Gtcotr/ss011313
“God does not have problems, only plans.” Corrie ten Boom
Matthew 6 NKJV
9 "In this manner,
therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come. Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily
bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
13 And do not lead us into
temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen.
14 "For if you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 "But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
I
imagine forgiveness to be one of the most powerful forces and one of the greatest
hurdles in the universe.
For
those of us who have been forgiven it is a gracious and cherished gift.
However, for those who are challenged to forgive – it can at times seem like a
heavy and terribly unfair burden. Nonetheless, only forgiveness can set the
captive free.
Forgiveness
is an act of the will, not an emotion. It’s a decision made by choice in hopes
that God will grant His grace to make it so.
How
can we forgive without God’s help … How can we forgive without God’s grace?
The Story of Corrie
ten Boom
Corrie was born in the Netherlands to a
Dutch Reformed Christian family in 1892. Her family had a history of heart-felt
concern for and outreach to the Jewish community. Corrie’s grandfather worked
during the early 1800’s in attempts to improve Jewish-Christian relationships.
Corrie was raised, along with her brother and sisters, joining their father in
attending Jewish Sabbath worship and bible studies. Corrie’s brother, Willem,
the Pastor of a Dutch Reformed Church, was assigned the duty of converting Jews
to Christianity. Instead of attempting to agressively force conversions he
instead studied Anti-Semitism and then opened a nursing home for people of all
faiths eventually converting it to a safe house for Jewish refugees during the
war.
Following the Nazi invasion of the
Netherlands in 1940 and the ensuing Jewish persecution, the ten Boom family
began providing aid to the persecuted families first by giving food and then by
sheltering individuals and families from arrest by the Gestapo. Of course, any
assistance given to a Jew under Nazi rule was strictly forbidden by law and
punishable by imprisonment and/or death. Nonetheless the ten Boom’s were
Christians, what else could they do?
On one occasion Corrie ten Boom recalled
asking the local Pastor of a Christian Church in town to help by taking in a
Jewish infant. He replied that he could not do so because of the great risks it
would present to him and his family. Corrie’s father entered the room about
that time and upon hearing her request and the Pastor’s reply, he took the
child up in his arms and declared what an honor and privilege it would be for
the ten Boom family to give their lives for such a cause.
Not only did Corrie and her family
provide food and shelter for Jewish refugees but they also networked with the
underground movement in the countryside to send many Jews to safety abroad.
This continued until February 28th, 1944, at 12:30pm, when the German
police raided the ten Boom house in response to an informant. Fortunately the
family had built a small “hiding place” on the uppermost floor of the home into
which the current six Jewish refugees crammed themselves to escape capture.
However, Corrie, her sisters Nollie and Betsie, along with their brother
Willem, their father and a group of about 30 people who were holding a Bible
study in the living room of their home were arrested. Of those arrested all
were released except for Corrie, Betsie and their father. Ten days after being
arrested Corrie’s father died in prison.
Soon afterwards Betsie and Corrie were
moved from one prison to another eventually finding themselves assigned to the
Nazi death camp, Ravenbrueck. Corrie had managed to smuggle a little Bible and
keep it hidden from the guards and with it she and her sister held Bible
studies among the camp’s prisoners. One of the sisters would read the text in
Dutch then translate it into German and it would pass through the congregation
being re-translated in the native tongues of each prisoner group so that
everyone could understand God’s Word. Corrie remembered those times as a
glimpse into heaven’s international congregation as the light of God’s Word
illuminated faces from all walks of life.
On December 16, 1944, Betsie, frail from
the starvation, persecution, and the conditions of the camp, now only skin and
bones, died in Ravenbrueck at the age of 59. Before she died she told her
sister Corrie, “There
is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.” (Betsie ten Boom)
Twelve days later, on December 28th,
1944, due to a clerical error, Corrie was released. The following week all of
the other women in her group at Ravenbrueck were put to death leaving Corrie
ten Boom, this woman of faith, as the sole survivor. One more story about
Corrie and I will get back to the message for today.
After Corrie’s mistaken release from
Ravenbrueck Nazi death camp, she continued following her faith in Christ by
preaching forgiveness and returning to the Netherlands where she established a
post-war home for camp survivors, and those Dutch neighbors of hers who had
collaborated with the Germans during the war. She went on to author books,
travel to 60 countries where she gave her testimony and encouraged people with
her life message – a message of trust and forgiveness. She passed away in
California on her 91st birthday, April 15th, 1983.
Once, while giving her testimony in a
Church in Munich, Germany, she noticed a balding man dressed in a heavy coat,
clutching a wool hat. As he approached her she flashed back to her days in the
Ravenbrueck camp and remembered this man, a bit younger, dressed in his blue
suit, staring down with the swastika emblem on his Nazi hat as she and her frail
sister, Betsie, were forced to disrobe along with the other female prisoners
and pass by him day after day in humiliation. She remembered her sister’s cruel
death and then he spoke.
He said, “You spoke of Ravenbrueck … I
was a guard there and did cruel things … but since that time I have become a
Christian and God has forgiven me … will you forgive me?” And with this he
stretched his hand out towards her.
Corrie recalls that she stood there, she
whose sins had been forgiven, unable to forgive another. Betsie died there …
could this man now gain forgiveness simply for the asking?
Knowing in her heart that she had to but
also realizing that forgiveness is not an emotion but an act of the will –
Corrie told herself that through Christ all things are possible and with God’s
help she mechanically lifted her arm, trusting God that He would supply what
was missing in her heart by His grace alone. She gives the testimony as to when
their hands touched and their eyes met, the most incredible thing happened. She
felt it begin in her shoulder, down her arm and through her hand – the forgiveness
of God and she loudly proclaimed: “I forgive you brother, with all my heart!”
In her words:
“I had
never known God's love so intensely as I did then.”
There
is a grace of forgiveness, first there is a grace to be forgiven and then there
is a grace to forgive.
It
has been said by someone who knows that:
“Worry
does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength … Never
be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” – Corrie ten Boom
1.
If you need to be
forgiven this morning,
come forward. You’ll not be asked to reveal your sins but only to God.
2.
If you need to
forgive someone else,
come forward. I’ll not ask you to recount anyone else’s sins committed against
you but only to God.
3.
God will forgive you
and give you the grace to forgive others. It is available for the asking.
…
Go with me to God to obtain this grace we all need.
1
John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
Ephesians
4:32 And be kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
