Carl
and Connie Giordano sent the following as part of their Victory in Jesus
Newsletter. The story is by Richard Wurmbrand, the Romanian Pastor who was
imprisoned for his faith in Jesus. He was tortured and suffered greatly for 14
years in a Communist concentration camp.
Carl
related: "Many years ago I had the great privilege to hear Brother
Wurmbrand preach at a Church in Pennsylvania. I will never forget the
experience. When he and the Pastor of the Church came to the platform and sat
down, Brother Wurmbrand immediately tack off his shoes. When he was introduced,
he came forward to the microphone with a chair, sat down on the chair, and began
to speak. I'll never forget the things he said that night, and it was over 20
years ago that I heard him preach. First of all, he said, ‘Please forgive me
for taking my shoes off and sitting on a chair to preach to you tonight. You
see, I cannot wear shoes for very long nor can I stand for very long. In prison
for 14 years, the Communists often beat my feet with rubber hoses. Wearing shoes
and standing causes me great pain, so please forgive me for making myself so
comfortable here tonight.’"
"The
second thing he said made me and everyone else in the Church want to crawl under
the pew for shame. He said, ‘Every night for 14 years in prison, myself and
all the other Christians prayed for the Christians in America. Did you pray for
us?’
"I
weep now as I tell you about the third thing I remember that Brother Richard
Wurinbrand spoke of. He constantly told us of the great love that he had for the
Communists that tortured him in prison. (Brother Wurmbrand is full to
overflowing with the love of God.) I weep because I know that we
"Christians" in America have a very difficult time loving one another,
much less someone who has tortured us. But then we don't have to worry about
that because none of us has ever been tortured. And as long as we keep living
the "LUKEWARM" life, we never will have to worry about it!
"That
night, after Richard Wurmbrand preached, he had a time of questions and answers.
Someone from the congregation asked, ‘Brother Wurmbrand, when you were in
prison, did you have the joy of the Lord like Paul and Silas in Acts 16?’
"Brother
Wurmbrand answered, ‘Now, I hope my answer doesn't offend anybody, but I must
tell you this. When I was in prison, they put all of us Christians in the same
cell block. We were all bound with chains, but our chains were to us as musical
instruments. Sometimes in the middle of the night, we would all awake and be so
full of the joy of the Lord that we would dance around our prison cells and we
would all clang our chains together for musical accompaniment."
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. Demitri was a pastor whose
backbone had been beaten with a hammer. When a certain vertebrae 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 labor 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 Demitri 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 Demitri 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."
Demitri
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 Demitri.
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 Iseu 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
If you
would like to read the full account of Richard Wurmbrand's life and testimony,
you will find it in his book, entitled - TORTURED FOR CHRIST. For the
book and/or his monthly Newsletter, write to -
THE VOICE OF THE MARTYRS
P.O. BOX 443
BARTLESVILLE,
OKLAHOMA 74005
Tel.
918-337-8015; Fax 9IB-338-0189
e-mail:
thevoice@vom-usa.org
web
site: www.persecution.com