A Letter to a Friend: A Sermon and a Book

I received your e-mail a few weeks ago and I was thrilled to know that it encouraged you in some way. Our family has been reading a book about Mikhail Khorev, a Russian pastor who was imprisoned for years during the time of the Soviet communist regime in Russia. The book is called “A Small Price to Pay” and is published through Christian Light. It’s not particularly well-written but it’s so interesting, gripping and inspiring that you can get beyond the mundane writing style rather quickly. Brian will read us the last chapter tonight and I can’t wait to see what happens. . .

In a parallel fashion (often the way God works—two or more concurrent events/moments in our lives that reinforce His point), Dr. Richard Gaffin, recently retired from Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, preached a sermon on Matthew 6:24-45: “Do Not Worry.” In the sermon, Dr. Gaffin said that the antidote to anxiety is prayer and thankfulness (from Philippians where Paul exhorts us to take our requests to God with thanksgiving). Worry cannot live in an environment of prayer and thankfulness. Additionally, a pastor/counselor friend of ours at church suggested some very recent scientific research which reported that the emotions of anxiety and gratitude are so mutually exclusive that they cannot subsist concurrently in the human brain! I’m not sure how these scientists measure such a thing but it is always ironic when Science concludes to be true what God Word has asserted from eternity past.

I apprehended more of this Truth as I contemplated how long and how often Mikhail prayed, sang, and thanked God while in prison. He never had time to dwell on the possibility of being beaten (he was not), tortured (he was not), or shot in the head (he was not) because He was so busy thanking the Lord for the small comforts and asking God how he could be used of Him while in prison. Strangely enough, Mikhail never asked the Lord to be delivered from prison. Even on the night when he laid in solitary confinement (he was in “The Hole” 15 days at a time for over 100 days during the course of his imprisonment) forcing himself to stay awake because, if he did not, he would fall to floor and his skin would affix permanently to the frozen grate, killing him slowly—even on that night—he felt there were three choices left to him: he could pray to be back home with his wife and children, he could pray to die, or he could pray that God would work His will through him. He prayed for the latter. The next day he was taken from “The Hole” and allowed a warm shower.

I hope that the Lord heartens you again with this sermon and a story that has so inspired me of late. A similar day of reckoning for Christians in this country may be sooner than I think. Or perhaps not. Despite the circumstances, I want to be characterized by Christ’s peace in the midst of suffering and the serenity of uncompromised Truth. Yet even the possibility of a cold shower or a night in the open fills me with dread. How much more of Christ I must have to face the days ahead—even if they are as relatively peaceful and prosperous as the last 36 years of my life!

In Jesus’ love,
Cara