With God in Solitary Confinement

Dear brothers and sisters

... When we hear the cries of someone being beaten, all the others begin to bang on their doors, crying: «Help! Help! Stop beating!» There is nobody to hear us, except those who are beating and who now, instead of beating only one, beat us all up, one alter the other. You hear the doors being unlocked. Now it is the fourth prisoner to my right. Follows the third. I have only two left. Then I hear the cries of my nearest neighbour. Only two or three minutes left - how long these minutes are - and then I will be beaten, too. What is the sense of a collective protest here? What is the sense of expressing your solidarity with those who are beaten? It is non-sense, which means that it is pure love. Love does not think about what it will achieve, what it will gain. Love does not think at all. Love does not tare about reason. Why should it?

If we are to love our enemies, why should we not love reason, that bitter critic, too? We can succeed in doing this. But we shall never persuade reason to love love. Reason considered Jesus and Paul to be madmen. My reason condemns me as mad, too.

This time I attained a paroxysm of unreasonableness. When the guards entered to give me my share of the beating I jumped at one of them and kicked him. I am so thin. They are so many. It was foolish. Reason tells me: "Christ taught you to turn the other cheek." I answer: "Shut up! I have to turn the other cheek when I am slapped, not when my brother is tortured and my whole nation is oppressed: "

Now I am punished to stay, I don’t know for how long, in a cell I have known about for some time. It is full of dozens of rats which, being hungry, jump around, not allowing me to deep.

I have just passed the first hours here. I am not tired. I watch the rats and am reminded of Heisenberg’s law of the indeterminacy of elementary particles. (How foolish to think about physics in such circumstances.) When you bail water, you know that the mass of molecules as a whole enters into quicker movement. But what each single molecule will do is unpredictable. Some continue to move at the old speed, and some even slow down their movements. I observe the same thing happening with the rats. I had thought about them as a species. But rats are also individuals, and each one has a character of its own. Some are running around looking for food which does not exist. Some are trying to gnaw the rags I have on my feet. I don’t even drive them away. Some are gnawing their own tails. Some seem litre philosophers, resigned. They sit quietly and await for their death. They have given up the search.

Dear rats! It is written: "The young lions roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God." And God gives them their meat. Sometimes he gives them as meat the bodies of his saints. And why not? If a saint eats the meat of a guiltless lamb in a religious ceremony, why should not his own turn come, and his own guiltless life be eaten up by a lion? Shouldn’t you, rats, also seek your meat from God? I used to recite in church every Sunday that God is the maker of ail things, visible and invisible. So he is your maker too, although I don’t see the slightest reason why rats should exist. But neither do the Communists see any reason why Wurmbrand should exist. God’s thoughts are not my thoughts.

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

Patience in asking

Christ said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

He thus commanded us to ask, and pledged Himself to the giving. But this implies asking earnestly and sincerely, putting all other things out of our minds.

He also urges patience, warning that the door may not open immediately, but that we should persist in our knocking.

If you continue asking, though the answer is not there at once, you surely will receive. This was why the door was shut - that you would take the initiative to knock.

The answer will come. Would you, as a father, respond with a stone when your son asks for bread? Consider that if you persist in asking, yet receive not, maybe you are asking for a stone.

The fact you are the son does not assure that you will be asking for something worthy. So ask for nothing worldly. Being a son can, in fact, work to your disadvantage, since you may then be more likely to ask for that which does not have merit.

There are two essentials to effective prayer: 1) that you pray earnestly, and 2) that you ask that which you ought to ask.

If you claim to have asked for spiritual benefits, but did not receive, it is because you did not "knock at the door" with sufficient earnestness, or you have in other ways made yourself unworthy to receive what you ask, or did cease your prayers prematurely.

In no case is God responsible for prayers being unanswered. If we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our children, our heavenly Father knows even better how to provide for our needs.

One should not have such confidence in prayer alone that he neglects performing good works; nor should one trust only in his own efforts. We should instead seek help from above, while also contributing our own efforts.

"In all things," He said, "whatsoever you would have men do to you, you also should do to them."

Virtue is consistent with each of our natures. Each of us knows his duties, so it is not possible for us to find any excuse in being ignorant of what we should do.

Saint John Chrysostom

God’s Hero

By Richard Wurmbrand


Dear friends,

Violence is one of the chief gods of our day. A great portion of television programming is devoted to the present fighting among nations, murder, robbery, and rape in the large cities, and television dramas with violence as their theme. Murder and fighting are before us constantly.

Stress is placed upon carrying a gun for self-defense, or learning different forms of fighting so that the individual can protect himself. Some Christian people train their sons in various forms of self-defense. It may be better for the child to teach him to trust in the Lord than how to injure an opponent. Why should we teach our children to be violent when this is not the way of the Lord?

In the United States, as well as in some other countries, the violent man is glorified. He is the masculine hero who carries a machine gun in each hand or is expert in karate. He is not God’s hero.

God’s Hero is the Lord Jesus Christ. Of all men who have lived on the earth the Lord Jesus was the strongest in character, the most courageous. We should imitate Him in every aspect of His Person, not the reckless, wild, lustful adamic man of violence.

Whoever admires and seeks to imitate the violent adamic man is eating food offered to idols. The demons are gratified when human beings injure and kill each other.

Those who live by violence shall die by violence.

God’s saints are not violent people and they do not admire or practice violence.

It used to be that people would go to some form of entertainment once a month, or sometimes once a week. Now people are entertained by the television several hours a day. This is neither wholesome nor godly.

We do not need this much entertainment! The believer will never make a success of the Christian discipleship until he spends time each day in prayer, in waiting on the Lord, in meditating in the Scriptures. Religious devotion of this kind leaves little time for watching the antics of Satan and his demons.

Time spent in front of the television set is not only unprofitable, it is harmful—destructive of spiritual development. We have been commanded to not be conformed to the present world. The television set conforms us to the present world. We have been exhorted to make good use of our time. Watching television is not time occupied with building the Kingdom of God.

The five demon gods, lust, violence, drunkenness and revelry, covetousness, and witchcraft compose the great bulk of television programming. Those who occupy a portion of each day with television watching are partaking of these five gods and shall suffer accordingly.

The Christian family should never permit their children to watch the secular television… There are alternatives to television, such as indoor games, outdoor games, reading, puzzles, filmstrips, and video cassettes. There are a multitude of religious filmstrips and video cassettes that are useful for acquainting children with Christian values…

To sit the child in front of the secular television programs is to fill him or her with Satan’s values. Is this what we want?

If we deliver our children to Satan in this manner they will turn against us when they are older and hand us over to the authorities for being religious fanatics. The day of persecution is at hand!

To watch the secular television programs, even the news, can be to partake of food offered to demons if we do not continue to be diligent in prayer. We know the news is biased in favor of non-Christian values and we must keep this in the forefront of our mind.

If we want to know what really is going on in the world we need to spend an hour in prayer each day.

To party is to abandon one’s self to "fun." It is normal for children to have fun and play games. Children grow and learn about life and their surroundings while they are playing games.

The adamic believer, even though an adult in age, is still a child in that every once in a while he must have "fun." He must let his spiritual guard down, throw caution to the winds, and "enjoy himself." This is an excellent time for the enemy of his soul to cause him to say or do something harmful to the Kingdom of God.

Christians often do not understand the difference between fun and joy. Fun is a somewhat frantic exercise of the fleshly nature. Fun is possible only as long as the person’s circumstances are pleasing. One does not have fun while sick or in prison.

Joy, on the other hand, is a fruit of the Spirit of God. Joy is a deeply settled peace and sense of well-being. The saint has deep joy that flourishes in good times and bad, when at liberty or in prison, when in good health or sick, when prospects are good or dreadful. The further we walk with the Lord the stronger and more consistent our joy becomes.

The Lord said that He gives us of His joy.

These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. (John 15:11)

Can you imagine the Lord saying, "that my fun might remain in you"? Do you believe the Lord Jesus had much fun while He was on the earth? Therefore we see there is an important difference between fun and joy. Fun is of the flesh. Joy is of the Lord.

The Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit of God.

Christians who love to "party," who believe that unless they are having fun they are not experiencing life as they should, are still of the first man, Adam. God in His love will soon chasten them severely so that Adam will be crucified and the new creation, the joyful creation, will come forth.

When we think of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand in a straitjacket, in solitary confinement thirty feet below ground in a Communist prison in Bucharest, gagged to muffle his insane howlings, in a cell so cold his pet spider froze to death, we find it difficult to sympathize with Christian adults or young people who did not have fun during their Saturday-night party (Richard Wurmbrand, With God in Solitary Confinement )

Another problem is that Christian people do not understand the difference between a party and Christian fellowship. It is a simple matter to tell the difference. If it is easy and compatible with what is going on to pray, to speak of the Lord, to prophesy, to build up one another in the faith, then one is having fellowship. These behaviors are out of place at a party. One is much more likely to hear jesting and gossip than words that build us up in the faith.

The demons are a merry group and love to dance and sing, as we can notice on the friezes on the temples in India. They love parties because they then can infiltrate the fleshly antics of unguarded believers.

To love parties is to love food sacrificed to idols.

Profanity is very common in our day…. There is now a rapidly increasing appearance of filthy language—especially in the Hollywood sentations.

A Christian would never employ profanity or obscene language if he could see the demon that was in his mouth. The demon world speaks constantly in profanities, obscenities—every unclean form of speech available. And in every language!

When people are filled with rage or fear they often take the Lord’s name in vain or spew out obscenities. The demons find gratification in such behavior… No Christian ever at any time is to speak profanely or in an obscene manner. To do so is to eat at the table of demons.

The world is a place of pain and dread. God has given to us His Holy Spirit to encourage and strengthen us so we can make our way through the world without succumbing to worry or discouragement.

People drink alcohol in order to escape momentarily from the pain and dread of life—and no doubt for other reasons. The Christian believer should never drink alcohol because it conflicts with the ministries, gifts, and movements of the Holy Spirit. We have been in a home group meeting where people had partaken of a little wine with their meal. The interference with the Holy Spirit was obvious.

We are aware that in many countries the use of wine and beer does not have the same stigma among Christians as is true of the United States.

The Nazirite vow, such as that resting on Samson (Judges 13:5), suggests that separation to God includes abstinence from alcohol. The Israelites could enjoy all the fruit of the vine, but not the Nazarite. He was separated to God for God’s special purposes.

Every Christian who desires to live the victorious life should regard himself or herself as a "Nazirite." The conquering Christian does not look for fleshly activities he can practice and yet remain a Christian. Rather, he is continually seeking to discover what he can do to improve his relationship to the Lord.

The Christian is a soldier, a spiritual warrior. His adversary the devil never rests. The Christian must keep all of his faculties finely honed, perpetually ready to counter the devices of Satan. The conquering Christian does not consider what other believers may do but is intent on serving the Lord to the utmost of his ability.

It is claimed that alcohol destroys brain cells. The Christian never, never does anything that would defile his or her body because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Drunkenness, the impairment of the faculties through the use of alcohol, is one of the most common manifestations of demonic gratification in the world of today. It is food offered to idols.

Drugs also are food offered to idols. Like alcohol, people use drugs to gain some relief from the pain and dread of life on the earth. Drugs have been used historically in many—perhaps all—countries. The use of drugs is a major social concern of our day.

People employ drugs to gain entrance to the spirit realm, the realm of demons. Materialism does not satisfy the human personality and so the "scientific," "educated," "sophisticated" citizens of the large nations are turning to the occult for satisfaction. Drugs are one way of moving from the material to the spirit world.

There is evidence that drugs do permanent injury to the brain. Some authorities have stated that schizophrenia, for example, may result from drug use. It is obvious that the individual is disabled mentally, at least temporarily.

The victorious, obedient saint seeks always to be like his Lord. He is not, as we said previously, attempting to determine what he can do and still be a "Christian." He is not seeing how close he can walk to the Lake of Fire without toppling in.

People smoke or chew tobacco because they are not content with their body and their circumstances. They must add to their personality in order to be approved, to quiet their nerves, or for some other reason…

The scientific research that has been conducted relative to cigarette smoking has proved beyond all doubt that smoking produces a number of serious, debilitating ailments. Also, pipe smoking has been associated with cancer of the mouth.

The Scripture informs us that God will destroy the person who deliberately injures his or her own body with alcohol, drugs, or cigarettes.

Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. (I Corinthians 3:16,17)

Alcohol, drugs, and cigarettes defile the temple of God. They are foods offered to idols. The demons derive satisfaction when they can prevail on a human being to partake of them.

Acquiring money. The Scriptures reveal clearly, from Balaam to Ananias and Sapphira, that the love of money is the root of all evil.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (I Timothy 6:10)

The numerous sins and excesses of the several "civilized" nations of our day have their root in the love of money. Most of the crime is caused by the desire to acquire money. The professions, from school-teaching to law to medicine, are often not pursued with the idea of helping people but to get more money from them.

Money is the God of Western civilization. The citizens of the large nations could not conceive of a world without money. Everything that is done is carried through in terms of money, with very little exception.

Wars are fought because of money. Much of the world is naked and starving because those with a surplus love money. The governments govern unjustly because of the love of money. People look to money to bring them love, joy, and peace when these treasures can come only from God.

No person can serve God and money. We are forced to choose between the two. We can gain our security, pleasure, and achievement through the use of money or through prayer and obedience to God. This is one of the basic decisions we make in life.

The pursuit of more money than is needed for our welfare and the welfare of those for whom we are responsible is a food offered to idols. The wise believer will ask God to remove this demon-God from him. He will be infinitely happier as soon as he is totally delivered from the love and worship of money.

The love of luxury. A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses, the Lord informed us. Yet, in the large nations of Western civilization, an abundance of material comforts is considered not only to be desirable but to be essential to the proper care and comfort of the believer.

In fact, we are being told lately that material prosperity is the sign of God’s blessing.

Your’s in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

I will be a Father to you

In the human order it was not the little infant who first said, "Father", "Daddy" or "Mommy" before their child. The same is true in the religious order. The filial relationship between God and man was bestowed first by God, Himself, who said, "I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters." (2, Cor.6:18).

Before any baptism humanity lived in sin which brought disharmony into the world. From that moment of baptism when we received a divine rebirth through the Holy Spirit we recreated in Christ everything in our life.

In the present time, there exist a high tension between the young generation and their parents and also between the children of God and Eternal Creator. In both cases the tension is generated by an affirmation of an independence of a young generation concerned with themselves.

They don’t lose their faith and it isn’t a frontier separating them and their parents, but rather is an agitated period of transition that exists in which something dormant in their life is disturbed.

Often it is the lack of spiritual training and the many temptations for the attractive pleasures in their lives in the worldly order. And so, in their formative years they easily glide out of a "sacral culture" and are encouraged by another cultural orientation to fight for a strange affirmation based on freedom.

Educated only by humanistic science and technology another climate is created where the dominant theme is Man and his freedom. But this new creed of life doesn’t resolve all the problems in our lives.

Indeed, many other unsolved problems exist which if not taken seriously will destroy all of the wonderful achievements of our life, and even we, ourselves, will collapse with all of our creations.

For these reasons, it is absolutely necessary to keep in highest regard all these ethic and religious problems that place in balance the whole of our life.

Nobody loves you more than your parents and your Eternal Creator. Only they who gave life, gave at the same time a deep secret to keep our life safe and progressive. It is a great error for us to think that our life will be preserved in an humanistic neutral orientation.

We all belong to our parents and to the ever greater family of God. Our parents and God want to defend us from the many errors in life that often are vain dreams of happiness which come and go with each downing life. And also, our parents with the Church have the same responsibility in the whole cosmos.

This is the focus of attention for our parents, to accord us an eternal guidance in our life. They don’t expect anything from their children except for them to enjoy a great success in their life. When the Creator of the Universe is our life on terra firma. Only then will be a new world with us.

Father V. Vasilachi

You walk with me, my God

Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil; for you are at my side.
(Psalm 23:4)

When I struggle with pain that tortures me,
You walk with me, my God.
When my path is filled with worry and fear,
You walk with me, my God.
When sorrow and regret are haunting me,
You walk with me, my God.
When my life feels overwhelming and threatens to be too much,
You walk with me, my God.
When my time has come and death is waiting for me,
You walk with me, my God.
I count on you to be ever with me.
And so you are.

My body is so tired - Prayer

My body is so tired, my God. It's wearing out. It has served me well, carrying me through this world with great care and service. And now I know that my bones and muscle and all my substance are weakened by the inevitable passage of time.

I thank you for my body, for all that it has done for me in this world. I thank you for all the blessing that have come to me through my senses and physical awareness, for the many things I've seen, touched, and known.

I thank you for the strength I've had, for the ability to work and move and do many of the things I've wanted and chosen to do. I thank you too for play and pleasure, for the enjoyment of so many of your tangible gifts.

I thank you for my ability to think, to reason, to appreciate, to be aware. When my time has come, my loving God, receive me and help me to release my body with gratitude and love. Thank you, God, for my body, wonderfully made and gratefully lived in.

We absolutely need God

This is a text of Sabine Wurmbrand, this great missionary personality who spent all her life to accomplish good deeds in the Spirit of the Ressusrection of our Lord.


Dear brothers and sisters,

I was a slave worker in a Romanian prison camp and worked at building a huge canal with thousands of women. We were sad, but we had among us a young Jewish lady who was a doctor. She was sadder than all the others. Nobody could speak with her.

One day I was on my straw mattress. Near me was this Jewish doctor, and I tried to comfort her sad heart. I said, "You, as Jewish lady, should not be in despair. For God has promised to our forefather, Abraham, that the Jewish people will have a bright future. They will be like the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky."

She lifted up her beautiful, sad eyes, tears ran down her cheeks. She said, "Surely, like the sand on the seashore, trodden under the feet of everyone as we are trodden here under the feet of the prison guards… Don’t speak to me any more about your God."

She went away. Nobody could speak with her. A few days after this, I awoke one morning deathly sick. So in order not to die in this cell, I was thrown in a van of the police and taken to another prison that they called the hospital. Many dying women were there – two or even three in a small bed – everyone waiting to be taken out to the nearby cemetery.

There we were. In the evening the director of the prison entered. Together with about ten of his officers. He looked around among the dying women. We looked like ghosts. (Remember thousands like them, your sisters, are in prisons and slave labor camps today in dictatorial countries like China, Vietnam, North Korea.)

He looked around at the dying women and delivered a speech : "Now you see? We have all the power. We prevailed. We are stronger than your God. We have doctors and we don’t need your God any more, your Christ. In here, in our hospital, you are not meant even to mention the name of God or Christ".

A big silence followed. Nobody dared to answer nor did any of the women even have strength to speak. But the Holy Spirit was there. He gave me strength. He gave the right words. I said, "Mr. Officer, as long as death and sickness will be on earth and you see how near death we all are together, we absolutely need God. We need Jesus Christ the Son of God, the only giver of life."

The director went into a rage and answered. I answered him back. When he didn’t know any more what to say, he went out and banged the door. The women were so happy. It was the most beautiful event, which had happened in their sad prison life. On the beds of happiness they embraced each other because someone had stood up to this brute.

Early the next morning when it was still dark, a guard entered with a list of three names – women who were fit to go back to work. The first of the three names was mine, although I was dying. No question about going. I was thrown again into the van and brought back to the prison cell.

When the prisoners saw me, they started to cry. They banged at the door calling for help. Nobody came. The next morning when the thousand were gathered in order to be taken to the field, I had to go with them. The other prisoners took me on their arms, walking miles and miles. Who could ever describe what it meant – marching, hungry, sick, marching to the fields day by day, surrounded by the many prison guards with their rifles, surrounded by big dogs. Only seeing them, your heart would freeze.

So the weak women walked, having also to carry me on their arms. When we arrived, they had to put me down on the ground. Nobody was allowed to stand near me.

Everyone had to work. There I was. Many of the Christians worked and wept, being convinced that they had put me there in my grave forever.

While nobody was allowed to come near me, in a second, Jesus stood before me. He had passed the guards. Jesus touched my dying body and in the evening, when the thousands of prisoners were brought to the prison cell, I was with them. Like a fire, it spread all over the prison.

Late in the evening, when I was on my straw mattress, on the concrete, this Jewish lady doctor came. She confessed that, in seeing such a miraculous healing, she acknowledged now her belief in the Messiah who had touched my body and had healed me.

An American army officer in World War II told his men : "The enemy troops are in front of us, in our back, to the right and to the left. We are totally surrounded. This time the enemy cannot escape!"

The opportunity to help cannot be exhausted. People in desperate need surround us. Let us forget forever the sins that the Lord has forgiven. Let us forget our human heart in its despair. But let us also not forget what we need to remember : our beloved Lord Jesus Christ! Thanks for all your hard efforts in behalf of our persecuted family in dictatorial countries.

Yours in Christ,

Sabina Wurmbrand

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

If your heart

If your heart has been softened either by repentance before God or by learning the boundless love of God towards you, do not be proud with those whose hearts are still hard. Remember how long your heart was hard and incorrigible.

Seven brothers were ill in one hospital. One recovered from his illness and got up and rushed to serve his other brothers with brotherly love, to speed their recovery.

Be like this brother. Consider all men to be your brothers, and sick brothers at that. And if you come to feel that God has given you better health than others, know that it is given through mercy, so in health you may serve your frailer brothers.

Bishop Nikolai

The longest journey Is the inwards

Most of the time our energy, thoughts, and efforts are flowing out --out into the events of life, the words of others, the tasks and interests of the world outside us. Sickness blocks some of that flow.

It turns our thoughts inward. It raises concerns about our own well-being. It leads us to think self-reflective thoughts, to become more aware that there is an untraveled road winding down, down within us to our very core.

It is the longest journey we will ever make, if we travel this road. And the most important. For on this road, we will discover two magnificent beings: the person we really are, and the God in whose image we are made.

Dag Hammarskjold