#66730

What do you see when you look at this number... what sort of meaning does it have?  Could it be life or death?  It was for a woman living in Holland during World War II.  She and her family risked their lives to save Jewish people from being murdered and tortured.  They were hidden in a secret room in their home.  Her father owned a watch repair shop. They lived above it. There was no age limit as to who they would try to save or protect... mothers, babies, children, fathers...  some too old to care for themselves..

What compels a person to risk her life to save someone else?  Oh, I know there are times when you hear a hero story and think...  Wow!!! Could I ever do something like that?  Number# 66730 was from an ordinary family who loved the Lord.  Daily Bible reading was an anticipated time of joy in the bleakness of war; prayer was vital... Yet, it had it's risks...

Now, in a concentration camp herself for helping others... many months have passed.  With it, the passing of her sister and father who had endured countless times of torture and cruelty. For more than three hours each morning... she is forced to stand in the bitter cold with just a paper thin dress on. Hidden beneath her dress, in a small bag attached to a string around her neck, is the Bible that has given her strength.  The Bible that angels guarded... the Bible that she read to the other prisoners... the Bible that she risked her life to keep. She stands among tens of thousands of women who do not know their fate... Will today be the day that she is to die?  

Her number as well as her name is called and she is asked to step aside... she stands beside a young girl who has been in the concentration camp for two years.  She asks the young girl why they are standing there... Barely able to speak, the girl said two words.. "Death sentence."  

Corrie Ten Boom knew this would probably be her last chance to witness to anyone about the Lord.  For three hours... she shared of God's love.  The young woman had never read the Bible.  She believed that God existed but did not know Him.  She wanted to know more about Him.  As they stood in the freezing cold... awaiting death,  this precious young woman gave her heart to Christ... The other prisoners standing around them had been listening too.

Corrie Ten Boom...#66730 was called forward... she asked God for a quick death... As she walked through the gates to what she thought would take her to her eternal glory with Christ, she was handed her release papers... 

Most of us will never suffer in the way that Corrie Ten Boom suffered... The young woman she lead to the Lord while awaiting her fate... died shortly thereafter.  Corrie was 52 years old when she left the concentration camp and she told others about the Lord until her death on her 91st birthday.  She wrote numerous books and produced several films  including "The Hiding Place." God has given each of us His story to tell to those around us... to those who need hope... to those who need to feel His love.  I have been inspired to be bolder... 

Let us pray for intersections in our lives.  Pray for divine appointments... for unexpected connections...

"Praise the Lord, all you nations;

     extol Him, all you peoples.

 For great is His love towards us,

     and the faithfulness of the Lord

          endures forever."

                   Psalm 117

"Not to us, O Lord, not to us

     but to Your name be the glory,

     because of Your love and

          faithfulness."

                  Psalm 115:1

"Praise the Lord

  Praise the Lord, O my soul.

     I will praise the Lord all my life

     I will sing praise to my God as 

          long as I live.

 Do not put your trust in princes,

     in mortal men who cannot save.

 When their spirit departs, they

     return to the ground;

  On that very day their plans come to nothing.

  

Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,

     whose hope is in the Lord his God,

  the Maker of heaven and earth,

     the sea, and everything in them...

 the Lord who remains faithful forever.

He upholds the  cause of the oppressed

     and gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets prisoners free,

     the Lord gives sight to the blind,

 the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,

     the Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord watches over the alien

     and sustains the fatherless and the widow,

     but He frustrates the ways of the wicked.

The Lord reigns forever,

     your God, O Zion, for all generations.

 Praise the Lord."

                  Psalm 146