STRENGTHENED
IN ATTACK

Topics: Courage; Dedication; Devotion; Love for Christ; Martyrdom; Overcoming; Persecution; Trials; Victorious Living; Wholehearted Devotion

References: Psalm 27:1–6; Matthew 5:10; 10:22; 16:24–26; Acts 5:41; 14:19; 2 Corinthians 11:24–26; Philippians 1:29

On a Sunday morning in January 2006, five young men attacked and threatened to kill a Protestant church leader in Turkey. Kamil Kiroglu, twenty-nine, had just left his church in Adana when he was ambushed and beaten so severely that he fell unconscious twice.

“They were trying to force me to deny Jesus,” Kiroglu said. “But each time they asked me to deny Jesus and become a Muslim, I said, ‘Jesus is Lord.’ The more I said, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ the more they beat me.” One of the attackers pulled out a long knife and threatened to kill Kiroglu if he did not deny his Christian faith and return to Islam. Kiroglu refused.

After the incident, he said, “I am praising God—not because he saved me from death, but because he helped me not to deny him in the shadow of death.”

—“Convert Christian Beaten Unconscious,” Compass Direct (January 20, 2006)