Bible Verse for Bonus Day: These trials will make you partners with Christ in his suffering, and afterward you will have the wonderful joy of sharing his glory (1 Peter 4:13).

Li Dexian knew what to expect when they came for him in January of 2000. This was the eighth time he'd been detained in three months. "The PSB [Public Security Bureau] has arrested me so often [during the 1980s and '90s]," he said, "I've lost count." As Li said good-bye to his wife and left with the officers of the Chinese Republic, he recalled previous detentions. During one, the guards' severe beating broke his ribs, causing him to vomit blood.

China believes Li is a lawbreaker. His crime? He's a Christian and the pastor of a Protestant church in Huadu, a suburb of Gwangzhou (Canton). "Li Dexian is Gwangzhou's illegal religion organization's leader," one government report states. Every Tuesday if he's not in jail, Li leads two Bible studies attended by about 600 people. During an arrest in 1998, police told Li that he was creating a public disorder by illegal preaching. Once, in 1999, he was arrested as he stood preaching to 500 people in the rubble of a church annex just ransacked by the police.

None of this has intimidated Li. "I'll preach until I die," he says—well aware that the government need not resort to a public trial to send him to a reeducation labor camp.

—Tony Carnes in Christianity Today

My Response: I'll thank God for those who've paid a heavy price to practice their faith, and pray for those doing so today.

Prayer for the Week

Deliver me, Lord, from the twin errors of underestimating Satan and being intimidated by him.

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