The Eric Metaxas Show - Todd Nettleton (Encore)

Episode Date: March 17, 2021

Todd Nettleton from Voice of the Martyrs radio shares wonderful, miracle accounts of ultimate sacrifices made by great men and women from his book, "Jesus Freaks." (Encore Presentation)

Some subjects are very close to my heart. Not all of them, but some of them. This is one of them. I get to talk right now to the host of Voice of the Martyrs Radio, Todd Nettleton. There's a brand new book called Jesus Freaks. People who've suffered for their faith when I had the privilege of finding out about Voice of the Martyrs and Richard Vornbrond, who suffered monstrously. for his faith under the communists in Romania. And then I got to meet him. I just thought there's nothing more beautiful and moving than these people whose faith puts them in a place where they're

willing to suffer for their faith. And I think it strengthens all of us when we hear these stories. So Todd Nettleton, thanks for being my guest. Thank you for having me. It is great. And I agree with you 100%. These stories are powerful. And they really do have an impact on us. as we read them. There's no doubt about it. I mean, I realize this stuff in retrospect, writing my books on Bonhofer and stuff, I realize that it strengthens people to read these stories.

And the stories in Jesus Freaks, I mean, what Bonhofer went through was very mild compared to what a lot of people have suffered over the year. So first of all, tell us about yourself and what you do as hosts the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. Well, I basically help tell the stories of persecuted Christians, and I've been serving here at Voice of the Martyrs for 22 years now and have had the chance to sit down and interview and ask questions of people who are the Bonhoeffers of today or the Richard Wormbrands of today. And really just sit down and ask them, hey, tell me about the prison cell. Tell me what it was like.

How did you get through that? How did God sustain you in the midst of that? and then do interviews like this and our broadcast every week to help tell those stories to American Christians. Well, I just, I love it. How can people find Voice of the Mortars Radio? Are you on, is there a website? VOMRadio.net is the website, vomradio.net. And you can actually put in your zip code and find a station where we're carried. We're on now more than a thousand radio stations. You can also listen wherever you listen to podcasts, just search for VOM Radio, and it will be, like I say, wherever you listen to podcasts. VOM, that's Voice of the Martyrs, VOM Radio.net.

Well, tell us about the book. I know it's brand new. It's called Jesus Freaks. I love that. I use that term a lot in my own life. I'm a Jesus freak. I say that proudly. But tell us about this book. Well, this book is an updated and expanded edition of the book that, first came out from DC Talk and the Voice of the Martyrs in 1999. So that book came out, literally impacted an entire generation. They sold over a million copies. So many people that we will meet and talk to will say the first time I heard about persecuted Christians, the first time I heard about the voice of the martyrs was when I picked up a copy of Jesus Freaks. So that was released in 1999. Obviously, we're now in 2020. There have been more Jesus Freaks stories

written in the last 20 years. There have been more Christians who laid down their lives rather than deny Christ. And so we wanted to tell their stories too. We wanted to include their stories as well. So the brand new book, it has about 35% brand new stories, brand new material, as well as some of the great stories from the original edition. And our hope is this will inspire another generation. You know, a lot of people that read Jesus Freaks in 1999, maybe they were a college student, maybe they were a high school student. Now they're a parent of a college student or a high school student. And this book is something they can pass along and say, listen, this inspired me.

I want you to be inspired. And just like you say, we want them to live as Jesus freaks and to be inspired to do that by these stories. Well, it is amazing and it is powerful. It changes everything when you understand, first of all, the tremendous liberty that most of us have, religious liberty. We take it for granted, which is really deeply wrong. And when we read the stories or hear the stories of people who don't have religious liberty

and who are suffering for the lack of religious liberty, it does make us appreciate what we have. And it makes us want to use the liberty we have to help them, to do what we can to increase religious liberty in our own country around the world. Let's get into some of the stories because I want people listening to have some idea of what we're. we're talking about. Well, one of the stories, one of the new stories that is told is the story of the Grownwald family. This was an amazing family. They lived in South Africa. Verner, the father, was a pastor on staff at a church. His wife, Honolay, was an emergency room physician. They had a very nice, comfortable life in South Africa. And after 9-11, so after the attacks, after everyone became aware of Osama bin Laden, God called them to go to Afghanistan and serve there.

And, you know, the natural response, in fact, I had the chance to interview Hanali, and she said, even some members of their family said, there is no way that God would call you to take your children to Afghanistan. That just isn't something a loving God would do. But they answered that call. They went to Afghanistan and they served there. And ultimately, Werner and their two teenage children. were killed in an attack by the Taliban. Han Ali, as a doctor, had actually been asked to be at a UN meeting that day. They had heard there would be an attack. They thought it would be on that meeting. And so they said, hey, we need a doctor on site. Han Ali, can you come and be here?

So she was there when the attack happened on her home and on her family. Her husband was killed. Her two teenagers were killed. And yet, Hanali forgives the killer. She loves the Afghan people. she talks about her love for the Afghan people, and she talks about how God sustained her through that loss, through that incredible loss, and yet God allowed her to go through it, allowed her to hang on to her faith. That's just one of the new stories

that's in this new edition of Jesus Freaks. I mean, the most amazing thing sometimes is not that someone would risk their life for the cause of the gospel or to love. their enemies or to love strangers, but that when something like this happens, someone like this mother would be capable of forgiving. That to me is what separates the sheep from the goats. That's when you say, wait a second, this is crazy. This doesn't make any sense. Maybe God is real. Maybe this person knows something that I don't know because I can't conceive how it's possible to do that. it is one of the greatest proofs, as you have said, of God's existence. Because, you know,

humanly speaking, it doesn't even make sense. It doesn't even compute that you would forgive the people who killed your family. And so like you say, when someone is looking on and they see that, and some parts of Hanali's story are just amazing. Han Ali, again, was a doctor. And so she actually was called upon to help prepare the bodies of her family for burial. And you think about going through that process. And then you think about saying, I forgive the people who killed them. I love Afghanistan. I love the Afghan people. There isn't a human way of figuring that out. That only makes sense if God is real and if God empowers you to do that. So as you say, it is, it's one of those things that really shines the light on the reality of the gospel because

you can't explain it in human reasoning. We just had on this program. Ellen Vaughn, who wrote a book, the first biography of Elizabeth Elliott, it's called Becoming Elizabeth Elliott. And it's a similar story. Her husband was killed by like a Stone Age tribe that they were giving their whole lives over to minister to these people. And Jim Elliott, of course, famously and some others were killed. She then goes back to live among these people that killed.

her husband, to forgive them, to share the good news of Jesus with them. This is superhuman. And when I say superhuman, I mean, it is genuinely superhuman. Humanity cannot account for this. Only God is capable of doing this. And in his strength, he does it through some of us. But these stories are so inspiring. We're going to go to a break. Folks, when I come back, we'll continue the conversation with Todd Nettleton. You can go to VOM. That's Voice of the Martyrs. V-O-M-Radio.net. The book is Jesus freaks. Everybody knows they have to give back, but you always wonder, where do I go? Who do I give to? How do I get? Folks, food for the poor. We've worked with them over and over and over and over again. Please go to Metaxistock.com. Click on the banner. Metaxistock.com,

click on the banner. Please go to Metaxxotoc.com. Click on the banner. God bless you. Hey there, folks. How many years have I been telling you about relief factor? What, like, The truth is, I know there are millions of people. In fact, some say over 100 million people struggling with some kind of pain, maybe from exercise, just getting older. That could do it, getting older, which is why I am so impressed with Pete and Seth Talbot. They are on a mission. You rarely see this kind of focus and commitment. Seriously, they recently shared with me that they are doubling down and want to literally double their total number of happy customers in the next year. And I believe they'll do it. So here's the deal. If you're struggling with back, neck,

shoulder, hip or knee pain, even general muscle, aches and pains, then I'm suggesting you order their three-week quick start, still discounted to only 1995, about a dollar a day to see if we can get you out of pain too. And then after that, less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day to stay at a pain. Go to relieffactor.com, relieffactor.com or call 800, 500, 8384. Relieffactor.com 800, 500, 8384. I use it. It works. Check it out. Hey folks, Eric Metaxis here. Like you, I am sick of hearing about big tech companies, spying on their customers, selling their data, and not being able to keep their platforms safe and secure. Luckily, I've found SquadPod, a private platform that helps businesses,

organizations, churches, and nonprofits take back control of their communication. Squad pod has three things going for it that other companies do not. First, squad pod puts you in control of who is a part of your team, what they see, and how they interact with. with the group. Second, squad pod is 100% owned and operated in the United States. Third, squad pod is simple to use. Just create an account, invite your team and start communicating via their secure video and messaging features. Learn more at squadpod.com slash Eric. That's squadpod.com slash Eric. Let me say it again. Squadpod.com slash Eric. Check it out. Hey there, folks. I'm talking to Todd Nettleton. He is the host of Voice of the Martyrs Radio.

Voice of the Martyrs Radio.net. VOM Radio.com.com.com.com is the website, if you're unaware of it. And the new book, it's a new edition of the book, Jesus Freaks. I love that title when it came out in 1999. I've always loved that term. D.C. Talk did their song and the book came out, Jesus Freaks, talking about people who have been persecuted. for the Christian faith. It's just amazing. It's a badge of honor. So, Todd, tell us some more of these stories. I mean, the book contains, you said a lot of the stories from the 1999 version, but then you've updated it with stories from the last 21 years. Well, one of the stories that is my favorite, and it's one that carried over from the original edition, is the story of Trofim Demetrov. He was a Christian

living behind the iron curtain during the Soviet Union times. And the book tells the story. The guards were determined to break him. They were determined to break his faith in Christ. They carried him to the edge of a pit filled with dogs, and they threw him over the edge into the pit. And they kind of backed away, and they heard the dogs going crazy,

and they thought, well, you know, this is the end of Trofim. This is the end of his faith. But then as they stepped forward and looked down into the, the pit. What they saw was Trofem Dmitrov kneeling in prayer at the bottom of this pit and these wild dogs that were supposed to be attacking him actually trying to climb the walls and get out of the pit. The dogs wanted nothing to do with him. They wanted to get away from him. And you think about, you know, we talked about the proofs of God's existence. What did those guards think when they look

down in that pit and they see the dogs trying to get away. from the praying man, another proof that God is real and that he's able to protect his people. Listen, those stories, you can never prove these things because there are people that some people will just refuse to look at the evidence and to look at the proof, or I should say you can never convince some people even when you have proof. But I think it's vital that we convince ourselves. When we read stories like this, most people with a slightly open mind know this happened. This is not made up. It's not a fairy tale.

It's not one of these stories of the saints from the fifth century that just sounds silly. This is real. This didn't happen so long ago. We have witnesses. And we hear stories like this from the mission field. But if you're not hearing these stories often enough, you forget the power of God. You forget that he is real, that he is powerful, that he does stories, that he does things like this. Doesn't mean he's going to do it every time.

Many people are thrown to the lions and they're killed. But the point is, we need to know these stories. We need to hear these stories and share these stories with others. So that's one of the reasons I want to have you on the program because I think people need this for their own faith. We are strengthened profoundly in our faith when we read these stories. So the book is Jesus Freaks, Brand New Edition. You know, Todd, we all long for a world in which God does stuff like this. And if we don't share these stories, we forget that we do live in that world, that all around us, this God is acting.

If we don't share these stories, whether they happen to us or others, in a way we're negligent. We're guilty. We're allowing a false narrative of a world without God to, continue the mainstream media and often the conservative media, they shy away from these kinds of stories. It makes them uncomfortable. We need to do everything we can to tell these amazing stories. I mean, that is, that's extraordinary. When did that happen? I assume that was during the Soviet times. That was during the Soviet times in the 1960s. The wickedness that communist regimes brought to Christians in particular, it's another story that

needs to be told. So we understand when we're talking about communists or about Marxism, what their worldview is. I know that Richard Wormbrand, I can't believe I had the privilege to meet him and Sabina, his wife, before they passed, obviously. But he underwent unspeakable horrors. And his faith was just so beautiful. I heard him preach at Times Square Church here in New York City, the church founded by David Wilkerson, where I met my wife, and he spoke, and I was just, I was just overwhelmed with the power of God in his life. It's a very rare thing. And so when you capture it in a book, it just makes it possible for more people to experience it. So I'm assuming people can get the book everywhere, or should they go to the website?

You can come to persecution.com, which is the main VOM website. You can buy it, though, wherever, wherever books are sold, it is available. And I agree with you. And I think one of the things that happens as we read these stories is we put ourselves in the story. Okay, what would I do in that situation? What would I do if they said, deny your faith or be shot? How would I respond to that? And, you know, I think that's a faith-building question, because I think most of us, if we're being honest, we say, boy, I'm not 100% sure what would I do. So I need to pray. I need to go to the scriptures. I need to strengthen my own faith. So I think these stories have that impact on us of strengthening our faith as we ask that question and as we try to honestly answer it and pray,

Lord, help me to have the right answer, help me to be able to stand no matter what the challenge is. I think the courage of many Christians in the West today is not strong, which means that our faith is not strong. Because if we know these things, if we know Jesus has actually defeated death. It's not a nice idea. It's true. We live differently. Bonhofer believed that. A lot of the people, all the people in the book, Jesus Freaks, believe that. But I think that if we want to shine for the kingdom, we need to acquaint ourselves with these stories so that our faith is increased. And to me, it's magic. When you read these stories, your faith increases. It just happens. It's God's way of communicating with us through

other people through stories all the time. I don't know what it is exactly, but it happens. When you read these stories, something happens inside you. And so I say this to people, I can't think of an easier way to increase your faith, to increase your ability to stand in the face of what are extremely minor difficulties compared to what these folks go through. But nonetheless, we need to stand now for what is right. We shouldn't just wait till we're about to be thrown to the dogs. Today, every day, we have choices that we can make in what we say and how we say it and whether we say it. So how many stories are in this book? Ooh, that is a good question. And I should have had that. I mean, it's a lot, I guess. I want to say it's

150-ish. Wow. Sounds like a big book. Look, again, I can't think of what a wonderful thing to read every day as part of your devotion or it's just, there's just nothing more beautiful than stories of God. And it just doesn't get more real than this. And what was your role? Were you the general editor of this new edition? Well, I was part of the writing team and part of the team here at Voice of the Martyrs

that really looked back at the last 20 years and said, okay, what are the stories that have to be included? What are the stories of people who have lived out their Jesus Freaks experience in the last 20 years that we have to tell their stories. And so, you know, people like the Grownwald family, people like Helen Burhani, who was locked in a shipping container in Eritrea, and yet continued to sing praise to the Lord. People like Pastor Hahn, who was martyred along the North Korea-China border by North Korean agents.

We just kind of, I helped go through those stories and say, hey, that's one we have to have in here. Well, you know, you mentioned China and North Korea. You know, for me, this is why Christians can't avoid politics, because if you care about your brothers and sisters who are suffering horrors in places like China and, of course, much worse, even in North Korea, you have to understand that the United States has an ability to be a voice for the voiceless, to stand up to dictatorships, to deal with dictatorships in such a way that we can use our might. our power, our wealth to influence them in the right direction, or we can do nothing. And I think when we talk about modern-day China, it's gotten much worse there, hasn't it, in the last couple of decades? It has gotten significantly worse, even in the last two to three years.

We have seen a major crackdown against the church. And, you know, where we used to say, you know, in this province, things are bad for Christians. But, hey, look over here. it's not bad and the church is operating without a lot of interference. That's not true anymore. This is a national program. It is coming from the highest levels of the Chinese government and they are demanding that the church come under the authority of the Communist Party, that they are demanding that they control the hearts and minds of the people, not Jesus Christ controlling them. And they are not willing to compromise.

Folks, I'm talking to Todd Nettleton. He's the host. the Voice of the Martyrs Radio. You can go to VOMRadio.net, the book, brand new book, get a copy. Jesus freaks. Hey there, folks. I am talking to Todd Nettleton. He's the head of host, a voice of the Martyrton. Radio, brand new book out, brand new edition of the book, Jesus Freaks, which tells the story of

stories of persecuted Christians. There are tons of them. They're all so valuable. Todd, we were just talking about China and North Korea, and you were saying how the Chinese Communist Party is cracking down much harder in the last two or three years. This is a big thing for Americans. And part of the reason that I want to talk to you is because I think that unless we understand what is happening in places like this, and unless we understand the stories of people who have suffered serious persecution, we can be indifferent politically. We can forget that we have the strength, the ability to do something to help these people. And if we don't know that we have that ability or that obligation, that duty from God to use

our freedom to help those who don't have freedom, then we don't do anything about it. We don't even vote for candidates who might do something about it or who we're talking about it. And I think that, you know, when we consider the power of the West today and the power of the American church in particular, if we don't use that power for God's purposes around the world for those who are suffering, God is judging us. He gave us these gifts that we would use them for those who don't have them. You know, I think you're certainly correct that we have. have a voice. We have a way of influencing our leaders. In theory, at least they work for us.

We can tell them, hey, this is a priority for us. When I go in the voters booth, I think about who did something on behalf of persecuted Christians. So we do have that voice. But even if the government completely turns against us, if we got no political voice, we have the power of prayer. And the first thing that persecuted Christians ask us to do is to pray for them. And the challenging thing to me is their request is not, hey, will you pray that I won't be persecuted anymore? It is, will you pray that I'll be faithful to Christ in spite of my persecution, in spite of my suffering? So one of the things we try to do on Voice of the Martyrs radio, one of the things we do here at Voice of the Martyrs is equip people to pray for our brothers and sisters who are undergoing persecution.

You know, Hebrews 133 says, remember those in prison as if you were in prison with them. well, if I was in prison, I would certainly want to know that people are praying for me. And so that's one way that we can honor that scripture and honor our brothers and sisters who are suffering is by praying for them. Well, I mean, there ought to be no question that we would pray for them. If we don't know their stories, if we don't know anything about them, it's unlikely we'll pray for them. So we need to educate ourselves.

We need to read these stories. We need to talk about this issue. And then there are many Christians, I think, who can do, you know, the worst thing is when you over-spiritualize something and you say, like, well, why should I give money to Voice of the Martyrs? Why should I do anything that way? I'll just, I'm just going to pray. Like, I don't want to make it about money. I don't want to make it about politics.

And I think, folks, God is not about only do one thing. If the only thing you can do is pray, then you pray. But if you can pray and you can give and you can, you can, you can, you can, you can, influence things politically, you do everything you can do. I think that we forget sometimes that the Lord wants us to do everything we can do and not merely be spiritual beings who are praying. But my goodness, Todd, yes, prayer is key. But once you get involved in these stories, then you can pray more effectively. Then you want to pray because you're aware of what's happening. You know, I couldn't agree more. And I think the way I tell people is, you know, it's easy to say

God bless persecuted Christians, but it's also easy to forget to say that if that's sort of the surface level that you're at. But when you start thinking about Pastor Wang Yi, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence in China, and you have his picture on your refrigerator or you have it tucked into your Bible, it's very easy to pray for that because it becomes personal. This is my prayer partner. This is the guy I'm praying for. This could be my pastor. So I'm going to pray for Pastor Wong-Yee.

So like you say, as we know the stories and as we know names and faces and places, we can pray more effectively. We can pray more passionately for our brothers and sisters who are going through persecution. There are, I'm guessing that some of the folks that in the latter part of this book are alive today. They are. And in fact, I just mentioned Pastor Wang Yi. He is one of the stories that is told in this book. Right now, he is serving nine years in prison in China. His church was an unregistered illegal church, but they chose to be very open about what they were doing. In fact, they put his sermons on YouTube. So it's like, we're not hiding anything. We're serving the Lord. We're doing what he calls us to do. And Wang Yi actually wrote a letter to be released if he was ever arrested, when he was arrested. And that letter spells out, I am willing to go to jail. I am willing to suffer if that's what my government asked me to do because my first loyalty is to Jesus Christ. And sometimes as we follow him, we have to suffer. In fact, I think one of the interesting things about Wong-Yi is he didn't appeal the nine-year prison

sentence. He said, I accept your sentence. I will go. I will start serving it. But even today, his family, his wife, and their son Joshua, they are under intense pressure right now, not in prison, but under pressure because his faith continues. And so that's one of the stories that's told in the book. It's also one of the families that I hope people will pray for as we read these stories and as we begin to make that commitment to be connected to the body of Christ and to pray for those that are suffering. Well, I want to remind people they can go to VOM Radio,

dot net, V-O-M-that's Voice of the Martyrs, V-O-M-Radio.net. The book is Jesus Freaks. And the main website is persecution.com. Is that right? That's correct. Persecution.com. Okay, persecution.com. We'll be right back.

Folks, I'm talking to Todd Nettleton. He's the host of Voice of the Martyrs radio. You can go to Persecution.com, which is the website for Voice of the Martyrs. And I just have to ask you, Todd. You said you've been for over 20 years with Voice of the Martyrs. How do you get involved in this? What is your story of faith? Well, you know, I grew up in a pastor's household, and I kind of traced my beginnings of my work at VOM to 1982.

I was 12 years old, and our family moved to Papua New Guinea, and my parents served as missionaries there for four years. That gave me a love for other cultures, a love for what God is doing around the world, a love for getting on an airplane and going someplace I've never been before. and I think that, like I say, really started me on the path that ultimately led to Voice of the Martyrs. And so I have now had the privilege to tell the stories of persecuted Christians for 20 years and really to meet and sit down with some heroes of the fate. I really think of it like sitting down with Paul and Silas after they came out of the Philippian jail and saying, so Paul, you know, why did you decide that you should sing when you're in the stocks in the middle of the jail? and what song did you sing? So having those conversations and then being able to tell those stories and really hopefully challenge the faith of American Christians,

challenge them to live more boldly for Christ, is what God has called me to do and what he has allowed me to do because I really think of it as a privilege. Are there any other miracle stories you can tell? The story you told about this pastor who was thrown into the pit with dogs, I mean, these things happen, and we need to share these stories. I'm assuming there are many more in the book because there's so many stories in the book, but anything off the top of your head that you can share.

There's more in the book, but let me share one that was shared on Voice of the Martyrs Radio by one of our friends who is working inside Iran. He was taken to a rural village in Iran, and he was told, hey, you need to meet this guy. You need to hear his story. And so he went to this house and met this older gentleman. gentleman in Iran. And in the course of their conversation, the man said, well, I, there was a man in white that came and talked to me in the nighttime. And, you know, he kind of perked up. So tell me about the man in white. Tell me, you know, and he said, well, he said a lot of things. And he actually,

he told me to write down what he said. And he said, the man in white came every night for a month and told him what to say, to what to write down. And so he had written down all these things. And my friend who was there, he said, well, do you have what you wrote down? Can I see it? Absolutely. And so he goes and gets this little notebook and he brings it out. And my friend, our contact working in Iran, opens up the notebook. And the first page begins, in the beginning was the word, and the word was God. And as he thumbed through the pages of this notebook, this man had transcribed the gospel of John. And as he said, the man in white had given him the words, and he had transcribed the entire gospel of John into this notebook. Just an amazing story of God supernaturally delivering his word to an open Muslim heart in Iran that is not a Muslim anymore, now a follower of Jesus Christ. I mean, you hear things like this. I mean, there are many people that they don't have the capacity to believe things like this.

They live in a world that's utterly materialistic, and they just can't. comprehend that such things could be true. But when you meet people like this, when you read these stories, the more you look into it, the more you think, look, not all of these people could be lying. They don't seem like the kind of people that would make this up. It seems like the only explanation is this is real. And if this is real, what does it say about everything? What does it say about how I live my life? It is just so beautiful to hear stories like this. I mean, I've heard many similar stories. And you don't know what to do. You just want to praise God. Say, thank you, God. Thank you that you're real. Thank you that you do things like this to encourage our faith. I don't know if there's

any other thing like that that you can remember to share just because we have limited time. But I'll ask you. Well, I think one of the responses, and I've talked to the author Tom Doyle, we've had him on VOM Radio. and he said, when he meets a Muslim now, he will ask them, hey, have you had any strange dreams lately? And he said, it's amazing how often they will say, well, now that you ask that question, actually, yes, let me tell you about this dream. So we know God is at work. And like you say, if you heard that story one time and it was completely isolated, you might be like, well, I'm not sure about that. But when you hear story after story after story of God working supernaturally and God meeting people in their dreams and in visions, it's hard to not think God is doing something even beyond our understanding in these days.

There's just, there's no question. I've heard this so many times that innumerable Muslims are having these dreams, entire villages, Muslim villages are having this similar dreams about this man in white, this Jesus figure. And you think, why does God do this now in this way? And it's sort of impossible for us to figure out, why doesn't the Lord speak to me every night that way? You know, when you get into mystical things like that, you have to have an open mind because God does what he's going to do. God came to me in a dream in 1988, and Jesus transformed my life literally overnight in a dream. Why did he choose to do it that way with me and not with other people?

We don't know. We just know that he's sovereign, that he is God, that he does these kinds of things. And I think that every time you hear one of these stories, it just opens you up more to, Lord, whatever you have for me. It's just so beautiful. I want that. We're just about out of time. The book is brand new, but it is a reissue. So you're saying that there are new stories in it, but all the stories that were in the 1999 edition, or many of them are still there.

Yeah, many of them are still there. About 35% of it is brand new material. stories that have happened since 1999, since that first edition came out. Well, it is exciting. I cannot wait to see a copy. And as soon as we're done here in a minute, I want to go to persecution.com. I have been a fan of Voice of the Martyrs since I became a believer, since I was aware of the work that you all are doing. So I'm just excited that you guys exist.

Persecution.com, that's a pretty good URL. I think you should stick with that. and the book Jesus Freaks brand new book. I hope everybody listening will get a copy. I really think that this is the kind of thing. It makes an amazing gift for people because if people start reading these stories, there's no way you're going to be the same. It's kind of that simple and they're very short.

Todd Nettleton, really grateful for what you do and for your time today. God bless you. Thank you so much. Thanks so much for having me. It's always fun. Hey, folks, Albin, I'm still in Dallas. Look at me. Look at you.

I'm ashamed. I'm still here in Dallas. No, I'm going to be, by the way, I'm going to be speaking in El Paso on Wednesday evening. Great church in El Paso. I'm so excited. Anybody wants to know about it if you're in El Paso or know anybody near there who can get there. I will be there. I'll be signing books.

I'll be doing the whole thing, looking forward to it. And you have to go to my website. The schedule is there with all the details. tales. You go to Eric Mataxis. That's my name. Ericmetaxis.com. You don't have to say it out loud. You just have to type it. Ericmetaxis.com and the schedule is there. And I'm going to be in El Paso on Wednesday. I'm here in Dallas till then doing some stuff with Daystar TV and with the blaze and some radio. But I want to remind folks, we're doing a fundraiser with food for the poor. is, gosh, here we are.

It is already middle way through the month. We're not doing that well, so we need your help. If you're thinking of giving, let me encourage you, folks. Let's play this clip. I mean, this amazes me that kids in Honduras, this is what we're trying to raise money for. Kids in Honduras are starving. Let's, you know, it's hard for us to fathom this. And, you know, I don't know anybody in my world who's ever gone.

without food. My parents went without food during the war and after the war, and they told me these stories, which is why I know these things, this is real for some families. It's an amazing thing. So you can help out. Go to 844-8-6-3 hope. 844-8-6-3 hope. Let's play the clip because this just makes it a little bit real. Let's see if we got that. When you see the hunger, when you see the need, you go out on the field, even if they haven't eaten for one or two days, It just makes us real, real sad. The more we do, the more we see the need. The more places we go, the more we find people starving.

The more we see children are eating the leaves from the trees. Look, we cannot imagine this stuff. This is, we're so spoiled, we're so blessed is what we are. We're blessed. So take some of that blessing and share it. Go to our website, which is metaxis talk.com. and you'll see a banner. And you can give $37 feeds a kid for six months.

That's amazing. Food for the Poor is able to stretch American dollars. It's just an amazing thing that that little bit of money can feed a kid for six months. But food for the poor, they're amazing. They do great work, and that's why we work with them. Salem Radio, we've all worked with them. That's Dennis Prager and Hugh Hewitt and everybody. Now we've got Charlie Kirk and Sebastian Gorka, Dinesh D'Souza, the whole gang, we're doing what we can.

But folks, we can't do anything except ask you to help out. So go to metaxis talk.com. If you'd rather phone, I know there's some wonderful people out there who'd rather phone. I'll give you the number. 844-863 Hope. 844-863 Hope. If you can give, now would be the time we do need your help. 844-863 hope.

The need is really great. In Honduras, as I think I've said earlier today, they've been devastated. I mean, they already live 60% of them below the poverty line, which is a stunning thing. But beyond that, they've had tropical storm and a hurricane that's been flooding. So it's just been devastated. none of us really can imagine. But we don't need to imagine. We just know that this is the situation.

Yeah, I'd also like to remind folks out there that if you give $10,000, and of course we have people out there in the audience that have that kind of money, Eric will have dinner with you, which is a great thing. And if you prefer not, then I won't have dinner with you. But either way, I'll do what you like. I would be delighted to spend an evening with you. And as many folks as you want to bring, whatever it is, is just my time.

But we'd love that if you can do that. 844-8663, Hope, 844-8663 Hope, 844-8663, hope, or go to metaxistock.com. Click on the banner. God bless you.