She Dared To Save

 

The Bibles

     Linh Dao was only ten years old, but she already knew that following Jesus could be dangerous.  That was because she lived in Vietnam, where the Communist leaders did not allow Christians to share their faith with others.  Nor did they allow people to read the Bible together.

     But Linh’s family had a lot of Bibles hidden in their home.  Her father was the pastor of an “underground church” that had to meet in secret.  He knew that they might all be caught and killed whenever they met together.  But that did not stop these brave Christians, for they loved God even more than their own lives.  So they continued to read their Bibles and worship God together.

     But the police found out about the Bibles.  One scary day, four officers burst into Linh’s home.  They forced her father to sit and watch while they searched everywhere for Bibles.

     Linh loved God’s Word.  She just could not let the officers take all the Bibles away.  So, while the police searched her home and questioned her parents, the brave girl hid Bibles in her school backpack.  One of the officers noticed the little girl.  “What is in there?” he asked, looking at her backpack.

     She hesitated for a moment.  She did not want to lie, but if she told him about the Bibles, he would take them all.  What should she do?  God gave her an answer.  “There are  books for children,” she replied.

     The policeman turned away.  But the four officers had found the rest of the Bibles, and they arrested her father.  He was sentenced to hard labor and “re-education.”  The government did not want him to think like a Christian or to share his faith with others.  They wanted him to be just like them.  He had to be “brainwashed.”  They would try all kinds of cruel tricks to force him to turn from God and trust the government instead.

     When Linh’s neighbors heard about her father’s arrest, they believed he was a criminal, but Linh was proud of her dad.  “He is a Christian,” she told everyone.  She explained that as a follower of Jesus, he had to keep telling others about God’s love—even when it meant persecution.

     Each day, Linh prayed for her father.  Finally, she and her mother and sister were allowed to visit him in the prison, but they could only see him through a chain-link fence.  Linh looked for a way to get closer to her dad, and found a spot where she could squeeze her little body through a chained gate.  Once inside the prison yard, she ran up to her father and hugged him.  The guards watched, but they did not stop or hurt her.  God kept her safe.

     Afterwards, Linh kept praying that God would use her father to show His love in the prison.  He answered her prayer in wonderful ways.  Since Linh’s family had smuggled him a pen during their visit, her father could write Bible verses on cigarette paper.  Soon, the prisoners were passing his “cigarette sermons” from cell to cell.  Many of the lonely men, who had been beaten and tortured, learned to know God and His wonderful love in the midst of their suffering.  Instead of “re-education” to be obedient to the government, they learned to love Jesus as their Shepherd and Friend.  Satan wanted to destroy them, but God brought a great victory!

     People who reject God also reject God’s people.  People who love the Bible make them angry:  “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”  John 17:14.  Read also Matthew 5:10–12.