This sermon emphasizes the importance of facing challenges with faith and love, showcasing stories of Christians enduring persecution with unwavering belief in God. It highlights the power of prayer, the resilience of believers in communist and Muslim countries, and the transformative impact of God's love in the face of suffering. The speaker encourages cheerful giving to support persecuted Christians and shares insights on prayer and maintaining a joyful spirit amidst trials.

Verses 13 and 14. I have many things to write, but I do not wish to write to you with pen and ink. But I hope to see you shortly, and we shall speak face to face. Peace to you, our friends greet you, greet the friends by name. I am Jewish. My beautiful wife is Jewish too. And therefore, I wish to tell you some secrets of the Hebrew language. Probably you seldom have the occasion to hear a Jew preach Christ. John, who was also a Jew, and thought like a Jew, in his mind the word faith did not exist. Because in Hebrew, the word faith does not exist. You can't say in Hebrew, the faith of a man. Instead of faith, there is a plural, faces, panim. Every Hebrew word which finishes with him is a plural. There is only the word faces. And I will explain to you immediately why it is important to know this. When he wrote, I wish to speak with you face to face, he thought, I wish to speak with you faces to faces. And now, an episode of my prison life. One day, years of prison had passed already, I was taken out of my cell, and brought before an officer of the escape police who had to investigate me. I knew that usually when you are brought there, they will beat you, they will torture you. To my great surprise, on that evening, he was very nice, very polite. He seated me on a comfortable armchair, he had a Bible open before him, and said, Mr. Boomerang, Mr. I had not heard Boomerang, Mr. They called us bandits, rascals, all kinds of such words. And now I try and say here, Mr. Mr. Boomerang, don't be afraid of anything. I will not inquire from you about anything. I wish just to discuss with you something from the Bible. I was very glad. He asked me, Do you believe that this word, that this is the word of God, and that it is the truth? No, I did not explain to him, but I wish to explain to you. Preaching in any language of the world, I can lift this book and say this is the word of God. Now, this book is written by Jews. There is not one line here written by anybody else than by a Jew. But if you wish to say in Hebrew, that this is the word of God, you can't, because the Hebrews don't have the word. Word. What is word? We throw words around the whole week, to the right and to our left, and so much of these words are babbling. The Jews, instead of words, say dabar. And dabar means, even in modern Hebrew, which is spoken in Israel, a real thing. I give you this real thing. After hearing somebody from the people of God speaking to you, if he has spoken to you five minutes, after this you have reached him before. He has given you a real thing which you did not have before. And as the word does not exist, so the word to speak does not exist. To speak, instead of to speak, they say dabar, to give a real thing. They don't have the word to say. Instead of to say, they use lesaper. And lesaper means to give a jewel. As often as somebody from the people of God opens his mouth, he is meant to give a jewel. If you have no jewel to give, you don't have a jewel always with you. If you don't have a jewel to give, you have a very easy solution. Keep your mouth shut. Open it only when you have a jewel to give. If this rule would be respected, there would be no quarrels in the family, there would be no divorces, there would be no split between children and parents, there would be no nothing. No divorces in church, no conflict, no nothing. If everybody would speak only when he has a jewel to give. To say in Hebrew means to give a jewel. And they have a third word, which is leomer. And leomer means to lift somebody, to elevate somebody to the highest branch of a tree. When I speak, when I say something, I must elevate you. You should be in a higher sphere than you have been before. And now I could not explain all this to the captain of the Romanian secret police. They were not interested in theology. He asked me, Do you believe that this is the word of God? That this is true? I said that, I answered, I believe that everything in this book is true. So he opened the Bible, the first page, and said, here it is written that God created man in his image and in his likeness. Do you believe this to be true? Captain, I told you already that I believe everything in the Bible to be true. So this also, I believe that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Then he opened his drawer and took out from the drawer a small mirror and gave it to me and said, please look into the mirror. I had never been so shocked as before. I had not seen myself in a mirror during years. And what I saw now was a horror. I was considered at that time a very handsome man. Now there exists only one person who still believes that I am handsome, that's my wife. But at that time there were others who also believed that I am a handsome man. And what I saw was so monstrous. First of all, surely we were sure I was only skin and bones, had dark circles around my eyes, had no teeth in my mouth. The communists said, the most perfect dentist, you remain without teeth for all your life and without toothache, you're finished with dentists. And I was terribly, terribly ugly while sitting in prison, not seeing myself in a mirror. I did not know that I would have to be like this. It was something new to me. He enjoyed to see that I am shocked. And he asked me, Mr. Bermuland, you are a man of truth, you are a pastor, you are a Christian, you are meant to say the truth. Would you admit that you are very, very ugly? I said, in my life, I've never seen somebody as ugly as I see that I am now. Well, but you just said that you believe men to be created in the image and likeness of God. You are a man. So you also must be created in the image of likeness and likeness of God. Do you believe this? Yes, sure, I believe. Well, if you are so ugly and you are his likeness, then God must be most reserved. And if he's so terribly ugly, then why do you love him? We all love a pretty child, something, a pretty flower. We love beautiful things. We don't chase after the ugly things. Why would you sacrifice yourself and why would you honor so and praise somebody who is so terribly ugly? Look in the mirror and you will see how ugly your God is. He is as ugly as you. Now, you can be a doctor in theology, but you are not taught in theology what to reply to such a question. But we have a friend who gives us the idea what to say. And I replied to him, I am a Jew, as I told you before. He knew that I am Jewish. And in my language, the word faith does not exist. We have only one expression, faith. There is a deep sense in the fact that Jews don't admit the singular faith because there is no man who should have only one faith. Everyone has several faiths. If I would have the money to build a church, I would make here with the baptisteries a big mirror. And you should see yourselves on Sunday morning. You are so beautiful on Sunday morning. You are relaxed. You smile to your wife. You smile to your child or to whom you have. Everything is so nice. You are beautiful. On Monday evening, you don't like the soup of your wife. You don't have the same face. What type of soup is this? No one has the same face. On Tuesday, when something is wrong with your car, on Wednesday, when you are fired from job, when you fall sick, when you get bad news, you have other and other faces. Every one of us has many faces. Many faces. It is good for those who marry to know that they marry a person with many faces. It will not be always the smiling bridegroom and the smiling bride. It will pass. So different tempers, and so different wins, and so different episodes in his life, and she also will change and change. You take a person with many faces, and you must love him with all his faces. And to explain to him, we don't have the word face in Hebrew. And the God who made me in his likeness is also a person with many faces. Where it is written in our Bible, may God shine his face upon you, in Hebrew it is, may God shine his faces upon you. He has one face of utter serenity, quiet, love. He knows he is the king of kings. He will be the ruler of this world, uncontested. His will be the victory. His place around him, this quiet, this rest. That is one of the faces of God. He has also another face. He became man in Jesus Christ. And they spat in his face. They kicked him in his face. Tears and blood mingled on his face. He was unwashed in prison in which he was kept the night before. He might have had throw in his hair from the straw mattress on which he slept that night. And then they broke nails into his hands and into his feet. His face must have been marked by the suffering through which he passed. Every physical suffering distorts you. And he did not have only the physical suffering. He had the spiritual suffering. He saw his holy mother weeping at the foot of the cross. That must have broken his heart. You could see on his face all this pain. Jesus on the cross was not beautiful. But this was also a face of God. And that was not the only face of Jesus. On the third day he rose and he was so beautiful, so beautiful and so shining that the Roman soldiers could not look at him. They fell down. He had another face. So I might be very ugly today, but this my ugly face is also the face of a God who loves me and is taking upon himself all the ugliness of human life and human sin in order to save us. Yes, Captain, I am ugly, but I am his and I have his face. He did not reply. But there was a reply in this that on that night I was not beaten, which was a very rare thing to say. So the word must have impressed him. And now in connection with this episode, I wish to tell you I really don't know how to start in this regard. In Romania, and in the other communist countries, not only that Christians were beaten, were tortured, in many communist countries they still are. One billion men are in communist China. And in communist China it is still the terror system of one single party. Christians are in prison in Vietnam, in Cuba. And then there are those in Muslim countries. In Muslim countries the persecution is worse than in communist countries. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein has killed 5,000 Christians. In Iran, Christians were sleep naked and buried in the snow until they froze there. In Sudan, another Muslim country, today in Africa, they cut the arms off from Christians and use these arms for beating their drums. Such things are happening today in Muslim countries and in communist countries. In China, a covert of my mission, Christian mission to the communist world, two weeks ago he was hung head down until he died, he died. Our brother Waifu, two weeks ago. And such things are happening. And now, it is not only such a communist torture. It is that they change the whole people to be a people of criminals. You have to denounce your neighbor. If your neighbor has said one word of criticism of the government and you did not denounce him, you go to prison together with him. And to be very sure that they denounce him, they put their men to tell you words of criticism and they find out, have you reported it or did you not report it. So you did not dare not to report it. Children report on their parents. Otherwise they would not be able to study in the university. Parents report on their children. Bridegrooms on brides. In the church, you have to report on the pastor and the pastor has to report on you. On Sunday he preaches and on Monday he is called to the secret police and asked, what is it with the members of your church? Did any of them confess to you some sin? What did he confess and what did he say about his work? Is any one of them active in propagating the gospel? And the pastor has to say it. If not, he does not remain a pastor. So we are all caught in this criminal system. I come now from Russia and Romania. A few weeks before I was in Russia. And I spoke with a sister of ours. Zoya Krachmanikova. She has been in prison and she told me this story. A sister of ours was arrested. She had worked in the underground church. They had their secret printing shops. Our mission had helped in smuggling in printing machines. Now you cannot smuggle a printing machine. But we smuggled a wheel and then another wheel and then a lever and then this and then that. And then an engineer went and put all these things together and there was a printing machine. And they could not print books, Bibles, but they printed a gospel, they printed a hymn, they printed such small things. And in the end she was caught. And now she was beaten and tortured to tell who else works together. First of all, from where do you have the paper? From where do you have the ink? How do you transport what you have printed? How do you distribute them? There are secrets. And they wish to know all these things in order to arrest the other ones. She refused to say. Then one day they called her again and said, we have had plenty with you. If you don't say us today what we asked from you, we will throw boiling water in your face. She said, you can't do a thing like this. We will show you that we can do a thing like this. And they've thrown boiling water in her face. Now here are so many ladies, and sometimes when you work in the kitchen, just one or two drops of boiling water falls on your hand and you know what pain it is. They threw boiling water in her face from a cup. After a few days, when she came back somehow, they brought her again before the same officer of the secret police. This time she found in the room of the secret police her daughter of six arrested. My son has been arrested at the age of three. This is such a trauma for a child. A child never overcomes anymore this memory of having been arrested and threatened at the age of three. My son is now 53. He still remembers this. Her daughter was arrested at the age of six, and she was in the same room. And the officer of the secret police told our sister, now either you tell us everything, or if not, we throw this cup of boiling water in the face of your child. Now here there are some mothers, and you might have small children. What would you have chosen? Would you have chosen that my child suffer, that his face be marked forever, the water may enter in the eyes, she might become blind, whatever can happen? Or will I become a traitor and tell the police of these God-haters who are the other Christians whom they should arrest? What would you have chosen? I am not a mother. I can't really feel how it is, but the choice must have been terrible for her. The child began to weep and said, Mother, save me. And the mother replied, My child, I cannot save you. Now you will not understand me, but perhaps you will understand later. I don't wish to do you the shame to have as mother a Judas, a traitor. I must be faithful to Christ and to His Holy Church. I will not betray. And they threw boiling water in the face of this child. Now there are such terrible problems, terrible problems with us. At every moment you have to choose between betraying God, or betraying your country, or betraying humanity, or betraying simply to be a human being. I was in the same cell with a man. He was innocent. His daughter came as witness of prosecution against him. And he said she had to come as witness of prosecution because she had two small children. And if he would not have come, they would have arrested her too, and the two children would have remained. But he died from a broken heart because his daughter had been a witness of prosecution against him. And we are all there involved in this dirt, and in this blood, and in all this. And there, the Church of Christ, is called upon, it has a very high challenge, to bring there the message of love, and of forgiveness, and of goodness of Christ. And again, instead of telling you theories, I will tell you another episode of my life. At the end of World War II, my country, Romania, has been invaded by one million Soviet soldiers. I speak Russian as well as English. You will say as bad as English, but in any case, I speak it. And I speak it fluently. And when the Soviets invaded my homeland, I left any other work. And I and other members of our Church, we ran after these Soviet citizens to tell them about Christ, because we knew that they, in their country, are forbidden to hear these things. They know only one thing. Religion is an invention of the American imperialists. There is no God. God is also invented by some American president. And they say, they hate God. It's not atheism that they don't believe in God. But they propagate hatred towards God, hatred towards Christ, hatred towards the Bible. And 70 years, at that time it was only 40. And we ran after them to give them, we printed secretly, at that time, Russian Gospels. We had censorship in our country. We could not print Russian Gospels. But happily, the censor did not know Russian. And when I went with the manuscript to him, he asked me, what is this? I said, a love story in Russian. Ah, it's a love story. And I had not lied. It was a love story. And we spread Russian Gospels and so on. We gathered the Russians in secret meetings and spoke to them. One Sunday, I preached Christ. And I was really very, very tired. I was in bed already. And I felt an inner voice saying to me, stand up, dress yourself again, and go to the pub which is opposite your house. We had a very big pub opposite the home where we lived. Go into the pub. I immediately dressed myself. My wife asked me, what are you doing? I said, I have an inner call to go to the pub now. I have something to do there. You can't go into the pub. You have preached today's Christ. People should not go into the pub. And now you will go. Everybody will laugh about you. Come with me. Then they will laugh about both of us. And so she dressed herself too. She's a very obedient wife. And she also dressed herself. And we entered in the pub. Everybody knew who I am there in the pub. I was known there in the quarter. We entered in the pub. It was late in the night. In the midst of the pub stood a Russian captain with a revolver in his hand shouting at everybody, threatening to shoot everybody. He was drunk. They did not wish to give him more to drink. And now he was threatening. He could not speak to them in Romanian. They didn't know English. They could not arrive to any understanding. And people had hidden themselves behind the bar and under the table because in our country at that time a Soviet captain could shoot just everybody. He would have no punishment. He would not be judged. They were the victors. They could do just what they liked. I understood the situation. I went to him and spoke with him in Russian. This quietened him down. I asked him what it is about. You don't wish to give me to drink. I will see about it. And I went to the pub owner and said, just give him a bottle of wine. And I and my wife, we will sit with him. And we will talk with him and we will quieten him down. Then I will take him out of the pub and everything will be all right. And the pub owner said, Pastor Gunran, you have saved my life. From henceforth in my pub you can drink for free as much as you like. So you see it is advantageous to preach the gospel. The gospel has its rewards. And we sat down. And the waiter brought a bottle of wine with three glasses. The Russian officer was very polite. He filled the three glasses. My wife does not drink wine. I don't drink wine. But he was very polite. He drank all the three glasses. And while he drank, the Russians are used to much drinking. They don't lose their mind when they drink. It is amazing how much they can drink. And while he drank, I told him the old, old story. There is no more beautiful story in the world. About a God. Look at him. A God. Who was in the most beautiful place in heaven. And he left everything. To be born in a stable. To lead a whole life in poverty and in oppression. Just because he loved. And he loved every man. He never asked anybody, What sins have you made? He did not ask. He told everybody, You can be saved. Whatever you have done. And he healed the sick. And fed the hungry. And cherished children. And wiped away tears. And he was good, good, good, good. And his reward was, That they persecuted him. He was betrayed. But he loved the one who had betrayed him. And called him friend. And then they crucified him. And he was on the cross in terrible pain. His first thought was, It would be nice if those who have crucified me would be saved. And he said, Father, so what if they crucified me? You have forgiven them so many sins. This sin can go too. Father forgives them because they don't know what they do. He said a nice word to his mother. Which we sometimes forget to say. Why don't we speak nicely to our mothers? To our grandmothers? He spoke nicely from the cross. To his mother, to John. Then he said, Father, in thy hands I surrender my spirit. And he died on the cross. But on the third day he resurrected. And he went to heaven. He drank. And drank. And drank again. And commanded an order, Another bottle of wine. And listened to me without interrupting. When I had finished, he said, You don't need to tell me who you are. I know. Now I will tell you who I am. I am an Orthodox priest. You know that Orthodoxism is the main religion of Russia. And of my homeland, Romania, too. It is something similar to Catholicism. I am an Orthodox priest. And there's a great persecution started in our country. 50,000 priests were killed by them. But Baptists, Pastors too, and Catholics, and Adventists, And whatever you like, they made no difference. They killed and killed and destroyed churches. There was this great persecution. I feared for my life. And the Communists came to me and to a few others and said, You can save your life if you, a priest, Go with us from town to town and from village to village And tell people there is no God and there is no Christ And there is no Bible and there is no nothing. Only Karl Marx and Lenin and Communism and everything else. And I feared for my life. I did not wish to die. I did not wish to die. And I agreed with them. And I went and propagated Atheism. I destroyed the faith of many Christians. I destroyed the faith of some whom I had baptized. They had been my parishioners. I told them not to believe anymore what I had told them. And my punishment from God has been that now during the war, I was ordered to shoot Christians. Who refused to fight on the side of Communism. And with this my hand, with this I baptized in times of war. With this my hand, with this I gave the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. With this my hand I shot Christians. And now I drink and I drink and I drink to forget what I have done but I can't forget. Bring another bottle of wine if not I shoot you. You can imagine how moved my wife. And I am thankful to God that he has brought us in this moment. So I asked him, do you still remember the Creed? Now in the Baptist church the Creed is not recited but you know in Lutheran churches, in Catholic and Orthodox churches there is a Creed. I believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. And there is one Lord Jesus Christ. And there is a Holy Spirit and there is one Holy Church and so on. Even if we don't, if in free churches, in Baptist churches these things are not recited but basically we also have the same belief. So I recited to him this Creed in Russian. And I asked him, do you still believe in God? I surely do. I never cease to believe. I see it for my life, that was all. I continue to believe and I destroy the faith. That was two persons, one which believed and one which committed the crime of taking away the faith from others. I continue to recite the Creed. Do you still believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? I told you already I believe everything. Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? Yes, yes, don't bother me so much, I told you I believe everything. Do you believe in the one Holy Church? Yes, I believe. Then I came to the end of the Creed. I believe in the remission of sins. And I asked him, do you believe this too? Why do you ask me again and again? I told you I believe everything. Do you believe that your sins are remitted? Mine? No. Why? Because there have been so many. Yes, but the Creed says I believe in the remission of sins. It doesn't say how many things. When Joseph the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. If you alone would have committed all the murders, all the adulteries, all the perjuries, all the lies, all the thefts, all the robberies, everything, everything, which has been committed by all men during the whole history of mankind, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. You can't out-sin God. His grace is always greater than any sin which has been committed by the whole of mankind. Do you believe that your sins are remitted? He died for your sins. Whatever you have done. He never asked anybody, how many sins did you do? What kind of sins did you do? A robber was crucified near him and said, I would also like to enter in paradise. If it would have been me, I would have told him, Wait a little bit before entering in paradise. Tell me how much you have robbed. And how often you have robbed. He asked him just nothing. You wish to enter in paradise. That is why I came from heaven to earth. To take even the worst of sinners. Do you believe in the forgiveness of your sins? And tears streamed down his eyes. And he said, I believe in the remission of my sins. Jesus had outdone himself. He said that he is the good shepherd who comes to save lost sheep. This time he saved a lost shepherd, not a lost sheep. So he has this joy of spreading the news in all these years. He spread the news to the worst of men. And to the better men. To everybody. And God, it did not count. To suffer did not count. Because the joy of seeing men who have fallen in such terrible crimes. That they get saved. It was a bad deal for the communists. That they gave us a little bit of beating. And brought souls to eternal salvation. The deal was not advantageous for them. And this work was done. And continues to be done. In communist countries. In China, in Vietnam, in Cuba, and so on. And perhaps I should tell you just one thing. About a very, very lovely girl. She was arrested in Russia. Anne Marie. She was arrested in Russia, again, for this underground work. Tortured, beaten. I will not describe to you the torture. If I would describe the torture, you would not eat the nice lunch which your wife has prepared. You would not sleep the night. Such terrible. Which can't be said. I have published several books. Torture for Christ and other books. You will find them. I don't know where the books are here. I have written several in my bag. But don't believe the things I wrote in the book. The worst things I did not say in the books. No publisher would have published them. It was unbearable things they did. And they did to this girl, too. And while she was so terribly tortured, do you know what her main thought was? Not how to escape the torture. How to escape the torture was very easy. I told the communist all the secrets of the church and I'm free. It was a very easy solution. But her problem was not how to escape torture. Her problem was how to bring the torturer to Christ. But this torturer, Christ, died for him on the cross. He is Christ's love. Christ has longed for him. God longs for him. So this man I must bring to Christ. Why am I arrested? God knew that torturers don't come to a Christian gathering. So somehow the Christians must arrive into their tents. Otherwise they will never hear the gospel. A torturer will never hear the gospel unless the tortured does not tell him the gospel. Then hallelujah. Then I have a possibility to bring a torturer to heaven. She thought only about this. And when Christians were tortured, they had the opportunity to speak with the torturers because the torturers would take a coffee break. To torture is a heavy work. One of the torturers said to us, Why do you shout and cry when we torture you? Not a question because we feel pain. What do you know about pain? You don't know pain. We know what pain is. I beat you half an hour. I can't beat you more because I have to beat so many. And then you rest in your cell. But I have to beat eight hours a day, six days a week. Since ten years I beat and I beat and I beat. The only music which I hear is, Fuck! Ah! Fuck! Ah! That's the only music which I hear. The laugh and the cry. I'm mad in the evening when I'm finished. And then I go to a pub, get drunk, and then beat my wife too. That is my life since ten years. We know pain more than you. And in a certain sense, he was right. So he took coffee breaks. At ten o'clock, somebody would bring him a cup of coffee. They would smoke a cigarette. If you were a smoker, they would give you also a smoke, a cigarette. And they were very fellows for half an hour. You could talk with them. And these coffee breaks were always used by believers to witness for Christ. And this girl also used. And said to the officer who tortured her, Sir, you will never beat out of me my love for God. This you understand. Many Christians might have told you this. But I will tell you something more. You will never beat out from me my love for God and my love for you. Because I love you heartily. Hey, give her a slap, you stupid girl. We are not here as a love matter here. Then you should tell us the secrets of your church and so on. She said, I have to tell you something. I will tell you something which usually no girl would say to a man. But here we are in exceptional circumstances. When you beat me, I look to your hands. Do you know that you have such beautiful hands? I imagine how your wife must have vibrated of joy when you caressed her first. And how she enjoys it to be caressed. May I put you a question, Captain? Is caressing, caressing, is it not better than beating? When you caress, the caressed has a joy and you enjoy it. When you beat, the beaten has no joy and you yourself say that you are tired of beating. Then why don't you change? Instead of beating, you should begin to caress. Caressing is much better than beating. And I will tell you another thing which no girl would tell to a man. Girls always expect that the other side should make them compliment. They would never make a compliment. I will tell you something. You have very attractive lips. I imagine how your wife enjoys it when you give her a kiss. And I put you with a question. Is kissing, kissing, isn't that better than swearing and yelling? Then why don't you kiss instead of yelling and swearing and saying all kinds of bad words? By the way, husbands can also learn this, that kissing is better than swearing or yelling. And if you feel very mad at your wife, give her a kiss. It's better. The same lips, instead of using for yelling, use them for kissing. She told him, is kissing not better than yelling? I have a boyfriend, she told him. Now my boyfriend, now every girl praises her boyfriend. But my boyfriend is something special. Not that he loves me. He is love, he is love. And he shed his love in my heart. And since I have his love, I can't make a difference. If somebody caresses me, I love him. And if somebody beats me, I love him. I just love everybody. He kicked her here in the temple. She fell on the concrete of the cell. Also how she fell. The fact is, she passed, she fell in his womb. She passed out. And she came to herself after a few minutes. She saw him sitting quietly in a chair. And asked her, you stupid girl. What is the name of this boyfriend of yours? And sits here and meditates. About what your boyfriend taught you. Caressing, caressing, is better than beating. Self understood, how in the world did I not think about it until now? Like beating instead of caressing. Caressing is better than beating. And kissing is better than yelling and swearing. Who is this boyfriend of yours? Who taught you such wise things? So she told him the name of the boyfriend. I will not tell you the name, you have to guess it yourself. She told him the name of the boyfriend. And he said, how can I make him to become my friend too? So she said, you must repent of your sins. You must be born again. What you could say in these few minutes. And as a good Baptist surely shouted, you must be baptized. So in Russia, baptism was forbidden since 70 years. So he asked her, what does it mean to be baptized? You enter in water with somebody else. And he dips you into the water and says the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Then you baptize me. She said, I can't baptize you, which was not true. Because in such circumstances, everyone could baptize. It was not the normal circumstances. You have to have a basil and so on. Even a child, everybody can baptize in such circumstances. But she replied, I can't baptize you. And now the most amazing thing has happened. I have read much church history. I have never heard something so beautiful as what follows now. When she said, I can't baptize you, he took out his revolver. Pointed the revolver at her and said, you better baptize me or I shoot you. He did exactly what the Lord says in Matthew 10. Some take the kingdom of God by violence. The people enter in the kingdom of God. If you can't baptize them by shooting, by shooting, and enter in the kingdom of God. And he dragged her to some pool which was there. He threw her into the water. She entered in the water too. And she baptized him. And he risked his life and liberty. And he freed her from prison, which he was not meant to do. But he freed her from prison. He used a trick. And she is free. She lives in America now. And such things are happening. There is such a fight with the demon. We have it to do with a God who has many faces. A God of love. Who gives to so many of us. We have a nice home and we have a nice car. And we have a more or less nice job. We have perhaps not much money, but we have some money. We have a place to pay for bread and for milk tomorrow. We have something, no? And I have my children. I have a school. And I have something like this. That is one face of God. That's one face of God. That's Panin. There is no singular face. There are these faces of God. To some of us, even here in America. He has given very great sufferings. In the family. In our jobs. In our... And so on. There are so many kinds. In our health and so on. So many kinds of suffering. That's also God. But another face of God. And which he gives you also for good purposes. For good purposes this girl has been brought in a house of torture. How is the world? Would the torturer have become a saint in the air of heaven without this girl? And how would this doctor or this nurse who takes care of you in the hospital. How would she have been brought to Christ if you would not have been there? And somebody else. And somebody else. God has many faces. But all show love and goodness. That is what we have learned there. And therefore, I disappoint very often those who come to hear me. Hearing that I have been so many years in communist prison. By the way, it was not many years. It was only 14. We have in China a brother, who is still in jail since 41 years. In Albania our brother died after 43 years in jail. At the age of 84 in prison. After 43 years in jail and so on. And so people expect because I have been in jail so much. Probably he will be a melancholic man. And he will speak the sadness. And you will see on his face how crushed he is. And sometimes the pastor introduces me. He says, now we will hear the sad story of Pastor Wermel. And look around to see who has a sad story. Because I don't know a sad story. I know a story of joy and of triumph. That is also a face of God. There has been a face of God. A God who dies on Golgotha. That was one face of God. But there was another face. It is the resurrection. And we have this face of God. And therefore, let us talk with this God. Face to face. Face to face. We have learned in prison very much. Do you give me five minutes more? I don't wish to take much. I asked the pastor how long I can speak. And he told me, you are free. I told him my next service is at 7 o'clock in the evening. He said, it is time to go. He is a very generous pastor. Now, can you give me five minutes more? Can you give me just five minutes more? And it was such a beautiful story. This being with Christ in prison. Outside our cells stood the wardens with sticks. And outside stood the angels to protect us. And the gray walls of the cell shone like diamonds. And there was such a fire of love. Such flames of love and of goodness in this cell. That Christians rejoiced. Some of them danced for joy. As Miriam danced in the Old Testament. And as David danced. If they would not have danced, they would not have resisted these streams of love which come from God. And now you in America, you have the same God. You must not be in a communist prison to have a shining face. A face can shine without being in a communist prison. Without faces shown. I am sorry that I am only a preacher. I am not a painter. If I would be a painter, I would paint the shining faces of Christians in prison. And it was quite an achievement for God to make a face shine there. Because we were unwashed. I personally have not washed three years. Some of your children would enjoy not to wash three years. Children saying to their moms after hearing me, You see, brother Wilmer, he went unwashed and I am obliged to wash every day. But the faces shone and there was a beautiful smile on their faces. And must we wait for such circumstances to have shining faces? To have a smile? With the soup of my wife when I don't like it? And some other thing which she does, it's always the wives who are wrong. The husbands are never wrong. But we can do... That is what I have to tell you. And I told you I wish only five minutes to tell you something very, very beautiful. We broadcast the gospel, our mission, Christian mission as a communist world. We broadcast also to China. In China there was this fierce terror of Mao Zedong. Rarely a reply did come. But sometimes. And on a slip, a reply came. From a young... He said, I am a young communist. And I prayed with the radio and just tuned in. And I heard you speaking. I heard you again and again and now I believe. But you start and finish every message on the radio with a prayer. I would also like to pray, but I don't know how. I've never been to a church. I've never heard people praying. How does one pray? He asks us. And he says, I believe. And now he says what he understands by prayer. And listen here to the definition of a prayer by one who has never been in a church and has never put their hands on a Bible. I believe that prayer means to speak the whole day so that after everything you say, you can add amen. How do you like this definition of prayer? Prayer does not mean in the morning, in the evening you can say, No! Prayer means to speak the whole day so. When you like it and you don't like it. When something good happens, when something bad happens. Whatever. Whatever happens. You should be able to say amen. To what you say. Such a definition of a Chinese who has never known anything about prayer. And he exemplifies. He says, you work in a factory the whole day. In the evening you are tired and you have problems with your masters and so on. You come home and your wife gives you a soup. Soup has no taste. She has forgotten to put salt in the soup. But in exchange, her hair swims in the soup. And you feel. And you feel like telling her, wait, what kind of a soup is this? Why don't you take care? Add amen to this. I don't know. But if you call her and say, my darling, darling. I really appreciate it that you love me so much. That thinking about me you forgot to put salt in the soup. And what a surprise. You know how I love your hair. And you put hair in the soup. I can assure you. This hair I will put it in a medallion and wear it around my neck. No need to put other hair in the soup in the future. Now come I will give you a real kiss. Amen. That is a prayer. That is a prayer. And still in suffering we have learned somehow. We have the same faith which you have. But it expresses itself otherwise. In such amens, in such songs, in shining faces, in beautiful smiles. Your good pastor has said that at the end of the service. He will take an offering for the Christian mission to the communist world. We are a mission which helps these persecuted Christians. In Red China we have established two secret printing shops in caves of mountains. And they print already there. In Romania where it is free now. We have made a printing shop and a book shop. We introduce Bibles and other Christian literature. In Albania we introduced by balloons from Yugoslavia. Now also there it is free and our theme is already there. But there are other communist countries. And we work also in Muslim countries. We have established now the first secret printing shop in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia Bible was completely forbidden. And the Muslim who became a Christian had his hand cut off. And now they have also a secret printing shop. So it was less risky now because we have the allies. They are allies. They would not cut off the hand of an American there now. And so we profit out of it. We help these countries with Bibles, with other Christian books, with broadcasts. We do one thing more. At this moment thousands of Christians are still in jail. In Muslim and in communist countries. Nobody knows how many there are in China. But there are many, many in China. We have the names of others in Vietnam and others in other countries, in African countries. I told you about a family, a waifu in China. He was hung head down. What does his wife eat? What does his mother eat? We send the first help there. So in the measure in which we can, we help these persecuted Christians. And you can help. An offering will be taken. And I hope that you will put everything in the envelope which you have received. The Bible says God loves the cheerful giver. That is God. God makes the difference. Our mission of souls are uncheerful givers. Because we have to pay for the Bible, for all these things. So give cheerfully for God, if you can give cheerfully. And then add something uncheerfully, we should have for this. You help, and you can help substantially these families of Christian martyrs and so on. But I believe that they can help us much more than we can help them. They can help us by showing that the face can shine. Like this. God has many faces. You can also have many faces. Take always the other face. Something saddens you, so take the other face. You mustn't have the sad face when everything around you is sad. And they have a beautiful smile. And they have a song of victors. And you can also have the song of victors. I was appalled when I came to America and found out that in America the majority of Christians sing once a week. Larks and nightingales sing every day. And Christians say, why in the world do you sing once a week? If it's nice singing, then sing every day. I recommend when you leave, take the song books with you. Don't forget to pay for them. But take the song books from the church with you. And please let me, our life should be song and victory. This is, I have finished. I have written several books about this subject. You will find them outside where the books are. If you republish every month a newsletter, which you will get for free if you put on the envelope which you have, please take out the envelope now. And take out your ballpoint pens. Every American has such a pen. He never buys it. He borrows it from somebody and does not give it back. So take, write with a ballpoint pen on the envelope your name and address. And you will get freely from us every month our newsletter. Listen to me just this one word more. I am 82. At the age of 82 you are allowed to say certain things which a younger pastor would not dare. Is it not a shame that Meshkara has been in jail 43 years for Christ? He might have been crushed under the burden of the cross 43 years. It's much. And would you please lift your hands all those who have prayed for Meshkara. If you don't pray for a man who is 43 years in jail for Christ, for whom in the world do we pray? Now, I don't wish to accuse you. You have an excuse. You did not know. But you can know. Because we publish every month the pictures of those who are in jail, the stories and their addresses and what is happening. So give us your names and addresses and you will get this. And remember in prayer your brethren and sisters who pass through suffering. Remember also that they pass through triumph and victory. Share their tears. Share also their songs of joy. And please pray also for me and my family. May God bless every one of you. Amen.