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Corrie Ten Boom

Cornelia Arnolda Johanna “Corrie” ten Boom (1892–1983). Born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, Netherlands, to a devout Dutch Reformed family, Corrie ten Boom was a watchmaker, evangelist, and Holocaust survivor. Raised in the Beje, her family’s watch shop and home, she became the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922. A committed Christian, she ran clubs for girls and taught Sunday school. During World War II, she and her family hid Jews from the Nazis, creating a secret room in their home, saving many lives as part of the Dutch underground. Arrested in 1944, Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where Betsie died, but Corrie was miraculously released due to a clerical error. After the war, she traveled globally, preaching forgiveness and God’s love, sharing her story in over 60 countries. Her book The Hiding Place (1971), co-authored with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, became a bestseller, detailing her faith and wartime experiences. Unmarried, she died on her 91st birthday, April 15, 1983, in Placentia, California, saying, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred.”
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of not waiting until the last week of one's life to surrender to God. He encourages the audience to surrender their lives to God and become channels of His love and light in the world. The preacher also shares a story about preaching the gospel in communist countries and how the message was received and shared. He emphasizes the need for believers to share the good news of Jesus Christ with a world in need of salvation. The sermon concludes with a conversation between Jesus and the angels about the redemption of the world and the importance of evangelizing the whole world.
Sermon Transcription
My grandmother, who is 83 years of age when she died just a few months ago, would have been so proud to be here tonight. To hear the marvelous story of one of the most remarkable ladies that the world has to offer today. And so you can imagine that being a Dutchman myself, that I'm proud of this citizen of Holland, and this adopted citizen of America, and this citizen of heaven. And I'm thrilled that she would be here tonight to help us commemorate our 30th anniversary. She's no stranger to Youth for Christ, because she attended one of the early congresses that was held back in 1948, which was one of the founding congresses of Youth for Christ. And I want you to really give her a warm welcome to Denver, Tati Corey. Would you welcome her, Corey Tindley. I feel really quite at home. Although you can understand that I feel myself more the riper Youth for Christ. It was really one of my great joys many years ago when I was in Seattle in the house of Dr. Jackson, and there were some people sitting around the table, and they talked, it was Torrey Johnson, and Billy Graham, and Bill Bond, and some more, and they talked about how they could bring the gospel to the young people in Holland. And how they could start the Youth for Christ in my country. Oh, I felt a little bit as if I was in heaven, that I found there people who were thinking about that. And I've always been very happy and thankful that the Youth for Christ was a movement in Holland where many, many young people have found the Lord, and also have found what it meant to be the light of the world. Tonight I will speak about the words of the Lord Jesus who has said, like the Father has sent me, so sent I you. And I will read from 2 Corinthians 5, 17. I hope you don't mind when I read it from the translation of Phillips. That is an English that even a Dutch well can understand. There we read, if a man is in Christ, he becomes a new person altogether. The past is finished and gone. Everything has become fresh and new. All this is God's doing, for He has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and He has made us adjurants of the reconciliation. God was in Christ, personally reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their sins against Him, and has commissioned us with the message of reconciliation. We are now Christ's ambassadors, as though God were appealing direct to you through us, as His personal representatives. We say, make your peace with God. And I speak to the youth of Christ this evening, that you are called to be an ambassador of Jesus Christ. Like your astronauts were representatives from the earth to the moon, you and I, we are representatives from heaven on this earth. We are representatives not from Christianity, but from Jesus Christ Himself. And when I speak, will you be so kind to pray? You can listen and pray at the same time. You can have the horizontal and the vertical connection at the same moment. Pray that a lot will work in our hearts, that we can understand a little bit better what it means to be the light of the world in a very dark time of the world's history. Perhaps the world has never been so ill, so deadly sick. And you and I are called to be the light and the representatives of Jesus in this world. And there is a terrific work to do for you and me and every child of God. I once read a little poem, and it has shown me really a little bit what it meant, that a person, when he never hears of the Lord Jesus, can get lost. It is such a tremendous opportunity, but also responsibility, that you and I are representatives from Jesus and that we are sent in this world as the light and the salt. I said to one who stood at the world's far crossroads, which is the way that leads to eternal light. And he lifted his eyes to the hills ahead, and he answered, younger it lies, and the guide is still inside. Who is the guide? I asked. And he answered, Jesus. Who is this Jesus, of whom I have never heard? And therein, to a worn, distressed, and bewildered comrade, he told of the Savior, word by precious word. I left behind me the dark and troubled valley. I took the road ahead and found him there, a light to my feet, a radiance to my pathway. And ever within my heart I am aware that I might have missed the way of the far-off crossroads if one had failed me and had not the words to say, Follow your leader. Follow the glory way. How shall they believe in him of whom they have never heard? How shall they hear without a preacher? People will ask, why was I not told back of the crossroads of this Jesus? My friends, you and I have to tell a poor, sick world the way of salvation. I read once a legend. It was about the return of the Lord to heaven. The angels gave him a fantastic welcome and then gathered around him full of questions about his death, resurrection, and ascension. What is it all about, they asked. The redemption of the world, Jesus replied. But you have come back here. How will the world know about it? I have trained my men to evangelize the whole world. Yes, indeed, every corner of it. How many men did you train for such a mumbled task? A handful, Jesus said. A handful? But what if they fail? If they fail, I have no other plans. But is that not a great risk to take? And Jesus said, no, they will not fail. Isn't that a joy? When Jesus looks at you and at me, he knows that we will not fail. It seems in the world that it has gone down and down with the world. But in this book we know the secret of God's plan. And God has no problems with this world, only plans. There is never a panic in heaven. And in this book is written about the great future that this world will be covered with the knowledge of God like a water scupper at the bottom of the sea. The best is yet to be. I heard a priest say, when I read a book that is sad, and I do not like it, then I always look a moment at the last page. And when I read at the last page that they get each other and they lived happily for the rest of their life together, then I read also the sad things in the story. He said, when I see that will happen and that are happening at this moment, then I get scared and I get sad. But then I do the same. I just look at the last page of the book. And there is written that Jesus has said, I will come and I will make everything new. Friends, we stand on victory ground because Jesus is coming and every knee will bow for Him. Those who love Him will bow in great joy. Those who have refused Him will bow in great fear. And you and I have to tell the people, use the time and come to the Lord as soon as possible. It is time to become dead serious with the Lord. And we have to get ready, all of us. When I was arrested in Holland, together with my family and my friends, because we had saved Jewish people in Holland, and we were brought to prison, but first in a police station, my nephew Peter van Woorden came to me and said, Aunty, what have you in your shoe? I said, Romans 8. I said, what have you boy? He said, I have Ephesians 1. Do you know what mom has? 2nd Corinthians 4. What did he mean? All of us knew we were going to a place where we could not have a Bible. And all of us had put in our shoes and under our hair some pages of the Bible. We were prepared, Peter was prepared, a boy of 16 years old, because he knew, now I have come in prison and I must have a little bit of the Word of God to pass on to others. It is such a great joy that in the Bible we have everything we need to be equipped to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. And when we are longing to bring the Word of God, the Lord Himself will use us as channels of streams of living water. It is not we who are building the Kingdom of God, it is the Lord who is building His Kingdom, and He will use you and me to bring in this world the real peace that Jesus only can bring. Perhaps you will say, but I have not always an opportunity. But the joy is that when you stand at Jesus' side, you stand on victory ground. And when you don't know what to do, the Lord knows. I was in Russia, and I was not allowed, a foreigner was not allowed to stand on the pulpit and speak in the churches. But we could bring greetings. And I brought greetings standing on the pulpit, and I took half an hour. And then we sang a hymn, and then I say, I go to Russia, there I gave a message on the whole hour. But there was one thing, I once was in my hotel room, and I said, Lord, I am so glad that I can bring the Gospel in the churches, but Lord, I should love so far as they have an eternity to lose or to gain. Lord, I need a miracle, but you are a God of miracles. And the same moment, I saw on the floor little holes in the form of the holes of a pepper box. And I understood, aha, that is the secret microphone that is in all the hotel rooms in Russia and the other communist countries. And I said, thank you, Lord, that will be answered. They listened, not only they listened, but they took my whole talk on a tape, and they didn't keep the tape, they brought the tape to their superiors. So I was very happy. I said, people, I have in my hand a book, almost bursting of good news. In this book is given the answer for a too paramount problem, the problem of sin and death. And in this book is said, told everything that we have to know of Jesus Christ, who died to give us forgiveness of sins, and who lives to give us the deliverance of sins. Once we heard that in a Jewish orphanage, all the babies had to be killed because they were Jewish babies. And when I heard it, I called my boys, and I said, boys, you must save these babies in Amsterdam in the orphanage. And my boys stole hundred babies. And my girls distributed these babies within one day. That was not difficult. Just imagine when there came someone to you with a baby in the hand and said, will you save the life of this baby? And if you don't do it and I cannot find someone else, this baby will be killed. I'm sure not one of you should say, no, but you should take the baby. Ah, we were so happy when we had saved these hundred babies. Piet Hartog was one of my bravest boys. And he said that evening, Aunty, I think we do the most important work that exists, just saving lives from the morning till the evening. I don't long to go back to college. This is life. This is worthwhile. I said, Piet, I'm so happy when I think of the babies that we have saved today. But there is a work that is still more important, and that is not only save lives, but save souls and tell people about Jesus. Then Piet smiled. And Piet said, perhaps something that some of you say. He said, I'm a Christian boy. I go to church. I read my Bible. And I pray. But telling people about Jesus, that is good business for my pastor. Perhaps some of you say the same. And I say the same to you what I said to Pieter. I said, Piet, every Christian is called to be an ambassador for Christ and to bring the gospel. And Piet, in your life there will come a time that you will see the most important work for you, to tell people the way to heaven, who is Jesus Christ. It was half a year later that Piet was arrested and came in prison. And there he heard that he had only one week to live. And the day before he was killed, he wrote us a long letter. And he wrote, all the boys and the men in this cell are sentenced to death. And I am so glad that I can tell them that Jesus Christ has died for the sins of the whole world, also for their sins. And that when they ask Jesus to come into their heart, that he will give them eternal life. And that when we will be shot tomorrow, that it will be for us to go to heaven. Now I know, Pieter wrote, now I know that the most important thing for a Christian is to win souls for eternity. Young people here, I have a message for you from Piet Hartog. Don't wait till the last week, like Piet has done, the last week of his life, the last week of your life. But say tonight, Lord take my life and use it. And make me a channel of streams of living water. Make me a real ambassador for you, a light in this dark world. And when you surrender for service tonight, then there will be a tremendous future for you. Once when you enter a beautiful city and the saints all around you appear, many of the people will tell you, it was you that invited me here. Then you will know that you have not lived in vain. Perhaps some of you think, I am not good enough. And then I think of a talk that I had in a prison in New Zealand. I spoke to these prisoners, these criminals, you are the light of the world. They do not hear that often. They hear most of the time, you are the darkness of the world. But I told them, when you give your heart to Jesus, and they listened, and I saw that they were happy to hear that God could use them. And one of the prisoners stood up afterwards and he said, fellows, this morning I was reading in the Bible, and I read about the story of three murderers. One was called Moses, one David, one Paul. What? Were they murderers? Yes, he was right. Once all these great men of God, Moses, Paul and David were once murderers. And this criminal said, fellows, what can God do with a total surrendered murderer and criminal like you and me? What can God do with a total surrendered, decent sinner like you and me? Isn't it a joy that God can use us? And if the Lord Jesus has warned us, if anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of the Father and the holy angels. You understand that I speak tonight for the youth for Christ. And I mean really not only the younger youth, but also the riper youth for Christ, for every child of God here. But there are some of you who do not yet belong to the kingdom of God, because you have never accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior. Now, then, this call, what I said, is not for you. But you must not stand up and disappear and say, oh, now this message is not for me. No, it can be for you. But first, there must happen something with you. I must warn you. If you neglect too long, it becomes reject. When you harden your heart, your heart gets hard. And before I go on with my message, I invite all the people here who have never said yes to Jesus, to say, tonight, Lord Jesus, I need you. I am a sinner and I say, yes, Lord, come into my life. And the moment that you say that, the Lord Jesus will come in your life and that same moment there is work for you to do in this world. I'll never forget that I was in Bermuda, in a prison, and I saw a man in a cell, and he had a red rag on his back, the back of his uniform. I asked the guard, has that man tried to run away? He said, yes, how do you know that? I said, when we tried to run away in the three prisons where I have been a prisoner, we also got a red rag on the back of our uniform. The man said, that man is a murderer, and he has the sentence of whippings, and whippings are terrible cruel. And that man had been so terribly afraid that they had to run away. And they had found him, and they had given him a double portion of whippings. And he was sitting there in the corner of his cell like a wounded animal. And I went to him, I said, hey fellow, have you had a whipping? Yes. Was it bad? Yes. I said, did he bring you to a hospital afterwards? No. He stood up and came to the bar door. He thought, what a strange question this lady asks. And I said, did they treat your wounds? Yes. I said, is there hatred in your heart? He said, hatred? My whole heart is full of hatred. I said, that I can understand. Heh, you. I said, yes, I. And then I told what I felt when they whipped my sister in prison because she was too frail, too weak to shuffle sands. How there came hatred in my heart. But a miracle happened. I claimed the text in the Bible, the love of God is shattered, brought into my heart through the Holy Spirit who is given to me. And I said, thank you, Lord Jesus, that you have brought into my heart God's love. And thank you, Father, that your love in me is stronger than my hatred. And I could love these enemies, these people who are cruel for backstabbing my sister. And I said, when you ask Jesus to come into your heart, he will also make you full of his love and peace and joy. And I showed him the way of salvation and that man accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior. And we prayed together. And after we prayed, I left. And then he said, wait, lady, have you another five minutes? I said, yeah, sure, why? He said, in the third cell there is a man who is in great darkness. And will you please tell him also of Jesus. A baby Christ of five minutes old. And he had already a burden for souls. How old are you? Have you a burden for souls? I went to the man in the third cell. And when I told him about the cross of Jesus where the sins were carried over the whole world, when I told him, that man, that he could come to Jesus and confess his sins and that the Lord would cleanse his heart and fill him with the Holy Spirit and the joy of the Lord. I prayed and at last that man also made that decision that the angels rejoice. For every person is so important that the angels rejoice when they come to Jesus. I prayed with him too. And then when I left, I went to the murderer. I said, say fellow, that was good what you did. That you have sent me to that man in the third cell. He also has accepted Jesus as his savior. And the murderer stood up and he looked around me. And he shouted over the corridor, Hi brother! Hi brother! That is what you will hear when you come in heaven. And you will meet people that have found the answer for their problems and the way for eternity. Who have found the Lord Jesus through your testimony. What a joy! I know that there are here in this town many workers in Youth for Christ. I never have known that there were such huge groups of Youth for Christ people who were full time in the work for the Lord. And they told that they give instruction to other young people. So when there are here who are willing to go in the work for winning souls, you are in a very good opportunity to get instruction. But you and they will experience that sometimes you will fail. It will not go always so easy. It will not be always such a success as with the murderer in Bermuda. But when you have failed, then don't be afraid. Once I heard a story of a weaver's school. And these weavers, these students were making most beautiful patterns in their weavings. And the visitor asked, Say, when you make a mistake, must you cut it out or start from the beginning? And the student said, No, when I make a mistake, our teacher is such a great artist that he uses that mistake to improve the beauty of the pattern. That is what the Lord does. When you bring your mistakes and your blunders to the Lord, He will use that to improve the beauty of the pattern. I see that some of you look happy. Some look at me as if they say, I can't understand it. So I will tell you what happened in my life. I was in, for the first time, in Japan. And I could not recognize the people there. They had all the same flat faces. And there was a Mr. Sekiya and there were three Mr. Sekiyas. At that time, I could not see who was who. Once I had a student's group and when I was speaking, I saw a man enter him who came late. I thought, oh yes, that is the director of the seminary, the Bible seminary. But he was not. He was a professor of a non-Christian university. But when I was through, I said to him, Sir, will you please now close this meeting with a prayer? The man said, I? I've never prayed in my life. Suddenly I saw my blunder and I saw who he was. I said, oh professor, it doesn't matter, I will close. And I prayed, but he came to me and Japanese people are very polite and he bowed several times for me and said, I was so sorry that I could not do what you asked. I said, professor, I honor you that you said no. If you had been more superficial, you should have said a prayer without believing it. But you didn't do it. But tell me, why are you not a Christian? He said, I? No, then first I must study Christianity. I said, no, sir. In this book it is written, not those who study Christianity will become children of God, but those who receive Jesus Christ as their savior, they become Christians and children of God. And I talked with him, I prayed with him, and that man made a decision for Jesus Christ. He was a strategic point in the University of Tokyo. Now do you see the pattern? God used the blunder of a dumb Dutch to save them. But I had to surrender it. So don't be afraid when you make a blunder. Just bring it to the Lord. He will improve the pattern. In this time, it can be very dangerous to be an ambassador for Jesus Christ. Many, many Christians have to suffer persecution. I know it. But there comes a moment that the Christians will be translated before the tribulation comes. I do not know. There is now a tribulation. There is now a persecution so enormous that about 60% of the body of Christ is suffering persecution. And we must understand it. We are one body of Christ in the world. And watchman, he said, when my feet were whipped, my hands suffered pain. And when people in Africa are tortured to death, we have to pray for them. And over the whole world, we must be faithful to pray for the Christians who are in concentration camps, the people behind the iron and the bamboo curtains. There are many, many Christians who are suffering. And it is not impossible that you have to suffer over some time. But then think of Peter, Peter van Woorden, my nephew, who had in his shoe Romans 8. He was prepared. And I believe you and I must prepare to be ready even when we have to suffer for the Lord. And I would like to find in the Bible the text that can help me when I come in the tribulation and when I was in tribulation in the concentration camps. When I read, God does not give us a spirit of fear but of power of love and a sound mind, I said, thank you Lord. When I read that Jesus said, you will have power after the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And when I read that God has a telescopic and a microscopic interest in us, the hairs of our head are numbered and God has the whole universe in His hands. I was in Africa in a Christian boys school. And oh, what a joy it was. These boys were full of the joy of the Lord. And they really were in their way ambassadors for Jesus Christ. I met a missionary with whom I had worked. And I asked him, tell me, how are my boys in that boys school? We had such a good time together. And he said, these boys? They are all murdered, all killed. I said, oh, how terrible. These beautiful boys. Then he said, do you remember that boy who had such a beautiful voice? Yes, I said, yes. There was a boy who had such a beautiful voice. You could listen to him always. And he said, when he had to be shot, he asked the soldier, will you wait a moment? May I first sing? And with his beautiful, heavenly voice, he sang, out of my bondage, sorrow and night, Jesus, I come. Into thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of the depths of ruins untold, into the peace of thy sheltering fold, ever thy glory in space to behold, Jesus, I come to thee. And then he was shot. Do you see? That boy had grace to be a martyr. He had not a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and a sound mind. I remember that I was in Ushubora, and it was a terrible time. I heard that many Christians were killed. It was in Burundi. And that week, every day, Christians had got a letter, you must be registered in the police station. And they had come, and they were all shot. And when I stood there in the church, I saw that there was fear. It was Sunday morning, and the people looked at each other. And they looked and thought, will he be shot this week? Will she be alive next week? Will she be killed? Will I be there? And there was such a fear. And I said, Oh Lord, give me a message for these people. And the Lord gave me. And I read 1 Peter 4, 12. Now, dear friends of mine, I beg you not to be unduly alarmed at the fiery ordeals which come to test your faith. As though this were some abnormal experience, you should be glad, because it means that you are called to share Christ's sufferings. One day, when He shows Himself in full splendor to men, you will be filled with the most tremendous joy. If you are reproached for being Christ's followers, that's a great privilege, for you can be sure that God's Spirit of Glory is resting upon you. And I told these people the story that you can read in my book, The Hiding Place. When I was a little girl, I said, Daddy, I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus. And Father said, When you go with the train, when do I give you your train ticket? Three weeks before. I said, No, Daddy, the day that I go to travel. And Father said, So God does. And you do not need to have grace and strength to be a martyr for Jesus. But the day that you have to travel, the Lord will give you the ticket. And I said, people, you will get the grace, for God will not give you a spirit of fear, but of power of love and a sound mind. I was in Switzerland, in Lausanne, and I met a lady from Ushubwura. And I asked her, Tell me, how was Radio Cordak? That was the radio where I had worked there. And she said, Oh, so good. Two years it has been closed. Now it is open and 24 hours a day the gospel goes from that radio over Africa. I said, Tell me, how are my friends? She said, Your friends? They are all killed. Oh, she saw how sad I was. And then she laid her hand on my shoulder and she smiled. And she said, Corrie, they are promoted ahead of us. Do you see that? I said, And you? Are you staying now in Europe or America? She said, No, as soon as this is over, I go back to Ushubwura. I said, But are you not in danger? Oh, yes, she said, We are all in danger. But that doesn't matter. She was ready to give her life for the Lord. And I am going to ask you tonight, Are you ready to give your life for the Lord? And when you are not quite sure, then I must tell you something that I experienced in the concentration camp. One of the most terrible things I had to suffer was that I had to stand naked. They stripped us of all our clothing. And I said to Betsy, my sister, I cannot bear this. I have never felt so unhappy. And suddenly it was, if I saw Jesus at the cross, and the Bible tells, they took His garments. He hanged there naked. And through my suffering, I understood a fraction of the suffering of Jesus. And it made me so thankful that I could bear my suffering. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all. We follow a scarred captain. Should not we have scars? Under his mighty banners we have gone to the wars. Lest we forget, Lord, when we meet, show us your hands and feet. Are you willing to be a grain of wheat that must die? A grain of wheat that is not willing to die cannot have fruit. But when you are ready, the Lord will use you. And look at the cross. I was at the cross when I first saw the light. The burden of my sins rolled away. It was there by faith I received my sight. And when you look at the cross, you hear the voice of the Lord saying, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. And I'm going to ask you, will you have a talk with the Lord tonight? Are you willing to surrender? Are you willing to surrender to be the light of the world in a very dark time? This world is dead sick. But who is it that overcomes the world? He that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Listen! You who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, you are called to overcome a world, a world that is ill, that is broken. And the Lord will use you. But you must surrender. You must be willing. When I look at the missionaries, so often I see more missionaries, lady missionaries than men missionaries. And sometimes I doubt when a young man gives himself to the Lord for service, that he says, Lord, take my life, but send my sister. No! Say, take my life and send me. Yes, Lord, also when it means suffering, the cross, perhaps death. I ask you to surrender all. Also that little bit, that shelf behind the door. Tear it down. Throw it out. Don't use it anymore. For Jesus wants you to dwell from the ceiling to the floor. He even wants that little shelf you keep behind the door. And may the God of peace make you holy through and through. May you be kept in spirit, soul and body in spotless integrity until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is utterly faithful and he will finish what he has set out to do. We pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you that you have talked to us. And we know that we have all to give an answer. And it is yes or no. There is nothing in between. Lord Jesus, you have talked to those who have never asked you to come into their hearts. Listen who now says, yes, Jesus, come into my life. I will bring you all my sins. And I believe that at the cross you have also my sins. Yes, Lord, oh make also me your ambassador, your child of the light. Thank you, Lord. That those who come to you you will in no wise cast out. And Lord, there are far more here who have to answer that other question. Listen, Lord, who says, yes, Jesus, I belong to you already a long time or a short time, but I know that I am a child of God. I know that you died at the cross for my sins and that you live for my deliverance. Then I may follow you and that you will use me as light as your ambassador. And tonight I understand it better than before. Yes, Lord, yes, take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Yes, Lord, even if it could be persecution. I am ready, I am willing to take up my cross for you will give me not a spirit of fear, but of power, of love and a sound mind. Hallelujah. Amen. My friends, the Lord has spoken to me and he has spoken to you. And I am going to ask you, before you will have the official invitation, are there here who has said, so during this prayer, yes, Lord, take my life, I will also be saved. Did you accept Jesus and did you say, come into my life, Lord Jesus? Just raise your hand one moment that I see it. It is far too dark here, I cannot see it, but the Lord sees the hands. But I am also asking, are here people who are children of God and have said this evening, yes, Lord, yes, take my life and even if it is the cross and persecution, use me as your ambassador. And now I am going to ask you if you will raise your hand, but if you do not mean it, don't raise your hand. I have done it. Are there more? Thank you. The Lord has seen which hands were raised. There were many. And I invite you to have a talk with the Lord tonight and ask him, Lord, what did it mean that I said yes? And the Lord will tell you what it meant that you belong to the Lord lock, stock and barrel. And I have now a word to those who did not raise your hands. Have a talk with the Lord tonight and tell him why you didn't do it. Perhaps you must say, Lord, I don't like to raise hands, but you know, Lord, I will belong to you, use my life and the Lord is happy. Perhaps there are some of you who must say, Lord, I did not raise my hands for I am afraid. And then the Lord will tell you, don't be afraid. I will give you a spirit, not of fear, but of love and power and a sound mind. And when there are also people here whom I say, Lord, I did not raise my hands for I am not willing to belong to you. I will belong to myself. My friends, I will pray for you that you cannot sleep. May you accept.
Youth for Christ Rally
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Cornelia Arnolda Johanna “Corrie” ten Boom (1892–1983). Born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, Netherlands, to a devout Dutch Reformed family, Corrie ten Boom was a watchmaker, evangelist, and Holocaust survivor. Raised in the Beje, her family’s watch shop and home, she became the first licensed female watchmaker in the Netherlands in 1922. A committed Christian, she ran clubs for girls and taught Sunday school. During World War II, she and her family hid Jews from the Nazis, creating a secret room in their home, saving many lives as part of the Dutch underground. Arrested in 1944, Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where Betsie died, but Corrie was miraculously released due to a clerical error. After the war, she traveled globally, preaching forgiveness and God’s love, sharing her story in over 60 countries. Her book The Hiding Place (1971), co-authored with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, became a bestseller, detailing her faith and wartime experiences. Unmarried, she died on her 91st birthday, April 15, 1983, in Placentia, California, saying, “Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred.”