The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promise I made to the people of Israel and Judah,

in those days and at that time, I will make a righteous branch sprout from David's line.

He will do what is just and right in the land.

In those days, Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will live in safety. This is the name by which

he will be called the Lord, our righteous Savior. This is the word of the Lord. The details we had

were this. This man, this American businessman, a father and husband, had been what they deemed unlawfully detained.

He had been suddenly imprisoned by dangerous government officials.

The reasons for why this happened were not clear, nor were they really given.

All his wife and kids knew was that he wouldn't be returning to America, at least not soon,

and that what lay ahead of him could very much be the price he hoped he'd never have to pay.

This friend had moved his entire family and life to a country that most would and do avoid.

A war-torn place in the Middle East is not most people's ideal location to raise a family

or start a business, but because he loved these people and he loves Jesus, he went. Over the last

two years, this man has talked to his wife and children for just under a total of 30 minutes.

And what they know is that he has been sick and untreated.

He is malnourished, and he has experienced abuse in many forms.

He is suffering and not just in his body.

He has been stripped of every power and liberty he once knew.

He is giving his life, and it is also being taken. And there is, at least on paper,

no actual way forward and no way out. And yet, despite all of this, he is holding on. He is in a way

that his wife has beautifully articulated, being kept and held by an invisible

reality that humans are rarely able to capture or articulate.

...