Lisa Barry: Have you ever wondered what it would be like to lose your freedom to worship God? In America, we have a difficult time imagining such a thing, but it is common in other parts of the world. All this week, Elisabeth Elliot has been devoting these programs to people who have suffered for the sake of Christ. Some of those people are living today; some lived hundreds of years ago. But the lesson is the same?sold-out obedience to Christ is not always the smoothest road. Find out more as we begin this Thursday edition of Gateway to Joy. Here?s Elisabeth to get us started.

Elisabeth Elliot: "You are loved with an everlasting love." That?s what the Bible says. "And underneath are the everlasting arms." This is your friend Elisabeth Elliot, reading again today some stories about the Scottish Covenanters of the 1600?s.

There was a man named John Dick, who was among the many who were tortured and persecuted and killed in those days by the Anglicans, because they were forbidden to have conventicals?meetings of their own, secret meetings. In what they believed was honesty and obedience to Jesus Christ, they took the punishment.

"One place in which a good many of them had been killed was Drumclog. What a sorrowful field it was! A field of deep anguish, wounds and death. Had it all been for the things of time and sense, then certainly it was a field of woe and loss. But it was not that?Calvary is victory in every apparent Christian defeat."

I want to read that sentence again. "Calvary is victory in every apparent Christian defeat." I?m sure that my listeners are aware that there are hundreds, thousands, perhaps millions of people right now being tortured, and many of them tortured to death, because they refuse to renounce Calvary, the cross and Christ.

This book goes on to say, "Amid the darkness, sweat, tears and blood, the sufferers there maybe could not see themselves as such, but they were more than conquerors through Him that loved them.

John Dick was in the struggle at Bothwell, but he escaped both wounding and the horrors exacted upon the Covenanters taken prison there. He was at liberty until the early autumn of 1683, when in his native city he was betrayed to the government by a poor woman. She was rewarded for this. But after his execution, she was overcome with grief and lost her reason.

On the 29^th of August, brave declaration meant his death sentence, but earnestly he urged that it might be added to in the confession that it was his opinion that the blood of Presbyterians shed during the persecuted years solely for their principles was murder. He asked that he might be allowed to conduct his 1683, John Dick was brought before the committee of public affairs. In his debate there with the bishop, he had the better of him. But being true to Jesus Christ, he was considered untrue to King Charles II, a fearful crime.

Two days later, he stood in the Council and the substance of his examination was read to him. He made various comments upon it and gave his signature. On the fourth of September, with the miller from Limlythgo, George Lapsley, who was one of the wounded at Bothwell and who had been in jail since 1681, he came before the criminal court and was indicted for high treason. His own signed confession was read to him.

Clear and plain, his own defense. The judges adamantly refused to accede to this and pronounced him guilty of high treason. The trial was completely closed and he was sentenced to die by hanging in the grass market on the 28^th of September.

He said to them, ?For you to pass such a sentence upon me without hearing me in my own defense is a practice never before paralleled, even among heathen.? He would have gone on, but they were as whited walls to him. Ordered to stop, he was roughly taken from the courtroom with George Lapsley, also sentenced to death for high treason. They were then drawn away down the cannon gate to the tollbooth. There were 25 prisoners in the two big upper cells of the cannon gate tollbooth that September of 1683. Hardly any one of these ever expected to be out in the open air again until he was taken out on his last journey up the hill of the high street and down the sanctified bends of the Beau River to the scaffold in the grass market.

But they were men of God, and they prayed for help planned well and the guidance given to make a mass escape. Even friends in the city and as far away as Glasgow knew the time and manner of it and prayed for good success. One of the cells was above the other. Those in the lower one on a certain night were to begin to saw through the iron bars of their glassless window, while those in the room above were to get part of their flooring ready to take up easily when all the crossed irons were cut. Dropping down into the lower room, they could then all escape together.

At about 9:00 one night, the first bar was sawn through. To the horror of all concerned, before any of those at the window could catch it, down it fell into the narrow street below, where a sentry was posted. They waited anxiously, watched and prayed, but continual silence gave them their greatly desired ?Amen" and they proved God. For although their window was almost parallel with that of the garrison commander who lived on the other side of the street, they had neither been heard nor seen, and the sentry on his beat had never seen the iron stanchion nor heard it fall.

Next morning at about 9:00, a friend was allowed to visit them. They requested when he went out into the street again to see if the window with its missing iron was noticeable to passersby."

Well, I have to skip some of this, but some of those Covenanters got away. Only one of the 25 was ever captured, and it was John Dick, the student of theology. "What a row broke out in the Edinburgh circles of officialdom. The magistrates of the city were called together and roundly and soundly blamed.

But John Dick wrote this letter to his father, knowing that he was in his last hours. ?Dear Sir, this hath been one of the pleasantest nights I have had in my lifetime. The competition is only betwixt it and that I got 11 years ago at Nesbitt in North Umberland, where and when in a barley ridge upon a Saturday?s night and Sabbath morning before the last communion I did partake of in the Ford church. The Lord firmly laid the foundation stone of grace in my heart by making me, with my whole soul, close with Him upon His own terms. That is, to take Him to be my King, Priest, and Prophet, to be my all in all, to renounce my own righteousness, which at the best is but as rotten rags; and to rest upon His righteousness alone for salvation.?"

Now there?s a statement of faith for the man who knows that he is going to die. He writes to his father. I wonder if there?s someone today listening to me who feels fairly sure that he or she is going to die. You may be in a hospital or perhaps at home. Have you given yourself completely to Jesus Christ? Do you take Him to be your King, Priest and Prophet, your all in all? Are you willing to renounce your own righteousness?

John Dick goes on to say, "May the whole faculties of my soul and powers of my body to be by Him disposed at His pleasure for the advancement of His glory and the upbuilding of my own soul and the souls of others. Inserting this clause, being conscious to myself of great infirmity, that the fountain of free grace and love should stand open for me so long and so often, as my case should call for it: this is my transaction with my whole soul, without the least ground of suspicion of the want of sincerity, which I found had been missing in endeavors formerly."

Well, I guess this Old English gets to be a little bit difficult for us. But I would entreat you today as you listen to this program to remember that Jesus Christ waits with open arms, open hands to receive you to Himself. If it should be by death very suddenly or very quickly, you can be assured that you are His child. "Jesus calls us o?er the tumult of our life?s wild, restless sea. Day by day His sweet voice soundeth, saying, ?Christian, follow Me.?"

I?ve been reading the story of John Dick, one of the Scottish Covenanters. He writes this wonderful letter to his father. He said, "My blessed Lord helped me, or rather made in me and solemnized that night and morning before I came off that ridge. I confirmed my commitment to Him no less then ten or twelve times, and the oftener I reiterated, the wind continued fresh and vigorous, so that I was forced to cry, ?Hold, Lord! For the pot is like to burst!?" He was so happy in committing himself to God in this way.

"So that I hope my dearest Lord is now a-coming, and that the hands who laid this foundation will now finish it; and indeed, He is building very fast, for which my soul blesses Him, desiring that you may join with me in so necessary a work. I hope before long that the capstone will be put on, the result of all which shall be praise and shouting to Him that sits upon the throne; and to the Lamb throughout all the ages of eternity, of long-lasting eternity. This, with my earnest prayers while in the body, that the Lord would help you to mind His glory and your own soul?s eternal welfare. Your affectionate son and Christ?s prisoner. I hope before I go home to get another sight of you, Father. Let none see this till I be in my grave. The Lord gave me to you freely, so I entreat you, be frank in giving me to Him again."

Maybe there?s a parent listening to me who has had to relinquish a child in some way. Give them up to God. Do that. Remember that we have a mighty fortress, a bulwark never failing. He is our Helper in the midst of floods of mortal ills.

Lisa Barry: As you think about the things that Elisabeth has shared today, I hope you?ve been given the courage to follow Christ at any cost. Are you confident that you?ve made a sincere decision to follow Him? It begins with an admission that you?re a sinner. The Bible says we?ve all sinned. Then you need to admit that you have no power to save yourself. All of the good deeds you have done are wonderful, but they are powerless to save your soul. The only way to gain entrance into heaven is to believe that Jesus Christ came to this earth to save you. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through Me." Tell God that you?re trusting in Jesus? sacrifice and then follow Him. "Follow" means learning about God through the Bible, obeying what you?re reading, praying daily and letting God transform you into His image.

If you?d like more information on becoming a committed follower of Christ, write to us at this address. We?ll send you information that will help. Gateway to Joy, Box 82500, Lincoln, Nebraska, 68501. Our Web address is gatewaytojoy.org. Today?s program has been a production of Back to the Bible.

Tomorrow Elisabeth concludes this series by talking about heroes, so be sure and join us then for the next Gateway to Joy.