Wood Overlaid With Gold
“He (Moses) put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil” (Exodus 40:26)
Beloved brothere and sisters,
It is written that Moses put the golden altar, on which incense was burned, in the tabernacle of meeting. Was this altar gold^ The Bible calls it a gold altar. But, if we look at Exodus 30:1,3, we have a surprise. There God tells Moses, @You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood…and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around.
So it was a wooden altar with a little bit of gold on it, God calls it the golden altar.
We ask ourselves often, how does God look upon me^ There is so much wickedness in me. We sometimes have thoughts that are so evil, hell would be ashamed of them. We also have bad deeds. We are wooden, but God asks Himself, Is this wood overlaid with gold? If it is overlaid with a little bit of gold, He will not call it a wooden altar overlaid with gold, but a golden altar.
We have Christ, the whole Christ, living in us. God sees us as being Christians through and through, children of God, because Christ is in our hearts.
We continue to broadcast the gospel to China. We receive very few responses. Years ago, one listener smuggled an interesting letter through Hong Kong. He said the following: “I was in the Red Guard. I was a teenager. I did not believe in God, in any heaven, in any hell, in any Savior, nothing at all. Just playing with the radio, I accidentally tuned into your transmissions. I was interested. I tuned in again and again. Now I believe in Christ. But I have two questions. The first one: Does God receive anybody from Red China? In your broadcasts you speak about the church; but with us, it is so that God is in heaven, we are in Red China and we have almost no churches. Can God accept somebody without a church? Is a church absolutely necessary?” The poor lad did not know how many churches he had. Those who love Christ are in the one church universal.
Then he asked a second question: “Would you please teach me to pray? You start every radio program with a prayer. I would like to pray, but I don’t know how.”
He who has never been in a church, who does not know the Lord’s Prayer, who has never heard a liturgy, says what he imagines prayer to be. You can be a doctor in theology and you would not know about prayer, but this former Communist knows. He says, "“ imagine that prayer means to speak the whole day so that after everything you say, you might be able to add Amen."”What a beautiful definition of prayer.
This manner of praying we have learned from a Chinese Communist who has heard perhaps three or four times a short broadcast telling him what the gospel is. We don’t know anything more about this Chinese man. He is uninstructed in matters of God. It is wood, but it is wood overlaid with a little bit of gold. He guessed from a few broadcasts what the Bible is about. A yearning after a church. A yearning after speaking to God in a manner that is pleasing to Him. God calls such a bit of wood, overlaid with a little bit of gold, a golden altar.
I remember speaking with a Russian officer about Christ. Everything I told him was new to him. They learned in school that religion is an invention of the American imperialists, that it is all stupid, and that the Bible is not true. When I told him the story, he listened attentively and said; “Sir, the story is not entirely new to me. On an autumn afternoon I watched through the window of my apartment and I saw in the garden the big branches of a tree. I said to myself, “These same branches will be full with leaves, flowers, and afterwards with fruit. ‘I spit on the earth and the earth rewards me by giving me wheat and flowers. I throw black coal into the fire and the fire changes this black coal into white and beautiful flames. I love the person or thing – I don’t know who or what it is – that fills bare branches with fruits. You can spit upon Him and He will love you, and reward you with the perfume of flowers. I love the One to whom you can come and He can change this soul into a beautiful white, burning flame. I thank you very much that you have told me His name, Jesus Christ. I did not know the name, but I had a sentiment that such a Being existed.”
He did not know much. It was a wooden altar. His life might have been wrong, but God observed in him that there was something golden, a seeking of the highest, a seeking after God. Because of this, God rewarded him. He brought him into touch with men who knew God, so he could become His child.
There are sometimes such beginnings in men which we would consider to be a trifle, not worth mentioning, but which are highly valuable with God. You might have only the small beginnings of a Christian life, but God values it very much. We are frail. We are human. We are weak. All that remains seems to be wood, but God who sees the heart knows how to find the hidden gold.
Yours in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
Beloved brothere and sisters,
It is written that Moses put the golden altar, on which incense was burned, in the tabernacle of meeting. Was this altar gold^ The Bible calls it a gold altar. But, if we look at Exodus 30:1,3, we have a surprise. There God tells Moses, @You shall make an altar to burn incense on; you shall make it of acacia wood…and you shall make for it a molding of gold all around.
So it was a wooden altar with a little bit of gold on it, God calls it the golden altar.
We ask ourselves often, how does God look upon me^ There is so much wickedness in me. We sometimes have thoughts that are so evil, hell would be ashamed of them. We also have bad deeds. We are wooden, but God asks Himself, Is this wood overlaid with gold? If it is overlaid with a little bit of gold, He will not call it a wooden altar overlaid with gold, but a golden altar.
We have Christ, the whole Christ, living in us. God sees us as being Christians through and through, children of God, because Christ is in our hearts.
We continue to broadcast the gospel to China. We receive very few responses. Years ago, one listener smuggled an interesting letter through Hong Kong. He said the following: “I was in the Red Guard. I was a teenager. I did not believe in God, in any heaven, in any hell, in any Savior, nothing at all. Just playing with the radio, I accidentally tuned into your transmissions. I was interested. I tuned in again and again. Now I believe in Christ. But I have two questions. The first one: Does God receive anybody from Red China? In your broadcasts you speak about the church; but with us, it is so that God is in heaven, we are in Red China and we have almost no churches. Can God accept somebody without a church? Is a church absolutely necessary?” The poor lad did not know how many churches he had. Those who love Christ are in the one church universal.
Then he asked a second question: “Would you please teach me to pray? You start every radio program with a prayer. I would like to pray, but I don’t know how.”
He who has never been in a church, who does not know the Lord’s Prayer, who has never heard a liturgy, says what he imagines prayer to be. You can be a doctor in theology and you would not know about prayer, but this former Communist knows. He says, "“ imagine that prayer means to speak the whole day so that after everything you say, you might be able to add Amen."”What a beautiful definition of prayer.
This manner of praying we have learned from a Chinese Communist who has heard perhaps three or four times a short broadcast telling him what the gospel is. We don’t know anything more about this Chinese man. He is uninstructed in matters of God. It is wood, but it is wood overlaid with a little bit of gold. He guessed from a few broadcasts what the Bible is about. A yearning after a church. A yearning after speaking to God in a manner that is pleasing to Him. God calls such a bit of wood, overlaid with a little bit of gold, a golden altar.
I remember speaking with a Russian officer about Christ. Everything I told him was new to him. They learned in school that religion is an invention of the American imperialists, that it is all stupid, and that the Bible is not true. When I told him the story, he listened attentively and said; “Sir, the story is not entirely new to me. On an autumn afternoon I watched through the window of my apartment and I saw in the garden the big branches of a tree. I said to myself, “These same branches will be full with leaves, flowers, and afterwards with fruit. ‘I spit on the earth and the earth rewards me by giving me wheat and flowers. I throw black coal into the fire and the fire changes this black coal into white and beautiful flames. I love the person or thing – I don’t know who or what it is – that fills bare branches with fruits. You can spit upon Him and He will love you, and reward you with the perfume of flowers. I love the One to whom you can come and He can change this soul into a beautiful white, burning flame. I thank you very much that you have told me His name, Jesus Christ. I did not know the name, but I had a sentiment that such a Being existed.”
He did not know much. It was a wooden altar. His life might have been wrong, but God observed in him that there was something golden, a seeking of the highest, a seeking after God. Because of this, God rewarded him. He brought him into touch with men who knew God, so he could become His child.
There are sometimes such beginnings in men which we would consider to be a trifle, not worth mentioning, but which are highly valuable with God. You might have only the small beginnings of a Christian life, but God values it very much. We are frail. We are human. We are weak. All that remains seems to be wood, but God who sees the heart knows how to find the hidden gold.
Yours in Christ,
Richard Wurmbrand
Labels: God, Richard Wurmbrand
Posted by Dominique Péladeau for the Rev. Radu Roscanu | 4:21 AM
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