The Insanity of God

I  recently told the story of a hospital roommate I had a few years ago.  She was a 98-year-old woman who had suffered a debilitating stroke.  In the quiet night hours she would sob and cry, asking the Lord to take her home.  In the midst of her crying, she would quote passages of Scripture, word-for-word.  (In case you missed it, you can read the full story here).

When I was released from the hospital after that stay and I said good-bye to her, I took with me the incredible lesson she taught me - the lesson of having Scripture memorized. 

Fast forward to present day.  I recently finished a book that has further reminded me of that lesson. “The Insanity of God” by Nik Ripken is not a book I had heard about, but it was recommended by a friend.  I trust her judgement in reading material so I right away ordered the book and dove in.  And wow.  I am SO glad I did.

“The Insanity of God” is the story of Nik Ripkin and his experiences with his family in war-torn Somalia.  The work there was dangerous and Christians were few and far between.  But he served there with his family for quite a few years, until tragedy struck.  Heading home, devastated and not sure what to do, Nik began travelling the world to interview Christians who have survived unimaginable circumstances.  We are talking about persecution we would think of happening in the apostles’ times, yet this was the 1900’s - even to present day.

The stories of how Christians survive and churches flourish through these horrible circumstances is truly amazing.  And exactly what we - the Church in the First World - in North America - need to hear about right now.  We need to see how they continue to follow the Lord, even when their very lives - and the lives of their family - are threatened.  I’d use the word “inspirational” to describe their life stories, but they wouldn’t want that.  To them, they are just living out the way God has called them to live. 

These Christians shared their stories with Nik as if it was nothing major or extraordinary.  (And they did so still under threat of being found out.  Many names in the book had to be changed in for their protection - including Nik’s).  

One of the places he visited was in Russia.  He met with some pastors who over saw many secret house churches.  And they told him about an incident that occurred in the early 1950’s in those house churches.  Some of the pastors of the house churches wanted to get all the younger members of the churches - the teenagers and young adults - together to help them see that they were not alone in their faith.  Thus far, their whole view of the Church and faith was just just their small congregations.  They really had no concept of the Church at large.  So three pastors set up a conference to gather these young Christians together. Here is an excerpt from the book telling the story from that conference:

——“The primary purpose in bringing the young people together was to gather scattered parts of the Body of Christ in one place.  The goal was to hear what God was doing with other people and to simply enjoy the experience of Christian community.  At the beginning of the conference - evidently without much forethought or planning - the young people were given an interesting challenge.  None of them had ever owned a Bible.  They had never had hymnbooks or songbooks or recordings of religious music.  So, in an off-handed way, the three pastors decided to determine how much of the Bible truth was present in the group of young people.

They said, “This will be like a game.  Every day this week, we want you to gather in small groups.  And we want to see how much of the New Testament Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - you know and have memorized.  In your groups, see how much of the Gospels you can recreate.  And then do the same with songs and hymns.  Let’s see how much of that can be reproduced by memory.  

At the end of the conference, when they compared and combined the efforts of all the different small groups, the young people had recounted all of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with only a half-dozen mistakes.  They had also recreated the lyrics of more than twelve hundred songs, choruses, and hymns of the faith from memory.

It became clear to me in an instant why and how the Christian faith had survived and often thrived under decades of communist oppression in the Soviet Union.  I also understood what had enabled so many Russian believers to remain strong and faithful.”——

I was stunned when I read that.  They reproduced the 4 Gospels with only 6 mistakes - when none of them had ever had a Bible of their own.

Christians, we need to be doing this.  We in First World countries have enjoyed the luxury of freedom to attend church when we want, to have the Bible at our fingertips.  But all of that can be taken away at any time.  We are already seeing attempts for this to happen.  If and when that happens (It could occur in our lifetime!), are we prepared?  Are we ready?  Will we have hidden God’s Word in our heart so that we can recall it when our physical Bibles are taken away?  Have we taught it to our children?  Will we have that to stand on and hold up our faith when everything else is being threatened?

“The Insanity of God” is truly an amazing read.  I have already told many people about it.  I wish I could make everyone read it, and yet I can’t.  But I do encourage you to pick up a copy and read it for yourself.  You will be inspired by the stories of Christians around the world staying true under persecution, you will be convicted that you need to do more and get truly serious about your faith, and you will be grateful for the freedom you have enjoyed thus far.

If you are local, I will gladly lend you my copy (just so long as I get it back! :-) ).