By Adam E. Heironimus
For the past year our mom has been reading us a devotional called “Voices of the Faithful” by Beth Moore and the International Mission Board
“Voices of the Faithful” is a collection of 365 daily stories that are written by missionaries serving with the IMB. They are all arranged into monthly categories such as Prayer, Contentment, Compassion or Persecution. Each day has a verse that goes along with the story and a short prayer at the end that often has a blank space that you can fill in with someone that you are praying for currently (or as is more often the case, need to be praying for currently). The whole book is very humbling, we complain about our internet going down for a few hours, where there are many people in the jungles that would be extremely glad to have more than 4 hours of uninterrupted electricity. We complain when we run out of something and “only” have 2 or 3 choices, where many missionaries eat the same thing 3 meals a day 7 days a week! It helps put all of our little “troubles” in a little more realistic light. It was very sobering reading all of the stories of people who were beaten, disowned and sometimes even killed for spreading the gospel. But the amazing thing, even in these stories of pain and suffering, is the fact that many of the people who are being persecuted could just keep quiet about their faith and avoid any problems- but the love of Jesus cannot stay welled up inside them, so they share the Gospel with everyone that they come in contact with, regardless of the risks. It’s humbling to me- how many times have I felt led to share my faith with someone and not done it because I didn’t have the courage- even though I wouldn’t be whipped or disowned or jailed for doing it? The stories of the people in this book are inspiring. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read about current missions around the world, or to someone who just wants their faith strengthened by reading the testimonies of many godly, dedicated christian men and women. Using the 5 star ranking system, I would give “Voices of the Faithful” 5 solid gold stars.
“Voices of the Faithful” is available at Amazon.com and at many other physical and online bookstores worldwide.