Jordan (MNN) — For countless Christians, following Jesus costs them everything. For others, being a Christian actually brings some sort of gain within their culture. Yet over every Christian’s life is this truth: Jesus is worth it all.
Samuel* with Redemptive Stories shares the story of a dear friend of his that we’ll call Peter.
Peter is from Iraq. He lived as a refugee in another country with his wife and children. About a year ago, he came to faith in Christ after months of meeting with Samuel and other team members in their ministry.
“He knew that there was God, but he didn’t believe in Islam anymore,” Samuel says. “So when he met a team of believers that were engaged with him and began to share with him, he felt something different that he had never seen before in someone’s life. He felt a joy and a peace.”
As these Christians drew closer and closer to telling Peter the story of why Jesus really came, they saw evidence of God’s work in his heart.
“Every time that the team would meet with him, he would just cry, just tears of repentance,” Samuel says.
“Fast forward a year, and he’s been working with his family, trying to share with them (and) others. (He) is just on fire for God and communicating the story of redemption, God’s story, with whomever will listen.”
But there has been a deep cost recently. At first, Peter’s wife was glad for his faith. She saw a difference in him and the new peace he had. But when Peter grew more bold in sharing his faith, she began to recognize its impact on their family. Their children’s reputations, future marriages and jobs within the Muslim community were at stake. For her, that was too much. Earlier this year, she left with their kids to return to Iraq.
This devastating loss for Peter raises other concerns. If his extended family learns he has renounced Islam, there is a chance they will do something to harm him even in the host country he is remaining in.
“Those realities are real,” Samuel says, “but he’s said over and over again to our team that it’s worth it, Jesus is worth it.”
The team read Luke 14 with Peter.
“It talks about this reality of ‘anyone who comes after Me and follows Me must deny (himself)’ — it would look like hate towards their mother and their father and their son and their daughter, their wives,” Samuel says.
Would you let Peter’s story be a call forward in your discipleship after Christ?
“I would say the same thing that my dear brother demands of himself, which is to follow Christ — which means give everything for the sake of winning some others to walk this journey with him,” Samuel says.
“That we all might count that cost and realize that any sort of other god that (we have) put before God Himself is not worth it compared to eternal riches that come through following Jesus Christ.” (cf. Philippians 3:7-11)
*Pseudonym
Header photo is a representative stock image courtesy of Abyan Athif/Unsplash.
