"'For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise,' says the LORD; I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.'" (Psalm 12:5)
"It was a dark and stormy night"-------- literally. I was walking/jogging along a dike just about a mile outside Dinteloord, Holland. There was a drizzly rain; it was quite cool, very normal Holland weather. I was preparing to leave the next day to head deep into Romania with Bibles and a new "system" which only one team had tried before. As I passed a house which had smoke coming from its chimney, I saw a family around the fireplace, kids playing games, mom sewing, dad reading a paper. I had a deep longing to be home with my own family (I had already been in Morocco and Czechoslovakia for a month). In those days, we knew of the terrible pressure under which the Believers in Jesus Christ lived in Eastern Europe, one out of three citizens, for instance, spying on their neighbors for the Securitate (secret police) in Romania. Earlier that day I had read a report of a Romanian Follower of Jesus Christ who had been put in prison for delivering Christian literature to other Believers for an "underground" seminary (When the leaders in Vienna realized that it had become too dangerous for the Romanians themselves to do such work, they set up teams from the West to do the work of distribution within the country. The next year I would be a part of a two man team going into Romania to participate in that endeavor). But now, the Bibles were "packed," and armed with our text, the other guy and I were ready.
I tell this little story as a testimony. That morning, just after reading today's text, I read of the Romanian Believer to whom I referred earlier, of the day when his wife and brother came to visit him, how when they entered the room, he was standing facing the wall with his hands over his eyes. When he turned around, his family saw that he had been crying. He had been humiliated and beaten; he had been threatened with a long prison term, even the possibility of death, never to see his wife and children again. Our text today was a great encouragement, an incentive, if you will. "Because of the devastation of the afflicted, because of the groaning of the needy, Now I will arise,' says the LORD." (NASB). Yes, I was missing my family; yes, I was tired; yes, I wanted to be home. But remember the Word of Jesus?-- "....Where I am, there My servant will be also"----------------------------------------- What else could one do?
Father, in Jesus' Name, You have arisen for Me more times than I can number. Please help me to always, "arise," with You. Amen.
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New articles on the News and Jerusalem Watch Blogs:
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
"Looking Unto Jesus"
Hebrews 12:2
