Joseph Stowell tells of a conversation he had with a pastor in the former Soviet Union.

"Stalin's reign was the worst time," said the pastor. "I had two KGB agents come to me and say, 'We'll take care of you. You stay the pastor of that church, but once a week give us a report on every one of these Christians. Work for us.'

"I can't do that to God, and I can't do that to this flock," he replied.

So they sent him to a prison camp in Siberia. He endured the forced labor and the cold for ten years. But he did find other Christians in the camp, and God used these believers to fulfill his purposes.

"I was a carpenter building towns for Stalin," said the pastor. "We'd go out in sixty-mile radiuses, and there we would fellowship together. Today there are hundreds of churches in Siberia as a result of these small prisoner fellowship groups."

When men refuse to compromise, they may lose much, but through them God will fulfill his higher eternal purpose.