Fearless

Here's an article by John Piper entitled "Fearless Women in a World of Opportunities". He starts by quoting from Nik Ripkin's book The Insanity of God. This is such a wonderful book- many incredible stories of God's work through and amongst persecuted Christians. The sequel is called The Insanity of Obedience and is equally good. It analyses what Ripkin learnt when writing the first book and draws out lessons from the stories.

I appreciated being reminded of the story of Aisha:

"a 24-year-old Christian widow and convert from Is***. She was so outgoing in her witness to Christ in the hostile environment of her Is***** town that the authorities arrested her and put her in the dark, unfinished cellar of the police station.

At the point when she felt she could take no more and was about to scream, instead, to her surprise, out of her mouth came a heart-song of praise to Christ. As she sang, she could tell the movement upstairs ceased. They were listening.

That night the police chief came down and said he was taking her home on one condition: You must come to my house in three days. Then he said,

I don’t understand. You are not afraid of anything. My wife and daughters and all the women in my family are afraid of everything. But you are not afraid of anything. . . . I want you to come to my house so you can tell everyone why you are not afraid. And I want you to sing that song."