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| Title: | The CHRISTIAN Notesfile |
| Notice: | Jesus reigns! - Intros: note 4; Praise: note 165 |
| Moderator: | ICTHUS::YUILLE ON |
|
| Created: | Tue Feb 16 1993 |
| Last Modified: | Fri May 02 1997 |
| Last Successful Update: | Fri Jun 06 1997 |
| Number of topics: | 962 |
| Total number of notes: | 42902 |
839.0. "Stories of Faith" by STAR::CAMUSO (alphabits) Fri Dec 29 1995 02:29
The following is from a book called "God's Smuggler, Brother
Andrew". It's an autobiography of a man who smuggled Bibles into
iron curtain countries. I was so blessed by this book, that I'm
reading it again, but this time out loud as a story for the whole
family.
The scene in this passage is Rumania ...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The clerk in the hotel eyed me a little dubiously when I asked for
a church. "We don't have many of those, you know," he said.
"Besides, you couldn't understand the language.
"Didn't you know?" I said, "Christians speak a kind of universal
language."
"Oh. What's that?"
"It's called 'agape'."
"Agape? I've never heard of it."
"Too bad, it's the most beautiful language in the world. Anyway,
how do I get to a church?"
[segue to some time later in the office of "Gheorghe", the
"official" president of a Rumanian denomination]
... we discovered we had a problem. Neither he [Ghorghe] nor Ion,
secretary of the group, spoke a word of my languages, nor I theirs.
We sat facing eachother across the barren multi-numberd room, quite
unable to communicate.
Then I saw something. On Gheorghe's desk was a well-worn Bible,
the edges of the pages eaten back an eighth inch from constant
turning. What would happen, I wondered, if we were to converse
with eachother via the Scriptures? I took my own Dutch Bible from
my pocket and turned to ICor. 16:20.
"All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy
kiss."
I held the Bible out and pointed to the name of the book,
recognizable in any language, and to the chapter and verse number.
Instantly their faces lit up.
They swiftly found the place in their own Bible, read it, and
beamed at me. Then Ghorghe was thumbing the pages looking for a
reference, which he held out for me.
Proverbs 25:25: "As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news
from a far country."
Now we were all theree laughing. I turned to the epistle of Paul
to Philemon.
"I thank God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I
hear of your love and of the faith which you have towards the
Lord..."
It was Ion's turn, and he didn't have to look very far. His eyes
traveled over the next lines, and he pushed the Bible to me
pointing with his finger:
"For I have derived much joy and comfort from your love, my
brother, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed
through you."
Oh we had a wonderful half hour, conversing with eachother through
the Bible. We laughed until the tears were in our eyes.
[snippage]
That night back in my hotel, the clerk called to me.
"Say," he said, "I looked up that agape in the dictionary. There's
no language by that name. That' just a Greek word for love."
"That's it," I said. "I was speaking in it all afternoon"
| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 839.1 | Beautiful! | YIELD::BARBIERI | | Tue Jan 02 1996 16:13 | 1 |
| Thanks Tony.
|
| 839.2 | More books..... | TOLKIN::JBROWN | The just shall live by faith. | Wed Jan 03 1996 16:55 | 18 |
| Hi Tony! :)
I read this book ages ago, and I too was very blessed by it.
Have you read any books by Corrie ten Boom? She was a middle-aged
Dutch watchmaker during WWII, and she and her family hid Jews in their
home until they were caught and sent to a concentration camp. The
name of her first book is "The Hiding Place". This is also a movie
that you can rent from some Christian book stores. This book, as
well as her others, continue to bless me even now. I have purchased
7 or 8 copies of "The Hiding Place" at various times in the past and
have wound up giving each to someone. Corrie's other books are just
as important because they tell of her ministry after she was released
from the concentration camp. Marvelous stories!
Love,
Janet
:)
|
| 839.3 | | ROCK::PARKER | | Wed Jan 03 1996 18:37 | 14 |
| Hi, TonyC.
Thanks for opening this topic and making the first contribution. I
look forward to what might be documented here in the future.
A certain evidence that faith is being perfected in us is when God's
own Word actually expresses the thoughts and intents of our own hearts.
In other words, we can find great joy when we can think of no better or
different way to convey our thoughts and feelings than with Scripture
itself.
May the Word of God dwell in us richly!
/Wayne
|
| 839.4 | | PAULKM::WEISS | For I am determined to know nothing, except... | Wed Jan 03 1996 18:59 | 31 |
| I love "God's Smuggler," it's one of my all-time favorites, and one which
really began the process of deepening my faith. And I love Corrie Ten Boom's
writings too, though I only have a few of them.
One story that really sticks in my head (like, it pops up frequently in my
thinking) is about when Corrie was older and still in ministry around the
world. This is from her book "Not good if detached." She was in America (by
a remarkable series of Spirit-led circumstances) and the Spirit told her she
should go to Japan. She protested briefly, that she didn't know anyone in
Japan, didn't know Japanese, and had no idea what she would even do there for
ministry. But the Spirit was more persistent than she, and so she spent her
last money for a one-way ticket to Japan, and off she went.
She arrived at the airport in Tokyo knowing no one, unable to communicate
with anyone, with no idea of what she was supposed to be doing, and without
enough money to get back. The thing that was just blowing my mind, reading
this, was that she wasn't (tremendously) worried. Her attitude was more of
just "What now, Lord?" After slumming around the airport for a few hours,
she suddenly remembered someone she had talked to years before, who said that
one day he hoped to be a missionary to Japan. She managed somehow (I forget)
to look up his name in the phone book, and sure enough he was there, so she
called him. It turned out that he was in some sort of situation where he had
been praying for someone to come and help him show people that faith in God
could be trusted. He was quite blown away himself when he asked Corrie where
she was calling from and she said she was at the Tokyo airport.
The idea of living a life of faith so completely that I would just hop on a
plane with my last money to go where the Lord called me to go is something
I'd love to have.
Paul
|