Those who suffer will reign

We suffer, we shall also reign with him... (2, Tim. 2:12)

Dear brothers and sisters,

When the Soviet army invaded my homeland, Romania, a Russian officer entered into the house of a priest and shouted him:

He said,

The Russian officer took out his revolver, pointed it at the pastor and said,

The priest did not know what would happen. He thought in a minute he could be shot; but he was a faithful priest and said,

The officer put back his revolver, embraced the priest, and said,

In Communist and Islamic countries so many Christians have been given the choice to live, denying the Gospel; and then to go to hell (2, Tim. 2:12). Or better to die affirming the truth of the Gospel and go to heaven. We have the Gospel. We have also the duty to witness its truth to others. If we neglect this our responsability, will we not be in the situation of the men in Beth-shemesh who had the Ark of the Covenant? (1, Sam.6:19). They could have had so many blessings, not only heavenly, but earthly blessings because the Ark of the Covenant was with them. They did not understand their privilege.

I speak in the name of The Voice of the Martyrs. We smuggle Gospels into Communist and Islamic countries. Here was a great debate when we started smuggling. Christians were divided. Some said you should not smuggle. Others said nobody can forbid the Word of God in the world of God. So some were for and some were against. We never entered into the debate. We did not say a word for it. We did not say a word against it. We smuggled.

We continue today to bring Gospels into closed countries.

Our mission sent a Canadian to Russia. He was of Russian descent and spoke fluent Russian. He was in a train and opposite him was a Russian farmer. The Russian farmer saw he was a foreigner, and asked him where he was from. The man replied . He was asked if he had ever read a Gospel. Our courrier said,

Then the farmer asked him a hard gripping question, he said,

“I have been told 20 years ago such a verse exists. The sun gives light. It gives warmth. It gives life. I would like that my life should not be thrown away. It should be useful as the sun is useful to every living being. I would like to shine like the sun, but I have been told the promise is only to the righteous. The righteous will shine like the sun and I don’t know how to become righteous. Could you please tell me how I can become righteous?”

Then our brother said, Then the Russian asked,

There are so many in this world who thirst after the Word of God. We have it. We have it in all its richness. We can have many Gospels. Much of mankind cannot have a Gospel. Is it right? Does the Gospel not say that we should be the light of the world? The light communicates itself to others. Go, be My witness. Teach. Spread the Word. We have not done it and over half the population of the world is under Godless government.

We are very much like the men in Beth-shemesh who had what nobody else in the whole world had. They were the only ones to have the Ark of the Covenant with the Ten Commandments and the blessing of God connected with it. They scorned what they had. They did not know to use well their privilege. In the end they lost it as we might lose it.

How great this gift is. We have 1200 pages in all kinds of translations and interpretations. Nations are starving for the Word of God. We have it. We don’t value it. We are like those in Beth-shemesh. Value your Gospel. When you ponder it, see that it speaks about the eternal faith of souls.

The Russians have souls. The Chinese have souls and the Mongolians, the Koreans, Vietnamese and Sudanese. Ask yourself,

In our body we have also one of the smallest glands - the lacrymal gland. The gland which gives tears. Probably God wishes us to weep. To weep is a Christian obligation. In Romans 12 it is written, That is a commandment of God. Weep.

When strive to do this, but the same God who has said these things has said,

There are so many who weep to have a Gospel. Weep together with them and join hands with us to help them.

In Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Believe in God, no matter what

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

A legend says that Moses once sat near a well in meditation. A wayfarer stopped to drink from the well and when he did so his purse fell from his girdle into the sand.

The man departed. Shortly afterwards another man passed near the well, saw the purse and picked it up.

Later a third man stopped to assuage his thirst and went to sleep in the shadow of the well. Meanwhile, the first man had discovered that his purse was missing and assuming that he must have lost it at the well, returned, awoke the sleeper (who of course knew nothing) and demanded his money back.

An argument followed, and irate, the first man slew the latter. Where upon Moses asked God, "You see, therefore men do not believe you. There is too much evil and injustice in the world. Why should the first man have lost his purse and then become a murderer? Why should the second have gotten a purse full of gold without having worked for it? The third was completely innocent. Why was he slain?"

God answered, "For once and only once, I will give you an explanation. I cannot do it at every step. The first man was a thief’s son. The purse contained money stolen by his father from the father of the second man, who finding the purse only found what was due him. The third was a murderer whose crime had never been revealed and who recieved from the first the punishment he deserved. In the future believe that there is sense and righteousness in what transpires even when you do not understand."

Yours in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Grace of God

Are we good? Are we seasoning the meals of others? Are we giving flavor to other men’s lives? Or do we leave them without salt, as we prisoners were once left without salt? The simple fact that the Gospel calls us salt is not enough.

How do we become good? We have to rely utterly on the grace of God. You become good when you make the great discovery that you are not good, and can never be so. Then you ask God to make you so. The result is that you die, and Christ comes to live within you. All of his righteousness and goodness as you are to proclaim yourself the owner of any estate that you have inherited or been given legally as a gift. Either all the Christians have been fools, or a Christian can say to Jesus, “You are me!” or like Luther in his commentary on Galatians, “A Christian is Christ”.

Now, how should I proceed practically to be not me, but Him? The Gospel speaks about the foolishness of the cross, even about the foolishness of God. So let us learn from the madmen.

There are madmen eho believe that they are others. Each behaves according to what he reckons himself to be. The man who thinks he is Napoleon will put on a tricorn hat and curse the English for having defeated him at Waterloo. Those who think they are St. Francis will fast and pray a great deal and speak holy phrases, even if they do not make sense. The man who reckons himself to be Churchill will always carry a thick cigar in his mouth and talk about politics. What you reckon yourself to be determines your behavior.

Faithfully consider yourself what so many other saints have considered themselves to be: you are He - Christlike.

This mad presupposition will have the same result as with other madmen. More and more, you will come to behave like Him. As Paul said, “For me to live is Christ”.

It requires faith to believe yourself to be He, when you are a sinner. But what do we really know about the lives of the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi? We know their prophecies, not their virtues and failures. You become a child of God by faith, by virtues and by good deeds.

Have this faith in Him, and the salt can never lose its saltness. You will become the unalterable formula of “goodness”.

By faith, lay down your own life completely. Deny the self. Cease to “practice” its virtues as much as its lusts. You have been crucified with Christ, and have suffered the fate of every crucified man: you have died. Yet you live. Since you exist after having died, you must have been born again, this time not from an earthly union; you are begotten from God. You are once again a child, an “angel”. You have been born with a new, angelic, divine character.

The priority of repentance

“Who among you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them does not leave the ninety-nine in the wasteland and follow the lostone until he finds it?” Lk 15:4

Almost half of the Catholics in the USA and Canad are not practicing their faith. They don’t even go to Mass on Sunday. They are “fallen-away”. Yet, almost all church personnel, finances, and activities are directed to the ones who have not fallen away.

The shepherds of the church today certainly don’t leave ninety-nine Christians and go to find a lost one. Therefore, Jesus’ idea of leaving the many in order to seek the one seems strange to us.

Jesus has this “funny” idea because He putsa much higher priority on repentance than we do. According to Mark’s Gospel, “Repent” is the first command Jesus gives in His public ministry (Mk 1:15).

Calling us to repentance is such a high priority for Jesus, paul was even happy that the Corinthians were sorrowful since “sorrow for God’s sake produces a repentance without regrets, leading to salvation” (2 Cor 7:10). “There will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent” (Lk 15:7).

Repent. Go to Confession. Give Jesus and all heaven cause to rejoice.

Theophore

Tell the Gospel to Others

By Richard Wrumbrand

Our dearly beloved,

“Go into all the world and preach the Gospel” (Mark 16:15)

The “world” into which the apostles were ordered to go eas not very big. They had no idea about the existence of the Americas, Japan, Norway or South Africa. They and their immediate successors did the best they could in the small world they knew.

When my wife, Sabina and I were converted in a tiny church in Romania, we knew nothing about the existence of world missions. When we read this verse, we thought we were beginning to fulfill its mandate by visiting Sabina’s family in the little town of Czernowitz to tell them about Jesus.

They were an Orthodox Jewish family, and we arrived on Sabbath eve. Her parents Elias and Rebecca, her three younger sisters, and her little brother received us with love.

At the meal, I was asked to sing the prescribed prayers and hymns in Hebrew. Having prepared myself for this, I was able to perform well.

Then we told them what happened to us: Previously we had both fallen away from Judaism, in fact, from any belief in God, but now a miracle had taken place. Some goyim (Gentiles) who had become Jews inwardly through faith in Jesus, whom they called “Messiah” and “King of the Jews,” had shared with us their belief. We had never known before that Jesus was ours, but now we had found salvation through Him. He brought us back to God and also to our Jewish people.

“He is the Messiah”, we assured my wife’s family.We had feared that we might be chased from their house for what we were telling them, but the contrary happened. My mother-in-law Rebecca knelt with us in prayer to Jesus that same evening. Encouraged by her example, Sabina’s younger sisters also accepted Jesus. The next week they went to church. My father-in-law encouraged them to walk in the new way.

Prayer had accomplished this miracle. It has opened doors of brass.

For Sabina and me this was our first missionary trip. Others followed. Eventually we were both jailed and sent from one prison and forced labor camp to another. There Christians were forbidden to preach, but they drew aside the veil that often covers Christ’s beauty on the faces of believers. It was a very useful and beautiful time.

After 30 years of missionary work in Romania, interrupted by 14 years in prison, we came to the USA, where Christians who heard our message formed this mission. Today we spread the message of the persecuted church in 70 countries through the printed page, radio, and personal testimonies. We thank all of you who have made this possible.

Still, we are not satisfied. We want to reach the whole world. Yet we tell no one, “Leave your religion or your lack of religion and take mine instead.” Rather, we say, “Consider your ways” (Hag.1:7). Enter in silence, in quietness. Then you will hear a gentle knock at the door of your heart. It is the knock of the heavenly Bridegroom, who wishes your soul to be His bride.