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.

Patience in asking

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Saint John Chrysostom

Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord

Prayer

Give praise with one accord, O peoples and nations: for the King of the angels rides now upon a foal, and He comes to smite His enemies with the Cross in His almighty power.

Therefore the children sing to Him with palms in their hands: “Glory be to Thee who hast come as Conqueror; glory be to Thee, O Christ the Saviour; glory be to Thee, our God, for Thou alone art blessed”…

O Lord, our Lord, how wonderful is Thy Name in all the earth! (Ps. 8:1)…

Blessed is He who cometh in the Name of the Lord: The Lord is God and hath appeared to us.

Matins, Palm Sunday (Triodion)

You walk with me, my God

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

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

My body is so tired - Prayer

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

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

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

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

Praying for the dead

"If the dead are not raised, what about those who have themselves baptized on behalf of the dead?" 1, Cor. 15:29

The resurrection was violently disputed in the Judaism of Christ’s time and in the early Church (i.e. Acts 23:6; Lk 20:27; 1 Cor. 15:12). However, those who believed in the resurrection assumed we could pray for the dead. In our day, most people assume our resurrection in some way, but may dispute the validity pf praying for the dead. What was disputed in Christ’s time, we assume. What was assumed by the early Christians, we dispute.

These differences in assumptions and disputed questions tempt us that since the Bible rarely mentions praying for the dead (see 2 Mc 12:44; 1 Cor 15:29), this practice must not have been acceptable. Others reason that some practices not mentioned often in the Bible were assumed to be acceptable and needed no further explanation.

For example, Paul referred to the Corinthian practice of baptizing the dead by proxy. People today feel a need for further explanation of such a dubious practice. However, Paul didn’t question the validity of this practice and didn’t bother to explain it. Rather, he used it to illustrate the validity of our resurrection, the main concern of the Church at that time.

Therefore, when we pray for the dead, one of the main things we do is to affirm the resurrection. The "poor souls" in purgatory are risen, victorious over death, and certain of eternal happiness in heaven. Praying for the dead is proclaiming the resurrection.

Theophore

I have not come to call the righteous

But for what reason do the Pharisees blame the Savior for eating with sinners? Because it was the law to put a distinction between the holy and the profane: that is, that whatever was hallowed was not to be brought into contact with things profane.

They made the accusation therefore supposedly vindicating the law; but really it was envy against the Lord, and readiness to find fault. But He shows them that He is present now, not as a judge, but as a physician; and He performs the proper duty of the physician’s office, in being in the company of those in need of healing.

But no sooner had they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they bring forward another, finding fault because His disciples did not fast, wishing to obtain hereby an opportunity against Him.

St. Cyril of Alexandria

Thank you, God, for my body

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

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

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

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

The Prayer of Sunset

When I was a young boy, during the War years, we faithfully observed a little ritual in our home, not from a sens of piety, but to aid the war effort. We would not put on the lights until five o’clock, . In my child’s mind this quickly became associated with the end of the day and the change of pace it brought. It became the signal for my mother to begin preparing supper, and it meant my father would soon be home from work.

Long before electricity, the lighting of the household lamps heralded the evening. In the Book of Exodus, chapter thirty, it is reported that God commanded Moses to see to it that seven lamps were lit in the Tabernacle between sunset and nightfall:

«You are to make these offerings of incense before the Lord without fail from one generation to the next.Early Christians, continuing a practive already long established among the pagans, would bless the evening light with a short prayer of praise. Soon they began to augment this very simple rite with a hymn and other prayers. But even when a regular routine of prayer was organized in the church building, the blessing of the evening light remained the pivot on which all the other ceremonial gestures revolved.

These early Christians made Psalm 140 their evening prayer, because of the phrase . Even to this day, the recitation of Psalm 140 is an integral part of vespers, the evening service of prayer. The other phrase of the opening verses, , probably urged them to restore the lapsed rite of burning fragrant spices. The first Christians had disdained the use of incense because it was connected with pagan rituals, but as the acute danger of idolatry began to subside, the study of Scripture moved them to restore the use of incense as an act of worship.

Richard Wurmbrand