But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.
Job 16:5 (NIV)
| The Secret of
the Persecuted by Cathy Vinson |
We work so hard to provide pleasant things on our every side. Recently, have we considered what a jolt it would be to our sensibilities to be imprisoned and even tortured, as our brothers and sisters in Christ have been? In the manner we are presently carrying on, it's even challenging to look into this fact: in our precious family are those who have, are, and will be sorely abused because they love Jesus. To go from our present-day freedoms to such incarceration without a transitional period seems impossible to bear. To find ourselves half-clothed in a cold cement cell knowing our next contact might well be our torturer is not a far-fetched scene, unfortunately. Could you and I make it? How would we cope when everything surrounding us would be detestable? How could we do it? How can anyone do it? Richard Wurmbrand, used worldwide to educate the free world of what suffering has and is occurring, speaks from personal experience..."If the heart is cleansed by the love of Jesus Christ, and if the heart loves Him, you can resist all tortures. What would a loving bride not do for a loving bridegroom? What would a loving mother not do for her child? If you love Christ as Mary did, who had Christ as a baby in her arms, if you love Jesus as a bride loves her bridegroom, then you can resist such tortures...This is 'heartwashing." Couldn't we begin practicing this now, having no room for anything in our hearts but love for Jesus? Shove aside all these preferences we have built up as an ugly moss-covered wall in the middle of our hearts. Let love for Christ fill its place. Practice this in the little things. These saints found only love left, love for God and men, the ones who mistreated them. Let us face a new day with only love left, love for everyone. |
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"Love the Lord with all your heart" (Matt. 22:37) |
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Send a note to Cathy Vinson , the writer of this devotion.
Other Whispers from the Wilderness Devotions are found HERE
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