May 30, 2025 • 25 mins
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Nick and Ruth Ripken have encouraged persecutor believers in many
restricted nations and hostile aias. As Ruth has talked with
these believers, she's discovered something surprising about the way they pray.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We've heard the believers say as we leave them, we're
praying for the church in America, and that humbled me
when I thought, do I pray for them to the
same extent that they're praying for me? And when you
hear them pray for us, it calls you to the
(00:33):
throne and says, all right, it's your turn to pray
and lift them up.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true today in the lives of his followers
around the world. Join hosts Todd Nettleton's we hear their inspire,
sharing stories and learn how we can help Right now
(01:03):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio My
name is Todd Nettleton, and we have an extra special privilege.
This week, we're gonna meet with Nick and Ruth Ripken.
Nick is the author of The Insanity of God, which
has also been made into a film. He is now
he and Ruth the creators of Insanity Unleashed, and we
will talk about what that is really an attempt to
(01:27):
dive deeply into the truth of the Insanity of God,
the truth that our persecutor brothers and sisters have to
share with us. And we're going to give you a
link to those resources at vomradio dot net our website.
Thank you Nick and Ruth for sharing with us. I'm
so glad this time we're in the studio. Last time
we talked, we've been kind of out on the road.
(01:47):
But it's so great to have you at VOM this week.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
We consider this a great honor be with partners at BOM.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It is certainly our honor to have you here. And
for those of you who are longtime listeners, you will
be somewhat familiar with Nick and Ruth. We've had them
on Voice of the Martyrs Radio before. In fact, the
first time I was looking back this morning twenty sixteen,
right as the film The Insanity of God was being released.
We're going to try to go a little different directions
(02:14):
with this conversation. Today. Let's talk about insanity. Unleash, the
new video teaching series that is just coming out. Give
me a little background. Why did you feel like this
was needed. You've already got a book, you've already got
a movie. Why is this the next step?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, we teach in the States, but we set on
the ground or on the floor with people from Central Asia,
believers in China, and we do this for five days
at a time. Unleashed is these five days of teaching
come from over six hundred and fifty interviews in seventy
(02:54):
two countries. This is everything that we could learn from
believers in persecution who know what it's like to be
sheep among wolves and be smart sheep. You know, we
always talk about giving the persecuted church a voice. This
has us sitting on the floor and allowing those who
(03:14):
are actually living the Bible out in hard places to
be our professors, our teachers, our colleagues, and them saying
here's where you go and here's what you do when
you get there, and so to be able to learn
from one another and learn the DNA of the resurrection
and learn how to be sheep among wolves and learn
(03:37):
from We're very honest about our mistakes. We went into Somalia,
there were one hundred and fifty believers when we were
kicked out. There were only four left alive. Now, if
they had not been followers of Jesus, there's a possibility
in that famine war zone, because people are just being
killed indiscriminately, that they could be alive. But every Believer
(04:01):
that was killed in Somalia over those seven years had
a relationship with a Western Christian that contributed to the
timing of their death. Being killed for who Jesus is
is far different from being killed for who Nick is.
And so the Western Church that follows disaster after disaster
after disaster doesn't run language, doesn't run culture unleashed demands
(04:28):
of them through believers in persecution not to do dry
by shooting spiritually, and to go deepen the Kingdom of
God and be able to suffer if God calls you
to suffer, and also to pay attention that asking Muslims
(04:48):
and Hindus and communists and atheists to come to Christ,
that you may be able to get on a plane
and go somewhere. But they have to live it out
and so sharing in they're suffering appropriately, and coming when
they ask us to come, and leaving when they say
it'd be easier for you not to be here. We
(05:10):
know that we serve, not lead, believers in persecution. I
always hear people saying I'm going to hand over the
work to local people. Well, you don't have to empower someone,
and if you never took the power from them, and
so unleashed is again the insanity of unleased flips the
(05:32):
script knowing that those who live in persecution are the
ones who should teach us about going to persecution.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
One of the things it says, I visited the website
this morning, it says, comprehensive mission training. Why is this
left out of so much of our mission training, what
I would say normal mission training. Why is this being
sheep among wolves, This idea that you could have to
lay down your life for this work? Why is that
(06:01):
left out?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
With a very few exceptions, in all of the thousands
of Bible colleges and seminaries I give these schools, and
I have a bachelor's, a masters, and a doctorate, so
I've been immersed in that world. They train you to
be sheep among sheep, and they raise up pastor teachers.
(06:22):
They don't raise up evangelists and church planners. And by
the way, I don't think you can teach witness church
planting evangelism. You just have to go and do that
with someone and let them watch, and then you help
them do it with you, and then you watch them
do it, and you slide in the background. And so
(06:44):
we're teaching them how to be sheep among wolves and
be the very tip of that spear, be that evangelist,
that church planter. For instance, in Islam, nine of all
Muslims that eventually thought Jesus is through dreams and visions,
and they hear in one place this is a quote
(07:07):
a voice that tells me to find Jesus and find
the Gospel and ends up sending him to the door
of one of the three believers out of seventeen million
people in his people group. Wow, they have dreams and visions,
dream of the Bible if they're literate. See a man
clothed in white, scars in his head, scars in his hand,
scars in his side, in his feet, and says, I'm
(07:28):
Jesus Messiah, and their language find me and you'll find
eternal life, and they'll go to two or three countries
looking for if they're literate, a Bible, looking for someone
like the three of us, because we're not looking for them.
When Ruth and I went to Somalia years ago, there
was one worker for every one point five million Muslims.
(07:49):
Now it's one worker for every seven hundred and fifty
thousand Muslims. And so when God begins to work in
their lives, who they going to talk to? There are
no readily bibles. Ninety percent of the women are not literate.
In the rural places, you know, Ruth and I will
go to these places where like I describe, and if
(08:09):
we're there for two weeks, ten to fifteen people, usually
couples will come up to us in a marketplace we've
never been there before and say, we need you to
know that we're followers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit
told us come find you. We can say, well, this
is why God sent us to you, and we know
the believers that are in that environment, and we can
(08:30):
go to those believers quietly, secretly and say this family
is seeking Jesus and here's where they work, here's where
they live, here's where their kids go to school. If
they're serious about Jesus, local believers will shadow them, lead
them to Christ, baptize them, and plant a church in
their home. Now while again what Ruth and I do,
(08:50):
we don't become their pastor. When we teach these things
to workers overseas, I give them a hard time. I say,
you will. You will evangelize until you have fifteen to
twenty local believers baptized, and you'll stop evangelizing, become their pastor,
because that's all you know from the West, that's your
(09:11):
default setting. But in sanity unsuccessful, in sanity of unleast
wants you to know that you don't belong in Pentecosts.
You belong in pre pentecost is what we call it
with those who have no access to Jesus. And seventy
three percent approximately of all workers out there that are
(09:35):
called missionaries, they're in Christian countries. So the unreached world
still is in deficit of having almost no access to Christ.
And the best way we can help believers in persecution
is to help them witness to their neighbors, help them.
For Ruth and I be a witness to their mom
and dad and their grandparents, their spouses and help them
(09:59):
create a community. The moment that a family extended family
believes in Christ and the moment they are baptized by
a local believer, a church is planted in that home.
Baptism is the gateway to see in a church planet
in the home. Watching first generation believers become a body
(10:21):
of Christ at baptism will make your so seen.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Originally you asked why don't we have this material already
in our churches. I think because we didn't realize that
other cultures come to Christ very uniquely. And when we
start looking at it, we're going to realize that our neighbors,
people living in our street, are going to come to
(10:47):
Christ different than we did. And can we seek out
the Holy Spirit to know how is that man that
lives down the street from me going to come to Christ?
And listening to their stories in where your story in
God's story intersects with that person's story, is what's going
to change lives And.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
What Unleash teaches is the only reason why Muslims and
others aren't coming to Christ by the tens of thousands
is because they don't have any access. What Ruth and
I have found now that we've been back in the
States for health reasons for about five years now, that
generally Muslims are much more open to the Gospel and
(11:31):
much more ready to believe in Jesus and follow with
believers baptism though it could cost them their life than
the average American is. We're sort of inoculated against the faith.
We've sort of come to believe that if we get
certain social things fixed in America, that somehow the Kingdom
of God will break out. And for most of our
(11:54):
almost four decades overseas, we've lived under presidents for life
and dictators and such like that. And we're seeing the
church flourish because from their next door neighbors, as Ruth
would say, to the high ups in government, they are
just being salt and light, and they understand what Jesus
said in Matthew ten about being sheep among wolves, and
(12:17):
that God is allowed, because He's God, to orchestrate their persecution,
their arrest, to give them access to the highest levels
of the sacred world and the secular world, like the
apostle Paul did later on, when he was persecuted on
a local level, Paul worked his way up and witness
(12:38):
all the way to Caesar. Now he's still it cost
him his life, but he didn't sell his witness cheaply.
And so believers in persecution have reminded us that these
biblical stories are real and to apply them to our lives.
And Jesus said, quoted by Paul and Ephesians, to some,
(12:59):
I've given the gift of apostles, church planners, evangelists, pastor teachers.
If we can share our faith with our families and
across the street, if we have the health and we
can put in the hard work to learn language and culture,
we can do the same thing anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
We're talking this week on Voice of Artist Radio with
Nick and Ruth Ripkin. They are the creators of Insanity Unleashed,
a new video training course that you can access at
nick dot com and we'll give you a link at
VOM radio dot net. One of the things that I
think you've done a really fantastic job of is not
(13:38):
dividing the body of Christ by talking about, oh, well,
the persecutor church is over here in these countries and
the free churches over here in these countries, but really
emphasizing there's one church. We're all in this together. How
did God sort of teach that to you, that it's
become a passion point for you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We went to Australia and that was where I met
a believer who really he had been persecuted, and he
was telling me his life story and he said, you know,
it's like in your body. You have hands and your
feet and all those things on the outside of your
body that you see every day. And what he said
(14:20):
to me, he said, the persecuted church, believers in persecution
are like those parts of your body that you're never
going to see, your heart, your lungs, your liver, all
those internal organs. And he said, they're so vital to you,
we seem to forget them, and how are we going
(14:40):
to put them on the forefront of our life? That
they are part of us? And there's no such thing,
he said, as a free church in a persecuted church.
There's just the persecuted church. And we're both free and
persecuted at the same time. When he said that, it
just it changed I think and how we did our
(15:01):
ministry by allowing the persecuted church to teach us the
things that we thought we knew but didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
When you go to prison, like first time that I
went to South Asia, they wanted to know as Jesus
made it to other countries or has he just made
it to our country so far? And when I told
him about believers in America and Somalia and Saudi Arabia
and other places, they just praise God, dance, waved their
(15:30):
hands and well. In that country, forty percent of their
leaders men, women, old, young, rural, urban, highly educated, oral communicators.
Forty percent today are in prison wow for their faith.
And they taught me that you can only grow in
(15:51):
prison what you take into prison. Believers in persecution have
committed seventy percent of the Word of God from jails
is through acts, those stories of God to memory. And
they have their own heart songs. They don't sing my
heart songs. And so in prison, some of the greatest
movements we've seen on the earth in our lifetime are
(16:15):
these believers being arrested and put in prison. But they
can only grow what they take in that prison with them.
And those who don't know their Bible don't have their
heart songs, they don't come out.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I didn't know that eighty three year old man had
been to prison three times. He went for being the
first believer in his village. Then second time he was
arrested for planning the first church in the village that
was multiplying. And thirdly he's the apostle Paul in his area,
and they put him in prison the third time, and
his blood pressure really went high. They didn't want him
(16:54):
to die Marty in prison, So five days before I
got to this country, they released him. Three days was released,
I met him, was in an apartment room with him
for ten days, with seven of young men, his Timothy's
that he was hanging, handing the work over to and
that was his bank account, that was his retirement, and
(17:15):
he was just filled with such joy. And I just
can't imagine a life like that. And when I shared
that about some of the hard places the next morning,
I heard all this crying. All these believers are sitting
on the ground, They've got their hair in their hands,
they're facing their hands, they're beating the grounds where the
(17:37):
dust is flying. And as I walked among them, I
could hear them crying out Somalia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia.
They were so moved by the plight of believers who
are really persecuted like going to prison is nothing that
they bowed unto God to get up an hour early
(17:57):
each morning to pray for the peoples in this country
until Jesus is known throughout those countries. Wow, and I
just was floored.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
One of the things that Nick and I have really
come to as a theme of our life is we've
heard the believers say as we leave them, we're praying
for the church in America, and that humbled me when
I thought, do I pray for them to the same
extent that they're praying for me? And when you hear
(18:29):
them pray for us, it calls you to the throne
and says, all right, it's your turn to pray and
lift them up. It's you know, we are holding up
their arms and they know they can't do it if
we don't pray for them. But we should feel the
same if they're praying for us, that's how we're going
to succeed and be joyful. So I think it's real, real,
(18:52):
vital that our audience realizes they have a huge role
to play.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
We're talking this week on Voice and Martes Radio with
Nick and Ruth Ripe, and they are the creators of
Insanity Unleashed a new video teaching series Nick and Ruth.
I think one of the things that God did for
you is he implanted in you a deep love for
the people you were serving, whether they were Muslims, whatever nationality,
(19:17):
whatever color their skin, God gave you a love for them.
Talk a little bit about how He did that, and
maybe some advice, because I think in America, particularly right now,
we're having trouble sometimes loving our friends alone, loving our enemies.
How did God do that? Was it purely a God
(19:37):
thing or is there some things we can do to
kind of help that process along.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I think it first started around my breakfast table, and
each morning my dad would put a map of the
world on their breakfast table, and before we ate breakfast,
he would share stories that he had learned from or
read from missionaries around the world world, and then my
little brother and I he'd make us guess what country
(20:04):
they were from and we'd have to find the country
on the map. So as a six year old, I
knew names of countries. And I think that's how God
put that in my heart because I loved everyone, and
we were meeting people from around the globe, and it's
(20:24):
just something that I want to see copied in families.
Just seeing God's creation in front of you changes your
heart and you want them so much to know the
Jesus that you know, and it breaks your heart when
you realize they have never heard the good news.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
How did we come to love people? I think it's
an old biblical cliche, but I think because Christ first
loved us, we see people as those whom we want
to spend eternity with.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And you guys have been in the ministry a long time,
how have you seen God sustain you through those different
seasons you're raising little kids now your grandparents? And also
what have you done to keep it fresh in your
own relationship with Christ that we people like me who
(21:23):
are a few years behind you can take give us
some advice about both those things.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I think, first of all, my time with the Lord
is so vital that has sustained me deeply. The really
strong thing is that as a child, my mother taught
me how to memorize scripture, and those are the verses
that have come to mind in difficult times and continue
(21:50):
to come to mind. So I think God's word is
vital to sustaining me. And then something that we learn
from the believers in person. Secution are the songs that
they sing, that they've written on their hearts, and those
are something that now I try every day to think
of a new song that I knew as a child,
(22:13):
And it's really fun that those verses and those songs
have have been a huge part of my journey and
continue to be as seasons have changed, those songs have changed.
And so God's still writing my story. He's not done.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I think Ruth has a quiet time and I have
a loud time. If Ruth was to come to me
and say, Honey, what's going on. You haven't talked to
me today, Well, I'm not going to get away with saying, well,
I've been talking to you all day in my heart
or in my head. But so I really have to
(22:55):
find a way to vocalize that and sing that out loud.
And I think think I have a brutally honest conversation
with God and that when they killed four of my
best friends in Somalia in forty five minutes, I just
basically ask God, do you know what's going on? Do
(23:20):
you not understand that if you don't intervene, that every
believer is going to be killed in this country? Sometimes
you're looking in a mirror at yourself and asking who
are you in Christ? And that compels you to look
through a window at the world and say, Okay, what
do I do with this that's in front of me?
(23:43):
And you just have to keep the perspective that you
guard your own health emotionally, physically as much as you can,
and spiritually so that you can remain the servant that
God intends you to be.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It is always such a joy to be able to
talk with you and draw from your wisdom, and draw
from the wisdom you've drawn from persecuted Christians around the world.
Thank you for being our guest this week on Voice
of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Thank you, it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It has been fun for me as well. You can
learn more about the Insanity Unleashed video series at Nick
and Ruth's website. It is Nick Ripken dot com, Nick
nik Ripken, rip k e n dot com, and of
course we'll give you a link to everything that we've
talked about today in the show notes at our website
vomradio dot net. Next week, we're going to meet the
(24:37):
leader of a ministry that's using media to spread God's truth.
They're based in Peru, they're reaching Peru and all over
Latin America, even reaching into the United States. You'll get
ideas about how to pray for people in that part
of the world. So be back with us next week
right here on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Nick and Ruth Ripken have encouraged persecutor believers in many
restricted nations and hostile aias. As Ruth has talked with
these believers, she's discovered something surprising about the way they pray.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
We've heard the believers say as we leave them, we're
praying for the church in America, and that humbled me
when I thought, do I pray for them to the
same extent that they're praying for me? And when you
hear them pray for us, it calls you to the
(00:33):
throne and says, all right, it's your turn to pray
and lift them up.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Jesus never promised his followers an easy path. In fact,
he told his disciples that the world would hate them.
He sent them out as sheep among wolves. Jesus's words
came true in the life of the Apostles, and they're
still coming true today in the lives of his followers
around the world. Join hosts Todd Nettleton's we hear their inspire,
sharing stories and learn how we can help Right now
(01:03):
on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Welcome again to the Voice of the Martyrs Radio My
name is Todd Nettleton, and we have an extra special privilege.
This week, we're gonna meet with Nick and Ruth Ripken.
Nick is the author of The Insanity of God, which
has also been made into a film. He is now
he and Ruth the creators of Insanity Unleashed, and we
will talk about what that is really an attempt to
(01:27):
dive deeply into the truth of the Insanity of God,
the truth that our persecutor brothers and sisters have to
share with us. And we're going to give you a
link to those resources at vomradio dot net our website.
Thank you Nick and Ruth for sharing with us. I'm
so glad this time we're in the studio. Last time
we talked, we've been kind of out on the road.
(01:47):
But it's so great to have you at VOM this week.
Speaker 4 (01:49):
We consider this a great honor be with partners at BOM.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
It is certainly our honor to have you here. And
for those of you who are longtime listeners, you will
be somewhat familiar with Nick and Ruth. We've had them
on Voice of the Martyrs Radio before. In fact, the
first time I was looking back this morning twenty sixteen,
right as the film The Insanity of God was being released.
We're going to try to go a little different directions
(02:14):
with this conversation. Today. Let's talk about insanity. Unleash, the
new video teaching series that is just coming out. Give
me a little background. Why did you feel like this
was needed. You've already got a book, you've already got
a movie. Why is this the next step?
Speaker 4 (02:34):
Well, we teach in the States, but we set on
the ground or on the floor with people from Central Asia,
believers in China, and we do this for five days
at a time. Unleashed is these five days of teaching
come from over six hundred and fifty interviews in seventy
(02:54):
two countries. This is everything that we could learn from
believers in persecution who know what it's like to be
sheep among wolves and be smart sheep. You know, we
always talk about giving the persecuted church a voice. This
has us sitting on the floor and allowing those who
(03:14):
are actually living the Bible out in hard places to
be our professors, our teachers, our colleagues, and them saying
here's where you go and here's what you do when
you get there, and so to be able to learn
from one another and learn the DNA of the resurrection
and learn how to be sheep among wolves and learn
(03:37):
from We're very honest about our mistakes. We went into Somalia,
there were one hundred and fifty believers when we were
kicked out. There were only four left alive. Now, if
they had not been followers of Jesus, there's a possibility
in that famine war zone, because people are just being
killed indiscriminately, that they could be alive. But every Believer
(04:01):
that was killed in Somalia over those seven years had
a relationship with a Western Christian that contributed to the
timing of their death. Being killed for who Jesus is
is far different from being killed for who Nick is.
And so the Western Church that follows disaster after disaster
after disaster doesn't run language, doesn't run culture unleashed demands
(04:28):
of them through believers in persecution not to do dry
by shooting spiritually, and to go deepen the Kingdom of
God and be able to suffer if God calls you
to suffer, and also to pay attention that asking Muslims
(04:48):
and Hindus and communists and atheists to come to Christ,
that you may be able to get on a plane
and go somewhere. But they have to live it out
and so sharing in they're suffering appropriately, and coming when
they ask us to come, and leaving when they say
it'd be easier for you not to be here. We
(05:10):
know that we serve, not lead, believers in persecution. I
always hear people saying I'm going to hand over the
work to local people. Well, you don't have to empower someone,
and if you never took the power from them, and
so unleashed is again the insanity of unleased flips the
(05:32):
script knowing that those who live in persecution are the
ones who should teach us about going to persecution.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
One of the things it says, I visited the website
this morning, it says, comprehensive mission training. Why is this
left out of so much of our mission training, what
I would say normal mission training. Why is this being
sheep among wolves, This idea that you could have to
lay down your life for this work? Why is that
(06:01):
left out?
Speaker 4 (06:01):
With a very few exceptions, in all of the thousands
of Bible colleges and seminaries I give these schools, and
I have a bachelor's, a masters, and a doctorate, so
I've been immersed in that world. They train you to
be sheep among sheep, and they raise up pastor teachers.
(06:22):
They don't raise up evangelists and church planners. And by
the way, I don't think you can teach witness church
planting evangelism. You just have to go and do that
with someone and let them watch, and then you help
them do it with you, and then you watch them
do it, and you slide in the background. And so
(06:44):
we're teaching them how to be sheep among wolves and
be the very tip of that spear, be that evangelist,
that church planter. For instance, in Islam, nine of all
Muslims that eventually thought Jesus is through dreams and visions,
and they hear in one place this is a quote
(07:07):
a voice that tells me to find Jesus and find
the Gospel and ends up sending him to the door
of one of the three believers out of seventeen million
people in his people group. Wow, they have dreams and visions,
dream of the Bible if they're literate. See a man
clothed in white, scars in his head, scars in his hand,
scars in his side, in his feet, and says, I'm
(07:28):
Jesus Messiah, and their language find me and you'll find
eternal life, and they'll go to two or three countries
looking for if they're literate, a Bible, looking for someone
like the three of us, because we're not looking for them.
When Ruth and I went to Somalia years ago, there
was one worker for every one point five million Muslims.
(07:49):
Now it's one worker for every seven hundred and fifty
thousand Muslims. And so when God begins to work in
their lives, who they going to talk to? There are
no readily bibles. Ninety percent of the women are not literate.
In the rural places, you know, Ruth and I will
go to these places where like I describe, and if
(08:09):
we're there for two weeks, ten to fifteen people, usually
couples will come up to us in a marketplace we've
never been there before and say, we need you to
know that we're followers of Jesus and the Holy Spirit
told us come find you. We can say, well, this
is why God sent us to you, and we know
the believers that are in that environment, and we can
(08:30):
go to those believers quietly, secretly and say this family
is seeking Jesus and here's where they work, here's where
they live, here's where their kids go to school. If
they're serious about Jesus, local believers will shadow them, lead
them to Christ, baptize them, and plant a church in
their home. Now while again what Ruth and I do,
(08:50):
we don't become their pastor. When we teach these things
to workers overseas, I give them a hard time. I say,
you will. You will evangelize until you have fifteen to
twenty local believers baptized, and you'll stop evangelizing, become their pastor,
because that's all you know from the West, that's your
(09:11):
default setting. But in sanity unsuccessful, in sanity of unleast
wants you to know that you don't belong in Pentecosts.
You belong in pre pentecost is what we call it
with those who have no access to Jesus. And seventy
three percent approximately of all workers out there that are
(09:35):
called missionaries, they're in Christian countries. So the unreached world
still is in deficit of having almost no access to Christ.
And the best way we can help believers in persecution
is to help them witness to their neighbors, help them.
For Ruth and I be a witness to their mom
and dad and their grandparents, their spouses and help them
(09:59):
create a community. The moment that a family extended family
believes in Christ and the moment they are baptized by
a local believer, a church is planted in that home.
Baptism is the gateway to see in a church planet
in the home. Watching first generation believers become a body
(10:21):
of Christ at baptism will make your so seen.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
Amen.
Speaker 2 (10:26):
Originally you asked why don't we have this material already
in our churches. I think because we didn't realize that
other cultures come to Christ very uniquely. And when we
start looking at it, we're going to realize that our neighbors,
people living in our street, are going to come to
(10:47):
Christ different than we did. And can we seek out
the Holy Spirit to know how is that man that
lives down the street from me going to come to Christ?
And listening to their stories in where your story in
God's story intersects with that person's story, is what's going
to change lives And.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
What Unleash teaches is the only reason why Muslims and
others aren't coming to Christ by the tens of thousands
is because they don't have any access. What Ruth and
I have found now that we've been back in the
States for health reasons for about five years now, that
generally Muslims are much more open to the Gospel and
(11:31):
much more ready to believe in Jesus and follow with
believers baptism though it could cost them their life than
the average American is. We're sort of inoculated against the faith.
We've sort of come to believe that if we get
certain social things fixed in America, that somehow the Kingdom
of God will break out. And for most of our
(11:54):
almost four decades overseas, we've lived under presidents for life
and dictators and such like that. And we're seeing the
church flourish because from their next door neighbors, as Ruth
would say, to the high ups in government, they are
just being salt and light, and they understand what Jesus
said in Matthew ten about being sheep among wolves, and
(12:17):
that God is allowed, because He's God, to orchestrate their persecution,
their arrest, to give them access to the highest levels
of the sacred world and the secular world, like the
apostle Paul did later on, when he was persecuted on
a local level, Paul worked his way up and witness
(12:38):
all the way to Caesar. Now he's still it cost
him his life, but he didn't sell his witness cheaply.
And so believers in persecution have reminded us that these
biblical stories are real and to apply them to our lives.
And Jesus said, quoted by Paul and Ephesians, to some,
(12:59):
I've given the gift of apostles, church planners, evangelists, pastor teachers.
If we can share our faith with our families and
across the street, if we have the health and we
can put in the hard work to learn language and culture,
we can do the same thing anywhere in the world.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
We're talking this week on Voice of Artist Radio with
Nick and Ruth Ripkin. They are the creators of Insanity Unleashed,
a new video training course that you can access at
nick dot com and we'll give you a link at
VOM radio dot net. One of the things that I
think you've done a really fantastic job of is not
(13:38):
dividing the body of Christ by talking about, oh, well,
the persecutor church is over here in these countries and
the free churches over here in these countries, but really
emphasizing there's one church. We're all in this together. How
did God sort of teach that to you, that it's
become a passion point for you.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
We went to Australia and that was where I met
a believer who really he had been persecuted, and he
was telling me his life story and he said, you know,
it's like in your body. You have hands and your
feet and all those things on the outside of your
body that you see every day. And what he said
(14:20):
to me, he said, the persecuted church, believers in persecution
are like those parts of your body that you're never
going to see, your heart, your lungs, your liver, all
those internal organs. And he said, they're so vital to you,
we seem to forget them, and how are we going
(14:40):
to put them on the forefront of our life? That
they are part of us? And there's no such thing,
he said, as a free church in a persecuted church.
There's just the persecuted church. And we're both free and
persecuted at the same time. When he said that, it
just it changed I think and how we did our
(15:01):
ministry by allowing the persecuted church to teach us the
things that we thought we knew but didn't.
Speaker 4 (15:08):
When you go to prison, like first time that I
went to South Asia, they wanted to know as Jesus
made it to other countries or has he just made
it to our country so far? And when I told
him about believers in America and Somalia and Saudi Arabia
and other places, they just praise God, dance, waved their
(15:30):
hands and well. In that country, forty percent of their
leaders men, women, old, young, rural, urban, highly educated, oral communicators.
Forty percent today are in prison wow for their faith.
And they taught me that you can only grow in
(15:51):
prison what you take into prison. Believers in persecution have
committed seventy percent of the Word of God from jails
is through acts, those stories of God to memory. And
they have their own heart songs. They don't sing my
heart songs. And so in prison, some of the greatest
movements we've seen on the earth in our lifetime are
(16:15):
these believers being arrested and put in prison. But they
can only grow what they take in that prison with them.
And those who don't know their Bible don't have their
heart songs, they don't come out.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
Well.
Speaker 4 (16:30):
I didn't know that eighty three year old man had
been to prison three times. He went for being the
first believer in his village. Then second time he was
arrested for planning the first church in the village that
was multiplying. And thirdly he's the apostle Paul in his area,
and they put him in prison the third time, and
his blood pressure really went high. They didn't want him
(16:54):
to die Marty in prison, So five days before I
got to this country, they released him. Three days was released,
I met him, was in an apartment room with him
for ten days, with seven of young men, his Timothy's
that he was hanging, handing the work over to and
that was his bank account, that was his retirement, and
(17:15):
he was just filled with such joy. And I just
can't imagine a life like that. And when I shared
that about some of the hard places the next morning,
I heard all this crying. All these believers are sitting
on the ground, They've got their hair in their hands,
they're facing their hands, they're beating the grounds where the
(17:37):
dust is flying. And as I walked among them, I
could hear them crying out Somalia, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia.
They were so moved by the plight of believers who
are really persecuted like going to prison is nothing that
they bowed unto God to get up an hour early
(17:57):
each morning to pray for the peoples in this country
until Jesus is known throughout those countries. Wow, and I
just was floored.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
One of the things that Nick and I have really
come to as a theme of our life is we've
heard the believers say as we leave them, we're praying
for the church in America, and that humbled me when
I thought, do I pray for them to the same
extent that they're praying for me? And when you hear
(18:29):
them pray for us, it calls you to the throne
and says, all right, it's your turn to pray and
lift them up. It's you know, we are holding up
their arms and they know they can't do it if
we don't pray for them. But we should feel the
same if they're praying for us, that's how we're going
to succeed and be joyful. So I think it's real, real,
(18:52):
vital that our audience realizes they have a huge role
to play.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
We're talking this week on Voice and Martes Radio with
Nick and Ruth Ripe, and they are the creators of
Insanity Unleashed a new video teaching series Nick and Ruth.
I think one of the things that God did for
you is he implanted in you a deep love for
the people you were serving, whether they were Muslims, whatever nationality,
(19:17):
whatever color their skin, God gave you a love for them.
Talk a little bit about how He did that, and
maybe some advice, because I think in America, particularly right now,
we're having trouble sometimes loving our friends alone, loving our enemies.
How did God do that? Was it purely a God
(19:37):
thing or is there some things we can do to
kind of help that process along.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
I think it first started around my breakfast table, and
each morning my dad would put a map of the
world on their breakfast table, and before we ate breakfast,
he would share stories that he had learned from or
read from missionaries around the world world, and then my
little brother and I he'd make us guess what country
(20:04):
they were from and we'd have to find the country
on the map. So as a six year old, I
knew names of countries. And I think that's how God
put that in my heart because I loved everyone, and
we were meeting people from around the globe, and it's
(20:24):
just something that I want to see copied in families.
Just seeing God's creation in front of you changes your
heart and you want them so much to know the
Jesus that you know, and it breaks your heart when
you realize they have never heard the good news.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
How did we come to love people? I think it's
an old biblical cliche, but I think because Christ first
loved us, we see people as those whom we want
to spend eternity with.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
Amen.
Speaker 1 (21:02):
And you guys have been in the ministry a long time,
how have you seen God sustain you through those different
seasons you're raising little kids now your grandparents? And also
what have you done to keep it fresh in your
own relationship with Christ that we people like me who
(21:23):
are a few years behind you can take give us
some advice about both those things.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
I think, first of all, my time with the Lord
is so vital that has sustained me deeply. The really
strong thing is that as a child, my mother taught
me how to memorize scripture, and those are the verses
that have come to mind in difficult times and continue
(21:50):
to come to mind. So I think God's word is
vital to sustaining me. And then something that we learn
from the believers in person. Secution are the songs that
they sing, that they've written on their hearts, and those
are something that now I try every day to think
of a new song that I knew as a child,
(22:13):
And it's really fun that those verses and those songs
have have been a huge part of my journey and
continue to be as seasons have changed, those songs have changed.
And so God's still writing my story. He's not done.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
I think Ruth has a quiet time and I have
a loud time. If Ruth was to come to me
and say, Honey, what's going on. You haven't talked to
me today, Well, I'm not going to get away with saying, well,
I've been talking to you all day in my heart
or in my head. But so I really have to
(22:55):
find a way to vocalize that and sing that out loud.
And I think think I have a brutally honest conversation
with God and that when they killed four of my
best friends in Somalia in forty five minutes, I just
basically ask God, do you know what's going on? Do
(23:20):
you not understand that if you don't intervene, that every
believer is going to be killed in this country? Sometimes
you're looking in a mirror at yourself and asking who
are you in Christ? And that compels you to look
through a window at the world and say, Okay, what
do I do with this that's in front of me?
(23:43):
And you just have to keep the perspective that you
guard your own health emotionally, physically as much as you can,
and spiritually so that you can remain the servant that
God intends you to be.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
It is always such a joy to be able to
talk with you and draw from your wisdom, and draw
from the wisdom you've drawn from persecuted Christians around the world.
Thank you for being our guest this week on Voice
of the Martyrs Radio.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Thank you, it's been fun.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
It has been fun for me as well. You can
learn more about the Insanity Unleashed video series at Nick
and Ruth's website. It is Nick Ripken dot com, Nick
nik Ripken, rip k e n dot com, and of
course we'll give you a link to everything that we've
talked about today in the show notes at our website
vomradio dot net. Next week, we're going to meet the
(24:37):
leader of a ministry that's using media to spread God's truth.
They're based in Peru, they're reaching Peru and all over
Latin America, even reaching into the United States. You'll get
ideas about how to pray for people in that part
of the world. So be back with us next week
right here on the Voice of the Martyrs Radio Network.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.