Hi Folks,
I hope you had a good weekend!
I'm going to do something a bit differently today. Today's devot is going to be more educational and informative in nature.
Thursday, 4/13 was Holocaust Remembrance Day and I wish to shed some light on one special lady who was involved in saving Jewish people.
Many people are skeptical that the Jewish Holocaust even happened. It surprises me because of all the evidence-the concentration camps whose structures still exist as a way of giving credence and remembering to those whose lives were brutally extinguished.
Those who have survived and are brave enough to continue to tell their stories, lest we forgot that the Holocaust really happened.
These folks still bear the ugly marks on their arms of their time in prison (identification numbers that were tattooed into their arms as they entered the camps).
The homes or offices that were used to hide Jewish people still exist and are used as places of remembrance (the attic where Anne Frank's family hide, now the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam; the bedroom in Holland, now a museum, where Corrie Ten Boom's family hide Jewish people).
I have been the privileged to meet and speak to a gentleman, Leo Bretholtz, who survived the Holocaust, but his family did not.
One of the heroines in our household is a Christian lady from Holland, Corrie Ten Boom, whose family hid Jewish people in their home, risked their lives for them and ended up in prison for their courageous actions. Her father and sister and other family members died in a concentration camp, but Corrie survived.
The film, The Hiding Place was made on her story and based on her books (the movie is true to book form compared to some movies). It is a powerful film that details the lengths the family went to protect the Jewish people, what they endured in prison, and how in in the midst of their prison time, God worked miracles on their behalf, and used Corrie and her sister Betsy, to share the love of Jesus to inmates and prison guards alike and how lives were eternally changed because they shared Jesus.
In place of a devot. today I have included two clips of her sharing her personal testimony. One is on forgiving the man who turned her family into the Gestapo (German police). It is an extremely powerful testimony of forgiveness!!!! Please listen to it.
The clip also includes pictures of Corrie and her family, and a beautiful song, taken from parts of Scripture, entitled The Hiding Place and real video/photo footage from those in the concentration camps (it's powerful). But if you don't have time for the whole clip, please esp. listen to her story.
The second short clip is Corrie sharing how she came face to face with one of the guards in the prison camp after her release from prison and the story of how she forgave him. VERY powerful also!!!!
In these clips, Corrie shares how her forgives parallels how Christ has forgiven us. We hurt the Lord though our sin every day and yet Christ willingly died on the cross to forgive us of our sins and is still daily willing to forgive us.
1 John 1:7-9, 2:1-2, says, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (an atoning sacrifice for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
I would encourage you to try and watch The Hiding Place (can be found on youtube) or find some books that Corrie wrote (there are several). MUCH can be learned from this hero of the faith through her own journey of faith.
We will be re-visiting this topic along some different lines in the future. I wish to give you some biblical background on why people would risk their lies lives to save Jewish people and what God has to say about the nation of Israel today. I will not be getting political, but I will be getting Biblical.
Lastly, you may remember me sharing petitions on behalf of Pastor Andrew Brunson, American citizen and pastor falsely imprisoned in Iran for a year and a half. He is being placed on trial in Turkey today Monday, 4/16, and is looks like Turkey is pushing for a life sentence for him. Please read the following info. below, prayerfully consider signing and passing on the petition for his release and pray for him and his family on Monday.
Lord bless you and yours this week!
Info. on Pastor Andrew: https://aclj.org/persecuted-church/16-facts-about-pastor-andrew-brunson
Petition: https://aclj.org/
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