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What does it really mean to be a Christian? In a world where everything from sports to politics, social media to podcasts, and movies to television vies for our attention, we need to get back to what is essential. We need to know who we truly are and who we serve. When people finally grasp who they are in Christ and what their participation means to their local church, everything changes. Life begins to make sense. Their purpose becomes clear. Their mission through their local church is confirmed. Their hearts start longing to cooperate with God in the company of fellow believers. 

"Will you pray for me?" is a question pastors hear every day. But when have you heard a pastor ask that question for themselves? Frankly, it's rare. That was the question Thom Rainer asked his congregation. The response was overwhelming. Within two days, more than one hundred people committed to praying for him, and the church was transformed over the next year. Thom cannot imagine what would have happened if he hadn't overcome his initial reluctance to be that vulnerable with his congregation.

While in solitary confinement for three years in a subterranean prison cell with no Bible, pencil or paper, Pastor Richard Wurmbrand composed hundreds of sermons. He committed them to memory by summarizing them in rhymes and delivered them nightly to an unseen congregation. These sermons, the fruit of extreme depravation, demonstrate in a very personal way the relevance of Scripture to an imprisoned pastor—and to us today—while revealing Pastor Wurmbrand's thoughts and questions while locked in a solitary cell.

While imprisoned for 14 years in Communist Romania, Richard Wurmbrand spent three years completely alone, isolated from all human contact in solitary confinement. Yet he was not separated from his own thoughts or the companionship of his Creator, and he spent those long, lonely months in confinement contemplating the truths of God's Word and composing poems and sermons in his mind. In his book 100 Prison Meditations, Wurmbrand shares a collection of those contemplations as he examines the Scriptures from the confines of a Communist prison cell.

Richard Wurmbrand spent three years in solitary confinement during his 14-year imprisonment in Communist Romania. In The Answer to the Atheist's Handbook, conceived during his solitary confinement, Wurmbrand challenges the arguments for atheism as proposed by the Soviet Academy of Science's Atheist's Handbook. Throughout the Communist world, the teachings of the Atheist's Handbook held supreme authority. But Wurmbrand demonstrates that the atheistic worldview leaves more questions unanswered than it settles.

Most of us know the messages delivered by the prophet Isaiah, but do we know the story behind the man? Raised in the king’s palace, Isaiah, unlike other prophets, was given a unique perspective to counsel kings and foretell the coming of the King of Kings. His family relationships most likely created an internal conflict for him as he delivered the difficult messages Jehovah God had for His people and their kings. Long before Isaiah ever knew the events that would unfold in his life, God had been at work in him to mold and shape him into a man to whom He could entrust this assignment.

Who is God? Why am I here? How should I live? These are a few of the crucial questions about life that must be answered. What’s exciting is that God has provided those answers in Scripture. In I Believe, Thom Rainer outlines the essentials of the Christian faith in a clear and succinct way. You’ll learn about prayer, church, angels, heaven, the Trinity, and much more. Listen to and discuss these Christian beliefs in a small group at your local church. It was within a church that Thom Rainer first experienced the power of these profound yet simple truths to utterly transform his life.