From Russia....With Love

I've related this story at least once in the past but not with nearly as much information, for this last attempt to research this young man I'm about to tell you about finally found results. I couldn't remember his name, or the title of the book that he wrote, only a description of how he went from being a persecutor of Christians in the former Soviet Union to a new Christian in North America speaking of his past deeds. It turns out that the title of the book was The Persecutor and his name was Sergei Kourdakov. It was 1973 when I first read this book. I was 23 and this young Russian would have been a year younger. I had just got out of the army and was attending Pitt, while this young man's body had been laid to rest in a Washington D. C. cemetery, his funeral conducted by Richard Halverson who would later become the chaplain of the United States Senate. I would have been open to a lot of things in those days. I flirted with Transcendental Meditation and Zen while Christianity flirted with me and Sergei Kourdakov's book was one of the ways it did so! My recent research filled in a lot of the gaps in my memory and here is the synopsis of Sergei Kourdakov's story: a young Russian orphan works his way up to the Konsomol, a young communists league, and then the KGB primarily because of his athletic, intellectual and leadership abilities. His primary mission is to violently break up Bible studies among Russian believers. He does not like it for it appears to him that God is with these believers which would make him against God, should there be one. He tries to run away... like Jonah. While a naval officer, he jumps ship in the cold North Pacific and barely reaches the Canadian shore. He then becomes one of the Evangelicals that he formerly persecuted. Some say that he was exploited and became a prize for some in the West with his testimony of persecuting Christians in the USSR followed by his subsequent conversion. Indeed, he may have been thrust into a ministry too soon but none of this takes away from a strength used for evil turned to a courage used for the proclamation of the Gospel. He put his story into book form and in it he tells of warnings he received from the KGB to stop what he was doing or he would meet with a final accident. The book was published posthumously for he was found dead in what was eventually ruled a gun accident. Something stayed with me from that book but this blog isn't only about Sergei Kourdakov. It's about you (hopefully) and me. There is nothing in this world, in this entire existence, that compares with trusting in Jesus Christ, proclaiming His majesty and experiencing His mercies, love, forgiveness and redemption!!! Are there questions? Certainly. I could write a book and you could also, on the things that we do not understand. What is infinitely more important is that He has written a book on the things that we can understand, not in our worldly minds but our regenerated minds renewed as often as we go to His Word. Many in America, and I'm one, dwell often on stories about our military heroes, about the ultimate sacrifice of some and the continued suffering of others, but there are also heroes of the Christian faith that are suffering extreme persecutions at the very moment that I write and that you read this. They are the ones that young Sergei Kourdakovs persecute today throughout the world and the ones whose persecution I am an accomplice to when I fail, as I often do, to remember them in fervent prayer. My prayer at this time would be something like this: God have mercy on me for I know who you are. I know your glories and majesty and have all the freedoms to proclaim your name yet I fail to live up to that knowledge and utilize that freedom. I know that I am the least, the most unworthy, yet you chose to have mercy upon me. Let me now lift up to you those who do not live in a country where they can freely worship you and permit me to tell others of the grace you so freely offer. The day may be coming when we here in America will be in their situation. Maybe it is the coward in me that says God have mercy on America...maybe it isn't, but as sure as the warning that KGB agents gave to that brave young Russian, there is a warning to us, stand up for Christ in America today or there will be no America to stand up for tomorrow!