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eighteen hundred forty four, there was in a an old home in Haarlem a watchmaker who started a prayer meeting for the Jews. That was so unusual that my father told it to me. Now, it is not unusual when Christians pray for the peace of Jerusalem and for the blessings of the Jews, but in that time it was something very unusual. That old man was my grandfather. He came together with his friends every week, and they prayed and they prayed for the Jews and for the peace of Jerusalem.
Hundred years later, in that very same house, grandfather's son, four of his grandchildren, and a great-grandson, they all were arrested because we had saved Jewish people. That was the divine, but not to understand answer on prayers for Jews. My father often was warned. They said, when you have always Jews in your house, you will end up in prison. And then he always said, if that will happen, I am too old. But if that happens, it will be an honor to me to give my life for God's ancient people, the Jews.
And that's what really happened. He died after ten days. Now you know a little bit about the beginning of that terrible happening in my life that I became a prisoner together with my family. Once in heaven, we will understand and see God's side of the embroidery. God holds the d- uh, key of all unknown, and I am glad. If other hands should hold the key, or if he trusted it to me, I might be sad.
The very dimness of my side makes me secure, for groping in my misty way, I feel his. I heard him say, my help is sure. I'm going to give a message to the children of God here tonight. I told yesterday that I asked a lady if she was a child of God, and she said, sure I am. I go every Sunday to the church. And I said, a mouse born in a biscuit tin is therefore not yet a biscuit.
And to be in the building of a church does not make you a child of God. Then she said, but my parents were fine children of God. I said, but God has no grandchildren. And I tell you, if you are not quite sure that you have received Jesus as your savior, then do it tonight. It is still time. And I can tell you, when you come to Jesus, those who come to him, he will in no wise cast out. You are very welcome. You are welcome into the everlasting love God has for his son.
And the very moment that you are a child of God, then there is a tremendous work for you to do. Perhaps you say, but I do not quite understand that, that being saved, to have forgiveness of sins. I can tell you, when I was in that very difficult experience of a prison, when I was uh four months in solitary confinement alone, then I learned. I learned more than before. The class of that school was very difficult, but Jesus stood in front of the class, and that is why I learned so much.
I was questioned. I was brought before a judge, and he asked me many things. He asked me about my childhood, my certificates, my spare time, and I told him all when he asked me about my misdeeds, I did not tell him all. He has known about eight Jews that I had saved, and praise the Lord, there were many, many more. But when I told him, uh, about, uh, what, about my life, I also testified to my faith, and I told him about Jesus, and the Lord used that, um, questioning to touch his heart.
And I experienced that when, when there came a moment that he showed me papers found in my house. And I had already found that he was so kind. It was as if he became a friend instead of an enemy. But he had to do his duty, and he said, these papers are found in your house. And there, to my horror, I read names, addresses, and particulars that could mean not only my death sentence, but a death sentence of my family and friends. And there were several addresses of Jews who were not yet found.
I was so afraid, and he said, can you explain these papers? I said, no, I can't. I felt so miserable, but he knew how dangerous the papers were, and because he became a friend, he had become a friend, he would help me, and he took the papers, turned around, opened the door of the old, um, stove, and threw all the papers into the flames. How happy I was. And when I saw these flames destroy these horrible papers, were so dangerous for my friends, my family, and I, it was as if for the first time I understood what it means when you know that Jesus at the cross has carried the sins of the whole world, and when we bring our sins to him, he casts our sins into the depths of the sea.
And I, it is not in the Bible, but I believe he put a sign, no fishing allowed. He really, he does, he destroys our sins. What a joy. And you who re- have received the Lord Jesus or will receive this evening for the first time Jesus, you can bring your sins to the Lord Jesus, and he will cast them in the depths of the sea. He will destroy them, and they are gone, and you have forgiveness, and then the Lord cleanses your heart with his blood, and a heart cleansed by the blood of Jesus, he fills with the Holy Spirit. And that same moment, you are called to obey a word that the Lord has said in Acts one eight, where the Lord Jesus said, you will have power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and go and make to my disciples, bring the gospel in Jerusalem, in Judea, and over the whole world.
Every child of God is called to bring the gospel over the world, and also you who are a babe in Christ of five minutes old. I was once in a prison in Bermuda. I like to work in prisons. I know how to feel behind the door that you can only open from outside. And I talked with a man who was sitting there in a cell, and uh, the b- the door were barred doors, and that man had a red rag on his uh, back of of the back of his uniform.
I asked the guard, has that man tried to run away? He said, yes, how do you know that? I said, I have been a prisoner in three prisons, and when we tried to run away, we also got a red rag on the back of our uniform. He said that poor man is sent, is a murderer, and he is sentenced to whipping. And he was so afraid for that whipping that he had tried to run away. Poor fellow. Now he has had a double portion. He was sitting there in the corner of his cell, and I prayed, oh God, give me to find a way to his heart, and God, make him your child.
And I said, hi, have you had a weapon? Yes. I said, was it bad? Yes. I said, now do tell me, did they bring you into a hospital afterwards? No, wasn't as bad. He stood up and came to the door. He thought, what is that, a strange lady who asks such questions? I said to him, uh, did they, um, treat your wounds? Yes, he said, they rubbed them. Then I asked, is there hatred in your heart? He said, hatred? My whole heart is full of hatred. I said, that I can understand. You.
I said, yes, I. And then I told how there was hatred in my heart when they whipped my sister because she was too weak, too frail to shuffle sand. But I told him there happened a great miracle. G- uh, Jesus had brought into my heart God's love, and through that love, all the hatred disappeared. And I said, and the Lord will fill your heart with that love. And I showed him the way of salvation from the word of God and how I prayed, for you must always have the horizontal and the vertical connection when you ha- bring someone to the Lord.
And that man said yes to Jesus. A yes that was so important that the angels rejoiced, just like he they rejoice when you say yes tonight. I shook hands with him, and I prayed with him. And then he said, have you another five minutes? I said, yes, why? He said, in the third cell at the other side of the corridor is a man in great darkness. Please tell him also of Jesus. A babe in Christ of five minutes old, and he has already a burden for souls.
How old are you? Have you a burden for souls? I went to that man in the third cell, and I prayed, and I claimed his soul, and I showed him the way of salvation, and also that man made his decision for the Lord Jesus that brought his name in the book of life. And before I left the prison, I said to the murderer, say, uh, I must tell you something. That was good that you sent me to the man in the third cell. He has also received Jesus as his savior. And then the murderer looked around me, and he shouted over the corridor, hi, brother.
What will it be for you when you enter a beautiful city and the saints all around you appear, and many of the people will tell you, hi brother, hi sister, you invited me here? Then you will know that you have not lived in vain. To win souls for Jesus Christ is the most important work that a child of God can do. At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light, and the burden of my sins rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight.
Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to men. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. In the concentration camp, we were not allowed to have have a Bible. But I had my Bible hidden under my dress. And when on the back of my, on my back under my dress, and when we entered, I prayed, oh God, send now your angels and let they surround me.
For Lord, if they find my Bible, they will take it away, and we need it here. But then I thought, angels, uh, yeah, they are helpers, but they are, they are spirits, and they, spirit is transparent, and these people may not see me. So I said, oh God, make your angels today untransparent. You can pray very unorthodox when you are in great need, but God did it. God did it. And when I stood there and they searched my, the woman before me and after me, my sister who stood behind me, then I knew the angels around me are untransparent.
Oh, what a joy. And then we came in that prison, and it was so dirty, so terrible dirty, and the first thing we experienced was that it was full with lice and fleas. And that she said, Cory, you must thank God for everything. I said, can you thank, give thanks, give thanks for fleas and lice? I can't. And she said, yes, I can. And she thanked God for the fleas, and I could not do it. But do you know what happened? We experienced that guards and officers would never come into our room because they were afraid to get lice and fleas from us.
And that is why we could give twice a day a Bible message to the people around us. God can use also fleas and lice. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. See, do you know that what the Lord said, go and bring the gospel, that that is for all of us here? The Lord Jesus has said, like the Father has sent me, so I send you. Perhaps some of you say, yes, but I am not healthy enough. I am not strong enough.
Now don't say, uh, I'm not young enough, for I am not young enough too. I'm eighty, but I can tell you I'm very happy that I may bring the gospel in many places. But I was in Russia, and I came in a room of a lady, a woman who was, was very ill. Her feet and hands were ill. Only one finger she could move. And she was sitting there on her bed, and uh, she was typing out with that one finger books of Billy Graham, of Watchman Nee, and my books, and she typed that out from the morning till the evening with the one finger she had still, eh, eh, she could still use.
I was so amazed. She did it till the last day of her life. Some months ago she died, and her husband told that she had done this work till the day before she died. I was so sorry, and I said to her husband, I'm so sorry that your wife is so ill. And he smiled. He said, do you know that the secret police knows that in our room there is only a very sick lady who has sick feet and hands, and they think she cannot do any harm, and they never come into her room.
Isn't that good? God used that sickness that they were protected against the, uh, the people of the secret police. Oh, what a joy is it that we have not to say, uh, I am strong enough, I am, I am good enough to be used. I must tell you that I have experienced when I am not strong enough, when I am not able to do it, when then my unability meets God's ability, and then, uh, really miracles happen.
I was in South America, in Argentina, and I came into a room in a hospital, and there were people in iron lungs. There has been a terrible ep- epidemic of polio there, and I had never seen such a thing, so I was so downhearted. Oh, was that terrible to see people in an iron lung. And I had only one wish, to go somewhere in a corner and cry. And a nurse said to me, please, will you come to speak with this man?
That was a man not in an iron lung, but he was on a bed that went up and down, up and down. When his legs were up, then he could breathe out. When his legs were down, he could breathe in. And I said, Lord, you know that I am not able, I cannot do it. And when I say to the Lord, I cannot do it, he gives always the same answer. He says, I know that already a long time, but I'm so glad you know it. For now I can do it. I said, all right, Lord, can you do it? And I stood there and I talked with that man.
And I saw that he was a Jew. And I told him about Jesus. And I said to him that Jesus was a Jew. His divine side was, uh, that he was God's son, but his human side was that he was a Jew. And when you receive Jesus in your heart, you will be a completed Jew. And I told him that Jesus said to everyone, come unto me. And I was so happy when I saw that in the, that on the face of that man came a joy.
He could not talk. The only thing he could, he could write. Then I showed him my, my embroidery. I said, oh, when I see you here, not able to speak and so ill, then I think of this side of the embroidery, but God's side is beautiful, and I showed him the beautiful side of the embroidery, the crown, and then he took a little paper and he wrote, thanks God, I am already seeing the beautiful side. Oh, what a miracle.
I said, thank you, Lord. I was not able, but you were able. And the next day I went again to that hospital, and I went to that room, and I said to the nurse, can I speak with that man? And she told, five minutes after you had left, that man winked me, and I went to him, and he wrote down, for the first time in my life, I have prayed in Jesus' name, and that moment that man died. Oh, what a miracle God had done through me on a moment that I could not do it, and the Lord can do it through you and through me because he is able.
I was with the whole team, and one lady was a good singer, and the other played a little organ that she they had taken with her, and they all did something, but one woman said, I cannot speak, and I cannot, uh, sing or play, but I do every week something. And she made, had made a big, a huge cake. And she said, every week I bake that cake, and then you will see what I do with it.
And after the whole ser- sermon wa- service was over, we spoke for a huge group of women. This woman came with her cake, and it was as if all the prisoners were sitting a little bit more upright. Oh, now comes the cake. And she made little, uh, pieces of cake, and every piece she made in colored paper. She understood what colors mean for a prisoner. And I saw that there was an atmosphere of love and joy that was in that prison through the work of that simple lady who could not do anything else but baking a cake.
Just ask the Lord, Lord, what can I do? And the Lord will tell you what you can do. I will never forget the last day that I was in Ravensbrück. I was called out. I heard when we had all every morning from three thirty till six thirty to stand on roll call. And when I came to stand there, I heard that they shouted sixty six thousand seven hundred thirty. I said, that's my number. And the other prisoner said, ah, that means that you are sentenced to death.
But I went forward three days before Betsy had died, and I thought, now they will shoot me and I go to heaven and I will see Jesus, and I will see Betsy. And I was not sad, I was glad. But when I was standing there, next to me was a girl that I had never seen before, a Dutch girl. And I said, oh Lord, now this is the last d- day of my life. Lord, I claim the soul of this girl. I had three hours, the time to tell her the way of salvation, and I could pray with her and tell her that Jesus loved her and had died at the cross for her sins, and that girl accepted the Lord Jesus as her savior.
And I said, thank you, Lord. This is not the last one I can bring to you. She was not the last one. What a joy that there are many more. See, but do you know that when you will be a real worker for the Lord, that there must be a trust in the Lord. We are not able, but he is able. I will never forget when I was in Cuba, and oh, it was so difficult there. Alan and I were there the first day, and we tried to find Christians, and we could not find anyone.
And that night, both Ellen and I, we were afraid. We said, Lord, how can we work in this, uh, in here in Havana? And then we opened the Bible. And just when we opened the Bible, we read this word. It was, uh, uh, the Acts eighteen ten: Do not be afraid, but go on speaking, and let no one silence you. For I myself am with you, and no man shall lift a finger to harm you.
There are many in this city who belong to me. Oh, what a word. We could just praise the Lord. The next day we f- uh, found an address, and it was an address of a minister, and when we entered, we found that the ministers of whole Havana had come together for an assembly and t- uh, talking things over. So at one moment we had all the churches of Havana together. What a joy. That is the great thing, we can trust the Lord, and he is able. But we must be sure that the channel, our channel must be wide open.
I have already spoken about forgiveness. If you are bitter, if you have hatred, don't think that the Lord can use you to bring the message of love of God in Jesus Christ to others. I heard once Rufus Mosley say, when you are sitting on Peter's chair and you are no Peter, you Peter out. And I learned something. I heard of a pickpocket here, and he said, ha, I was a very good pickpocket. I stole every week fifty sixty watches, but now I'm a Christian. I steal only five or six."
No. We have to be holy. We have to be clean. And, uh, John Bunyan, I like that little poem, and I have said it yesterday, but there are more people now than yesterday. John Bunyan said, Run, John, run, the law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings, it bids us fly and gives us wings. Isn't that good? When the Lord says, uh, be, be good, love your enemies, be clean, then he gives us wings through the Holy Spirit.
For the fruit of Spirit, the Holy Spirit is love and goodness and kindness and everything we need to be a good, clean channels of streams of living water. And that is good in this time, for the enemy is very busy. I heard of a boy here in this town. He was on the in a on a college, and he had to have speech lessons. And then the professor said, now all, you must all go to the drama tonight.
And they went to a drama, and that was so dirty that the boy thought, they felt that his soul became dirty. And suddenly he stood up and r- uh, ran away. And he came outside in the campus, and he threw himself in the grass, and he said, I was laying there on the grass, and I looked at the, at the stars, and I saw in the stars a little bit of the beautiful creation of God, and I said, Lord, my soul is dirty. Will you cleanse me with your blood? And he was cleansed, and he could go home so happy, and don't forget, my friends, that there is the blood of Jesus available for to cleanse you with, to cleanse you from all sins.
But we stand, we must stand on victory ground, and that is possible because Jesus is victor. Now, it was a lo- long time that I had worked over the world, and then there came a time that I was ill, and the doctor said, now you must take a year vacation. You may call it the sabbatical year. If you don't do it, then this is the last. But if you take a year vacation, then perhaps you can live and work another ten years. I said, I must talk with the boss.
And I said, Lord, is that from you? And the Lord said, yes, that is from me. And I took a wi- a year vacation, and I went to a home in Uganda that I had, together with my friends, I had arranged it for missionaries and workers in God's kingdom to have vacation. And now I could go myself there, and it was a joy to be there. Oh, don't think I didn't do anything. I, but for there were many, um, universities and prisons and churches and clubs around, but never I, uh, did more than three meetings a week, and I slept every night in the same bed.
Can you understand what that means? I had really slept in more than a thousand beds before, and I loved it. But then came the end, and uh, now it was first of November, and that was the end of the sabbatical year. And we were just asking the Lord for his schedule. It's not so when we make our schedule that we make it and then ask God's signature. No, we ask God, what is your schedule, and then we write our signature. And the Lord made a very good schedule. Four months in Africa, two months in America, four months we in East Europe behind the Iron Curtain.
But I was not happy. And when I was alone, I said, Lord, I am now so old, I think I stay here in Uganda. And Lord, I will work also hard as you like me to make me w- work, but Lord, I will sleep every night in the same bed. And I, I was so happy. And there came a minister, an um, dark um, um minister, colored man, and he came to me. He said, oh, Coritan Bom, we are so happy that you come to Burundi for, uh, you know, five years ago you were with us and you told us about what Jesus had been for you in prison.
And we thought it was beautiful, but it did not say so much because we had never been in a prison. But since that time, we have had war, civil war. I have been two years in prison, and every word that you have said has been a comfort for us. And now we are happy that you come again. But I was not happy. I said, oh, mm. Do tell me, what kind of a church have you? What is the message that you have to bring to the church, to your church? Without hesitating one moment, he opened his Bible and he read the beginning of Revelations two.
Write this to the angel of the church in Ephesus, he said. That is the church of Rwanda. These words are spoken by the one who holds the seven stars safe in his right hand and who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know what you have done. I know your powers of endurance, how you have suffered for the sake of my name and have not grown weary, but I hold this against you, that you have lost your first love. Remember then how far you have fallen.
Repent and live as you lived at first. Otherwise, if your heart remains unchanged, I shall come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. When that African read that, I knew that is not a message only for Ephesus or for Rwanda, that was a message for Corrie ten Boom. More than twenty years before, I came from a concentration camp, very ill and very weak, but I was interested in two things. First, to tell the people about the reality of Jesus' victory, and I was interested to win souls for him.
That was twenty years ago, and now I was interested in my bed. And I knew it. I had lost my first love. But then suddenly there came joy in my heart. Except you repent. Repent. And I saw that the door of repentance was wide open, and the only thing that I had to do was repent of my losing my first love, and I repented, and the Lord forgave me and cleansed me and filled me with the Holy Spirit.
And did I get back my the, my first love? No, far better. The Lord fills my heart not with my first love, but with the love of God through the Holy Spirit. And I went to Africa and to America and to East, uh, Europe, and the love of God was my strength. See, why did I, did I tell you? The Lord told me that I have to tell you this tonight because there are here people who have lost your first love.
And I have a joyful message for you. The door of repentance is wide open. Repent, come to the Lord, and he will give you back your first love. No, far more, he will fill you with the ocean of God's love in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that this is far more true than I can tell in my Coritambum English. You can speak to the people, and I praise and thank you, Lord, that the door of repentance is wide open, and we have only to confess our sins, and you are faithful and just to forgive us, and you will fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we can love our enemies, so that we can be used as wide open channels of streams of living water.
And oh Lord, I pray for all the people here in this hall, that when they enter the beautiful city and the saved all around them appear, that all of them will hear, by some or by many, it was you that invited me here. Hallelujah. Amen.