Hi, I'm Susie Larson.

Thanks for listening to the podcast of Susie Larson Live.

It's only just a matter of it's not.

Welcome to

Susie Larson Live. Always so honored to get to spend this time with you. In fact, I look forward to

bringing you conversations every single day that hopefully inspire you in your faith walk, that

deepen your understanding of God's word, and that heightens your awareness of his very real

presence in your life. I don't know about you, but I've been profoundly burdened for what's

happening in the Middle East, and even for the sudden rise of anti-Semitism in our own nation,

Lord of mercy. You know, behind the scenes, I'll just tell you, I've been fasting, I've been

weeping, I've been mourning, I've been praying for this situation. And I don't do, I don't do, like, debates on social and

political issues on social media. I just absolutely won't. It's just, to me, it's adding to

the noise. I mean, some, they feel they're obeying God and taking their stand, and I'm not. If they're supposed to do that, they're supposed, I'm not. But I do take my time behind the scenes to try to be part of the solution in the best way I know how, but really felt burdened today that we need to talk about it. And I couldn't think of anybody that I would trust more to get insights from on what's happening and what God wants us to know, what God wants us to do, then our good friend Tom Doyle.

And we often have he and his wife, Joanne, on the show, to get a faith perspective on the Middle East.

And Tom writes this, and I've quoted this before, but I think you need to hear it today.

These words were published, I think, years ago, but they're now words for us right now.

He says, there's no doubt about it.

We live in a dangerous world. But instead of motivating Christians in the West to action, today's headlines appear to paralyze us. We're never called to live in fear. Even though the times we're living in are frightening, we are right on course with the very plan of God for this world. Things are not falling apart. They're falling into place. In some of his books that you want to read, his books read like novels.

They're unbelievable stories of Muslims coming to the faith, of escaping for their lives or actually giving their lives.

But they're such storytellers, Tom and Joanne, that you will forget to breathe as you're

reading their books.

And a few of them are standing in the fire, courageous Christians living in

...