Testimony: Corrie Ten Boom

If you do not know the power of God's love, you have got to listen to this powerful testimony.

Corrie Ten Boom was a watchmaker and during WWII, she was arrested for saving over 800 Jews. She was taken to Ravensbruck concentration camp. She was witness to many horrible things, but also saw God answer prayers and work in amazing ways in her life. One of the most incredible stories happened years later when she was speaking and she met a Nazi guard from the camp she was in. She was able to forgive this man who had killed she sister. This is an incredible testimony, please listen to it!

http://media.sermonindex.net/12/SID12273.mp3

God's.Love.

It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavy-set man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken.

And that's when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones. It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man.

Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent. ...

"You mentioned Ravensbruck in your talk," he was saying. "I was a guard in there." No, he did not remember me.

"I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us." "But since that time," he went on, "I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fraulein, ..." his hand came out, ... "will you forgive me?"

And I stood there — I whose sins had every day to be forgiven — and could not. Betsie had died in that place — could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?

It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.

For I had to do it — I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. "If you do not forgive men their trespasses," Jesus says, "neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." ...

And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion — I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. "Jesus, help me!" I prayed silently. "I can lift my hand, I can do that much. You supply the feeling."

And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.

"I forgive you, brother!" I cried. "With all my heart!"

For a long moment we grasped each other's hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God's love so intensely as I did then.

. absolute.obedience.

I read this devotion this morning and just wanted to share it:

It was said of Christ that he endured and was obedient to his heavenly Father, not because of fear, but because of the joy that was set before him. He laid aside all weights and ran the race with patience. He endured shame and never fainted or wearied in his mind, because he saw the glorious rewards of
obedience.

Shouldn't we be getting weary enough of all the inner turmoil that we begin to hunger after the glorious riches promised in Christ? Fear is not the best motivator toward obedience—love is! After all, divine threats were finally ignored by the children of Israel. Even God's audible voice and his frightful
thunder could not keep disobedient Israelites from dancing around the golden calf. Only a deep, abiding love and reverence for God could have kept them from such disobedience.

It is sweet surrender to the will of God that opens the heavens to us. It is the yielding of every sin, every act of disobedience, that allows us the revelation of who Christ really is. The Scripture says, "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.”(1 John 3:6).

Could it be possible that we, through living in disobedience, become distant from him? Could it be that we our own way because we have never had a revelation of Christ, his hatred of sin, and his glory and mercy? In plain language, "He who lives in disobedience has never truly seen Christ in reality."

Jesus said, "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." (John 14:21).

What greater reward for loving obedience could we want than having Christ reveal himself to us? What a simple formula for such a great revelation. "Love me enough to obey me—I will love you and show you who I am!" You can read all about him, study his nature, his historical background, but you will never get to know him until you do such a simple, basic thing as obeying him completely in all things.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false. . . I tell you the truth, you shall see heaven open.”(John 1:47, 51).

The very moment we surrender, and commit ourselves to absolute obedience, a marvelous healing power is released in our inner man. No more dread of God, or hell, or retribution. No more fear of what men can do to us. Instead, the Spirit of God begins to flood us with new light, new hope, great joy, glorious peace and abounding faith.

.poetry.

He stood by a crowd who would soon decide,

If life or death would pay for all the cost,

He would become the groom and we the bride,

So that one day we would not bear the loss.

The burdens that he carried made him trip,

As he walked to the hill where he would die,

The crowds would spit and soldiers would him whip,

But soon his spirit would be in the sky.

When we believe in Jesus, count the cost,

And be to every ear and every eye,

A witness of the Gospel to the lost,

So when they see our passion and ask why,

We can lead them to Jesus and the Cross

And never again will anyone be lost.