The first thing that strikes me about the ten Boom family and their willingness to risk all for the Jews, is that their decision was based on something the Word of God (the Bible) said, and it was very simply agreed to, almost as though there were no other option, as though the choice were really out of their control anyway, so might as well do it! Yet, that certainly was not the case. They absolutely had control to say “No way! It’s much too dangerous!” But they didn’t….and they didn’t so easily, so simply.
Sitting where I am, in my soft desk chair here in my comfortable home, it takes great effort to place myself mentally in their shoes for that moment when they determined to risk what might possibly be their very lives for something or someone else, at a time of so much craziness…terrifying craziness! But for the ten Boom family it was as easy as (and I’m imagining here their possible thinking): “Jesus was a Jew, the Jews were God’s chosen people and He loved them, and because we love God, we also love those whom He loves, and that’s the Jews! Therefore, we cannot allow these terrible things to happen to people that God loves! We must do whatever we can, and we must do it now!” That was it! No looking back! Incredible!
Fast-forward to today where because of famous trials shown on television or read about in newspapers and magazines, we all know what it means to “wiggle one’s way through a legal or technical loophole.” But, it doesn’t appear that the ten Booms even gave any thought to “wiggling” out of the call of God to act in obedience to His Word. It appears that the Word of God said it, and they just simply believed it, no questions asked. And then they acted accordingly.
So, let’s consider what some of the scriptures might have been that they believed.
Here’s a scripture or two about Israel (the Jews) being God’s chosen people….
Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob and I will give it to you for an heritage: I am the Lord. (Exodus 6:6-8 KJV)
At the same time, saith the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. (Jeremiah 31:1 KJV)
And another couple about how much He loved them….
The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying ‘Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Again I will build thee, and thou shall be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.’ (Jeremiah 31:3 KJV)
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.(Genesis 12:3 KJV)
And only two more (out of so many!) telling us Christians about obedience in love…
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Here in is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. (I John 4:9-11)
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. (I John 5:1-3)
These are only a tiny sampling of the numerous scriptures that tell of God’s unending love for the Jews, and of how we are to love others as God loves us. If all the pertinent scriptures were read, and believed, it would be impossible for anyone calling themselves a Christian to hate the Jews (someone who hates the Jews is called anti-semitic). The fact that there are people calling themselves Christians who do, in fact, hate the Jews, leads us into the first topic of discussion: Faith. Or put another way: Believing God (Or His Word) without question because after all it is GOD speaking, and then acting upon it accordingly.
Perhaps when we finish this little study on faith, we will better comprehend how Corrie ten Boom, our first example of a Woman Walking in Victory, came to be that woman.
To be continued….
[This blog is an ongoing study of the lives and the faith of Christian women who have experienced and demonstrated victorious living through Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The current study is about Corrie ten Boom which began on September 21, 2009.]
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Corrie ten Boom
One of my favorite Christian women, famous for hiding Jews from the Germans during WWII, was Corrie ten Boom. There is much to be found about Corrie on the internet. And there is a book and a movie telling her complete story, both titled “The Hiding Place”,
For our purposes here, I will give a brief synopsis of Corrie’s story, and then in the days to come I’ll look at specifics of her story in light of the scriptures that guided and helped Corrie and her family through all that they endured in obedience to the Lord.
At the time that Corrie and her family began working as part of the Christian underground to save the Jews from the atrocities of the Germans, Corrie lived in a house in Haarlem, Holland, with her father, who was a watchmaker, and with one older and much-beloved sister, Betsie. They were all members of the Dutch Reformed Church, loved Jesus Christ, and because the Bible called the Jews “God’s chosen people” (and because Jesus was Himself a Jew) they loved the Jews as well. It didn’t take much family discussion to make the right decision to risk whatever might come their way in order to help the Jews during that terrible period in history. They were all in absolute agreement. In fact, it was the discovery that Corrie’s brother Wilhelm, a Christian minister, was already part of the secret underground movement that helped them decide just how to help the Jews. They ended up having a secret room built into their home, which was above their father’s watch shop. The room was large enough to hide several people for a short period of time. They soon were able to smuggle Jewish people into their home, along with occasional members of the underground, where they all lived together tightly, but fairly comfortably, with the “guests” having to resort to hiding in the secret room only when someone came to the door.
But eventually they were found out. The German police came one day and arrested every member of the ten Boom family in the house: Corrie, her very elderly father, her sister Betsie, and her brother Wilhelm who happened to be visiting. The well-hidden Jews, however, were never discovered, and eventually, with the help of the underground, were able to safely escape. Meanwhile, the ten Boom family, after being beaten and interrogated, but revealing nothing about the hidden Jews to the German police, were all sent to a nearby prison, where the girls were separated from their father and brother. Their father died early on from illness. Wilhelm also died later at a concentration camp. Corrie and Betsie, after spending months in the local prison, eventually were taken to the dreaded Ravensbruck concentration camp.
They were housed in a barrack built for 400, but containing 1400 women. The building was so flea-infested, that even the guards avoided entering it, something that the ten Boom sisters later came to acknowledge was God’s provision for them, even as horrible as it was living with fleas! A small Dutch Bible had been smuggled to Corrie before she was transported to Ravensbruck, and she was miraculously able to smuggle it past the guards when she entered the concentration camp. That little Bible became not only a source of comfort and hope for Corrie and Betsie, but also for many of the women in their barrack. It spoke to them of God’s love and life everlasting, and gave them hope in the midst of that terrible death camp. It was only because the guards so greatly avoided their building, that they were able every evening to read the words of the Bible amongst themselves without being found out and being punished for it….all because of the fleas!
Life in Ravensbruck was as brutal as at other camps, in some ways more so: long hard work days, barely any food, the fleas, very early morning roll calls in the bitter cold, daily shootings, women being sent daily to gas chambers. Corrie and Betsie felt they were experiencing “hell on earth”. And yet, in the midst of all of their suffering, they read of the horrible suffering Jesus also endured for their sakes, and in this they were comforted. Corrie, being by personality very stubborn, had greater difficulty dealing with the fleas and the terrible living conditions. But Betsie seemed to have some sort of peace with it all and seemed closer than ever to the Lord, even though she suffered more than Corrie because of her physical weakness and ill-health throughout the entire ordeal. Her deteriorated state caused her to be slower than others at her work, for which the guards beat her severely, and over which Corrie was incensed! But Betsie refused to allow hatred for those guards to enter into her heart. She prayed for them as much as she did for her fellow-prisoners.
Betsie later died in Ravensbruck from malnutrition and illness, but not before the Lord gave her very specific visions about future events that Corrie would see come to pass. Nevertheless, Corrie was heartbroken at the loss of her sister. Then, only a few days after Betsie’s death, Corrie, miraculously, was released by what she later learned was an administrative error, just a week before all the women of her age were executed at the camp. She returned to Holland, and later moved to the United States, traveling extensively to tell hers and Betsie’s story and how good God had been to them through it all.
What Corrie endured, or more importantly how she endured it, will be the topic of study (and hopefully discussion) for awhile here, as the Lord leads. Meanwhile, I leave you with a scripture that Corrie’s father recited from memory to his family on the day of their arrest: “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.” (Psalm 119:115 NKJV)
For our purposes here, I will give a brief synopsis of Corrie’s story, and then in the days to come I’ll look at specifics of her story in light of the scriptures that guided and helped Corrie and her family through all that they endured in obedience to the Lord.
At the time that Corrie and her family began working as part of the Christian underground to save the Jews from the atrocities of the Germans, Corrie lived in a house in Haarlem, Holland, with her father, who was a watchmaker, and with one older and much-beloved sister, Betsie. They were all members of the Dutch Reformed Church, loved Jesus Christ, and because the Bible called the Jews “God’s chosen people” (and because Jesus was Himself a Jew) they loved the Jews as well. It didn’t take much family discussion to make the right decision to risk whatever might come their way in order to help the Jews during that terrible period in history. They were all in absolute agreement. In fact, it was the discovery that Corrie’s brother Wilhelm, a Christian minister, was already part of the secret underground movement that helped them decide just how to help the Jews. They ended up having a secret room built into their home, which was above their father’s watch shop. The room was large enough to hide several people for a short period of time. They soon were able to smuggle Jewish people into their home, along with occasional members of the underground, where they all lived together tightly, but fairly comfortably, with the “guests” having to resort to hiding in the secret room only when someone came to the door.
But eventually they were found out. The German police came one day and arrested every member of the ten Boom family in the house: Corrie, her very elderly father, her sister Betsie, and her brother Wilhelm who happened to be visiting. The well-hidden Jews, however, were never discovered, and eventually, with the help of the underground, were able to safely escape. Meanwhile, the ten Boom family, after being beaten and interrogated, but revealing nothing about the hidden Jews to the German police, were all sent to a nearby prison, where the girls were separated from their father and brother. Their father died early on from illness. Wilhelm also died later at a concentration camp. Corrie and Betsie, after spending months in the local prison, eventually were taken to the dreaded Ravensbruck concentration camp.
They were housed in a barrack built for 400, but containing 1400 women. The building was so flea-infested, that even the guards avoided entering it, something that the ten Boom sisters later came to acknowledge was God’s provision for them, even as horrible as it was living with fleas! A small Dutch Bible had been smuggled to Corrie before she was transported to Ravensbruck, and she was miraculously able to smuggle it past the guards when she entered the concentration camp. That little Bible became not only a source of comfort and hope for Corrie and Betsie, but also for many of the women in their barrack. It spoke to them of God’s love and life everlasting, and gave them hope in the midst of that terrible death camp. It was only because the guards so greatly avoided their building, that they were able every evening to read the words of the Bible amongst themselves without being found out and being punished for it….all because of the fleas!
Life in Ravensbruck was as brutal as at other camps, in some ways more so: long hard work days, barely any food, the fleas, very early morning roll calls in the bitter cold, daily shootings, women being sent daily to gas chambers. Corrie and Betsie felt they were experiencing “hell on earth”. And yet, in the midst of all of their suffering, they read of the horrible suffering Jesus also endured for their sakes, and in this they were comforted. Corrie, being by personality very stubborn, had greater difficulty dealing with the fleas and the terrible living conditions. But Betsie seemed to have some sort of peace with it all and seemed closer than ever to the Lord, even though she suffered more than Corrie because of her physical weakness and ill-health throughout the entire ordeal. Her deteriorated state caused her to be slower than others at her work, for which the guards beat her severely, and over which Corrie was incensed! But Betsie refused to allow hatred for those guards to enter into her heart. She prayed for them as much as she did for her fellow-prisoners.
Betsie later died in Ravensbruck from malnutrition and illness, but not before the Lord gave her very specific visions about future events that Corrie would see come to pass. Nevertheless, Corrie was heartbroken at the loss of her sister. Then, only a few days after Betsie’s death, Corrie, miraculously, was released by what she later learned was an administrative error, just a week before all the women of her age were executed at the camp. She returned to Holland, and later moved to the United States, traveling extensively to tell hers and Betsie’s story and how good God had been to them through it all.
What Corrie endured, or more importantly how she endured it, will be the topic of study (and hopefully discussion) for awhile here, as the Lord leads. Meanwhile, I leave you with a scripture that Corrie’s father recited from memory to his family on the day of their arrest: “You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.” (Psalm 119:115 NKJV)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Women walking together....
That’s a good beginning.....I’d like to find women who have been victorious in their walk with Jesus, and in a sense, walk with them, searching for the keys that enabled them to walk so victoriously. The internet has a wealth of information about famous (and maybe not so famous) women who meet the proper criteria for my research…that criteria being that their victory was (by their own admission) because of Jesus Christ.
But, being the believer in Jesus Christ that I am, I will want to tie it in with a biblical discussion or study of the Word of God. And perhaps, in the process, I will be courageous enough to share a bit of my own growth towards victorious living, sometimes sharing small successes, sometimes (sadly) only the lack of; but always pressing onward towards the goal!
At the moment there is only me sharing anything on this blogspot. But, I pray that when you discover this blog (whoever “you” are), you might also be courageous and share with me your successes (or lack of ) in your walk with Jesus Christ. Then there will be two of us walking this biblical internet road together, and then eventually, maybe three of us, and so on, and so on.
I especially pray that all the stories, discussions or studies that follow in the days and months to come, will be of great encouragement to those of you who call Jesus Christ your Lord and Saviour. For you, like me, know that it is only in Him that we can have that victoriously abundant life filled with love, peace and joy...no matter what our circumstances might be. That’s Victory in Jesus! And together we will be: Women Walking in Victory!
So, the first step is to find the first Woman of Victory. Check back tomorrow to find out who she is (even I don't know yet!)
P.S. (Can you P.S. on your own blogspot? This is all new to me!) If you aren’t sure who Jesus really is, but you’d still like to hear about these victorious women to come, and get in on our discussions or bible study, to you I say: Welcome and may God bless you richly through Christ Jesus!
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