
  789. 43:32Well, this is Bibles Month at Voice of the Martyrs.
  790. 43:34So we are focusing on getting people to donate Bibles
  791. 43:37to go and be delivered in hostile and restricted nations.
  792. 43:40And I tell the story, I didn't hear it firsthand.
  793. 43:43It actually came from Murv Knight
  794. 43:44who founded our ministry in Australia.
  795. 43:47So he worked right alongside Richard and Sabina Wormbrand,
  796. 43:50founded the ministry there,
  797. 43:51and he heard it from the person who lived it.
  798. 43:54This is a Vietnamese brother who was felt called by God
  799. 43:58to take Bibles up into the highlands of Vietnam.
  800. 44:01And in places like Vietnam, this is often true in China too.
  801. 44:04Like if you're in a big city, you might be able to find
  802. 44:07a Bible and be able to get one.
  803. 44:09But if you're off in the sticks, no, you have no chance.
  804. 44:12And so he felt called of God to take this box of Bibles
  805. 44:16up to the highlands, to the rural area of Vietnam.
  806. 44:19And he said, you know, I'm, I'm scared.
  807. 44:21God, you're going to have to help me.
  808. 44:24So he got on the bus with a lot of prayer, Lord.
  809. 44:26Okay, I'm going to do this.
  810. 44:27I'm going to be obedient, but you got to help me.
  811. 44:29Got on the bus, sat down.
  812. 44:30He put the box on the floor, right beside his scene on the bus.
  813. 44:34And he said, right before they left the Capitol City,
  814. 44:37Hanoi, a police captain, full uniform, the dress screens,
  815. 44:42got on the bus, he walked right down the aisle
  816. 44:43and sat right next to this guy with the box of bottles
  817. 44:46right there.
  818. 44:46Uh oh, this is not going to go well.
  819. 44:50But as they rolled out of town, the police captain took off his cap and he put it on top
  820. 44:54of the box of Bibles and then he went to sleep.
  821. 44:58And 12 hours later, after multiple checkpoints, this guy was still asleep.
  822. 45:04His hat was still sitting on top of the Bible, but at every checkpoint they had stopped at,
  823. 45:08they would get on the bus and they would say, okay, show us your ID.
  824. 45:11Okay, we're going to have to search your material.
  825. 45:14But when they saw that police captain's hat on top of the box of Bibles, they just assumed
  826. 45:17that was his box.
  827. 45:19He was asleep.
  828. 45:20They didn't want to wake him up and risk, you know, getting reprimanded.
  829. 45:23So it's like, okay, we're going to leave that one alone.
  830. 45:25And so they would walk right on by, get out of the bus.
  831. 45:27Okay, go on to the next stop.
  832. 45:28Next checkpoint, same thing happened.
  833. 45:30Next checkpoint, same thing happened.
  834. 45:32Those Bibles got a safe delivery to the Highlands of Vietnam with a police captain escort that
  835. 45:39you can only say, God did that.
  836. 45:42God sent him.
  837. 45:43allowed him to sleep all those hours and hips caps sitting there and like you say
  838. 45:48the message of the story is if God calls you to do something he's gonna make a
  839. 45:53way for you to do it. You can be afraid but also get on the bus also get you
  840. 45:59know start doing it and you know that story just encourages me and we have
  841. 46:03heard over the years so many stories like that of how God protected and God
  842. 46:07provided and God closed the eyes I heard a story from Iran
  843. 46:12actually of a guard stopped a guy with a trunk full of boxes of Bibles and he's
  844. 46:18like okay open up your trunk and the guy's like oh this is gonna go poorly and he
  845. 46:22opened up one of the boxes and he pulled out the book and somehow super
  846. 46:26naturally he saw blank pages and he was like what why are you taking boxes of
  847. 46:32blank looks like what kind of idiot are you but he put them back shut the box shut
  848. 46:37the trunk and waved him through. No explanation for that other than God
  849. 46:42intervenes supernaturally to protect his word and so like I say it's Bible month so
  850. 46:48we're kind of celebrating those stories this month of Voice of the Martyrs.
  851. 46:51That's amazing you know as you're speaking I'm reminded of how C.S. Lewis would talk
  852. 46:56about miracles and anybody knows him the former atheist and the academic and he
  853. 47:02would say that would be a stumbling block from any of his peers concerning
  854. 47:05miracles, but he would say the distinction between nature and super nature is not
  855. 47:10really that broad and having really humanistic hubris to cause people to
  856. 47:15deny the reality of miracles is really succumbing to a demonic effort, you know.
  857. 47:22I'm pretty sure you, as you said, you hear stories like that all the time.
  858. 47:28Witnessing those kind of miracles, how does that impact you, your work, and the
  859. 47:33the work of voice of the martyrs concerning,
  860. 47:36the willingness to continue to trust God
  861. 47:38in the face of hostility.
  862. 47:41You hear enough of those stories
  863. 47:43and you just know God can do it.
  864. 47:46Now, at the same time you know that like right now
  865. 47:49there's Christians in prison.
  866. 47:50Well, God, why aren't you doing a miracle to get them out?
  867. 47:53Why can't you rescue them?
  868. 47:55So I don't ever want to assume a miracle,
  869. 47:59but I also want to walk in faithfulness
  870. 48:01that if God calls me to do something,
  871. 48:02He's gonna make a way for me to do it.
  872. 48:05And the other part of that is,
  873. 48:07I don't have to worry nearly so much about me.
  874. 48:10And what abilities I have or don't have,
  875. 48:12or do I have the technology,
  876. 48:14or do I have the tools, or no,
  877. 48:15if God calls you to do it,
  878. 48:17he'll make sure you have what you need to get it done.
  879. 48:20So, you know, and the other thing I think about
  880. 48:23is how God uses power,
  881. 48:24and we see this in the book of Acts,
  882. 48:26to bring people to faith.
  883. 48:28So many Muslims are having dreams and visions
  884. 48:32of a man in white who appears to them and says,
  885. 48:35follow me or says something oftentimes quoting the scripture.
  886. 48:39And that they've never read.
  887. 48:40Yeah, that they've never read.
  888. 48:41And it's like, well, why is he doing that?
  889. 48:43Because he wants them to follow him.
  890. 48:45That he wants that.
  891. 48:46We see in the Hindu world a lot of healings,
  892. 48:49a lot of supernatural healings.
  893. 48:50Like, you know, I went to all the temples
  894. 48:52and I did all the offerings and I said all the spells
  895. 48:54and I paid to the witch doctor and nobody could help me.
  896. 48:57And then I went to the Christians and they prayed for me
  897. 48:59and I'm well now.
  898. 49:00Well, you can argue all day long about,
  899. 49:04well, you should come back to Hinduism,
  900. 49:05it's like, no, I was sick and now I'm well.
  901. 49:07You can't talk me out of that.
  902. 49:09I'm going to follow the God who heard me and healed me.
  903. 49:13So it is the, I have a co-worker at VOM who says,
  904. 49:17this is the greatest time in the history of the gospel
  905. 49:19to be alive because we see it going everywhere.
  906. 49:22We have the technology to push it even further.
  907. 49:25But God is the one who is empowering all of that.
  908. 49:28That's so good what you said about not assuming miracles.
  909. 49:31It maybe thinks about Philippians 1 when Paul is incarcerated and he said, but I know this
  910. 49:36will work out for my deliverance along with the prayers of the saints.
  911. 49:40In our modern context we might think of deliverance.
  912. 49:43Oh yeah, Paul is going to get out of jail.
  913. 49:45Yes Lord, Paul is going to be liberated.
  914. 49:47But Paul says that either by my life or by my death that Christ will be exalted in my body.
  915. 49:57You know, his concept of deliverance is not a twenty verse entry concept.
  916. 50:01And it is one that I, I, one, endeavored to inculcate with myself and to pray for myself,
  917. 50:07but also to encourage our audience here to embrace that our concept of our own personal
  918. 50:13deliverance will be tied into Christ being exalted.
  919. 50:17No matter the circumstances of that exaltation and adopting an eternity based, you know, living
  920. 50:23from heaven down, so to speak.
  921. 50:25in the internal perspective, govern and guide our practical
  922. 50:28and temporal engagement, the concept of being so heavenly
  923. 50:31minded that you're not earthly good, really,
  924. 50:33is a misnomer if you're appropriately heavenly minded.
  925. 50:36And so I am so grateful for the work that you're doing
  926. 50:39through Voice of the Martyrs, and I would pray
  927. 50:41that even more people would embrace that mindset,
  928. 50:44embrace that heart condition.
  929. 50:45What are some of the primary tools you would say,
  930. 50:48or recommendation you'd make to encourage the body
  931. 50:51of Christ here in America to develop a universal understanding
  932. 50:55the Lord's bride and the understanding that we really are part of one household of faith.
  933. 51:00You have to find ways to be in fellowship with the global body of Christ and the voice
  934. 51:05of the martyrs is one way to do that.
  935. 51:06We will help you, we will tell you their stories, we will introduce you to them.
  936. 51:10Maybe it's your denominational mission board, maybe it's some other mission agency, but you
  937. 51:14have to develop an understanding that we are one part of the body of Christ, but there's
  938. 51:19lots of other parts.
  939. 51:21And we have to somehow connect with them and be a part of that fellowship.
  940. 51:25We have to understand they're our family.
  941. 51:27They're fellow members of the body of Christ.
  942. 51:30You know, I love when I walk in a church and I see flags waving like different country flags.
  943. 51:35I'm like, okay, good.
  944. 51:36I like this church.
  945. 51:37They have an eye outside of this county, outside of this city, outside of this country.
  946. 51:43So flags and maps are a great, really practical way to draw your eyes to the rest of the body
  947. 51:49of Christ.
  948. 51:50Todd Dettleton, thank you so much for joining me here on a Hamilton Corner American Family Radio.
  949. 51:56VOM at the VOM app you need to get it.
  950. 51:59Persecution.com is the website.
  951. 52:01Support the work of Voice of the Martyrs, support the work of the church universally, and be a part of what God is doing now.
  952. 52:07The Gospel is advancing and Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against against his church.
  953. 52:13The best way to spend your time on this side of eternity is being about our Father's business.
  954. 52:18Thank you so much for joining me here in the program.
  955. 52:20Thanks for having me.

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