...times

“He raced to his bedroom and returned holding a stack of letters. On the top letter, he had written, ‘MOST IMPORTANT LETTER.’” Charlie Costa’s eyes lit up as he shared the story with me.

For 22 years, Charlie has served as our Insight for Living Arabic field pastor, sharing the gospel throughout the Middle East and everywhere Arabic is spoken. The young man he was telling me about lived in a village in Northern Iraq. 

Charlie had traveled there from Beirut to meet new believers who had come to Christ through our Arabic-language broadcast. When Charlie introduced himself to the young man, excited recognition flashed across his face. The stack of letters he retrieved were written in Charlie’s handwriting.

“One day,” he told Charlie, “At the end of the Insight for Living broadcast, you led in prayer and asked listeners if they wanted to accept Christ. And I did. But I didn’t know what happened: Was I saved? So, I wrote you. And you wrote back in that most important letter about the assurance of salvation. 

I started jumping up and down, shouting, ‘I AM SAVED!’”

“Chuck,”  then said, “That man won 25 people in his village to Christ! The village was eventually overrun by ISIS. The people dispersed. They lost everything. Nonetheless, they still walk with Christ.”

The flames of conflict and tension in the Middle East have been burning since biblical days, sometimes quietly, more often ferociously. Politicians the world over argue about the best way to address that fire. But the truth is, no one but God can explain the complexity of the Middle East. And no one but the Prince of Peace can offer a resolution.

“We don’t talk about politics on our program,” Charlie says. “We talk about how, as a person, you need Christ to have peace. The Bible says there is no peace for the wicked. The flip side is Jesus’ saying, ‘My peace I give to you.’ That offer is attractive to people in the Middle East because, like you, they want peace. We live in a tumultuous world. Come to Jesus, and all that tumult becomes external.”

You may have never been to the Middle East. But the conflicts and tensions there likely spark fear in your heart. Sharp political divisions in many a country may too—not to mention road rage, mass shootings, natural disasters, the threat of many forms of terrorism, and personal trials too numerous to list. 

God’s Word overflows with wise counsel for our troubled times. It begins and ends with the Prince of Peace.

If you have Jesus Christ, all tumult becomes external. 

Jesus is the hope for our troubled times! 

He is THE answer to finding peace.

-charles swindoll