Heroic Faith by The Voice of the Martyrs

Author:The Voice of the Martyrs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2010-11-06T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 5

Endurance

The Long Haul

They’re not especially.jpgted.

They’re just in it for the long haul,

that’s all.

Heroes don’t quit.

They are marathon runners

who won’t walk away

from what they agreed to do.

They complete what they start,

though their feet may stumble.

When they fall, they are humble enough

to brush themselves off

and bury their pride and regain their stride once again.

Heroes pace themselves by facing the fact

that they come from a long line of finishers

who cheer them on

from the bleachers of eternity.

BY GREG ASIMAKOUPOULOS

THE CRUELT Y O F THOSE WHO HATE Christians is all-consuming. More than fifty years ago, a teenage girl working with Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand in the Romanian underground church came under scrutiny. The Communist police discovered that she was secretly spreading copies of the New Testament and teaching children about Christ. After contemplating how they might respond to behavior they viewed as inflammatory, they decided to arrest her. But arresting and imprisoning her on the spot didn’t seem nearly harsh enough. They looked for a way to make her punishment agonizingly painful.

Upon further investigation they discovered that she was soon to be married. Heartlessly, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until her wedding day. As the day of her wedding dawned, the authorities prepared to carry out their clandestine plot. Without knowledge of what lay in store, this young bride-to-be dressed in a beautiful gown she had dreamed of wearing all her life. It was the most wonderful, joyous day of her life! Suddenly, the door was pushed open and the secret police rushed in.

When the bride saw the secret police, her response surprised her would-be captors. She extended her arms as if to welcome the handcuffs. Refusing to appear caught off guard, the police roughly clamped the manacles around her wrists. After giving her devastated groom a knowing glance, she kissed her chains and said, “I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel he has presented to me on my marriage day. I thank him that I am worthy to suffer for him.”

Wearing her wedding dress, she was dragged off. Her Christian family and friends wept as they watched the surreal events play out in front of them. They attempted to comfort a heartbroken bridegroom struggling to maintain his composure. He had reason to be concerned. He knew what happened to young Christian girls in the hands of Communist guards.

Five years after that fateful day, the bride-to-be was released. No longer wearing the beautiful gown in which she was last seen, she no longer boasted the beauty she once had. She stood before her family looking thirty years older. Her body was broken, but not her will or spirit. She had held on to a dream that had not shattered. So had her groom. He had waited for her. He said it was the least he could do for his Christ.

That poignant portrait is taken from the pages of Tortured for Christ, the classic book on the persecuted church written by the founder of The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Richard Wurmbrand.

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