My answer shocked him. “Since the third grade.”

The way the host’s eyes widened when I said that… he and I both knew third grade was decidedly not yesterday - not even close. But I can clearly remember standing in the auditorium at Mt. Royal Elementary School, PS #66. My hair was in twin braids, and my knobby knees were in tights; I had been chosen to read a book report on Phillis Wheatley to the whole school. In third grade.

I wrote about her again for a larger project on notable women of faith who endured extreme hardships, and who died with Christ’s name still on their lips.

I wrote about Phillis again in seminary – a twenty-page assignment on her theology and apologetic to complete the Church in the Modern Age course.

I had no idea that Phillis Wheatley, poet, patriot, and most importantly Christian, would follow me all the way to a new and more complete work today – more than fifty years from that auditorium at Mt Royal Elementary.

Her story has simply refused to stop showing up in my life.

God always has creative ways of bringing about a thing, doesn’t He? A few years ago, I was invited by Crossway Publishing to write – once again – about this great woman of God for the same age range as when I first met her. My contribution on Phillis Wheatley is one of several books in their series for ages 8 to 13. The series is for all the little kids like I was in the third grade, who enjoy having their minds whisked away to another place and time through the power of words.

I was that kid. Like most Gen Xers who grew up in the seventies, I digested more than my fair share of TV reruns, Schoolhouse Rock, After School Specials, and family-safe programming. I probably ruined my eyes by sitting too close to the TV set, just like my mama said I would. But I can also recall being late for meals, reading after ‘lights out’ under the covers with a flashlight, and hiding books under our area rugs so I wouldn’t get caught with a book in hand.

I get my parents’ annoyance over a ‘too-good thing.’ Books made me dawdle, and my dawdling made the whole family late … but I couldn’t put a good book down. Imagine getting in trouble for reading, even with educator parents … that’s the kid I was. I would read the side of the same box of Cap’n Crunch for the umpteenth morning while the crunchberries shredded the roof of my mouth; even that kind of back-of-the-box reading was fun to me. My eyes always needed something to do.

The Story of Phillis Wheatley: The African Poet Who Called America to Christ releases this month. It’s available at Crossway and Amazon. Get one for that kid who just won’t put the books down, and another to read aloud to the kid who loves a good story and the sound of your voice. While the reading part is important (declining literacy rates, anyone?), an equally important part is passing on the stories of people of faith who endured hardship and remained faithful to Christ, and their faith against incredible odds. These are stories worth passing on – the next generation will need them.

Take up and read, as they say. Who knows what impact these stories will have on our kids in fifty-odd years?

God does.

Then click for the full episode of the Off Code podcast where we dig into theology, history, ideologies, and what destructive narratives can cost us as human beings. Fair warning, we’re discussing an ongoing research project, but the evolution of ideas is what made this so worth talking about.

Here’s the link to the Off Code podcast, it drops at 5pm today. Enjoy.

Each of these is still seen in and through the church today just as much as they were seen in ancient Persia. This short episode discusses all three, and asks which one faithfulness asks of you right now.

The Hodder Bible Commentary: Esther is available now for pre-order, and arrives on July 15th - just a month away now. Order yours today, and enjoy this video snippet while you wait for your copy. Thanks in advance.

,,, God was quite present in Xerxes’s citadel. He is present in every capital, every court, every room where power is being negotiated - right now. He has not left. He has not been outmaneuvered. And his people have not been forgotten.

Join me for a bit and watch today’s video.

The commentary releases July 14, and you can get the pre-order price here.

While you’re waiting for your copy, I’ll release a few more short videos drawing principles of Christian endurance directly from the book.

I prayed through the list. The more I prayed, the more the Book of Esther appealed, for many reasons. First, I had been living in the world of the persecuted church in different capacities for years, walking alongside believers in a host of restricted countries. For decades already, I had been asking the same question in different countries: How does God keep his people under hostility? What does faithful endurance look like when the pressure is real and the cost is high? How have God’s people in every generation, under every kind of empire, throughout Scripture and beyond, how have they survived, and even thrived?

The Book of Esther was a great living case where all those questions converged.

I thought from the beginning that the Book of Esther isn’t just a story of personal and communal courage, nor is it just oral history, nor is it a historical retelling to be performed for entertainment’s sake (as some do believe). After working on the project for almost seven years alongside other projects, I’ve found it to be a window into the darker patterns of human history: the abuse of power, forced servitude, religious persecution, and God’s sovereign guidance of all events on earth… all threads that run through ancient Persia and into our own moment. The players and tactics may change with history, but the hostility directed at God’s covenant people always bubbles up somewhere. As it does, God’s response to the hostility doesn’t change; he works through just rulers and unjust ones alike, and his purposes and promises hold regardless of cultural and political circumstance.

The more Esther unfolded as part of God’s larger story, the more I saw a living testimony of his providence to encourage his people in every hostile situation they have ever faced, and are even facing today.

Bringing it down to a personal level, I experienced the project as a convergence of the roads I had traveled throughout my own life. Here I am as an ‘unlikely theologian’ doing advanced work in theological ethics, with decades of field research in restricted and persecuted contexts, a deep background in theatrical storytelling, Shakespeare, and the classics, and a long-standing interest in how Christians understand and navigate human dignity and the redemption of injustices. When God wrapped all that up in me, it shaped a reading of Esther that is covenantal, historically and globally aware, narratival, and text-grounded; it became a bridge between God’s people in the ancient world and our contemporary one.

But that wasn’t the only thing I brought with me personally (my writing coach Ruth Buchanan is going to chuckle as I confess this part). I also brought the stress of a writer who had taken on too many projects at once.

Coach Ruth has a name for the season when this commentary was taking shape alongside several other manuscripts and my doctoral dissertation (which is like two books in one). She called it “Book-pocalypse…” I call taking on too many projects at the same time a “rookie mistake.” But I divided my house into separate writing stations, one per project, to get it all done. Anyone who visited must have thought, “what in the world is going on here!” I moved from one manuscript to another the way you move from room to room in a house on fire, and in God’s providence and mercy (and with some darn-fine editors), we finished it all together.

Here’s the grace hidden in what was my otherwise spectacular “rookie mistake;” every single project was asking the same question from a different angle, including my dissertation on persecution and endurance theologies. Indeed, the dissertation, the commentary, the other manuscripts were all circling the same theological center I mentioned earlier. How does God keep his people? What does it look like to hold fast when the world is working against you? What does endurance cost, and how does God assure his people they are securely held, even as they’re holding on?

The Esther commentary became the place where those questions found their most ancient and dramatic expression. Of course now, my writing mantra is, “One book at a time, Karen.” I still laugh about that part, but I don’t regret the season because the dovetailing was a gift I didn’t plan.

What I hope you find in this work is what I found: first, that Christ and his promises will grow larger in our sight when we see history from his perspective. And second, that the hidden hand of God in Esther is not a relic of the ancient Near East but a living reality that’s present in the capitals and courts and quiet homes of believers today; folks who are holding fast because they are being held by God.

That’s the word that the Book of Esther carries: God keeps his people. He kept his people leading up to and during the Ancient Persia empire, and he is still keeping us today.

The commentary releases July 14, and you can get the pre-order price here.

While you’re waiting for your copy, I’ll release a few short videos on Esther and Endurance, drawing principles of Christian endurance directly from the book.

Subscribe, Hold Fast, Stand Firm.

A number of Cuban church leaders have compiled a prayer-guide not only for their country, but also for the church in other nations experiencing crisis. I’ve posted it for you below.

Take this prayer report to your mission committees, your prayer circles, your kids’ bedtimes, and to your own prayer closet. The more people praying, the better.

Meanwhile, our friends at Two Cities Project have some of the most accurate and hopeful reporting on Cuba’s spiritual revival in the midst of their ongoing challenges. They released an update a few days ago on their Instagram page, here.

These leaders know their own situation best, so I’ll step aside and share their prayer update, below. - Dr. K

Guide to praying for Cuba (and Other Nations)

The church in Cuba is in an especially challenging season. Other nations like Iran, Nigeria and North Korea as well.

Now is the time to rally more people to intercede! The goal of this packet is to give you ideas for how to galvanize more people to pray.

Pray together as a church or group. Plan a dedicated time for prayer for Cuba and the nations.

Facilitate prayer in a variety of ways. Invite the Holy Spirit to guide you all in your prayers and intercessions.

• Ask some people to come prepared to pray out loud

• If your church has bi-lingual people, as them to come and be ready to pray in Spanish and, with permission, record some of the prayers and send them to our friends.

• Often the church in a turbulent area feels abandoned and alone. Your video or a message means so much to them.

Provide suggested prayer requests from national leaders. These prayer requests come from leaders in the Havana City Network. Many apply to Iran and nations in turmoil.

• (Print or post the following prayer requests from church leaders in Havana. Add others from other nations where you have sources.)

1. For the Church in Cuba

• May the church-planting movement expand with biblical faithfulness and contextualized strategies.

• May pastors and leaders find renewed strength amidst social and economic pressures.

• May there be a provision of spiritual resources (Bibles, discipleship materials) and material aid (food, transportation, medicines).

• May Christian families serve as living testimonies of hope and reconciliation within their communities.

2. For Other Nations in Crisis

• Iran: May the underground church continue to grow in courage and love, and may God protect persecuted believers.

• Nigeria: May the violence perpetrated by extremist groups cease, and may Christian communities find safety and peace.

• North Korea: May God strengthen believers meeting in secret and open doors for the Gospel to enter the nation.

3. For Global Unity

• May churches in different countries connect through prayer and mutual support, remembering that they form one body in Christ.

• May believers living in places of freedom not forget their brothers and sisters in places of persecution and difficulty.

• May international intercession be constant, rather than limited only to moments of high media attention.

4. For Social and Spiritual Transformation

• May God raise up just and compassionate leaders in every nation.

• May structures of corruption and oppression be dismantled.

• May communities experience reconciliation and healing amidst division and pain.

5. For Perseverance and Hope

• May believers remember that the Cross precedes the Resurrection, and that suffering is not in vain.

• May faith in Jesus prove stronger than the fear of political or economic uncertainty.

• That every local church be a beacon of hope in its neighborhood or city.

• Pray that the government continues to allow importation of food for the network.

• Pray for generous donations to the Truckloads of Food campaigns.

Ask God to break spiritual bondage, to convict political leaders of sin and for them repent and call on the name of the Lord Jesus to be saved!

• Pray for heart transformation at all levels of government.

• God is still in control, still faithful and as always, the King of kings

• We are always perfectly safe in the will of God.

  • In Jesus, we have nothing to fear.

• Throughout history, God has brought about his unstoppable righteous plan through unrighteous people and situations.

  • Pray for the enemy’s schemes to fail, for strongholds to be broken

  • God reigns over all presidents, kings and militaries.

• Pray for endurance. Struggle and suffering are normal in the Christian life. Consider that:

  • God’s people endure through enslavement of his people by Egyptians, captivity by the Assyrians and Babylonians.

  • Jesus’ own death on the cross at the hands of the Romans.

  • Resurrection only happens when preceded by death.

This is an opportunity for the body of Christ to transcendently impact nations through crying out to God for his kingdom to come and his will to be done.

— Courtesy of The Havana Network.

The cacophony comes at us from all directions, and can easily unsettle our hearts if we’re not careful. Still, when the headlines feel heavy and overwhelming, the call to persevere - and understand Christian endurnace - can cut through the noise with precision and clarity … and we can thank God for that.

I’ve been studying, thinking, and writing lately about how tempting it is to lump all of the world’s pain and suffering together. However, the Bible draws a clear line between the hardships everyone faces and those that come specifically from following Him.

Everyday suffering like the aches of a fallen world, or illness or loss, is part of our shared human story. But suffering for Christ’s name? That’s different. It’s presented in Scripture as a gracious gift, a mark of our deep union with Him in a world that still resists His light.

This little video explores this biblical distinction, drawing from passages like Philippians 1, 1 Peter, and Revelation to show how it changes the way we understand and bear our trials. It’s not about downplaying general pain, but about recognizing the unique purpose and honor in covenantal suffering: the kind that witnesses to His gospel.

I hope these thoughts help you see your own challenges through the lens of His grace.

Well well … we’ve had so many new folks join us here at Underground Rising, that I think I should say one mo’ gain … I’m glad you’re all here, and I’m grateful for each of you.

I want to share this video with you.

I was invited by Joshua Youssef, a long-time ministry friend of the Ellises, to record an episode of his podcast Prisoners of Hope. Joshua is the CEO of the ministry Help the Persecuted (HtP), and I couldn’t help but walk away from our conversation both challenged and encouraged.

We recorded this in advance of the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted (IDOP), which many of us marked last Sunday in our own local churches. Prayer has no expiration date and isn’t limited to one day, however; so of course those of us in the field hope you will pray beyond the IDOP!

That’s why I’m sharing our chat here at Underground Rising … it’s all about the power of prayer in relation to Christian Endurance in hard places.

You’ll enjoy Josh in this conversation. He brings something quite rare: a blend of gospel-fueled conviction, strategic clarity, and pastoral heart for those who suffer because of Christ. He has a deep heart to ‘go see,’ which puts him in direct line with Christians who endure and persevere on the ground. You’ll hear is explore the lived reality of persecution in light of Scripture and history, why it matters to the whole Church (not just the “over there”), and how the gospel places us into the deepest solidarity possible.

It was humbling to remind ourselves that Christian endurance isn’t just about our individual struggle, but about standing with others when their world collapses. I loved how Josh didn’t settle for vague notions of “helping”; instead, he and I dug into the value of partnership, the cost of discipleship, and what it looks like for the global church, HtP, and the Edmiston/EGroup family to walk together with brothers and sisters behind prison bars, under house arrest, displaced from home, preaching the Gospel, planting churches, protecting communities, you name it.

Why feature Help the Persecuted on Underground Rising’s radar? Because they don’t just document suffering; they mobilize churches, equip voices, and encourage the persecuted church to endure. That aligns perfectly with our aim in the Edmiston Center and our EGroup network: faithful endurance in the gospel, lived out across borders, cultures, and even prison walls. If you’ve ever wondered what global endurance looks like, what ‘Kingdom People’ truly are when the stakes are high, this conversation is a must-listen.

So … let’s listen, learn, and come away believing again that Christ has not forgotten His people, and remember that we, in our small corner of wherever we are (and beyond), have a role to play in His story.

We’ll open the comments to everyone for this one. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us know what you found useful, surprising, helpful, or challenging — everything.

And again … a big global welcome to all.

- Dr. K

Take Me To The Store

Let’s reset the stage as we finish up this series.

We’ve been talking about Jesus’ words: “because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” If you’re just catching up, go back and see articles 1, 2, 3 and 4) In this passage, Christ is describing a world where affection for God and neighbor would wither under the frost of rebellion. But those who belong to Him have been given another identity, one that resists the freeze of the world.

Remembering Who We Are: Warm Love in a Cold Age

We’ve made the point of our title in several different ways: that evil thrives when we forget who we are. The world tells us we are self-made, self-defining, endlessly malleable. That forgetting drains the soul of warmth, because love cannot survive apart from truth.

Scripture reminds us who we truly are: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). When Christ makes us new, we have a transformed and transforming identity. This is the reality of new birth: growing in new and different ways into spiritual maturity, into something we weren’t moving toward before. Before, we were spiraling inward into more and more of ourselves; now we are growing in Christ and becoming more and more like Him.

His life is now our life. His obedience is counted as ours. His Spirit lives within us.

When we remember this, love rekindles. The identity secured in Christ anchors us when the frost of lawlessness makes ice crystals on the door. No longer are we orphans trying to keep ourselves warm; we are now sons and daughters wrapped securely in the righteousness of the Son.

Union with Christ: Identity’s Hearth

Union with Christ means that what is true of Him becomes true of us.

• We have died with Him and are raised with Him (Rom. 6:4).

• We are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).

• We are hidden with Him in God (Col. 3:3).

And so much more to the identity-bearing “in Christ” language woven throughout Scripture! Our union is the hearth that keeps covenant love alive; it is the center of everything that defines us, and its warmth is constant, radiant, and unending.

When we forget this union, we slip back into striving or idolatry, measuring love by performance, defining identity by self-approval or the approval of others. Oh, but when we remember who we are in Him, our obedience becomes our delight, and His!

We love because He first loved us, and His love now courses through us like living fire.

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It Is Finished, We Are Kept

We’ve spoken a lot about perseverance, endurance, and obedience. Now we add Union with Christ to the picture. Union with Christ means that His perseverance to the end of the age becomes the security of our endurance.

When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” the work of our redemption was complete. Nothing remains to be added, nothing can be taken away.

In His finished work, our identity is sealed. We no longer live under the verdict of failure and freeze, but under the banner of His triumph and divine affection. The chill of guilt, shame, or fear cannot undo what He has accomplished; his resurrection guarantees it.

Living as Those Who Remember

To live from this identity is to live warm in a cold world. When we remember who we are, the Spirit enables us to act like it:

• We forgive because we have been forgiven.

• We speak truth because He is Truth.

• We stand firm because He stands in us.

• We love enemies because once we were enemies, and He loved us still.

Every act of endurance becomes a declaration of belonging, with each small step of faithfulness bearing family resemblance to those united to Christ.

The Kingdom That Cannot Cool

In that kingdom the love of Christ and His many will never again grow cold. The warmth of His presence will fill everything. The love that began in eternity past and was proven at Calvary will blaze without end. We live in an age that maximizes the second half of Jesus’ command “to love neighbor as we love self,” while forgetting that we can only do this with Christ’s mind when we remember our first priority: “love God with all your heart, soul, and mind” (Mark 12:28-34). Perhaps there’s a priority to the order, as if we can’t do the second effectively without the first; remembering first who God is, then understanding who he has made us to be, for what purposes, and for what ends. This is the process of remembering.

So reflect on this as we finish this series: if evil flourishes when we forget who we are, then holiness, courage, and love flourish when we remember who we are. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. The same power that raised Him from the dead keeps your heart alive to God. Your identity is secure and safe, your future radiant with warmth.

The love of many may grow cold, but the love of Christ will not. Even if we stray through distraction, apathy, fear, or temptation, He promises to bring back His own and to keep a people for Himself.

Click to Shop EnduranceWear

Let’s reset the stage as we finish up this series.

We’ve been talking about Jesus’ words: “because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” If you’re just catching up, go back and see articles 1, 2, 3 and 4) In this passage, Christ is describing a world where affection for God and neighbor would wither under the frost of rebellion. But those who belong to Him have been given another identity, one that resists the freeze of the world.

Remembering Who We Are: Warm Love in a Cold Age

We’ve made the point of our title in several different ways: that evil thrives when we forget who we are. The world tells us we are self-made, self-defining, endlessly malleable. That forgetting drains the soul of warmth, because love cannot survive apart from truth.

Scripture reminds us who we truly are: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). When Christ makes us new, we have a transformed and transforming identity. This is the reality of new birth: growing in new and different ways into spiritual maturity, into something we weren’t moving toward before. Before, we were spiraling inward into more and more of ourselves; now we are growing in Christ and becoming more and more like Him.

His life is now our life. His obedience is counted as ours. His Spirit lives within us.

When we remember this, love rekindles. The identity secured in Christ anchors us when the frost of lawlessness makes ice crystals on the door. No longer are we orphans trying to keep ourselves warm; we are now sons and daughters wrapped securely in the righteousness of the Son.

Union with Christ: Identity’s Hearth

Union with Christ means that what is true of Him becomes true of us.

• We have died with Him and are raised with Him (Rom. 6:4).

• We are seated with Him in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).

• We are hidden with Him in God (Col. 3:3).

And so much more to the identity-bearing “in Christ” language woven throughout Scripture! Our union is the hearth that keeps covenant love alive; it is the center of everything that defines us, and its warmth is constant, radiant, and unending.

When we forget this union, we slip back into striving or idolatry, measuring love by performance, defining identity by self-approval or the approval of others. Oh, but when we remember who we are in Him, our obedience becomes our delight, and His!

We love because He first loved us, and His love now courses through us like living fire.

Share Underground Rising

It Is Finished, We Are Kept

We’ve spoken a lot about perseverance, endurance, and obedience. Now we add Union with Christ to the picture. Union with Christ means that His perseverance to the end of the age becomes the security of our endurance.

When Jesus cried, “It is finished,” the work of our redemption was complete. Nothing remains to be added, nothing can be taken away.

In His finished work, our identity is sealed. We no longer live under the verdict of failure and freeze, but under the banner of His triumph and divine affection. The chill of guilt, shame, or fear cannot undo what He has accomplished; his resurrection guarantees it.

Living as Those Who Remember

To live from this identity is to live warm in a cold world. When we remember who we are, the Spirit enables us to act like it:

• We forgive because we have been forgiven.

• We speak truth because He is Truth.

• We stand firm because He stands in us.

• We love enemies because once we were enemies, and He loved us still.

Every act of endurance becomes a declaration of belonging, with each small step of faithfulness bearing family resemblance to those united to Christ.

The Kingdom That Cannot Cool

In that kingdom, the love of Christ and His many will never again grow cold. The warmth of His presence will fill everything. The love that began in eternity past and was proven at Calvary will blaze without end. We live in an age that maximizes the second half of Jesus’ command “to love neighbor as we love self,” while forgetting that we can only do this with Christ’s mind when we remember our first priority: “love God with all your heart, soul, and mind” (Mark 12:28-34). Perhaps there’s a priority to the order, as if we can’t do the second effectively without the first; remembering first who God is, then understanding who he has made us to be, for what purposes, and for what ends. This is the process of remembering.

So reflect on this as we finish this series: if evil flourishes when we forget who we are then holiness, courage, and love flourish when we remember who we are. You are in Christ, and Christ is in you. The same power that raised Him from the dead keeps your heart alive to God. Your identity is secure and safe, your future radiant with warmth.

The love of many may grow cold, but the love of Christ will not. Even if we stray through distraction, apathy, fear, or temptation, He promises to bring back His own and to keep a people for Himself.

Click to Shop EnduranceWear

Or maybe the better question is “Who is the thaw?”

We’re up to Day 4, and this series’ meditation has been a bad news, good news situation. The image is bleak and inescapable; a spiritual tundra. ‘Always winter, never Christmas;’ a perpetual Narnia of the heart, always distant and churning, far from cozy and settled.

Then, all of a sudden, the good news breaks through like the sun on frost: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

If cold love marks apostasy, endurance marks Christ’s covenant loyalty.

Let’s unpack…

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Gift and Call

Scripture gives us two words that hold this tension together: perseverance and endurance.

Perseverance is God’s covenant promise; He keeps His people, and no one can snatch them from His hand (John 10:28). Even when we stumble, He steadies us. He is the Keeper, and we trust Him to do the keeping; ever since our parents rebelled in the garden of Eden, we’ve proven over and over again that we can’t be trusted to keep ourselves. Thank God for Jesus, who accomplished righteousness on our behalf, did what we could never have done for ourselves, and then went the full distance by keeping us safe in Him!

If perseverance is God’s unique covenant work, then endurance is our covenant duty. We are called to run the race, to flee idols, to stand firm, to speak truth in love. Endurance is the lived expression of perseverance, the daily “yes” to God’s keeping grace.

Perseverance is God’s guarantee and Endurance is our obedience. And the wonder of the gospel is that Christ’s preserving work empowers our enduring response. He doesn’t simply command us to hold on or to grin and bear it; He supplies the strength to do it through the finished work.

Thank God for Jesus, indeed.

Remnant? Remnant Who?

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is threaded with the story of ‘the remnant;’ those who remain faithful when many fall away.

I won’t lie, I always hesitate to use the word ‘remnant’ these days. Everyone thinks their out-group is the remnant, with a certainty that’s based on many things other than the finished work of Christ, or a singular identity in Him.

As much as I resist it, "remnant" is indeed both a Bible word and an earthly reality expressed throughout Scripture: a contemporary and historical group of people that Christ has called and loves as his own. This actually makes them easy to identify; the remnant is made of those who remember who they are in Christ.

They are difficult to identify by any single characteristic except His saving grace; they are a people chosen by him, not by our less consequential categories.

For example, not all Israel was Israel (Rom 9:6). Elijah once despaired that he was the last prophet standing, only to learn that God had reserved seven thousand who had not bowed to Baal.

The remnant is never large, but it is always secure, kept by grace. And God knows who he calls His own.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 24 follow this same binary pattern. Many will grow cold, but those who endure to the end will be saved. Their endurance does not earn salvation; it reveals it. The warmth of covenant love in an icy world is evidence of God’s preserving hand.

In every generation, the remnant bears witness that grace still burns brighter than lawlessness.

Christ: Perfect Endurance

Hebrews 12:2 fixes our eyes on our only Ultimate: “For the joy set before him, [Christ] endured the cross.”

He endured a cold world; betrayal and mockery, the whip and the thorns, the loneliness of bearing sin, the rejection of man. And He did it with love for the Father and His set-apart people. On the cross, Christ faced a world that had grown stone-cold toward God the Father, yet His heart burned with steadfast mercy. When we talk about endurance, we are really talking about union with this Christ: the One who burned hot with faithful love to the end.

Our endurance mirrors His because His Spirit lives in us. We are not called to manufacture warmth in our own strength. The same Spirit who sustained Jesus in Gethsemane now sustains His people in a world that tempts them toward coldness.

Endurance: Love in Motion

Endurance is not gritted teeth or forced optimism. Endurance is the love of Christ in action, love that refuses to die when the air turns frigid and our rebellious breath hangs in a visible mist.

It prays when prayer feels dry. It gathers with the church when comfort whispers, “Stay home.” It obeys when compromise would be easier. It keeps forgiving when the idols of resentment, blame, and distance promise relief.

Endurance is steady, persistent, stubbornly warm; love for God and neighbor in motion that advances daily toward crosses of our own.

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Hope That Outlasts the Cold

When Jesus says, “The one who endures to the end will be saved,” He is not setting up a contest of willpower. There are times when the cold feels overwhelming, but He is assuring us that salvation belongs to those who remain in Him. Endurance is simply faith stretched long, love kept warm, and hope kept alive. Leaders fail. Friends drift. Worship loses its fire. The temptation is to give up—to hibernate spiritually, to wait out the chill.

But the endurance Jesus speaks of is not seasonal. It is covenantal. It trusts that spring is coming because Christ has promised it. He endured the cross, and then the stone rolled away. The warmth of resurrection broke into the world, and that same warmth now courses through His people.

When lawlessness increases and love grows cold, endurance becomes a quiet miracle. It says, “I will still love You, Lord. I will still love Your people. I will still hold fast.” And beneath that determination beats the deeper assurance: He is holding fast to me.

The love of many may grow cold, but the One who endured the cross will keep His people until the end. The same fire that burned in Him burns in us, and it will not be put out.

Stay near the Flame. Stay near Christ. The chill won’t last forever, and the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The Ellis Global Research Project (EGroup) heads back to Havana, Cuba, next month. Your prayers and gifts will help our team of 3 research and teach Christian Endurance in one of the fastest-growing disciple-making movements in the world. Won’t you help us with a financial gift?

Click this link to join our work in Cuba and beyond.

As we’ve explored in the previous two articles apostasy is the chilling of covenant love within the household of faith. Let’s build on that.

Betrayal of Covenant Love

Apostasy is not simply backsliding or struggling; it’s betrayal. It’s a heart that once professed loyalty to God, turning away in coldness to other illusions of warmth and fulfillment. These illusions always reveal themselves to be mere mirages, the vapors of empty promises.

Idols never deliver what they promise; they demand all and return nothing.

Think of Israel in the wilderness. God had carried them out of Egypt, fed them with manna, and clothed them with His covenant love, yet their affection froze into grumbling and idolatrous longing. They would rather bow before a golden calf, dishonoring themselves as reveling beasts, rather than serve the living God as people made in his image and claimed as his own (Exodus 32).

Think of Judas. He ate with Jesus, listened to His teaching, even carried the moneybag, yet his loyalty melted into greed. Thirty pieces of silver jingled in his pocket while his heart iced over (Matthew 26, John 6, John 12, Luke 22).

The examples of cold-heartedness among God’s people are many in Scripture, as are the warnings against it. They are tied to adopting the identities that false idols demand, showing how we become what we worship.

This is what Jesus meant by the love of many growing cold.

False Prophets and False Promises

In verse 11, Jesus warned that false prophets would arise. Apostasy rarely begins in isolation. It often takes root under the influence of voices that make disobedience sound appealing.

The serpent’s question still lingers: “Did God really say?” (Genesis 3:1). Jeremiah lamented leaders who cried “Peace, peace” when there was no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). Peter warned of teachers who promise freedom but bring slavery (2 Peter 2:19).

False prophets redirect loyalty from Christ toward idols dressed as liberation, progress, or even spirituality.

Cold love is often cultivated by soothing lies.

Drift Before the Freeze

Most apostasy does not happen in one sudden collapse. Love usually grows cold little by little. Prayer thins out, and we enter the danger zone of prayerlessness. Worship becomes casual. Scripture is heard but not heeded. Fellowship feels optional. The heart drifts from the flame until the warmth is gone.

By the time the chill is obvious, the cooling has been happening for a long time.

The Call to Community

Hebrews offers a counter-practice:

“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together… but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb. 10:24–25)

Endurance is not solitary; it’s a covenant project. We don’t need similarly idolatrous ‘yes’ men and women who affirm our wanderings; we need the Spirit to prod and challenge us when we are sluggish, our spouses (and yes our children!) to correct us when we wander and destroy ourselves and others, and our biblical community to lovingly encourage and restore us when our love flickers.

If apostasy spreads in the household of faith, then perseverance must also be cultivated in the household of faith.

Truthful and loving community is the antidote to isolation. Coldness is contagious and catching, but so is warmth; genuine faith community is the beginning of our thaw.

Christ, Our Enduring Hope

Jesus did not say a few will grow cold. He said many. That sobers me; the warning is real, but so is the Hope. The church has always seen seasons where large numbers fall away, but the Spirit of God—who keeps his people for himself—always has a ‘falling in.’

So the warning is not the final word. Jesus immediately adds: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matt. 24:13), even as many grow cold, God preserves his own who remain warm in His love, even as some wander and stray - He is the Ultimate Keeper.

The difference is not human grit; it is Christ Himself. He endured betrayal, denial, and abandonment, yet His love never cooled. At the cross, He was surrounded by coldness and betrayal, but His heart burned with steadfast covenant love.

That same Christ keeps His people, and His Spirit rekindles cold hearts. His Word guards us from lies. His church stirs warmth when we falter. Apostasy is real, but so is perseverance. The love of many may freeze, but the love of Christ endures forever.

Reflection

The household of faith is not immune to coldness. In fact, Jesus tells us to expect it. However, it would be easy to meditate on the inevitability of cold hearts and only think of others without reflecting on ourselves. Indeed, this is the harder work; hypocrisy never sees itself. My mama used to say, “sweep your own front doorstep first,” and the older I get, the more I see she was right - and biblical. And as we examine, he transforms and restores us if we’re willing to have our idols dethroned, our chill challenged and our warmth rekindled, our doorsteps swept and egos humbled.

He then calls us to transform and endure together. We are all clinging to Him, who never abandoned His love for us.

That’s how we see the people of God endure well through the ages, secure in Him, and examining ourselves without fear. What a challenging yet fulfilling life! When we return to Him, we regain our unique identity, the identity that sets us apart from every other culture in the world. We realize that we are unique in the work we are tasked with—the building of His Kingdom across history, one disciple at a time.

Is your heart cold and isolated? Come Home to Christ. Are you chasing after an idol who demands and destroys? Come Home to Kindness and Transformation. Are you praying for someone who seems distant and caught in the ice of rebellion? Keep praying for the thaw.

Christ promises He will keep His people warm and burning, faithful even when we fall faithless, until the day when love is perfected and cannot grow cold again.

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Yesterday, we saw that this chilling is not first about society at large, but about God’s own covenant people.

Today, we need to ask: why does love grow cold?

Jesus gives the answer: It’s because lawlessness spreads unchecked.

Lawlessness Masquerades as Freedom

Our culture preaches that breaking rules is what sets you free. Songs and soundbites tell us that boundaries stifle, and the highest good is living “my truth.” But Scripture unmasks this message.

Lawlessness does not liberate; it enslaves.

Paul writes in Romans 6 that sin enslaves us, while obedience to God leads to righteousness and life.

When Jesus says lawlessness will increase, He is not describing the general chaos of the world. He is describing people who once professed covenant loyalty, deciding that God’s Word is optional. We’ve seen this not just today, but throughout human history, as whole churches have treated His commands as negotiable, and Christian communities where God’s law is softened or redefined.

And where lawlessness spreads covenant love cannot survive.

Love Shaped by Law

Though it’s often twisted by God’s leaders and opportunists alike, there’s infinite value in God’s law. Paul tells us plainly: “Love is the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13:10).

To love God means to keep His commands (John 14:15). To love neighbour means to honor them as bearers of His image: refusing to lie, steal, or covet. God’s law gives love its shape.

Without the law, “love” collapses into whatever I happen to feel. Much talk about abounds with feelings as the driving force for ethics, values, communities, commitments, life choices, and even reality itself - what’s true and what’s false. But feelings shift with the wind, and they’re too fragile to sustain covenant loyalty, too unstable to completely assess reality on their own.

Marriage gives us a picture. Vows like “forsaking all others” and “till death do us part” don’t stifle love; they give it form and stability. Remove those promises, and love becomes a fragile sentiment.

The same is true in our relationship with God. Law gives love definition, strength, and endurance.

The Prophetic Pattern

Jesus’ words align with the prophets. Hosea opens with God’s lawsuit against Israel:

“There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery.” (Hos. 4:1–2)

As lawlessness multiplied, steadfast love withered; I think my old high school chemistry teacher would say that they were ‘inversely proportional.’ (Math subscribers, correct me if I’m wrong - math never was my strong suit!)

Really, though, Malachi accused the priests - not the culture - of turning aside from the law and causing many to stumble (Mal. 2:8). When leaders neglected God’s Word, the people’s covenant love crumbled.

Jesus warns His disciples that the same pattern would continue. When law is set aside, love doesn’t just weaken; it freezes… yes, the love of many grows cold.

Love and Ice, Now

The pattern is sobering because it continues to play out in our day. Whenever God’s Word is softened or ignored, love fades.

• When a church compromises on holiness, its zeal for God ebbs away.

• When encroaching idols are treated lightly, affection for the Lord dims, and loyalties divide.

• When truth is reshaped to suit cultural tastes, love within the body corrodes, because genuine love can’t thrive in falsehood.

Lawlessness corrodes slowly but surely. It eats away at the heart until covenant love is only an ember.

Law, Not Legalism!

It is important to be clear. Jesus is not calling us back to Pharisaical law-keeping. The Pharisees were meticulous in outward observance, yet loveless at the core. This impossible striving to earn God’s favor is not what’s in view here. How are law and legalism different?

The difference is covenantal. Legalism attempts to adhere to the law in order to earn God’s favor. Covenant fidelity delights to keep the law, because we already rest in His favor through Christ.

The law is not a substitute for love; it’s actually the shape of love. When the Spirit writes the law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33), we are set free to love God, family, friends, and neighbour from the inside out. That love stays warm because it is tethered to God’s revealed will; it sets us free from the ‘self’ that binds. And that’s good news.

Enduring in Christ

Although our passage starts out bleak, there’s so much hope to be found in it. The chilling warning of verse 12 is followed immediately by a promise in verse 13: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

The coldness of many does not erase the endurance of the few.

And this is where hope breaks through. We’re not left to fight the freeze on our own. The One who perfectly fulfilled the law and loved to the very end now lives in us. Christ endured betrayal, mockery, and crucifixion, yet His love never cooled.

That same Christ holds His people fast.

His Spirit keeps love alive in hearts that would otherwise grow cold, and gives shape to our love. His fellowship sustains it and His promises fuel it with hope.

Reflect:

The love of many will grow cold. That’s the reality Jesus sets before His disciples. But the verse does not end the story:

The very next words point us to endurance in Him!

Lawlessness and love cannot coexist. But Christ has written His law on our hearts and sealed us in His covenant love. The flame may be tested by the icy winds of lawlessness, but it will not be extinguished, because it is fed by Christ Himself.

So …hold fast to Him. Let His Word shape your love. Trust His Spirit to keep it warm.

The One who endured to the end now lives in us, and He will see usthrough to the day when love never grows cold again.

People sometimes quote this passage, especially verse 12, in conversations about our culture. I’ve put it in italics for us, above. When I hear folks sigh at the latest headline about yet another act of unthinkable cruelty, and then quote: “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.”

It sounds so apt, doesn’t it? Violence and nihilism, selfishness and greed … surely this must be what Jesus was talking about. It’s easy to think that we’re watching “the love of many” shrivel before our very eyes.

But pause. Step back. Jesus wasn’t describing the world “out there.” He was describing His covenant people; this was a warning to the Church

.

The chilling thought is that Matthew 24:12 isn’t first about the decline of American society or even humanity in general, though that decline may feel real. In context, it’s about the decline of covenant loyalty among those who name the name of Christ.

That shifts both the diagnosis and the remedy.

Diagnosing the Wrong Patient

We prefer to lament the sins of the culture and the sins of others, don’t we. It’s safer to point fingers outward. After all, the world has always been violent. Cain killed Abel outside the gates of Eden, long before America’s headlines. Nihilism is as old as the serpent’s whisper, “Did God really say?” If Matthew 24:12 were only about the world, we could easily sit comfortably in our pews and shake our heads at them “out there.”

But Jesus said these words to His disciples. He was not preaching a sermon about Roman decadence or Greek philosophy. He was warning His own covenant community about a coming season when false prophets would arise (v.11), when lawlessness would multiply (v.12a), and when the natural consequence would be that “the love of many” within the household of faith would cool to the point of ice.

If we misdiagnose the patient, we prescribe the wrong medicine. We end up railing at culture instead of repenting in the church.

What Is This “Love”?

In Matthew’s Gospel, agapē love isn’t mere sentiment; because God’s love is an extension of Himself, his love is covenantal - just like Him. It’s the love that fulfils the law (Matt 22:37–39). For us to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and to love our neighbour as ourselves, is the sum of the law and prophets.

When Jesus says that “the love of many will grow cold,” He isn’t saying that people will become less nice to each other. He’s saying that covenant loyalty—the beating heart of the church—will cool toward Him; affections will drift from the Lord. Devotion will thin out. Transformation to His likeness will stall and we will try to remake ourselves and the church in our image or the image of something earthly that doesn’t come close to resembling Him. Then the coldness begins to work outwards; the zeal of worship will be replaced by hollow routine, and the warmth of fellowship will calcify into suspicion, competition, or indifference.

This is a tragedy far worse than America’s cultural decline, because it means God’s covenant people are failing to reflect His covenant love.

A Church That Forgot Its First Love

We’ve seen this before. Revelation 2 records Jesus’ letter to the church in Ephesus:

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.” (Rev 2:4)

The Ephesian church was orthodox. They sniffed out false teaching. They worked hard. But somewhere along the way, love cooled. The covenant flame sputtered. And Jesus warned them: repent, or I will remove your lampstand.

This is what Matthew 24:12 is warning us about: “A church that keeps its orthodoxy and its busyness but forgets its covenant love is a church on the brink of apostasy.”

Apostasy and Idolatry

Cold love is never neutral, and it doesn’t just “happen.” It comes about because lawlessness (anomia) increases. Where the law of God, perfectly kept and fulfilled by the death and resurrection of Christ, is neglected or despised, love can’t flourish.

• In Hosea’s day, Israel multiplied altars and idols. The result? “There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land” (Hos 4:1).

• In Malachi’s day, priests turned aside from God’s ways. The result? Covenant love grew cold, marriages crumbled, and worship became perfunctory (Mal 2:8–14).

Jesus is saying the same dynamic will play out again and again in every era, whenever the church compromises on God’s Word. Then, it’s inevitable that our love will turn cold; apostasy and idolatry are always lurking nearby.

Why We Miss This

Why are we so quick to apply this verse to “the culture” instead of the church? Maybe because it costs less. It’s easier to wring our hands about America than to examine our own affections. It’s easier to rail at the coldness of society than to confess the coldness of our prayers, the half-heartedness of our worship, the thinness of our love for one another.

But Jesus insists we look inward. “The love of many” isn’t a warning about unbelievers; it’s a warning about professing Christians.

The Remedy

If our problem is misdiagnosis, the remedy is to return to the Great Physician. Jesus doesn’t leave us without hope. Verse 13 follows: “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.”

Endurance is not about gritting our teeth and holding on by willpower. It is about recognizing that we are kept by him and his promises, and out of gratitude, we cling to Christ to stay warm in His love. That’s how we fan the flame of our covenant affection. He keeps, we respond to being kept. As my biological father used to say (with great satisfaction) about his carpentry workroom, there is “a place for everything and everything is in its place.” Christ is in his rightful place in our hearts, and we recognize our rightful place with him - and in the rest of the world.

So the remedy for cold love is not cultural outrage; it’s covenant renewal. It is repentance, worship, Word, sacrament, fellowship, prayer—the ordinary means of grace that keep our grateful love alive.

Where Do We Begin?

We begin by admitting that we’ve often read Matthew 24:12 as a commentary on the world instead of a warning to the church. We begin by confessing that our own love is prone to cooling. We begin by asking the Spirit to rekindle in us the warmth of devotion that delights in God and overflows toward neighbour.

The stakes are high. Jesus says “the love of many” will grow cold. We must ask: will it be me? will it be my church? Or will we be among those in teh kingdom line who endure to the end, burning with sacrificial covenant love until Christ comes?

Closing Reflection

It’s tempting to read the news and sigh: “the love of many grows cold.” It sure seems that way … I see it too. But the real question isn’t about America’s headlines, but rather the church’s heart. About my heart. About yours.

Lord, keep us from cold love. Keep us from misdiagnosis. Keep us warm in Christ until the end. Amen.

Whenever news breaks that a Christian has been killed for their faith (as we hear happening daily among unnamed saints in North Korea, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and beyond), the question often arises:

Who gets to decide if that person is a martyr?

In Roman Catholic tradition, that answer is clear. The church in Rome has a defined process, and ultimately a pope to declare someone officially a martyr.

For Protestants, the answer isn’t so straightforward. We don’t have a single voice to pronounce this kind of judgment. Our approach is shaped instead by Scripture, community discernment, and the memories of those in the Church who bear eye-witness..

That lack of centralization or final authority can feel unsettling. If no one office makes the decision, how do Protestants know? And if recognition depends on communities and organizations scattered across the world, how do we avoid confusion or even more disagreement, especially at a time when the church is already so divided?

Understanding martyrdom is complicated. I’m finding it helpful to redirect my energies away from judgments, to what it means to belong to Christ and His people.

The Protestant Reality: There’s No Single Judge Among Men

When Catholics want to know if someone is a martyr, they can point to the Vatican. Protestants, on the other hand, are spread across denominations and movements: Reformed, Baptist, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Anglican, and more. Each body has tended to handle recognition of martyrs differently throughout history, without appealing to a single central office.

Who contributes to this?

• Local churches and sending bodies that know the believer and the circumstances of their death.

• Mission organizations that record and circulate stories.

• International ministries that developed in the 20th century, like Voice of the Martyrs or Open Doors track persecution reports.

• Historians and chroniclers, who gather testimony into the church's written memory.

• The persecuted communities themselves, whose immediate witness carries great weight.

In practice, recognition emerges not from decree but from consensus. That makes it sometimes messy, sometimes contested, but it usually stays tethered somehow to the community’s shared understanding of faithful witness.

How Protestants Discern

Protestants lean on biblical and theological markers when asking whether a believer has died a martyr’s death, and these markers can serve as guiding lines for discernment. Here’s what’s typically expected:

• There should be a clear confession of Christ – Was the person’s allegiance to Jesus central in their life and in the circumstances of their death?

• Look at the persecutor’s intent – Was the Christian targeted because of their faith, or were politics or ethnicity more central to the targeting?

• What’s the story of ‘endurance to the end'? – Did the believer remain steadfast under pressure, refusing to deny Christ?

• How did it unfold? – Did the death come as a cost of discipleship, and not as a pursuit of ego-building or self-destruction?

While these guidelines are helpful, they’re not perfect and they also present their own challenges for discernment. These challenges cause different traditions to sometimes disagree over whether particular deaths ‘qualify’ as martyrdom. The complications make agreement tough. Some of the complicating questions are: Was the motive purely religious? Were ethnic or political tensions more central? Add to this that verification can be tough in conflict zones. Even when evidence is strong, agreement can be elusive.

So we have to go to Scripture for help, where the New Testament sets a pattern in the Apostle Stephen. Stephen is stoned to death in Acts 7, publicly confessing Christ to the very end. Revelation 2:13 commends Antipas of Pergamum as Christ’s “faithful witness” who was killed among the believers. Revelation 6 depicts the souls under the altar, slain “for the word of God and for the witness they had borne,” crying out for God’s justice. These stories gave early Christians the language of martyrdom, and they continue to shape how the church discerns today.

Protestant Emphases: Family Resemblances, Not Uniformity

Because Protestantism is so diverse, different streams place emphasis in slightly different places.

• Reformed traditions highlight martyrdom as evidence of God’s covenant faithfulness. The martyr is not remembered primarily as a hero (Jesus is the Hero), but as a witness to God’s sustaining grace. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs was written about a very specific historical persecution context. But ultimately, the tradition honors martyrdom not because it made someone a saint, but because it showed the testimony of God’s people who hold fast through suffering as Jesus did.

• Broader Evangelical traditions often frame martyrdom through the lens of mission. Accounts of believers who died for Christ are used to stir prayer, renew missionary zeal, and raise awareness of the persecuted church historically and worldwide. Here, we get biographies, newsletters, and prayer guides that carry some authority of recognition, even if it’s localized of informal.

• The Pentecostal and Charismatic traditions can interpret martyrdom in light of spiritual warfare, or as proof of the Spirit’s presence and power. A picture of confronting hostile forces is a strengthener.

In each of these, martyrdom is remembered in ways that reinforce deep convictions. Across them all, the marks mentioned previously remain a common thread.

Foxe’s Book: Who Decides?

John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (better known as Foxe’s Book of Martyrs) illustrates how Protestants have approached the problem of “who decides.” Foxe wrote in the mid-1500s, during the violence of the English Reformation. He gathered accounts of believers who suffered under Catholic authorities, particularly during Mary I’s reign.

Foxe didn’t wait for a council to declare who counted as a martyr; he went straight for the facts as they had been told, and presented them to the best of his knowledge. He compiled trial records, eyewitness testimony, and reports from across England and beyond. He wove them into a single narrative of faithful witness. The result? For centuries, English-speaking Protestants read the book as a reminder that Christ’s people have always been called to suffer and endure - that’s biblical, and it’s part of living the life of Christ. In the end, he created a structural model of ‘memory as testimonial’ that’s still used today.

So … what’s the lesson here? I’m not focusing on Foxe’s accuracy, but more on a Protestant instinct it seems we’ve learned to follow. Having no centralized figure like a pope or a council, communities and writers still gather testimony, shape memory, and recognize martyrs through a shared discernment.

Foxe’s work shapes how we look at martyrdom today.

Modern Anthologies Give us Different Challenges

Today, the instinct continues in collections of modern martyr stories. Books like The New Book of Christian Martyrs (Moore & Pattengale, 2023), or reports from advocacy ministries extend the line of Foxe. They tell the stories of Christians in China, Nigeria, North Korea, and beyond.

Yet modern efforts also reveal the same historical difficulties of a lack of a single human authority to appeal to. What these anthologies do demonstrate is that Protestants continue to discern together rather than decree from above.

The diversity of voices can be messy, but it also reflects a conviction: the testimony of God’s people is not owned by a single office, but entrusted to the whole church and her historical memory.

So … Who Gets to Decide?

The short answer: the church does, awkwardly and with limited vision in the temporal. God decides perfectly in the Ultimate.

While we’re still bound to these bodies and this world, we see through a glass darkly on many things.

And history teaches us that while we’re here on earth, the church doesn’t decide through a single office or infallible tribunal, but through the living witness of local congregations, mission networks, global ministries, and persecuted believers themselves. Limited sight informed by the Spirit’s wisdom is what we have, at the moment. And that’s why there’s Godly Truth buried in human confusion; it’s a blend of worlds, already and not yet.

Personally, I’ve come to think of martyrdom less like a judge’s court verdict, and more like an act of remembrance. When a community bears witness that one of their own has suffered unto death for Christ, and when that witness is confirmed across networks of believers, the church has spoken. It is the communion of saints recognizing its own.

Why It Matters

I no longer see the question of “Who decides who is a martyr?” as a matter of “who is or who isn’t one.” What matters more to me is what it reveals about how the CHurch thinks about herself, and the capacity to endure that we’ve been given. It’s both a grace and a mercy.

Martyrdom isn’t a title bestowed by a human authority. I suspect it’s more of a testimony that’s recognized by a family. It’s the body of Christ, across nations and centuries, remembering together that some of us have given the ‘ultimate witness.’

This way of discerning is untidy, but it’s also a gift. It keeps martyrdom close to the ground and to the very places where Christians live, suffer, and endure.

At the heart of this communal remembering is trust in God’s promise: that no act of faithful witness, however hidden, is forgotten. God remembers, even when the church debates or disagrees. And when the church does manage to mostly agree and recognizes someone as a martyr, we’re bearing witness together that Christ is worth more than life itself.

I’ll leave you with a few Scriptures to think about below. Let’s keep learning together.

Morning Meditation: A Few Scriptures on Martyrdom

• 2 Chronicles 24:20–22 – Zechariah stoned for speaking God’s word.

• Daniel 3; 6 – Friends in the furnace; Daniel in the lions’ den (threatened with death for faithfulness).

• Hebrews 11:35–38 – The faithful tortured, stoned, sawn in two, killed with the sword.

• Matthew 14:1–12 – John the Baptist executed for his witness.

• Matthew 23:34–35; Luke 11:47–51 – Prophets and messengers killed across Israel’s history.

• John 16:2 – Disciples warned that some will kill them “thinking they offer service to God.”

• Acts 7:54–60 – Stephen, the first Christian martyr.

• Acts 12:1–2 – James, son of Zebedee, executed.

• Acts 22:20 – Paul recalls Stephen’s martyrdom.

• 2 Timothy 4:6–8 – Paul anticipates his own death for Christ.

• Revelation 2:13 – Antipas, “my faithful witness, killed among you.”

• Revelation 6:9–11 – The souls under the altar, slain for the word of God.

• Revelation 12:11 – Overcoming “by the blood of the Lamb … loving not their lives unto death.”

• Revelation 20:4 – The beheaded for their testimony to Jesus.

This podcast is a warm invitation to pause and reflect on what it means to grow in wisdom, especially when your life doesn’t follow a predictable arc. Folly may have left a trail behind you; mine sure did. However, God’s wisdom calls us all forward into healing, clarity, maturity, and purpose.

I’m the Unlikely Everything
I started the podcast with the morning chaos of a grandma: wrangling two eleven-year-old girls who were just waking up from their first sleepover of the summer. I got my husband out the door for his day, took off my “wife hat,” and slid into my podcast chair.

Meghan May started right in on my story. It is unusual; my life hasn’t followed a predictable script. I was single until 42, then married, mothered, grand-mothered, and caregiving in what felt like an 18-month crash course in family life.

Add to that: once a professional actress, now an “unlikely theologian.”

No matter where I go, I am everybody’s wild card.

All of these improbable twists, however, belong in God’s story. They are assigned to me and superintended by the Author and Finisher of my faith. And so are your twists and turns.

From our talk:

“I call myself the Unlikely Everything. So many of us are living stories we didn’t see coming. I didn’t come into motherhood, marriage, or even theology the ‘usual’ way.”

I am, as the title suggests above, the Unlikely Theologian.

We talked about Wisdom’s grace, and the learning curve that it brings…
I’ve lived the consequences of folly, but I also know the salvation and comfort of Wisdom’s call. Wisdom has become for me not abstract rules, but a living voice, the very Person of Christ, always calling me back from the brink. Wisdom is woven into the fabric of creation: into bodies, time, seasons, decisions.

Ignore it, and life frays. Embrace it, and things begin to make sense again.

Meghan then asked, ‘What is Wisdom?’
This was fun to answer, because the question isn’t What, but rather Who. Which introduces the opportunity to magnify the name and character of Christ, and he’s always the most interesting topic. Wisdom isn’t just knowledge or cleverness. Wisdom is Christ Himself—His character, His purposes, His life, death, resurrection, and glory; his artistry over the world he’s created, and over his people. Wisdom is both Path and Presence; Way, Truth, and Life.

And because he is life, the Wisdom of God is also very practical. I shared how wisdom became tangible to me not through easy answers, but through walking with people who embodied it; people whose lives shone with Christ, even in the darkest moments.

And then went on about Christ for quite a bit. So much that can be said about our inexhaustible Topic of topics, Life of lives…

You can listen to your whole talk and magnify his name with us all over again, right here:

This conversation was a glimpse of what I’ll be sharing at this year’s PCA General Assembly this Thursday June 26 at 9AM in the Taste & See, Mtg Room 13-14. If you’ve read Wisdom’s Call, you already know the heartbeat of this message: wisdom isn’t a performance. It’s participation in God’s redemption of the world—including your wild, misfit, still-being-redeemed story.

Whether you too feel like the “unlikely everything,” or if you feel like your whole story has been entirely ‘predictable,’ I invite you to dive deeper into God’s Wisdom either way.

• Pick up a copy of Wisdom’s Call: 100 Meditations for a Life in Christ. It’s a hundred days of anchoring reflections for people who are still figuring it out (i.e., all of us).

Join me at the PCA General Assembly this Thursday June 26 at 9AM in the Taste & See, Mtg Room 13-14. Let’s sit with the God who not only knows your story, but wrote it with His own hand - with Wisdom and Grace.

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Time to exhale. I know how easy it is to fall in and out of a consistent habit of prayer. I’m glad my husband and I get to teach a course on prayer ever summer, we need teh reminders, the refreshing, the repetition to remember that prayer isn’t just a thing we are to do, it’s a part of who we are.

This July 8–12, my husband and I will lead another Kingdom Prayer Training Intensive at RTS Atlanta. This is a rare sort of seminary course, designed not just to teach about prayer, but to equip leaders to pray deeply, publicly, and missionally. We’ll lecture and discuss, yes … but we’ll also pray. Together, we’ll walk the campus, the streets of Atlanta, and your own neighborhoods as part of our training.

It’s an unusually practical course—one that refreshes hearts and prepares you to multiply prayer leaders in the pews, in neighborhoods, and in the marketplace. It’s designed for those pursuing theological depth and missional endurance. We believe prayer isn’t a private retreat from hardship; it’s how Christians endure hardship, and how we join the advance of Christ’s kingdom in the face of gospel-resistance.

If you want to register (or audit, yes, we can take a few auditors), reach out to Pascual Thedford, RTS Atlanta’s Director of Admissions, at pthedford@rts.edu. Even auditors must register for this unique week of training, and existing RTS students and others who want to take the intensive for credit can see the syllabus here.

Now … let me give you a sneak preview of Kingdom Prayer.

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Connecting Kingdom Prayer and Christian Endurance

In a world that can be either apathetic or antagonistic to the Gospel, prayer is not optional. In places where Christianity is hard, where it's resisted politically, socially, or spiritually, prayer is the frontline. Kingdom prayer is how Christians hold the line. It’s how we hear from God, how we resist the darkness, how we endure with joy.

It is the heartbeat of Christian Endurance Studies.

So really, Kingdom prayer just doesn’t stop with personal requests (though it includes them). It stretches outward, embracing the full scope of God’s mission rooted in Scripture, centered on Christ, and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

When we pray the way Jesus taught, we:

• Trust the Father who adopted us by grace.

• Hallow His name in worship and repentance.

• Join the Kingdom’s advance, bearing fruit in good works and testifying to Christ’s mercy.

• Ask for provision with a spirit of generosity and contentment.

• Cry out for spiritual guidance and power to stand firm against evil.

Kingdom prayer is the lifeline of Christians in hard places, and it should be the training ground of the church in every place.

From Meetings to Movement: Building a Culture of Prayer

Most churches try to grow in prayer by adding meetings. These are helpful, but often attended only by those already motivated to pray.

What if prayer wasn’t a side event but a cultural norm?

We need to create cultures of prayer; embed prayer in our ministries and in the rhythms of our homes and lives. We want a culture of prayer that doesn’t just invite people to prayer, but brings prayer to every part of church and public life. Every ministry. Every team. Every gathering.

That means:

• Equipping ministry leaders with specific prayer plans.

• Embedding prayer in staff meetings, Sunday worship, small groups, and mission efforts.

• Raising up ordinary saints like entrepreneurs, students, parents, pastors to be prayer leaders in their spheres of influence.

Start with leadership. When leaders are discipled to pray, and to disciple others in prayer, a culture begins to grow. And with that culture comes transformation.

Planned, intentional prayer doesn’t suppress spontaneity; it fosters it. As prayer becomes normal, the Holy Spirit surprises us with moments of intercession that couldn’t be scheduled, only prepared for.

Join Us This July

If you’re longing to deepen your prayer life, be spiritually refreshed, and become someone who can equip others to pray in every context, come walk with us this summer.

The Kingdom Prayer Training Intensive at RTS Atlanta (July 8–12) will ground you in Scripture, saturate you in prayer, and train you to carry that life into the church, the workplace, and wherever God calls you.

Space is limited. Students and auditors are welcome, but everyone must register.

To find out how, contact Pascual Thedford at pthedford@rts.edu.

We would love to see you there … and to pray with you.

This conflict is not just geopolitical, it also affects vulnerable communities caught in the crossfire of words. Among them: Christians living as minorities in both countries. Often scapegoated, silenced, or swept up in nationalist agendas, believers face heightened risks when nationalist sentiment is inflamed.

In India, Hindu nationalist groups sometimes use external threats to justify internal crackdowns, particularly against religious minorities. In Pakistan, Christians often live under suspicion, and tensions with India can further inflame social hostility or political exploitation.

Not many of us are experts on this particular region - I’m the first to say it, I’m still learning. But Time Magazine offered some background on the current tensions in this article.

As we learn together, let’s take a glimpse into recent daily life for Christians, even just apart from the rising potential tensions.

India: Christians Charged After Surviving Attack

In an all-too-familiar twist of justice, Christians in India were criminally charged after being attacked by Hindu nationalists. According to a recent report from Morning Star News, a group of believers in Chhattisgarh State was assaulted by radical Hindus while gathered for prayer. The attackers stormed the gathering, beat attendees, and caused severe injuries. Yet rather than holding the perpetrators accountable, police arrested six Christians under anti-conversion laws and other charges.

This pattern is becoming increasingly common. As Hindu nationalism intensifies, especially under the ruling BJP party, laws intended to regulate religious conversion are being used to criminalize prayer meetings, house fellowships, and routine Christian gatherings. Victims of violence are re-labelled as instigators, feeding a narrative that paints Christians as social threats rather than fellow citizens.

Local Christian leaders report growing fear, not just of mob violence, but of state complicity. The accused believers are now facing court hearings, legal costs, and uncertain futures, simply for practicing their faith.

Morning Star News continues to be a trusted voice reporting on these injustices. Read the full story here.

Pakistan: Alarm Over New Heights of Persecution

In Pakistan, the situation for Christians has reached “alarming new heights,” according to a comprehensive update from International Christian Concern (ICC). In recent months, blasphemy accusations, forced conversions, and targeted violence have surged, creating a climate of constant fear for the country’s Christian minority.

ICC reports that extremist groups continue to act with impunity, while law enforcement either fails to intervene or openly sides with mobs. Christians have been attacked for simply sharing Scripture on social media or attending church. In one case, a Christian teenager was beaten nearly to death after being accused, without evidence, of insulting Islam.

Forced conversions of Christian girls into Islam through kidnapping and coerced marriage remain a systemic problem. Despite international outcry, legal protections remain weak and rarely enforced.

The persecution is not just physical. It’s economic, legal, and psychological. Christians have been barred from better-paying jobs, denied justice in courts, and publicly shamed for their faith. In a nation already tense from political instability and economic hardship, Christians are made even more vulnerable.

ICC provides ongoing, insightful analysis of persecution trends. We recommend subscribing to their updates. Read the full article here.

As always, one Body, one family. When one part suffers, we all suffer. When one part endures, we all endure. Let’s lift up our Nigerian, Australian, and Indonesian brothers and sisters who continue to stand. Here are three stories from each of those lands.

Read on. - kae

The Fires Still Burn: Our Nigerian Family Endures - via ICC

International Christian Concern is reporting that since January, over 300 Christians in Nigeria have been killed, dozens abducted, and thousands displaced in sweeping waves of violence. Homes, churches, and farms have been torched, leaving families without shelter or food.

On Palm Sunday alone, attackers killed 56 believers, including 15 children, and burned 103 homes in Zike village, Plateau State. In just a few days, militants struck 15 more villages, leaving 5,000 homeless. Across states like Benue, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Ebonyi, the stories repeat: clergy abducted, churches razed, and livelihoods stolen.

This is a deliberate and sustained effort to erase Christian witness from these regions. And yet our family endures. They continue to stand, even as Nigerian authorities fail to protect them.

Organizations like International Christian Concern (ICC) are on the ground, documenting these attacks and offering aid. You can read their latest reports and updates, including this one, at persecution.org.

But more than that, we as one Body are called to stand with them. When one part suffers, we all suffer. When one part endures, we all endure.

Let’s lift them up in prayer, speak boldly, and support those who are holding the line.

Indonesia: Worship Sealed, But the Church Endures - via Morningstar News

In Indonesia, just before Easter Sunday, local officials sealed shut a Christian worship site in West Java. The congregation, GKE Kota Wisata church, had been worshiping peacefully for over three years in a rented space when authorities abruptly blocked access—claiming permit issues.

The timing is concerning. Easter preparations were underway when the locks and chains came out. Local officials in Bogor Regency cited incomplete paperwork as their reason, but the church insists they’ve complied at every turn. 400 believers now find themselves without a worship space during the most significant season of the year.

Despite growing hostility, the faithful in Indonesia continue to gather, to pray, and to stand firm.

Credit to Morning Star News for sharing this story. You can read their full report at morningstarnews.org.

What Just Happened in Australia?

New South Wales (NSW), one of Australia’s largest states, passed a law that criminalizes certain kinds of prayer and pastoral care. Specifically, the Conversion Practices Ban Act makes it illegal to pray with or over someone ‘with the intent to change or suppress their sexual orientation or gender identity.’

This includes situations where the person requests the prayer. Intent is important: if the prayer’s goal is to change someone’s identity, that act could now be punishable by fines or imprisonment (up to 5 years if it causes serious harm).

This isn’t the first law of its kind. Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) already have similar bans, and the trend is expanding across Australia.

Why does this matter to Christians globally?

• It raises important questions about religious freedom:
  Can pastoral care and biblical counseling be criminalized if they challenge cultural norms around sexuality and gender?

• It challenges us to reflect on how we express truth and love together:
  How can we walk alongside others faithfully, without fear of legal repercussions, yet remain obedient to the commands of Christ?

• It points to a broader global trend:
  Laws like this are becoming more common across Western nations. While they aim to protect vulnerable individuals from harm, they also risk restricting the conscience and speech of believers who hold to a biblical view of human identity.

  ---

How do we respond to this kind of news?

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by news like this, especially when we realize that living with risk and restrictions is a reality for 75% of the world’s Christians. The first thing we want to do is go to prayer, prayer is often reported as the greatest need.

• Pray for the church in all three areas—for courage, wisdom, and faithfulness under pressure.

• Pray for lawmakers and leaders, that justice, compassion, and freedom of conscience would be upheld.

• As you pray, remember—God has always strengthened His people through seasons of opposition. The church has endured before, and will endure again.

Now I’ll ask a question that’s often asked of me. How else can we encourage these saints in Australia, Indonesia, and Nigeria? Feel free to share your thoughts with the community. - kae

Recently, my husband Carl and I joined Jeff Norris and Laura Story Elvington on Perimeter Church’s Digging Deeper podcast to talk about Christian endurance - the main theme of this Substack.

It was incredibly refreshing to talk with these two saints about the value of connecting with the global church under fire. I’m always willing to talk about Christians - past and present - who have to apply their biblical theology and ethics on the fly and in faith. Having the time to think through Christian endurance is a luxury that Christians in the freer world often take for granted!

We had a rich conversation that traced through the training we’re offering to the pews through the Ellis Global Research Project (EGroup), and at the seminary level at the Edmiston Center for Christian Endurance Studies through RTS Atlanta. Jeff focused in on something that’s always forefront in my mind and heart, the deeper call for believers—especially those of us in Western contexts—to engage with the global body of Christ in meaningful, soul-shaping ways.

We talked about how the Church, in every age and place, is called to reflect the heart of God by living on mission—even when that mission leads through hardship, persecution, or cultural obscurity. My last Substack article shared the idea that endurance isn’t just a survival mechanism; it’s a witness. The faithfulness of believers under pressure speaks volumes about the truth of the gospel and the sufficiency of Christ. And yet, in the U.S., we often miss this. We’ve been formed in a context where faith has long enjoyed cultural favor, and because of that, our theology of suffering—if we’ve developed one at all—can be thin. The erosion of that cultural favor, however, is exposing this gap. It’s time to recover a theology robust enough to carry us through.

One of the key questions we explored on the podcast was how we—American believers in particular—can begin to see the global Church not as an object of charity or fascination, but as our teachers. Our siblings in Christ across the world, many of whom live under threat or marginalization, are not only enduring—they’re flourishing in ways that challenge and stretch us. Their stories, their theological depth, their resilience in Christ, even their mistakes and missteps under pressure (hey, none of us is perfect except Jesus, right?) - all of their experiences are gifts to the whole body. And yet, we often overlook them because they don’t always fit the narratives or categories we’re accustomed to. But when we slow down to listen, we hear the heartbeat of the same Spirit who is shaping and sustaining them—and calling us to deeper faith in the process.

Around the podcast’s the 37:00 mark, you’ll hear me talk about a kind of ‘spiritual analgesia’ in parts of the Western Church that I want to see beaten—we’ve grown numb to any suffering that isn’t ours, or isn’t defined as ‘the fellowship of Christ’s suffering.” But prayer can restore that sensitivity. Not just “thoughts and prayers,” but informed, specific, consistent prayer that brings nations and communities before the throne of grace. Start by picking a country. Pray for the believers there. Read about what they’re facing. Let it change your view of the Church.

We also spent time rethinking what it means to be the Church in culture. Are we merely countercultural, pushing back against the excesses of society? Or are we something altogether other—a new creation shaped by the kingdom of God, not the political or ideological winds of our age? The difference matters. If our identity is anchored in Christ, then our engagement with culture, mission, and endurance flows from that foundation—not from fear or tribalism.

With the EGroup training and in the Edmiston Center courses, we’re asking how theologies of endurance have been shaped historically—how believers have made sense of suffering and how they’ve responded, whether under Roman oppression, Communist regimes, or today’s subtle and overt pressures that bring us into the fellowship of Christ’s suffering - specifically for his name’s sake. We believe this is a conversation the Church needs now more than ever, and we want to invite you into it.

So I hope you’ll take a listen to the podcast. Reflect. Ask questions. Then let’s keep talking. What does it mean to endure well? What would shift in your own theology if it were shaped by those who sing and suffer with joy? These aren’t abstract ideas—they’re deeply relevant, and they’re meant to shape how we live, love, and labor in Christ’s name.

Let’s keep walking this out together.

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