Monday, December 7, 2009

A Letter

It was once said to me,

"The Lord will not have a tattered bride" meaning she will not be beaten and abused by the adversary...thus the rapture of the church...the snatching away of his bride.

At the time, I had nothing to say as I had not studied the 'rapture' however, I knew in my spirit that we Americans were not held up as a 'special' people to escape such persecution as other nations...what, are we greater than the apostle themselves, who were martyred for Messiah?

If I could have that conversation again this would be my response:

A Letter from Corrie Ten Boom

The world is deathly ill. It is dying.
The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there
is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of
living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It
is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers.

Christians are ambassadors for
Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world.
And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi
concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving
Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia,
Poland and Belgium were herded into a room
built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two
representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord's only
representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there,
things changed. Jesus said, "In the world you shall have
tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We
too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled
with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the
Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and
persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you,
though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I
can now come to shouting "Halleluyah! Halleluyah!" for I have found
where it is written that Jesus said,

"He that overcometh shall inherit all
things:

and I will be His God,

and he shall be My son."

This is the future and hope of this world. Not that
the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a
dying world.

Betsy and I, in the concentration camp,
prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.

"Yes, the Lord will heal me,", Betsy said with confidence.

She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on
the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that
day.

It was hard for me to understand, to
believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy's
death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the
Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that
Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most of them have little knowledge of what is
already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints
are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China,
the Christians were told, "Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you
will be translated – raptured." Then came a terrible persecution.
Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China
say, sadly,

"We
have failed. We should have made the
people strong for persecution,

rather than telling them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the
tribulation comes, – to stand and not faint."

I feel
I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is
possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the
tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world
has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are
next.

Since I have already gone through prison
for Jesus' sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good
Bible text I think, "Hey, I can use that in the time of
tribulation. " Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a
camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer
each other up by saying, "Nothing could be any worse than today." But
we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse
that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,
happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but
on your part He is
glorified."

(I Peter 3:14)

I found myself saying, "Halleluyah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is
glorified!"

In America,
the churches sing, "Let the congregation escape tribulation" , but in China and Africa
the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred
thousand Christians were martyred in Africa.
Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad
political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that
when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak
dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death
at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to
escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into
power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to
come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested
and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened
with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the
district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day I was to speak in a
little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All
during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking,
"Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the
next one?"

The room was hot and stuffy with insects
that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs
over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

When I was a little girl, I said,
"I went to my father and said, "Daddy, I am afraid that I will never
be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ."

"Tell me," said Father, "When you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give
you the money for the ticket? Three
weeks before?"

"No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get
on the train."

"That is right," my father said, "and so it is with God's
strength. Our Father in Heaven knows
when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.

He will supply all you need – just in time…"

My African friends were nodding and
smiling.

Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began
singing,

" In the sweet, by and by,

we shall meet on that beautiful shore."

Later that week, half the congregation of that
church was executed.

I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.

But I must tell you something. I was so
happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their
leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that
Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained
faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution?

First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it,
make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as
we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work
in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History,

but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive

and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy
Spirit
. This is no optional
command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could
never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not
waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without
it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage
each other
. But we must
not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the
dominant force of every Christian's life.

Many are fearful of the coming
tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that
after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that
I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and
I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong,
the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but
we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening
of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself
when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who
will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not
once has He ever left me, or let me down.

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust
Him", (Job 13:15) for
I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life.

Halleluyah!"

-Corrie Ten Boom, 1974

<>

2 comments:

  1. I am speachless at the tug in my heart - thank you! With love

    ReplyDelete
  2. how odd to find confirmation of His Word to me here in these pages... but then again perhaps not so odd after all.

    Blessing my sister, blessings

    ReplyDelete