Nik Ripken Quotes

For us, persecution is like the sun coming up in the east. It happens all the time. It's the way things are. There is nothing unusual or unexpected about it. Persecution for our faith has always been - and probably always will be - a normal part of life. (Spoken by a Russian pastor)

It is crucial to understand that God values our help. But it is more crucial to remember that our all-powerful God is able to work with our without us, that our all-knowing God is not blind to the evil in His world, and that our ever-present God is there...whether we are or not.

Jesus commanded His followers to go into "all the world" - not only into all "the safe places in the world,

...the Russian church had lost in its first decade of 'freedom' what Soviet believers had managed to hold on to under communisn for most of a century.

Ruth and I often share the stories that we have heard and the things that we have learned to help the western church and many of its congregations grasp a new, and perhaps more biblical, perspective on suffering and persecution in our faith. We share often about how suffering and persecution relate to our faith. We desperately want our western brothers and sisters in Christ to realize that the greatest enemy of our faith today is not communism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Atheism, or even Islam. Our greatest enemy is lostness. Lostness is the terrible enemy that Jesus commissioned His followers to vanquish with the battle strategy that He spelled out for them in Matthew 28:18-20. He was addressing this same enemy when He plainly clarified His purpose in coming: 'I have come to seek and to save those who are lost.' Our hope is that believers around the world will get close enough to the heart of God that the first images that come to mind when we heard the word 'Muslim' are not Somali pirates or suicide bombers or violent jihadists or even terrorists. When we hear the word 'Muslim,' we need to see and think of each and every individual Muslim as a lost person who is loved by God. We need to see each Muslim as a person in need of God's grace and forgiveness. We need to see each Muslim as someone for whom Christ died.

before we can grasp the full meaning of the Resurrection, we first have to witness or experience crucifixion. If we spend our lives so afraid of suffering, so averse to sacrifice, that we avoid even the risk of persecution or crucifixion, then we might never discover the true wonder, joy and power of a resurrection faith. Ironically, avoiding suffering could be the very thing that prevents us from partnering deeply with the Risen Jesus.

[...] if Jesus is not the answer to the human condition, there is no answer.

Those of us who have grown comfortable with the teachings of Christ have allowed His teachings to lose their edge.

I suddenly saw all the things that I have allowed to become common, things that would be considered miracles in the eyes of millions of believers in persecution. The truth is, these things that we take for granted are all miracles!

I did see, however, what the Russian church had lost in its first decade of "freedom." Under communism, the church had found a way to survive and often thrive. Scripture and holy song was its lifeblood.

Persecution stop immediately where there is no faith and there is no witness.

How is it, I wondered, that so many people are willing to die for financial or humanitarian reasons while many Christian groups insist on waiting until it is safe to obey Jesus' command to "Go" into all the world?

Believers in persecution taught us another important truth. The freedom to believe and witness has nothing to do with the government or political system. The freedom to believe and witness has nothing to do with the civil and political rights that might or might not be present. This is one of the most important lessons that we learned from believers in persecution: They (and you and I) are just as free to share Jesus today in Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Communist countries as you and I are in America. It isn't a matter of political freedom. It is simply a matter of obedience. The price for obedience might be different in different places - but it is always possible to obey Christ's call to make disciples. Every believer - in every place - is always free to make that choice.

...persecution is normal for millions of believers around the world.

You can only grow in jail what you take to jail with you. You can only grow in persecution what you take into it.

Jesus' last instructions to His disciples was to be witnesses to all peoples. He did not limit His mission to western, democratic, or 'free' countries. It was a blanket commandment. It was not a suggestion, or a recommendation, or an option. It was a commandment for all of His followers - to share His message with all peoples.... The question is never, 'Am I free to do that?' Rather, the question is, 'Will I be obedient?' Believers in the world of persecution have already decided their answer to that crucial question.

...our pilgrimage among house churches in persecution convinced us that God may actually want to use them to save us from the often debilitating, and sometimes spiritually-fatal, effects of our watered down, powerless western faith.

...one of the most accurate ways to detect and measure the activity of God is to note the amount of opposition that is present.

When I share with churches today, I often suggest that people read Matthew 28. When I read that chapter, I notice that Jesus never says if or whether you go; He simply talks about where you go! God may have to give instructions about the location - the where. But there is nothing to negotiate about the command to go - God has already made our primary task perfectly clear.

I was captivated by the thought: what if persecution is the normal, expected situation for a believer? And what if persecution is, in fact, soil in which faith can grow?

But the deacon said that the Holy Spirit told him, 'You don't have to come back. You just have to go.' So he did. . . . Long after I heard that story, I kept thinking about God's final instruction to the deacon: 'You just have do go.' You don't have to come back. You just have to go. As it turns out, he did come back. Even so, the instruction is so clear. You just have to go. You just have to go. Even if there is no clarity about your return, you just have to go.

Then he raised his voice in a prophet-like challenge that I knew would live with me forever: "Don't ever give up in freedom what we would never give up in persecution!