BEGIN 06/05/09 #3cccJournal2TwittBook MUST READ FIRST: http://intro.3circles.net #book #tcot #teaparty #sgp #fb #twurch Pages: 0901-0961

#3cccJournal2TwittBook DECEMBER 5, 1974: Gordon, Paul and I met at Marilyn Gruno’s. As the night unfolded there was an air of 0901

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..contention. Her words were often true and full of wisdom but I found myself inwardly warring with her. 0902

#3cccJournal2TwittBook Eventually, this warring became external. Marilyn became quite pushy, even forcing us to listen to a tape. I was 0903

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..reminded of James 3:13-18, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good 0904

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, 0905

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above but is earthly, sensual, 0906

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from 0907

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without 0908

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” 0909

#3cccJournal2TwittBook I’ve discovered a most amazing author, Richard Wurmbrand, a Romanian evangelical Christian minister. He spent 0910

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..14 years in Communist prisons, most of that time in solitary confinement, never seeing the sun and being 0911

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..tortured mercilessly.  I’ve been reading his book, “Underground Saints”. I believe more Christians should 0912

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..actively support persecuted Christians. We should also understand the point of view of those who live in 0913

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..countries where Christians are tortured for their faith, because our simplistic ideas of what is right and 0914

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..wrong do not stand up to the realities they face. Here are some quotes from “Underground Saints”, 0915

#3cccJournal2TwittBook ..each section of quotes related to the topic I post at the beginning, in all caps: 0916

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND: LOVE IS NOT AS SIMPLE A THING AS SOME BELIEVE: 0917

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “Love towards an innocent child, whose life is threatened by a gangster, may oblige a Christian 0918

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..policeman to shoot at the gangster, though he loves every man, gangsters too.” 0919

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “It is alright to turn the other cheek when you yourself are slapped. But what must you do when an  0920

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..informer, infiltrated into the Underground Church by communist secret police, 0921

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..does not slap you but betrays hundreds of Christians who will be put in jail, 0922

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..and destroys the possibility of spreading the Gospel?” 0923

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “When soldiers asked St. John the Baptist what they should do in order to please God, they 0924

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..were not told to leave the military, but to be righteous in it. Jesus praised highly 0925

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..the faith of a captain in the Roman army. He did not tell him to leave it.” 0926

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “The Underground Saints cannot say the whole truth to a communist interrogator. 0927

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND  Don’t judge them from the perspective of a free Christian life, 0928

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..but transpose yourself into their positions and understand.” 0929

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “The highest Christian virtue is not love in the sentimental sense but in a balanced sense. 0930

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND The disciples of Jesus know how to be meek, but they remember that a whip was also a tool 0931

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..in the hands of their master. The truly loving attitude knows when to be humble 0932

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..and when to be self-asserting; when to be submissive and when to be harsh.” 0933

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND: VIOLENCE IS ONE OF THE RIGHTS OF CHRISTIANS: 0934

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “Christians in the Underground Church cannot allow informers 0935

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..to wreak havoc and expose the brethren to the possibilities of arrest and torture. 0936

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND So informers in Russia are beaten – and sometimes Christians may go further than this.” 0937

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND: GOD UNDERSTANDS HUMAN WEAKNESS: 0938

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “In Jesus’ time we read of Joseph of Arimathea, the disciple who hid his discipleship. There was a 0939

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..time in the history of Israel when Elijah the prophet thought himself to be the only one 0940

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..on the side of God. But God knew there were 7,000 others. 0941

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND These others had hidden their faith but they had not lost it.” 0942

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “God forgives this bargaining with conscience. It is important to know that in Russia there exist 0943

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..vast numbers of people who believe in Christ, but who retain positions in Communist organizations. 0944

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND When the right time comes they will be on our side in the fight against the powers of Godlessness.” 0945

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND: IS IT RIGHT TO BREAK LAWS: 0946

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “Many  Christians say, ‘render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s’ (Mt. 22:21). 0947

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND But there are times when even the Ten Commandments of God lose their rights. 0948

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ‘When he was hungry’, says Jesus (Mt. 12:3) David did what was forbidden by law. 0949

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND Hunger cares little about laws. When your country is invaded or oppressed by tyrants, 0950

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND you have to defend it, and the commandment ‘Do not kill’ does not apply. 0951

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND Still less have we necessarily to obey every merely man-made law.” 0952

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “If a Hungarian today were to be told, ‘Give to the Russians what belongs to Russia’ 0953

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND he could only interpret this as ‘give them a good kick in the back and drive them out of the country’. 0954

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND This is surely what the Jew understood  when Jesus said, ‘render therefore unto Caesar..’. 0955

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND It is a revolutionary word and not one which teaches us to be boot-lickers of transitory tyrants.” 0956

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND “Some Christians might say, ‘Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers’ (Ro. 13); 0957

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND ..but the verses following explain the higher powers as those that reward good and punish evil. 0958

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND If rulers reward evil and punish good they are not ordained by God. Their laws are worth just nothing. 0959

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND Christians choose, in such a case, to obey God rather than man. 0960

#3cccJournal2TwittBook WURMBRAND Jefferson has said, ‘Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God’.” 0961

END 06/05/09 #3cccJournal2TwittBook MEET AUTHOR: http://MeetTheAuthor.3circles.net #book #tcot #teaparty #sgp #fb #twurch Pages: 0901-0961