Your journey is too great

“Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.” (1 Kings 19:7)

Dear brothers and sisters,

To begin a new year is somehow like contemplating a journey. We have come so far - perhaps the journey has been tiring. Who knows what is ahead? Will we have the strength and the courage to meet whatever lies in our path and to reach our objective?

We have put our trust in Christ! He has paid on the cross for all our sins. By faith in His sacrifice we have been considered righteous by God. By Him we are today what He is: the light of the world. (Mt 5:14).

“It is impossible but that offences will come” - said the Saviour (Luke 17:1). These offences came even to the most reliable men of God. They come to us, on our journey through life too. These do not disqualify us from being the light of the world.

Elijah the prophet passed one day through a very intense crisis for his soul. He wished to die. He was angry with God. He revolted against Him and didn’t agree with His plans. And in this state of mind, terribly furious, he fell asleep. How will God deal with his rebelliousness now... His servant deprived totally of hope?

He sent an angel.

Woe, what a damning message will this messenger of God bring to him? But instead, the angel awoke Elijah from his sleep. It must have been something very important if God took such trouble to send an angel from Heaven for this purpose. “Arise and eat!” the angel said to Elijah, and gave him a cake (1 Kings 19:5-6).

It seemed not too costly to God to send an angel for the rebellious Elijah. He was still His child, His prophet. Even if he passed now through a great spiritual crisis, he still remained Elijah the prophet. Even though he rebelled for a while, wishing to die, and seemed as if he didn’t want to know any more about God.

Elijah woke up and ate. But the bitterness he felt was not over. As it happens often with ourselves when we pass through a great crisis of our soul and suffering, we feel the need to sleep in order to forget. So Elijah did nothing else after that: he fell asleep again!

The angel of God came to him the second time. Now we would have surely expected that the angel would rebuke Elijah for his attitude that lacked gratitude. But no! To our surprise, the whole message brought to Elijah by the angel is again this: “Awake and eat, for the journey is too great for thee.”

God had not rejected Elijah. On the contrary, in His eyes, he still remained His prophet, the same man of God to whom such an important task had been entrusted, that it surpassed the natural strength of a mere man. The way prepared by God for Elijah, as a prophet, was too long and difficult for a simple man.

This journey of such great responsibility God has entrusted to the man who just then had passed through moments of difficult spiritual crisis - who was even in rebellion.

Do such moments also come over us? Have we, too, known hopelessness and rebellion? We can look back over a year and see where we have succeeded, but perhaps this backwards view is clouded with the memory of disappointment and failure. Never mind. Those do not annul the gifts and the calling to which God has called us.

It is true that in those moments we were a “light of the world”; we were without hope, rebellious, but we were still God’s children.

It is important that we are built on the Rock of Ages that is Christ. The waves of despair have passed and will still pass over us; but the Rock will remain unmoved. With the Rock, we too will remain.

Jesus said about Himself “I am the Light of the World”. Oh yes, with this we are all in agreement that He is the Light of the World! But we don’t believe that we are what He is. Let us look closer at this thing.

Jonah was also a prophet of God. The way of Jonah was not the way of obedience. On the contrary, Jonah fled from God. He did not agree with the plans of God, neither on behalf of others nor for himself. Jonah fled from Him. God did not flee from Jonah, but rather looked for him. He brought him back to Himself even with a strong hand. This not in order to punish him, but to tell him: “Your disobedience was only a parenthesis. Go on now and continue from where you left. You are a jight for the world.”

The world is mostly in darkness. Many of our brothers and sisters suffer trials and persecution. Through the days ahead we need to be like mirrors to reflect the light of Christ to needy people and to bring hope and encouragement to those in despair.

The journey is great but as we feed upon the Word of God we will find the grace and strength to fulfil His purposes.

Even we, too, have fled from God and have rebelled against His plans, He has not left us. We were and still remain His children. Not by our deeds or merit have we achieved this degree. Not by deeds, be those good or bad, shall we lose this honour. We are in Christ by His grace and mercy. By His grace we shall remain through to the end of the journey. We are the light of the world.

May He help us in this.

Sincerely in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Problems of Conscience

Dear Friends and Benefactors,

While I was in Romanian prison (and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, "How many in this cell?"

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered "Sixteen" rather than "Fifteen," we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, "I am so-and-so" in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say "Thank you" after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, "We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you!" Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, "We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses." they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They "surround" us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.


Number of Christians Triples

Shanghai is the second largest city of China. In the last ten years, the number of Christians there more than tripled. Among its seven and a half million inhabitants, 127,000 are Evangelical Christians. They gather in 111 registered churches, but there are also many house churches. These latter are persecuted.

Three house church leaders were beaten to death by the Chinese police. One is Sister Zhang Xiuju, 36 years old.

The Christian Li Moxi, 90, wrote thirty letters in his own blood to government officials explaining to them that Christians love the Communists but cannot compromise their beliefs to curry favor with them.


Mission to Armenia

"You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves"
(Ps. 80:6).

These words could have been written for the Armenian people. Since the third century they have been Christians and have consequently left behind them a history of continuous persecution. The last holocaust of Armenians was perpetrated by the Turks in 1915.

Our Geman mission has printed Armenian language Bibles, Tortured for Christ, The Other Face of Marx, and What Christians Believe. These have been brought into the country and distributed freely. We have also created a Stephen Center in Armenia, as in several other countries. Cleansed through long suffering, Armenian Christians have a high spiritual tenor. The fire of love still burns in their hearts.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !

Yours in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Double Doses of Love

"...they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword..." - Job 1:15.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Job lived in a very great country. In his country, people were free to do the most amazing things.

We read in chapter one of his book, verse 15, about some people -- the Sabeans. The Sabeans fell upon the asses and oxen of Job, and took them away. They slew the servants with the edge of the sword. One alone escaped.

We read in verse 17, the Chaldeans formed three bands and fell upon the cattle and carried them away. Yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword.

People were free, even as they are free in America or Australia, to commit crimes: robberies, murder, assault and rape. That is what was considered freedom in the time of Job.

Not everybody was a bandit or a robber at that time. There were very honest people like the friends of Job. But these friends of Job came only after all the catastrophes had happened to Job.

They did not do anything to prevent such terrible crimes from happening. They were not with him while he suffered. They were unconcerned. They came after Job had lost everything, and instead of words of comfort, they upbraided him.

The loneliness in suffering

In suffering, men usually have no friends. I know that not only in communist countries people are suffering, they are suffering here in America, too.

When the heart is most burdened, usually you are alone. Rarely you will find somebody to understand you, to be ready to listen to you. We Americans cannot listen to somebody's suffering because the problem on the color television is much too interesting. We see there people weeping, being shot, being wounded. There are many weeping next door to us. We have no time for them because we watch the picture.

In all our dramas, we are alone, we have no earthly friend. This problem can be solved only one way. You become a friend. Don't ask others to be your friends.

All men are one and we are meant to cooperate as kidneys, lungs, liver, legs and brain. As organs cooperate for the health of the body, so we all should feel that we are one and we should care for one another.

The great commandment which our Lord has given to us is found in John 13:34. "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have given My life for you... that ye also love one another."

The radiant flower of love

Because it so happens that I passed 14 years in communist prisons and also some time in Nazi prisons, everybody expects from me to speak out against communism. I prefer rather to speak out for Christ. Instead of speaking about the ugly things of the devil, I prefer to speak about the beautiful commandment of love which Christ gave us and about His beautiful example.

It is said about the Emperor of Japan that he heard about one of his nobility who had a splendid garden with orchids. No one else had such beautiful flowers. He said to this nobleman, "I will come on such and such a day. I wish to see the garden."

On that day, the man waited outside his palace. The emperor's carriage arrived and he said to the ruler, "Your highness, let us go first to the garden." They entered the garden. It was ploughed. Not a single flower could be seen in the garden. The emperor wondered, but did not say a word. Then the nobleman said to the emperor, "Let us have tea." They entered into the tea room.

There in a jar was just one flower, but a flower of radiant beauty, overwhelming beauty. The nobleman told the emperor, "I have kept the most beautiful flower for the best of emperors. The other flowers were not worthy to live."

I believe that for our emperor, Jesus Christ, we have to keep in our hears just one flower -- the flower of love. All the other flowers are not worthy to live.

Jesus Christ is embodied love. He gave his life for us. Every one of us should offer Him our self sacrificing, our burning love.

I am happy to tell you about the Christians behind the Iron Curtain that in spite of unspeakable persecution, have kept this love. The communists could kill bodies of Christians. They could maim them. They could torture them. They could slay Christians. But they cannot slay the love of Christians, neither their faith.

How the church in China grew

I imagine that many of you must have heard the name of Watchman Nee, the renowned Chinese evangelical writer. He passed away some 20 years ago after having spent 26 years in communist prisons. We have been told about what happened to him in prison.

They arrested him, Wang Min-Dao, and so many other Christian leaders. Samuel Lamb and Allen Yuan, with whom we continue to work today, were arrested at the same time and each suffered more than 20 years in prison.

The communists had closed all the churches. Red China is a country with 1.2 billion inhabitants. Every fifth man in the world is Chinese. God loves the Chinese very much. Proof is He has made so many of them: 1.2 billion. For such a population not one single church was left open. Everything had been destroyed.

The underground church, however, was blooming: hundreds came to Christ and were baptized although the church was underground. The communists were very alarmed about this and asked themselves how this was possible. Then they found out.

Watchman Nee himself had smuggled letters to the Christians outside the prison and his letters were of such beauty and such Christian depth that the Christians outside were strengthened in their faith. They became full of zeal and they won new souls for Christ.

So the communists said, "We can outsmart Watchman Nee. Henceforth, the guard in front of his cell will be changed every 6 hours and never will the same guard be twice on duty because he converts the guards, and persuades them to smuggle out the letters. If we change the guards every 6 hours, he will have no time to convert them and no letters will be smuggled out any more."

They multiplied the guards. More guards were converted and more letters were smuggled out. The church in China grew even faster.

We smuggle into China and other countries Bibles and other Christian books. We broadcast the Gospel in a number of languages, and we help the families of Christians who are in prisons. Thousands are in prison. Our couriers go and bring the news of what is happening where Christians are persecuted.

There are underground churches all over Red China. Also in Vietnam, Laos, and other communist and Muslim countries.

Overcoming hatred with double doses of love

When you meet hatred, don't reproach the perpetrators with "Why do you hate?" He hates because I don't love enough. If I would double the doses of love, it might overcome his hatred.

Once there was a a great fire in a town and a man came with a cup of water, and threw it onto the fire. The fire continued to blaze. He came back and said, "What stupidity. People believe that water quenches fire. You have seen, I threw water onto the fire and it was not quenched."

He did not know the truth -- a cup of water does not quench fire but many hoses with water quench fire. Christian love, as much as we have it today, does not quench the fire of anti God hatred. So we have to increase our love.

Christ has given us an example of love. He forsook heaven for us, was born in a stable, led a whole life of sorrows, allowed himself to be flogged, spat upon and crucified because He loved. He has given us the freedom, not the freedom to commit wicked things, but the freedom to spend our lives in love.

A torturer repents

I don't have much time to tell you all the beauties of the underground church. I should perhaps tell you just one episode which I have lived. We were in a prison cell; some 30 or 40 prisoners. The door was unlocked and the guards and pushed in a new prisoner. He was dirty like we were. We had not washed ourselves in 3 years. So he was dirty, and we were dirty. He was shorn and had the striped uniform of a prisoner. In the half darkness of the cell we did not recognize him, but at a certain moment, one of us exclaimed, "This is Captain Popescu, I recognize him!"

Captain Popescu had been one of the worst torturers of Christians. He had beaten and tortured even some of us who were now in the same cell with him. We wondered how he had become a prisoner of the communists and how he had been put in a prison cell reserved for Christians. So we surrounded him and asked him his story.

With tears in his eyes, he told us that a few months ago he sat in his office. The soldier on duty knocked at the door and said, "Outside is a boy of 12 or 13 who has a flower for your wife." The captain scratched his head. He did not remember that it was his wife's birthday, but in any case, he allowed the boy to enter.

The boy entered with the flower in his hand, very shy, but very decided, and said, "Comrade Captain, you are the one who has put my father and mother in prison. Today is my mother's birthday. I have the habit every year on this day, out of my little pocket money, to buy a flower for her. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today. But my mother is a Christian and she taught me since I was a little child to love my enemies and to reward evil with good. Because of you, I have no mother to gladden today, I thought to give joy to the mother of your children. Please take this flower to your wife and tell her about my love and about the love of Christ."

It was too much even for a communist torturer. He was also a creature of God. He also has been enlightened with the light which enlightens every man who comes into this world. He embraced this child. He could not beat any more. He could not torture anymore. He was no longer useful as an officer of the communist secret police. He came to suffer together with the children of God and was happy for this new state.

Believe in love

We have all experienced the love of Christ towards us. Now this Christ, who died and resurrected for us, lives in our hearts and imparts in us this love. The enemies of God can kill us. They cannot kill love. If you tramp on a flower with your boots, the flower rewards you with its perfume.

Let us have before our eyes the love of Christ who saved us. Let us have before our eyes also the love of our brethren who have heavy burdens, thousands of times heavier than our burdens. Continue to simply believe in love.

Let us follow their heroic example. Let a new Christian life start with every one of us. You must not be shallow Christians. You must not be lukewarm Christians. Our love towards Christ can be a full, overflowing one. Amen.

Warmly yours in Christ Jesus,

Richard Wurmbrand

Possess the Truth

Dear friends and benefactors,

A perceptive child can often spot insincerity or indifference. In Sunday school, when the teacher recounted the story of Jesus’suffferings and death, a child remarked,"The story is not true."

Taken aback, the teacher asked, "What makes you say that?"

"If it were true," the boy replied quietly, "you could not tell it without weeping."

Sorrily, some Christian writers, authors of religious hymns, and preachers are boring; others are very good but burn out quickly; and some become soul-less—perhaps it is because they spend too much of their souls on their work without taking due precautions to refill them daily.

William Cowper wrote the renowned hymn:

"There is a fountain, filled with blood,

Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day,

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away."

One feels there is life in this song. Cowper poured into it the blood of his own heart. In his old age, he suffered several bouts of insanity; he who had written that "the precious blood shall never lose its power" doubted during his depressions that his own sins were washed away by Christ’s sacrifice.

It is necessary that we allow ourselves to be cleansed and purified.

To be in error is dreadful thing, but it is even worse to embrace truth for the wrong reasons: because it is convenient, because it is pleasant, because it is profitable, because it is socially acceptable. God wants us to love the truth. It is the water of life He offers us. Don’t adulterate it with pollutants.

Love truth for its own sake, and it will come to you.

But is there no hurry to find the truth?

St. Augustine says, "You would never have sought the truth if you had not already found it." "The truth induces men to seek the truth," said St. Makarios the Great. And Blaise Pascal wrote, "We could not seek God unless in some real sense we already possessed Him." The fact that you seek truth, that you ask for it, shows you have a love for it. Love for truth is an essential part of truth itself. If you seek it earnestly, you can afford to sit down quietly, like Mary Magdalene.

Which is more real to you, your problem or your-self? You existed before you posed the question to yourself about finding truth. How many hours a day do you seek it even now? You are much bigger and more important than your search for truth.

Don’t throw away the whole of your life for this particular, though valuable, preoccupation—this search for truth. Live your life. When you work, work. When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. When you amuse yourself, amuse yourself. Truth and life are good companions. They are friends, not enemies. You don’t have to exclude the one in order to have the other. Jesus said,"I am the Way." What does this "Way" consist of? He explained Himself immediately: "the Truth and the Life."

Take it easy, take one step at a time, and you will reach the truth. Meanwhile, be yourself.

Truth is the supreme goal, except that truth alone can be nowhere, just as one cannot find either iron or gold alone in the earth; they exist only in combination with other elements.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life". if one wishes to know truth, he must know life too. If he wishes to fulfill the demands of truth, he must be attentive to the demands of life as well.

St. Paul taught us to beware of vain philosophy.

Long ago there lived a king who had a very valuable stallion. He appointed a watchman to do nothing else but guard the magnificent animal during the night. To satisfy his concerns, the king arose at night and went to the guard.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, your majesty, I was just reflecting on why a circle is round and a square rectangular."

The king exclaimed, "I am happy to have in my service a real philosopher. Just continue."

Later in the night, the king went again and asked the watchman, "What were you doing now?"

"I was trying to find out what happens to the hole in a bagel after it is eaten. I did not eat the hole, but notwithstanding it has disappeared."

the king was very pleased to have a soldier with such interesting thoughts. He came a third time and asked the watchman, "What now? What are you thinking?"

"Now I have a really serious problem. There was a stallion in the stable. It is no longer there. Where could it be?"

For the sake of philosophy, he had lost the stallion of truth.

Seek the truth, but be careful not to destroy your life and the lives of other men for the sake of philosophizing about truth. Without men, where will the truth settle and of what good will it be?

The story is told that Pol Pot, the Communist dictator of Cambodia, declared, "I have a truth that will make people happy."

He was asked, "What if your people do not accept your formula of truth?"

He replied, "I will kill al those who oppose the truth. Truth is for me above all things." Out of a population of five million, he killed two million of his own people.

This is the attitude of the inquisitors of all convictions. This is the philosophy of those who tyrannize their families, forcing them to accept what they consider as truth.

God says, "You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them..."

Truth is given that you and others might live by it, not die by it.


Be careful. Be forewarned.

Richard Wurmbrand

Our greatest guest

Our dearly beloved,

Jesus was once told that a Roman officer was worthy of being helped. We may pray for individuals, but our request alone is not sufficient. If others ask us to pray for them, we must understand that our entreaty alone will not help. They must also take steps to sweep with their own brooms—they must allow Christ to cleanse their hearts and lives too. Jesus is the greatest guest you will ever receive into your life.

There is a story about a Christian father who told his son to clean up the garden "because Jesus and His disciples will visit us today." The boy knew Jesus and loved Him, so he worked diligently in the garden before telling his father, "I’m finished."

The father, after walking through the garden, said, " Everything is really clean, but not clean enough for Jesus."

The child went back to the garden with renewed vigor, picking up every withered leaf and every scrap from the pathways. The father then had a second look, saying, "Bravo! The garden is really clean now, but not with the special cleanliness needed for Son of God."

The boy asked, "What is this special cleanliness like?" The father replied, "For such a guest it is not enough to eliminate what is ugly. You must also beautify the garden as never before. Quickly, as a friend of Jesus, plant in it beautiful orchids, roses, and lilies—things it never had before—to adorn it. Then add lights to give it a warm glow. Jesus is a guest of unsurprising excellence and must be hosted accordingly.

Romanian Martyrs

Thinking of this cleansing of the heart, I remember a Romanian martyr. In Communist Romania, many Christians died a martyr’s death. I knew a number of them personally. Nelu Sultaniuc was twenty, in prison for his faith. Hungry, cold, beaten, he fell sick of pulmonary tuberculosis, like so many other prisoners. The prison doctors were unable to help because they had no medicines, but his family brought him streptomycin, the cure for this disease. The political officer of the jail said to him, "I will give you the medicine on one condition: you must become an informer. "Now, the inmates were all there because of their anti-Communist stand. Since Communism is anti-God, what other attitude could a Christian have? Because of this, even their conversation with their cellmates were spied on, in order to provide an excuse for new accusations and longer sentences.

Sultaniuc refused. Matzkevitch, another young Christian (of Jewish origin), also refused. Both died of tuberculosis in jail. They sacrificed their lives to maintain their integrity. What would their lives have profited at such a price? They died as martyrs.

Virgil Ionescu was tied to a chair, with a strong electric lightbulb shining in his eyes. This meant certain blindness. He could escape this torture only by agreeing to be an informer. Today he is completely blind, in utter poverty, but happy to have remained clean in heart.

Problems of Conscience

While I was in Romanian prison (and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, "How many in this cell?"

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered "Sixteen" rather than "Fifteen," we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, "I am so-and-so" in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say "Thank you " after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, "We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you!" Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, "We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses." they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They "surround" us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !



Your in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Desire to escape from the “I”

“I am crucified with Christ: neverthless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. (Gal. 2:20)

Dear brothers and sisters,

While in prison in Romania, I composed the following sermon in my mind:

In at least one respect I am like St. Anthony the Great. He never washed himself. I did not take a bath in years either. He slept in a tomb in order to remind himself constantly that this is the abode in which all earthly life inevitably ends. My cell is also like a tomb. It is thirty feet beneath the earth. The few planks which constitute my bed could as well become my coffin. I don’t fear death. I am in a tomb without having died.

What will be my future?

At this moment I am completely useless. My life consists of eating watery soups and getting endless beatings. The pain does not impress me much any more. Nothing ever happens in my life. Why should I wish to prolong my existence in this world? That I may be released? Of what use can a broken man be in freedom?

And if I recover some sermons again. Previously, when preaching on the subject of the blood of Christ, I had contemplated how to form the sentences more beautifully, instead of feeling the horror of Christ’s suffering and living the love which prompted Him to endure it. In one of the first Christian sermons I ever heard, the pastor yawned while preaching about Calvary. How unlike Dickens who, while reporting for a newspaper a speech in Parliament on the sufferings of the poor in Ireland, was so overcome that he was unable to take it down in shorthand.

A man speaks about the sufferings of a poor God and yawns. No wonder the audience yawned too. Pastors and flocks are fed up. They are also fed up with good sermons. They are too wise. Fools for Christ are needed, but I am not one of them. I don’t see any point in being free.

Neither di I wish to keep my “I” in eternity. Why should I care for life after death when I have none before death? My “I” has simply become uninteresting to me. I am as little concerned about its eternal destiny as about what will happen to it tomorrow. I wish to be an “I” no longer. I reject my “I”. My desire is to be a “he”. “When he shall appear, we shall be like him”. (1 John 3:2).

I once brought to Christ a Jew who was over ninety years old. He told me of a dream in which he saw himself in heaven and asked: “Where is Wurmbrand’s place?” But he received no answer. The question was probably still pending. At least, that was what I thought when he told me his dream. Now I am inclined to think that there will be no “Me” there. Why should I care about receiving a crown, which I will cast at His feet anyweay, over awned by His Majesty when I see Him? (Revelation 4:10). It is no best to finish completely with the “I” and become “He”?

Is this sheer madness, like so many other things happening to me, or am I one of the privileged few who have fulfilled the commandment of Christ to deny the “self”? But if I have denied the self, who is the one interested in knowing if this has really happened? Who then is happy that the denial of the “I” has occured? We are running around in a vicious circle. One must have a very strong “I” and be a giant in faith to reject his “I”, which is not only all that he is. Whoever burns the candle at both ends must have a great and glorious candle to burn. And what happens to the strong “I” who has rejected the “I”?

Jesus did not have the rich psychological vocabulary we have. He could not have spoken in Hebrew about the self, the ego, the id, the many complexes we worry about today.

I have always used Biblical language, speaking exactly as Scripture does about denying the self. In more precise modem language, I imagine that what Jesus meant us to leave was the ego.

In my dealings with people I have discovered that you don’t impress them by showing how smart you are.You win them rather by sitting at their feet and giving them a chance to teach you. Even an idiot can teach something. The usual attendance in churches is composed of men of lower IQ than that of a pastor. If a pastor does not know stupidity but only intelligence, he will not be fruitful.

We have to learn from another to raise his ego. The ego is the desire to be superior. It is the high opinion one holds about oneself and one’s achievments. I don’t believe as does Freud that the strongest desire of a man is the sexual urge, though it is enormous. The strongest desire is to uphold his ego, to appear valuable before his fellowmen.

Respect another’s ego, but renounce your own. I believe this is what was meant by Jesus’s commandment to deny the self.

There is a tension in us because the ego is torn apart in the effort to present a more beautiful image before the world. Tension ceases when we become indifferent to what people think about us. I have been a pastor much beloved by my family and my congregation, and much hated by anti-christian Jews because of my missionary work to win Jews for Christ. Now I am only despised and mocked by every man with whom I speak, because I speak only with wardens and interrogators. What do their opinions count? For Juliet it was enough to be loved by one single young man in Verona. Others might have passed near this girl of fourteen without even casting a glance at her. She was happy.

I don’t know how much I have achieved, but I wish to lose not the self - I have come to the conclusion that such an endeavor is chasing after the impossible - but self-assertion. One source says, “Clay is molded into a vessel, but the ultimate use of the vessel depends upon the part where nothing exists. Doors and windows are cut out of the wall of a house, but the ultimate use of the house depends upon the parts where nothing exists. ” wish to become such a useful nothing.

I am in the lowest social category, a man who will probably die in prison, sentenced for crime. But I am content to be so low. I have so little to renounce now. It seems ridiculous even to attempt to give up self-assertion. What have I to assert and before whom?

The Christian is Christ. Only this “He” lives eternally. He does not need the appendix of a little “I”.

When Michelangelo finished his “Pieta”, he exclaimed, “Only the marble separates me from my statue ”. I would say, “Only 120 pounds of flesh separate me from being fully He.”

”To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.”

Sincerely in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Our greatest guest

Our dearly beloved,

Jesus was once told that a Roman officer was worthy of being helped. We may pray for individuals, but our request alone is not sufficient. If others ask us to pray for them, we must understand that our entreaty alone will not help. They must also take steps to sweep with their own brooms—they must allow Christ to cleanse their hearts and lives too. Jesus is the greatest guest you will ever receive into your life.

There is a story about a Christian father who told his son to clean up the garden "because Jesus and His disciples will visit us today." The boy knew Jesus and loved Him, so he worked diligently in the garden before telling his father, "I’m finished."

The father, after walking through the garden, said, " Everything is really clean, but not clean enough for Jesus."

The child went back to the garden with renewed vigor, picking up every withered leaf and every scrap from the pathways. The father then had a second look, saying, "Bravo! The garden is really clean now, but not with the special cleanliness needed for Son of God."

The boy asked, "What is this special cleanliness like?" The father replied, "For such a guest it is not enough to eliminate what is ugly. You must also beautify the garden as never before. Quickly, as a friend of Jesus, plant in it beautiful orchids, roses, and lilies—things it never had before—to adorn it. Then add lights to give it a warm glow. Jesus is a guest of unsurprising excellence and must be hosted accordingly.

Romanian Martyrs

Thinking of this cleansing of the heart, I remember a Romanian martyr. In Communist Romania, many Christians died a martyr’s death. I knew a number of them personally. Nelu Sultaniuc was twenty, in prison for his faith. Hungry, cold, beaten, he fell sick of pulmonary tuberculosis, like so many other prisoners. The prison doctors were unable to help because they had no medicines, but his family brought him streptomycin, the cure for this disease. The political officer of the jail said to him, "I will give you the medicine on one condition: you must become an informer. "Now, the inmates were all there because of their anti-Communist stand. Since Communism is anti-God, what other attitude could a Christian have? Because of this, even their conversation with their cellmates were spied on, in order to provide an excuse for new accusations and longer sentences.

Sultaniuc refused. Matzkevitch, another young Christian (of Jewish origin), also refused. Both died of tuberculosis in jail. They sacrificed their lives to maintain their integrity. What would their lives have profited at such a price? They died as martyrs.

Virgil Ionescu was tied to a chair, with a strong electric lightbulb shining in his eyes. This meant certain blindness. He could escape this torture only by agreeing to be an informer. Today he is completely blind, in utter poverty, but happy to have remained clean in heart.

Problems of Conscience

While I was in Romanian prison (and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, "How many in this cell?"

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered "Sixteen" rather than "Fifteen," we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, "I am so-and-so" in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say "Thank you " after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, "We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you!" Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, "We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses." they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They "surround" us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !


Your in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

OUR GREATEST GUEST

Our dearly beloved,

Jesus was once told that a Roman officer was worthy of being helped. We may pray for individuals, but our request alone is not sufficient. If others ask us to pray for them, we must understand that our entreaty alone will not help. They must also take steps to sweep with their own brooms--they must allow Christ to cleanse their hearts and lives too.

Jesus is the greatest guest you will ever receive into your life.

There is a story about a Christian father who told his son to clean up the garden « because Jesus and His disciples will visit us today. » The boy knew Jesus and loved Him, so he worked diligently in the garden before telling his father, « I’m finished. »

The father, after walking through the garden, said, « Everything is really clean, but not clean enough for Jesus. »

The child went back to the garden with renewed vigor, picking up every withered leaf and every scrap from the pathways. The father then had a second look, saying, « Bravo! The garden is really clean now, but not with the special cleanliness needed for Son of God.»

The boy asked, « What is this special cleanliness like? »

The father replied, « For such a guest it is not enough to eliminate what is ugly. You must also beautify the garden as never before. Quickly, as a friend of Jesus, plant in it beautiful orchids, roses, and lilies--things it never had before--to adorn it. Then add lights to give it a warm glow. Jesus is a guest of unsurprising excellence and must be hosted accordingly. »



Romanian Martyrs

Thinking of this cleansing of the heart, I remember a Romanian martyr. In Communist Romania, many Christians died a martyr’s death. I knew a number of them personally. Nelu Sultaniuc was twenty, in prison for his faith. Hungry, cold, beaten, he fell sick of pulmonary tuberculosis, like so many other prisoners. The prison doctors were unable to help because they had no medicines, but his family brought him streptomycin, the cure for this disease. The political officer of the jail said to him, « I will give you the medicine on one condition: you must become an informer. » Now, the inmates were all there because of their anti-Communist stand. Since Communism is anti-God, what other attitude could a Christian have? Because of this, even their conversation with their cellmates were spied on, in order to provide an excuse for new accusations and longer sentences.

Sultaniuc refused. Matzkevitch, another young Christian (of Jewish origin), also refused. Both died of tuberculosis in jail. They sacrificed their lives to maintain their integrity. What would their lives have profited at such a price? They died as martyrs.

Virgil Ionescu was tied to a chair, with a strong electric lightbulb shining in his eyes. This meant certain blindness. He could escape this torture only by agreeing to be an informer. Today he is completely blind, in utter poverty, but happy to have remained clean in heart.



Problems of Conscience

While I was in Romanian prison (and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, « How many in this cell? »

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered « Sixteen » rather than « Fifteen, » we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, « I am so-and-so » in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say « Thank you » after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, « We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you! » Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, « We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses. » they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They « surround » us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.



Number of Christians Triples

Shanghai is the second largest city of China. In the last ten years, the number of Christians there more than tripled. Among its seven and a half million inhabitants, 127,000 are Evangelical Christians. They gather in 111 registered churches, but there are also many house churches. These latter are persecuted.

Three house church leaders were beaten to death by the Chinese police. One is Sister Zhang Xiuju, 36 years old.

The Christian Li Moxi, 90, wrote thirty letters in his own blood to government officials explaining to them that Christians love the Communists but cannot compromise their beliefs to curry favor with them.



Mission to Armenia

« You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves »

(Ps. 80:6).

These words could have been written for the Armenian people. Since the third century they have been Christians and have consequently left behind them a history of continuous persecution. The last holocaust of Armenians was perpetrated by the Turks in 1915.

Our Geman mission has printed Armenian language Bibles, Tortured for Christ, The Other Face of Marx, and What Christians Belive. These have been brought into the country and distributed freely. We have also created a Stephen Center in Armenia, as in several other countries. Cleansed through long suffering, Armenian Christians have a high spiritual tenor. The fire of love still burns in their hearts.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !



Your in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

Truth About the Truth

How much each one of us can suffer depends on how much he is bound up with a cause, how dear this cause is to him, and how much it means for him.

In this respect we have had in Communist countries very big surprises. There have been gifted preachers and writers of Christian books who have become traitors. The composer of the best hymnal of Romania became the composer of the best communist hymnal of Romania. Everything depends on whether we have remained in the sphere of words or if we are merged with the divine realities.

God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth about the Truth. Theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth. A good sermon is the truth about the truth about the truth, about the Truth It is not the Truth. The Truth is God alone. Around this Truth there is a scaffolding of words, of theologies, and of exposition. None of these is of any help in times of suffering. It is only the Truth Himself Who is of help, and we have to penetrate through sermons, through theological books, through everything which is 'words' and be bound up with the reality of God Himself.

I have told in the West how Christians were tied to crosses for four days and four nights. The crosses were put on the floor and other prisoners were tortured and made to fulfill their bodily necessities upon the faces and the bodies of the crucified ones. I have since been asked: "Which Bible verse helped and strengthened you in those circumstances?" My answer is: "NO Bible verse was of any help." It is sheer cant and religious hypocrisy to say, "This Bible verse strengthens me, or that Bible verse helps me." Bible verses alone are not meant to help.

We knew Psalm 23 - "The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want... though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death...." When you pass through suffering you realize that it was never meant by God that Psalm 23 should strengthen you. It is the Lord who can strengthen you, not the Psalm which speaks of Him so doing. It is not enough to have the Psalm. You must have the One about whom the Psalm speaks. We also knew the verse: "My Grace is sufficient for thee." But the verse is not sufficient. It is the Grace which is sufficient and not the verse.

Pastors and zealous witnesses who are handling the Word as a calling from God are in danger of giving holy words more value than they really have. Holy words are only the means to arrive at the reality expressed by them. If you are united with the Reality, the Lord Almighty, evil loses its power over you; it cannot break the Lord Almighty. If you only have the words of the Lord Almighty you can be very easily broken.

Richard Wurmbrand

Remember the captives as if we were bound with them

Dear friends,


Hebrews 13:3, in the old King James Version, reads like this:

"Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being you also in the body."

In the Douay-Rheims, it reads like this:

"Remember them that are in bonds, as if you were bound with them: and them that labour, as being yourselves also in the body."

Older translations, speaking of those who are bound in chains, came to mind yesterday as I thought of the clergy and others who have been kidnapped and are held captive in various parts of the world. Iraq and the Philippines, of course, come first to my mind right now.
The newer translations speak of those who are in prison, rather than those who are in bonds. The Greek word, desmios, can mean a captive, one in bonds, or a prisoner. Somehow, the older translations seem better to me now, as they often do for other reasons.

The RSV translates the same verse:

"Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body."

That reminds me of Paris Hilton, who no doubt needs prayer right now too.

But the Roman prisons that Paul had in mind might be better expressed with the word "bonds" or "bands." He meant remembering those who are held captive for their faith and for their work in bringing Christ to a community. Those who have been held captive for their faith, with or without a court or legitimate prison are the kind of people the Epistle to the Hebrews had in mind.

Last December, I had a post titled Bound by These Chains: Thoughts on the Links to St. Paul's Chains, which was motivated in part by the links from St. Paul's chains that Pope Benedict XVI gave to His Beatitude Christodoulos during his visit to Rome. In that post, I quoted one of the meditations of the Christian missionary Richard Wurmbrand, speaking of the Lithuanian Christian Nijole Sadunaite, who was imprisoned and exiled for several years for distributing Church materials. Wurmbrand quoted a portion of her statement at her sentencing. A fuller quotation appears on the website of the Baltic priests:

"Thank God, not all people have been broken. Our strength in society is not in quantity but in quality. Fearing neither prison nor labour camp, we must condemn all actions which bring injustice and degradation or result in inequality or oppression....’’

"...This is the happiest day of my life. I am being tried on account of the Chronicle of the Catholic Church in Lithuania, which is struggling against physical and spiritual human tyranny. That means I am being tried for truth and the love of my fellow men. What can be more important in life than to love one's fellow man, his freedom and honour? Love of one's fellow man is the greatest form of love, while the struggle for human rights is the most beautiful hymn of love. May this hymn forever resound in our hearts and never fall silent. I have been accorded the enviable task, the honourable fate, not only to struggle for human rights, but also to be sentenced for them. My sentence will become triumph! My only regret is that I have been given so little opportunity to work on behalf of man. I will joyfully go into slavery for others and I agree to die so that others may live. Today, as I approach the Eternal Truth, Jesus Christ, I remember His fourth beatitude: "Blessed are they who thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied."

"...I would like to request the court to free from prisons, labour camps and psychiatric hospitals all of those who fought for human rights and justice...."

She would not sign a statement accusing other Catholics in exchange for her own freedom, because, she said "I am bound by the chains of witnesses who throughout the centuries gave their lives for Christ. I am a link in this chain. I will not break it."

Remembering those who are held captive today for their faith and for their work for Jesus, we too are links in this chain, remembering them as bound with them.

With my best wishes for you all,

Richard Wurmbrand

POSSESS the TRUTH

Dear friends,

A perceptive child can often spot insincerity or indifference. In Sunday school, when the teacher recounted the story of Jesus’suffferings and death, a child remarked, "The story is not true."

Taken aback, the teacher asked, "What makes you say that?"

"If it were true," the boy replied quietly, "you could not tell it without weeping."

Sorrily, some Christian writers, authors of religious hymns, and preachers are boring; others are very good but burn out quickly; and some become soul-less—perhaps it is because they spend too much of their souls on their work without taking due precautions to refill them daily.

William Cowper wrote the renowned hymn:

"There is a fountain, filled with blood,

Drawn from Emmanuel’s veins,

And sinners plunged beneath that flood

Lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see

That fountain in his day,

And there may I, though vile as he,

Wash all my sins away."

One feels there is life in this song. Cowper poured into it the blood of his own heart. In his old age, he suffered several bouts of insanity; he who had written that "the precious blood shall never lose its power" doubted during his depressions that his own sins were washed away by Christ’s sacrifice.

It is necessary that we allow ourselves to be cleansed and purified.

To be in error is dreadful thing, but it is even worse to embrace truth for the wrong reasons: because it is convenient, because it is pleasant, because it is profitable, because it is socially acceptable. God wants us to love the truth. It is the water of life He offers us. Don’t adulterate it with pollutants.

Love truth for its own sake, and it will come to you.

But is there no hurry to find the truth?

St. Augustine says, "You would never have sought the truth if you had not already found it." "The truth induces men to seek the truth," said St. Makarios the Great. And Blaise Pascal wrote, "We could not seek God unless in some real sense we already possessed Him." The fact that you seek truth, that you ask for it, shows you have a love for it. Love for truth is an essential part of truth itself. If you seek it earnestly, you can afford to sit down quietly, like Mary Magdalene.

Which is more real to you, your problem or your-self? You existed before you posed the question to yourself about finding truth. How many hours a day do you seek it even now? You are much bigger and more important than your search for truth.

Don’t throw away the whole of your life for this particular, though valuable, preoccupation—this search for truth. Live your life. When you work, work. When you eat, eat. When you sleep, sleep. When you amuse yourself, amuse yourself. Truth and life are good companions. They are friends, not enemies. You don’t have to exclude the one in order to have the other. Jesus said,"I am the Way." What does this "Way" consist of? He explained Himself immediately: "the Truth and the Life."

Take it easy, take one step at a time, and you will reach the truth. Meanwhile, be yourself.

Truth is the supreme goal, except that truth alone can be nowhere, just as one cannot find either iron or gold alone in the earth; they exist only in combination with other elements.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life". if one wishes to know truth, he must know life too. If he wishes to fulfill the demands of truth, he must be attentive to the demands of life as well.

St. Paul taught us to beware of vain philosophy.

Long ago there lived a king who had a very valuable stallion. He appointed a watchman to do nothing else but guard the magnificent animal during the night. To satisfy his concerns, the king arose at night and went to the guard.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Well, your majesty, I was just reflecting on why a circle is round and a square rectangular."

The king exclaimed, "I am happy to have in my service a real philosopher. Just continue."

Later in the night, the king went again and asked the watchman, "What were you doing now?"

"I was trying to find out what happens to the hole in a bagel after it is eaten. I did not eat the hole, but notwithstanding it has disappeared."

the king was very pleased to have a soldier with such interesting thoughts. He came a third time and asked the watchman, "What now? What are you thinking?"

"Now I have a really serious problem. There was a stallion in the stable. It is no longer there. Where could it be?"

For the sake of philosophy, he had lost the stallion of truth.

Seek the truth, but be careful not to destroy your life and the lives of other men for the sake of philosophizing about truth. Without men, where will the truth settle and of what good will it be?

The story is told that Pol Pot, the Communist dictator of Cambodia, declared, "I have a truth that will make people happy."

He was asked, "What if your people do not accept your formula of truth?"

He replied, "I will kill al those who oppose the truth. Truth is for me above all things." Out of a population of five million, he killed two million of his own people.

This is the attitude of the inquisitors of all convictions. This is the philosophy of those who tyrannize their families, forcing them to accept what they consider as truth.

God says, "You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them..."

Truth is given that you and others might live by it, not die by it.

Be careful. Be forewarned.

Richard Wurmbrand

Richard Wurmbrand - a small biography for a great man

Richard Wurmbrand (Bucharest, 24 March 1909 - Glendale, California, 17 February 2001) is one of the largest Christian preachers of the twentieth century, founder of the organization Voice of the Martyrs.

Born to a Jewish family, he spent his childhood in Istanbul. It was 9 years old when his father died and his family returned to Romania in 15 years.

Young, he is interested in Marxism: he went to meetings held secretly by the Romanian Communist Party, then illegal, and went to Moscow to study political science. Pursued by the secret police, he is incarcerated in prison Doftana. He later abandoned his political ideals.

He married in October 1936 with Sabina Oster. He converted to Christianity in 1938 and joined the Anglican mission to convert Jews. After the Second World War, he was ordained Lutheran.

Accused of proselytizing (against the Red Army), he was arrested on 29 February 1948 and his wife, Sabina, in 1950.

Released in 1956, he resumed his sermons, and was again arrested by the Securitate in 1959. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison and was tortured. In 1964, 2 Protestant associations are free Richard Wurmbrand, paying a deposit of $ 10,000.

He now defends the persecuted church. He went to the U.S. Senate in 1965, which reflects the situation.

In 1967, he founded the association Jesus to the Communist World, which later became Voice of the Martyrs, defending the right of Christians in communist countries and Muslims.

He wrote several books in English and Romanian.

Living in jail with God

Dear brothers and sisters,

"Walk in the Spirit..." (Galatians 5:16)


I am sorry I would have liked to paint the beautiful shining faces of Christians in Communist jail Their faces shone, and it was quite an achievement for the glory of God to shine on the face of a Christian in Communist jails. We did not wash (I had not washed in three years), but the glory of God can shine even from behind a crust of dirt. They had triumphant smiles on their faces.

I know about Christians who were released from Communist prisons. I was one who was stopped several times on the street by passers-by asking, "Sir, what is it in you? You look like such a happy man. What is the source of your happiness’?" I told them that I came from many years in Communist jails.

They could not understand this because they could not think beyond the difficulties of their own lives. They had not learned to walk in the Spirit and to experience the presence of God. So many would think, "If only you knew what a life I have - a husband who batters me, a wife who nags, children who break my heart - there are so many things." There are many material difficulties, tempests in your soul. I know these difficulties exist.

Horev was a Russian Christian who was in jail for many years. His father died in the same jail. Horev wrote in a letter, which he smuggled out from prison, that he was placed in a cell with common criminals. What they did to Christians is unimaginable.

The criminals beat Horev until lie fell unconscious. When he came to, he heard them talking among themselves, "We should grease some rope and hang him tonight." The others refused, because that was too complicated. They had better cut his throat and then place the bloody knife in his hand so it would look like suicide. That was the talk among them. You could believe it, because they did these things.

Then, walking in the Spirit, Horev envisioned another world for himself and said, "How beautiful it will be after they have cut my throat." He saw the angels receiving him, taking him in their armsto bring him to the bosom of Abraham. He saw himself encountering the martyrs of old. He enjoyed these things. He slept the whole night very quietly.

The next day, the criminals again beat him, and in the evening they talked about killing him. Horev said to himself, "But my father has died in this place. What an honor for me, and what a joy for my father, that I was not afraid and that I walked in his footsteps and will see Jesus." In thinking about this world that he envisioned for himself, he slept again quietly. It continued on like this until the eighteenth day, when he was moved from that jail. What he wrote is so beautiful: "I had to leave the cell. The criminal who had intended to cut my throat came to me, shook my hand, and said, "Truly, there is something supernatural in you."

What in the world does a criminal know about the supernatural? Horev was a page of the Bible, "an epistle of Christ ...written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the Living God" (2 Corinthians 3:3). The criminal knew from Horev, not from the Bible, that Horev belongs to Another. He has a divine nature. "There must be a God," the criminal said. "Every time we spoke about you, you were asleep and we did not think that you heard us. You kept your eyes closed. Why did you not jump at us? How could you sleep quietly and peacefully? Only one who really believes in eternal life can do this."

The criminal continued, "When you were taken for walk in the prison yard, you could have reported to the guard about us and requested to be placed in another cell. That is what is usually done, but you never did it. Why’? Why did you come back? Why did you not seek help with any man except with your God? Why did you pray on your knees every morning and every evening? You knew that we could kill you, as we have killed so many. Why did you give yourself quietly every day into our hands’? This is incomprehensible for us. Really, you have something supernatural in you." Once again he shook Horev’s hand and that is how they parted.

Horev did not live in this world.

We all expect that Jesus will come again and rapture us to heaven. No one will be raptured, I can assure you, if Christ hasn't raptured his heart already. No one will be in heaven if he is not in heaven already, if he does not live here in an entirely different world than the material world that surrounds us.

So whatever your circumstances - which initial be terrible for some of you - don't live this life. Live the new life, the eternal life, the timeless life, to which we are called by Jesus.

We were in prison cells with believers sentenced to death. As often as the door was unlocked, the prisoner did not know if he would be taken to a bath, to an interrogation or to be shot. Yet there was such a peace. There was no difference for him because lie knew he had eternal life.

I belong to the family of God. I have the nature of God. Because I also have the nature of a man, I know I may live sixty or eighty years. Since I have the nature of God, who in the world can kill me? Men can change only my outward form, but I will live in other circumstances.

We saw this peace - the peace of those who understood that godly nature - and I plead with you for this. You have your difficulties. You have your crosses. Trust in the God who makes faces to shine and know that in Him you have eternal life.

Sincerely,

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand

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

It Was Christmas Eve

Dear brothers and sisters,

"You must be born again" (John 3:7).

Let me tell you about a man who was in prison with me. Dimitri was a pastor whose backbone had been beaten with a hammer. When certain vertebra was hit, he was paralysed so that he could move only his neck.

You can imagine what a tragedy this was. If he had been in a home or hospital, he would have had a wife, mother, or nurse to take care of him. How would we take care of him? There was no running water to wash him, no linen to change him. He lay there in his human waste. He could not stretch out his hands to drink a cup of water. The others who could walk and work were taken to slave labour during the day. When they came back in the evening, he had to wait for them to help him drink a cup of water. He lay like this in prison for a couple of years. It was hell an earth.

Then in December 1989 Romania had a revolution and the dictator Ceausescu was overturned. Freedom came and Dimitri was released from prison to be with his family and friends. No doctor could help him, but now he had loving hands to help him. He still could not move hand or foot.

One day someone knocked at his door. It was the Communist who had crippled him. He said, "Sir, don’t believe that I have come to ask forgiveness from you. For what I have done, there is no forgiveness, not on earth or in heaven. You are not the only one I have tortured like this. You cannot forgive me; nobody can forgive me. Not even God! My crime is much too great. I have come only to tell you that I am sorry about what I have done. From you I go to hang myself. That is all.’ He turned to leave.

The paralysed Brother Dimitri said to him, "Sir, in all these years I have not been so sorry as I am now, that I cannot move my arms. I would like to stretch them cut to you and embrace you. For years I have prayed for you every day. I love you with all of my heart. You are forgiven."

Dimitri had learned love from Jesus, who called Judas "friend", who prayed for those who crucified Him, and who accepted Saul of Tarsus, the persecutor, and made him an apostle.

Our faith in Jesus means imitating Him. Jesus, as often as He met a sinner, did not reproach him. He took that man’s sin upon Himself and suffered on the cross for the sin. I could tell you many stories of others like Dimitri.

At one point in prison, I felt very sick. I had tuberculosis, diabetes; heart problems, jaundice, and I don’t know how many other kinds of sicknesses. I was near death. There was in that prison a cell reserved only for the dying. I am the only one who has survived that cell. I was in that room for over three years and came out on my feet to tell the story. It is a story not only of suffering, but also of so much beauty.

To my right side was a pastor by the name of Iscu. He had been so badly beaten and tortured that he lay dying. He was so quiet. He knew where he was going. Whenever he opened his mouth, he gave gems. In Hebrew the word TO TELL or TO SAY does not exist. The Hebrew word for SAY or TELL means SAPPHIRE, A GEM. TO SAY in Jewish means TO GIVE A GEM. If you open your mouth, give a gem. There may be times when you are sad or angry. Keep silent and wait for the moment when you can give a gem. Iseu gave gems when he spoke. He spoke about the beauties of heaven and the love of Jesus. His body was still an earth, at my right side, but mentally he was already in heaven.

On my left side was the Communist who had tortured him to the brink of death. The government had arrested their own comrade and tortured him. Now he too was near death. During the night, he would awaken, "Please, pastor, say a prayer for me. I have committed such crimes. I cannot die."

What I witnessed next was a scene from heaven (you need not be in heaven to see heaven). The agonizing pastor called two other prisoners to help him and, leaning an them, he very slowly passed my bed and sat down an the bedside of his torturer. Iscu caressed his torturer on his head. I will never forget the scene.

This was the man who had so beaten Iscu that now he waited for death, and Iseu caressed him. He said, "I have forgiven you with all of my heart and I love you. If I who am only a sinner can love and forgive you, more so can Jesus who is the Son of God and who is love incarnate. Return to Him. He longs for you much more than you long for Him. He wishes to forgive you much more than you wish to be forgiven. You just repent." In that prison setting where there was no place for intimacy, I overheard this torturer confess all of his murders to the tortured one. Then they prayed together and embraced each other.

Slowly, slowly, the pastor was helped to his deathbed. They both died the same night. It was Christmas Eve, but not a Christmas Eve at which you celebrate one who was born 2,000 years ago, far away in Bethlehem. Jesus had been born that very evening in the heart of a criminal.

This is what Jesus can do for you. I hope that I do not speak in vain. When I have a gem, I speak. This is the gem I have for you today. Jesus loves you and waits to be born in your heart.

God bless you,

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

Our greatest guest

Our dearly beloved,

Jesus was once told that a Roman officer was worthy of being helped. We may pray for individuals, but our request alone is not sufficient. If others ask us to pray for them, we must understand that our entreaty alone will not help. They must also take steps to sweep with their own brooms--they must allow Christ to cleanse their hearts and lives too.

Jesus is the greatest guest you will ever receive into your life.

There is a story about a Christian father who told his son to clean up the garden “because Jesus and His disciples will visit us today.” The boy knew Jesus and loved Him, so he worked diligently in the garden before telling his father, “I’m finished.”

The father, after walking through the garden, said, “Everything is really clean, but not clean enough for Jesus.”

The child went back to the garden with renewed vigor, picking up every withered leaf and every scrap from the pathways. The father then had a second look, saying, “Bravo! The garden is really clean now, but not with the special cleanliness needed for Son of God.”

The boy asked, “What is this special cleanliness like?”

The father replied, “For such a guest it is not enough to eliminate what is ugly. You must also beautify the garden as never before. Quickly, as a friend of Jesus, plant in it beautiful orchids, roses, and lilies--things it never had before--to adorn it. Then add lights to give it a warm glow. Jesus is a guest of unsurprising excellence and must be hosted accordingly.”


Romanian Martyrs

Thinking of this cleansing of the heart, I remember a Romanian martyr. In Communist Romania, many Christians died a martyr’s death. I knew a number of them personally. Nelu Sultaniuc was twenty, in prison for his faith. Hungry, cold, beaten, he fell sick of pulmonary tuberculosis, like so many other prisoners. The prison doctors were unable to help because they had no medicines, but his family brought him streptomycin, the cure for this disease. The political officer of the jail said to him, “I will give you the medicine on one condition: you must become an informer.” Now, the inmates were all there because of their anti-Communist stand. Since Communism is anti-God, what other attitude could a Christian have? Because of this, even their conversation with their cellmates were spied on, in order to provide an excuse for new accusations and longer sentences.

Sultaniuc refused. Matzkevitch, another young Christian (of Jewish origin), also refused. Both died of tuberculosis in jail. They sacrificed their lives to maintain their integrity. What would their lives have profited at such a price? They died as martyrs.

Virgil Ionescu was tied to a chair, with a strong electric lightbulb shining in his eyes. This meant certain blindness. He could escape this torture only by agreeing to be an informer. Today he is completely blind, in utter poverty, but happy to have remained clean in heart.


Problems of Conscience

While I was in Romanian prison ( and surely now in Muslim jails), individuals with a tender conscience had problems.

In the morning, the guard would ask through the opening of the door, “How many in this cell?”

Now, if a prisoner had died during the night and we still answered “Sixteen” rather than “Fifteen,” we would have an extra piece of bread that day. This was a great boon to a sick prisoner. Should we tell this lie? We remembered that David once did a forbidden thing in order to feed his hungry soldiers (I Samuel 21:1-6). But what about us?

Several times when some prisoner was scheduled for twenty-five lashes with a whip for some trespass against the rules, the Hebrew Christian Milan Haimovici stepped forward and offered to take the beating in place of his fellow prisoner.

Since the guard who specialized in beating did not know the people on his list for the day, it was easy to deceive him. But is it right to tell the obvious lie, “I am so-and-so” in place of another? Isn’t this being deceptive?

We also had other problems besides those of conscience. In winter the Communists would offer the prisoners hot tea and hot soup. We had the choice of declining these and suffering the piercing cold or accepting a little bit of warmth and then suffering the protracted pain of needing to void and not being taken to the toilet. In the end, we sometimes solved the problem by using for this purpose the bowls from which we ate.

The brethren living lives with such choices were far from being depressed. How could they be? They desired to live according to the Bible, which says nothing about being depressed! This word isn’t even mentioned in Scripture. Instead, the Bible tells us to overcome every difficulty with the joy that God is ready to give abundantly to those who ask.

In the Sudan, the priest Bagriel Dwatuka was whipped while he hung from a rope, then salt was rubbed into his wounds. He and others who were beaten were obligated to say “Thank you” after every ordeal.

A Christian can do this even when not constrained. Those who hurt us ennoble us if we understand the mystery of suffering.

In the Sudan, many Christians have been killed. Some were confined in churches and tied to chairs with thick ropes. A Muslim officer then said, “We are going to shoot you in your church. May God come and save you!” Then the soldiers emptied their guns on the helpless people and the building was set on fire. We are shipping help to Sudanese Christians.

The martyrs live outside of time. The apostle Paul wrote, referring to such martyrs, “We are surrounded by them as by a great could of witnesses.” they have been the inspiration of our mission, which publicizes the heroic stories of martyrs in over forty languages. They “surround” us when we preach, write, and minister to the needs of today’s martyrs and their families.

Jesus desires to work together with His church. If you are willing to let Him unite with you will continue on the path of the heroes of the faith, past and present.



Number of Christians Triples

Shanghai is the second largest city of China. In the last ten years, the number of Christians there more than tripled. Among its seven and a half million inhabitants, 127,000 are Evangelical Christians. They gather in 111 registered churches, but there are also many house churches. These latter are persecuted.

Three house church leaders were beaten to death by the Chinese police. One is Sister Zhang Xiuju, 36 years old.

The Christian Li Moxi, 90, wrote thirty letters in his own blood to government officials explaining to them that Christians love the Communists but cannot compromise their beliefs to curry favor with them.



Mission to Armenia

“You have made us a strife to our neighbors, and our enemies laugh among themselves”

(Ps. 80:6).

These words could have been written for the Armenian people. Since the third century they have been Christians and have consequently left behind them a history of continuous persecution. The last holocaust of Armenians was perpetrated by the Turks in 1915.

Our Geman mission has printed Armenian language Bibles, Tortured for Christ, The Other Face of Marx, and What Christians Belive. These have been brought into the country and distributed freely. We have also created a Stephen Center in Armenia, as in several other countries. Cleansed through long suffering, Armenian Christians have a high spiritual tenor. The fire of love still burns in their hearts.

In our own Christian life and work we should all show ourselves worthy of the abundant blessings God gives us by being faithful to Him. May God bless you !


Your in Christ,

Richard Wurmbrand

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

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.