A Death Worth Dying

Haim and his family
Cambodia
Circa 1970s

During the night, the members of Haim’s family comforted each other. They knew they only had a few more hours to live on earth. The Cambodian Communist soldiers had tied them all together and forced them to lie down on the grass.

Earlier that day, Haim’s whole family had been rounded up for execution. Because they were all Christians, the Communists considered them “bad blood” and “enemies of the glorious revolution.”

In the morning, they were made to dig their own graves.

The killers were generous. They allowed their victims a moment of prayer to prepare themselves for death. Parents and children held hands and knelt together near the open grave.

After his family finished their prayers, Haim exhorted the Communists and those looking on to repent and to receive Jesus as Savior.

Suddenly, one of Haim’s young sons leapt to his feet, bolted to the nearby forest, and disappeared.

Haim was amazingly cool as he persuaded the soldiers not to chase the boy but to allow him to call the boy back. While the family knelt, the father pleaded with his son to return and die with them.

“Think my son,” he shouted. “Can stealing a few more days of life, as a fugitive in that forest, compare to joining your family here around the grave, but soon free to live in paradise?”

Weeping, the boy walked back.

Haim said to the executioners, “Now we are ready to go.”
But none of the soldiers would kill them.

Finally, an officer who had not witnessed the scene came and shot the Christians.

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Atheists – those who don’t believe in God or life after death – are amazed when Christians are ready to sacrifice their lives rather than deny a God no one can see. They don’t understand the deep work of the Holy Spirit and how He makes both the Father’s love and heaven an undeniable reality in the heart of a believer.

When I was on a holiday in Cambodia a few years back, I remembered having a tour to one of the most gruesome torture site in that country. It was a school which was turned into a prison and a torture place. One incident the tour guide told us was of a Pastor’s family. They were forced to walk over a huge cross which will symbolize them renouncing Jesus. However they did not do it. Then they were forced to dig their own graves and all of them were buried alive, including their young children about the age 6 – 12.

How much does Jesus mean to you?

Do you love Him so much that you would rather be tortured and killed than to renounce your faith?

Laying Down my Life for Kingdom Cause,
Zlwin Chew

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*The story above has been taken from dcTalk’s book: Jesus Freaks and the Voice of the Martyrs.
Visit http://www.jesusfreaks.net/ and http://www.persecution.com/ for more details.