North Korea has been described as a prison, a death-like place where residents are trapped, unable to not only cross the border but forbidden to even travel their country.

The government runs all television and monitors all media. There is no public internet access. Because their dictator is presented to his country as a supreme being, any god is his competitor, any honor of deity is treason. So Bibles, churches, and prayer meetings are illegal. Jesus is against the law.

But Jesus IS in North Korea. Without holiday spectacle, choirs, or Christian literature, Jesus is loved. Faith in Him, plain and simple, is strengthening His followers.

Many Christians in North Korea have found such a refuge in Jesus that they don’t see their lives as imprisoned. The head of Voice of the Martyrs Korea says that God has grown near to North Koreans in a way “the rest of us may not even be able to imagine fully.”

One Christian there confessed, “we have neither money nor freedom, but we have Christ and we’ve found He’s sufficient.”

Where the democratic world sees a prison, many North Korean Christians have found refuge. Even in their God-forbidden country, God has provided a comforting place in Him.

Surely He can be our refuge too.