No Greater Love
Jesus said to His disciples
in John 15:13, "Greater love has no one than this, than
to lay down one's life for his friends." This, often
quoted verse, has reference to what Jesus was getting ready
to do on the cross as He was laying down His life for His
"friends" (v.14). Believer's through out the ages have had
to pay a high price to follow Jesus. That is no different
today. Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of The Voice of the
Martyrs, who spent 14 years in a communist jail in Romania
recounts the following story:
I worked in both an official and underground manner until
February 29, 1948. On that beautiful Sunday, on my way to
church, I was kidnapped from the street by the secret
police. I had often wondered what was meant by
"man-stealing," which is mentioned several times in the
Bible. Communism has taught us. Many at that time were
kidnapped like this. A van of the secret police stopped in
front of Me, four men jumped out and pushed me into the
vehicle. I was taken to a prison where I was kept secret for
over eight years. During that time, no one knew whether I
was alive or dead. My wife was visited by the secret police
who posed as released fellow-prisoners. They told her that
they had attended my burial. She was heartbroken" (Tortured
for Christ, p.33).
While Richard spent those eight long years in a communist
prison, he underwent some tremendous torture. He writes,
"Handcuffs with sharp nails on the insides were placed on
our wrists. If we were totally still, they didn't cut us.
But in the bitterly cold cells, when we shook with cold, our
wrists would be torn by the nails. Christians were hung
upside down on ropes and beaten so severely that their
bodies swung back and forth under the blows. Christians were
also placed in ice-box "refrigerator cells," which were so
cold that frost and ice covered the inside. I was thrown
into one while I had very little clothing on. Prison doctors
would watch through an opening until they saw symptoms of
freezing to death, then they would give the signal and
guards would rush in to take us out and make us warm. When
we were finally warmed, we would immediately be put back
into the ice-box cells to freeze. Thawing out, then freezing
to within minutes of death, then being thawed out - over and
over again!" (Ibid., pp.34-35).
What was Richard's cause that helped him to endure such
torture? Listen again to Richard's words:
I remember my last Sunday school class before I left
Romania. I took a group of ten to fifteen boys and girls on
a Sunday morning, not to a church, but to the zoo. Before
the cage of lions I told them, "Your forefathers in faith
were thrown before such wild beasts for their faith. Know
that you also will have to suffer. You will not be thrown
before lions, but you will have to suffer at the hands of
men who would be much worse than lions. Decide here and now
whether you wish to pledge allegiance to Christ" (The
Triumphant Church, p.15).
Richard made the choice to pledge allegiance to Christ, what
about you?
Brother Steven Miller.
Associate Director of Prayer Requests, Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org steven@Answers2Prayer.org