This sermon emphasizes the transformative power of God's love and the joy found in surrendering to Him. It shares powerful testimonies of faith amidst suffering, highlighting the importance of knowing Jesus intimately like a bride knows her groom. The speaker reflects on the beauty of life, the significance of kisses from Jesus symbolizing intimacy with God, and the victory found in faith even in the midst of trials.

The book of Exodus, chapter 20. God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before me. Amen. This is my text. I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. I am the Lord your God, and I am happy to speak about this, just in a congregation of Jewish believers in Jesus. This video is made this morning, and it will be shown in Gentile churches, as you should know, I speak to a congregation of Jewish believers, but there are also many believers of the Gentiles. Those who don't know congregations of Jewish believers would wonder about that I wear this silver head, that I wear this mantle of prayer we Jews usually wear, that is a habit since thousands of years. God says, I am the Lord your God, who took you out of the land of Egypt. Now, we have not been in the land of Egypt. He did not take us out. But I believe that every one of us can remember some great difficulty, some great sorrow, some great problems from which God took us out. Me, he has taken out from communist prison. Unexpectedly, I was sentenced to 25 years, and one day they just came to the prison cell, you broke out. And when I was outside the gate, I stopped, and I said with a loud voice, the wardens were around 30. I said, God, I thank you not so much for bringing me out of prison, but more for being with me in prison. And help me, help me not to rejoice more about my liberation from jail, than about the fact that you have been with me in jail all these years. And now, I had to walk to the first bus four miles. The prison villa was far, outside of town. And I could not walk. It has taken me ages to walk to the bus. And I looked like Charlie Chaplin in wax. I was very thin. And I looked around, the world was so strange for me. During the years, during several years, I had been in solitary confinement, 30 feet beneath the earth. I had never seen sun, moon, stars, snow, flowers, birds, butterflies, none of these things. And now, at once, I was in such a world, I caressed the trees. I had not seen a tree. I bowed over flowers. I listened to the birds, which chirped. I saw a strange being, a being with four legs. During the years of jail, I had seen only beings with two legs. And now I saw a being with four legs, I saw wonder. It was the cow. Because I had not seen. And then I walked, I began to walk, and I saw one of the most beautiful beings on earth. I saw for the first time a lady. I had not seen a lady for ten years. I had not seen a child for ten years. And now I saw a lady. Ladies are really wonderful beings. And I would recommend husbands to treat them very, very well. I know how beautiful they are because I have not seen fourteen-year ladies. And that lady seen me dressed like a beggar. Everybody knew there is a jail. So she imagined I come from jail, and she called me, Hey, come here. And she gave me a few coins. You should take this money for the bus. I was not used that people should give me coins for the bus. And I said, I'm sorry, I can't take it. Take it for Christ's sake, she said. Well, if it's for Christ's sake, you can give me more. And slowly, slowly, I arrived to the bus, and I arrived to my home. My wife was not there. She never told me where she has been. But she was not there. I found my two sons. When I left them, they were small. Now my son was as tall as me. One of my sons was as tall as me. And he asked me, Father, after all these years, what can you tell us? And I said to him, Well, I've forgotten almost everything I ever read. Because during these 14 years in jail, we never had a book, neither the Bible nor any other book. We never had writing material. This world of books has disappeared, Father. And I said, I have forgotten almost everything. We were very, very hungry in prison. There were times when we had one slice of bread a week. Otherwise soup of potato peas. The communists, we had nice comrades, they ate the potatoes and gave us the peas. And cabbage with unwashed intestines and other such things. And we were very hungry. And there was something else. They doped us with drugs. In every cup of coffee, don't believe it was coffee, it was something black. And in every soup, don't believe it was a soup, it was something, it was cold soup. But in every food, there were drugs to destroy our minds. We smelt the drugs, we knew they were there. But we had no choice. That was the only food which we could get. And because of the doping, and because of the hunger, and there were gifts and tortures, I will not describe them, we forgot more and more. I forgot books which I had read. And I forgot books which I had written. And with the time, we forgot the Bible too, we tried to remember it. It was not possible to remember it. And I told my sons, whatever I have read, I have forgotten. But I repeated to myself, again and again, five things. Because the essence of my Bible, anything which I know from the Bible really, first, there is a God, and He is our loving God. Secondly, Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, and the lover of my soul. Thirdly, the Holy Spirit loves us and wishes to give us all the life which we need to arrive to heaven. Fourth, surely there exists a beautiful heaven, and one must be an idiot not to go there, when it is given to you for free. I am a Jew, and Jews do not appreciate something which is given to you. They have a good spirit. If anyone would offer me a bicycle, I would take it, and I would say thank you. No, one offers me heaven for free, and not to take it, somebody must be stupid, why would you take it? It has cost much. It has cost Him, Jesus, His life, but as it is given for free, and I told them there exists this beautiful heaven, and we should take it, because there exists also a terrible hell. I know about this hell, not from sermons, not from the Bible, the Bible I did not remember. I know about hell because I have been there. There were times in prison when I looked during the night to the cup of water which I had in my cell to convince myself that it is not hell yet. That was the only difference between earth and earth. There were times in the Romanian prison of Kitezh during almost three years, Christians had been compelled day after day to eat their own food and to drink urine. But unspeakable tortures they were compelled to do. And the Communists were not satisfied with this. On a Sunday morning they compelled a Catholic priest, his name was Cherubian, whom they had married through tortures. This poor man did not know anymore what he does. He is not guilty. He is not guilty. But on a Sunday morning they gave him to his hands, in one hand a plate, this human art form, and in another a cup stolen from some church, this human urine, and he was put to save the mass over these elements. Now you know that in the Catholic mass the same words are said, which are said probably also in your congregations, everywhere, in Evangelical congregations, in the congregations of Jewish believers everywhere, the holy words of Jesus, which angels struggle to pronounce, take and eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, and take and drink, this is my blood, shed for you. These holy words were said over human dirt and over urine. It was hell on earth. And I told my children, there is a heaven, and there is a hell, and you better enter in heaven and show hell. And the fifth thing, which I have learned in prison, is that love is the best of ways. You will never find something more lovable than love, than love love. And you should walk the ways of love. So I know what it means to get out, of prison. Just as the Jews in Egypt, they were slaves, they were beaten, they were all kinds of things, which a slave suffers. And one day, they were free. And God said, I have taken you out of this. He also has taken out of such a thing. You might not have been in prison, you might not have been in such terrible circumstances, but every one of you has had his terrible days. When everything seemed to crush, everything, there was no hope anymore. And then through some miracle appeared. And things changed. And after the dark night came the light. It was God who took you out, who took you out from the bondage. But there is something else from which God took me out and took you out. It is terrible to think, during millions of years, there was a God, and there were angels, and then there was this universe, stars and galaxies and whatever you like, and then on this earth, there were trees, and beautiful flowers, roses and lilies, and beautiful children, and so much joy, and forests, and brooks, and mountains, and the sea, and I was not there. He took me out of not being. I was not. There was no Richard Donnelly. And he made it that a certain man should love a girl, and they loved each other, and they caressed each other, and then they came out. God made it. God made it. He could not make a child, but God made it. He brought me into being from non-being. How thankful we should be to this God, and how should we love him from all our heart for the simple fact that we are. In the darkest days, we were imprisoned, we were. We existed. We were beaten, we were. We were hungry, we were. That life, that hope, has given us this great boon of existing. There exists a good God who imparts life, and who imparts life not only for now. God made it that I should be in India, and I preached in India. Now, there's a country. I preached in India. Living in there, not many, almost nobody comes to a Christian meeting in Prague, because they have no car. They have no bicycles. Many, many of them have no shoes, so they walk barefoot. And they walk marked. They are very poor. And they come to the shops. But when you walk barefoot, somebody had a thorn entering in his foot, and he could not come in time. And when he, in the end, arrived to the meeting, the meeting was just finished. He heard only the last blessing. And he came home happy and said to his wife, he said, it's been so wonderful, my wife! Splendid! I'm sorry that you, because of the small children, could not come. It has been just splendid. What was the sermon about? I did not hear the sermon, because I came late. What did you sing? I did not hear any song. All was finished when I came. So what is your happiness? What was so splendid? Well, I heard the last words of the pastor. He lifted his hands and said, the peace and the blessing of God will be with you forever! Do you understand why, what it means? Forever! Forever! Forever! Forever! What do I need the sermon? What do I need the song? He said life forever! Forever! That is what he gives, our God. And therefore we love him from all our hearts. And we wish to pass our eternity with him and not far from him. Now, how shall we do it? There was a renowned Greek doctor. His name was Aeschylus. He said who wishes to have a good sleep must prepare the good sleep from the morning. From the morning you should see your day should be quiet and you should think well, all these things, because otherwise in the evening, in the last ten minutes now, you will not have a good night. You have to prepare it from the morning. And who wishes to rest when he dies, he should rest. He should have his time with God. He must begin it already now. So many of you, I believe also, those who are here are immigrants in America. There are two kinds of immigrants. Some propose to themselves that they go to America so they learn the language. They learn something about the culture in America. They learn something, some trade, which can be useful in America and they come here and they find a job. Others learn nothing. Learn nothing. Don't prepare themselves. And they don't help. Some have helped in America and others have helped because they did not prepare themselves. Now, how can we prepare ourselves for being there? Before Billy Graham, there was another Billy. You might have heard about him, Billy Sunday. He was a renowned preacher, but he did not have the facilities which Billy Graham had. He had a tent and he traveled with his tent. And one day, he was in a town and had preached there. And the next day, with his helpers, he gathered the tent to go to another town and a young man came, Mr. Sunday. I was so sorry I could not come yesterday to your service because I worked the night in the factory. But please tell me, what can I do to be saved? What can I do to enter in heaven? Go away from here. Why did you not come yesterday? You can do just nothing. All the helpers were so wondered about him. What kind of a pastor is this who shouts like this to a man who says he wishes to know the way of salvation? And this man, but can't you tell me at least in a few words? Go away. I have nothing to tell you. You can do nothing for your salvation. And this man left very sad. And the helpers were very puzzled. And when he had walked a few steps, Mr. Sunday, not satisfied with what I told him until then, shouted after him, Sir, I tell you again, you can do nothing more for your salvation. Jesus has done everything. And that is it. We have a God who wishes me to be with him in heaven much more than I wish to be in heaven with him. He wishes to forgive my sins much more than I wish to have my sins forgiven. He longs after me. He is restless if he doesn't know that I am on his side. And he should be all our Lord. He should be all our Lord. Joys are prepared for us which we can't describe here on earth. When I read first the New Testament, I wondered about the much joy which is in it. The New Testament is such a tragic book. The best of beings who has ever lived on earth has been whipped to the blood, crowned with the crown of thorns, spat upon and crucified. So this book should not be a joyous book, no? And here the predecessor, John the Baptist, had his head cut off. And then this question of apostles. They've been beaten. And then I knew they've been killed. And the whole book is so tragic, so tragic. They were suffering and suffering and suffering of the righteous. And the book is full with song. An angel comes to Zechariah and tells him you will have a son and he will be a prophet. That was not good news because he knew that the prophets in Israel had been killed. A mother would not like it if she would be told you will have a child and he will be handicapped. And if you know about your child he will be a prophet, you know he will have a very difficult life and he might be killed. So Zechariah getting such news, he began to sing. And Virgin Mary and Archangel came to her and said you will give birth to the Messiah, to the Savior. Now she was Jewish and she knew from the Jewish prophecies that this Messiah will be killed, will be rejected, will be whipped, will be crucified. Everything has been said beforehand. A mother would weep if she would be told beforehand you will have a child and this child will be homeless, will be a beggar, will sit in jail. No mother would enjoy it to give birth to such a child knowing beforehand his destiny. So Mary when she knew that she will have such a child she began to sing. And Jesus on the last evening he knew he goes now to Gethsemane he knew that there he will be betrayed by his friend, by his disciple Judas and that he will be handcuffed and that all the troubles and the sufferings will follow and it is written he sang on that evening. And then we know that it is not written in the Bible but I can tell you it was Passover evening. Next day Jesus was crucified it was Passover and John the Apostle took Mary to his home and he was a faithful Jew and he knew what he did on that evening what my father did on that evening on every Passover evening and what the father of my wife did on certain evening. It was a seder if you know what it is about. Jews have a ritual in every home, in every home every family has a ritual every Passover evening and they sing certain songs certain songs which date nobody knows since when. Perhaps thousands or two thousand years before Christ and the song is sung even now. There is one renowned song which surely John and Mary must have sung on that evening because they were Jews. Does that belong to a Jewish Passover evening? Some of you might know the song the song is called Chag Gadyat it is sung by the Jews even now. And I will tell you the verse of the song. That's so strange since thousands of years Jews sing this every year and don't know what they sing. I will tell you the verse of the song. I will tell you shortly. The song is longer. My father bought a kid a little girl bought a kid for two coins of silver and a bad dog came and killed this kid then a man with a thick stick came and killed the dog which killed the kid then a fire came and burnt the stick where the dog has been killed then a big water came and quenched the fire which had burnt the stick which had killed the dog which had killed the kid then a cow came and drank the water which had quenched the fire which had burnt the stick which had killed the dog which had bitten the kid then a butcher came and killed this cow then the angel of death came and took the life of the butcher who had killed the cow who had drank the water who had quenched the fire which had burnt the stick which had killed the dog which had bitten to death the kid bought by my father for two coins and this is sung since thousands of years by the Jews and you ask them what is this song about? They don't know. Mary knew when she sang this song. In this song everyone gets a punishment for what he has done. One was completely innocent the little kid in the beginning that was her son who has given his life for every one of us therefore she could sing because she knew that after such a sacrificial death there will be a resurrection in Russia I just come from Russia I've been now in Russia In Russia they've published a book called The Gospel According to the Computer and they say they say that in these big computers you might know what these computers are don't ask me what computers are I don't know, I'm 82 I belong to another age but these are calculating machines they have them in the Pentagon and in banks and they calculate all kinds of things you put questions and this calculates and gives you the answer and they put the datas of Jesus in the computer there was a man whose life has been predicted hundreds and thousands of years before and he was born in poverty and in oppression lived his whole life in poverty and in oppression but was always good and loving and forgiving he's made great miracles and in the end out of love he took the sins of everybody upon himself that the others might be forgiven that they might have heaven he took upon himself the sufferings of all others and he died on the cross saying his last words Father in thy hands I surrender my spirit now you computer calculate what happened to this man after his death and the computer answered death could not hold him but David has known this without a computer so they did new mathematics better than a computer so that is the way that is the way we have a Romanian, I am from Romania we have a Romanian with whom we can boast he died as a martyr for Christ he lived in a province of Romania which has been stolen by the Soviets and there they even crucified the names of the Romanians they changed their names his name in Romanian was they made it this man a young Romanian of perhaps 20 he was in the army and in the army he witnessed for his faith he has the same faith which we have in Jesus with a little difference his faith was contagious if I had the flu somebody will catch it from me in my family or in my job if I had the flu and nobody caught it from me I can be sure it was not the flu it was a simple cold because the flu is contagious and faith in Jesus is also contagious if I had this faith one year, two years, three years nobody caught it from me be sure it was not the right faith because faith is contagious and around him soldiers and officers in the Red Army were converted they persecuted him they beat him, they made him to stand barefoot on the ice in the snow there in Russia and so on, and they asked him to give up his faith and to give up singing to give up and he said but comrades, if you would make a law that nothing is not allowed to sing what would nothing do the next day they would sing because no law can hinder them and nobody can hinder me to sing and to speak about Jesus not to cut the story short they killed him, gave the picture of his corpse they stabbed him six times in the region of his heart but while he was in the stockade in prison waiting to be killed he succeeded to send out to his mother a slip of paper, a small letter in which he says mother, they torture me badly but don't weep he was young, he was twenty and believed that you can convince a mother not to weep that belongs to the calling of a mother to weep when it is needed, when it is not needed a mother weeps he asked her, mother, don't weep because I have seen an angel and the angel showed me heavenly Jerusalem it is so beautiful a city, mother, it is so gorgeous I am happy to be there and mother, you do your best and we should meet there too now, had he really seen an angel? can somebody just see an angel like this? did he really see an angel? in the end, if you will put me forcibly on the floor, will open my mouth forcibly, and will shed one or two bottles of vodka or brandy into my mouth I will also begin to see all kind of things, no? or if I take some drugs I will see all kind of, there will be hallucinations how do we know that I have seen an angel? because he describes the angel he was a peasant boy, without any culture he describes an angel as no doctrine in theology could describe him he says, mother angels are transparent if you have an angel before you and a man stands behind the angel the fact that you see such, the fact that the angel is before this man, does not hinder you to see that man, on the contrary looking to that man through the angel, who is transparent you see that man so beautiful so handsome, entirely else mother, I can see my torturer is beautiful his soul the persecutor and the killer could become an apostate and I seen all those who tortured and beat me a splendid possibility every ugly caterpillar is a potential butterfly and so I can love them they are beautiful in my eyes he saw angels he really has seen them because there is nothing really material to be seen they are transparent but they change the world before you now if there was any ever somebody transparent it was Jesus it was so clean, so you have no words to describe him you can't see, none of us sees him, perhaps exceptional in exceptional circumstances there have been Christians who has seen him I don't speak from the time when he was on earth but now but I know that I've seen Jesus by the fact that looking to man through Jesus this is a mother wife everybody sees him as a crook and as a parent and as a madman as I don't know what and I can see beauties in him and have hopes in him it means I've seen him through Jesus and the whole world is changed for us if you look to the world through Jesus the soup of the wife becomes better and you don't have to criticize it anymore if you look to the soup through the angel you sometimes just look to the soup take a spoon I told you I don't leave so much salt in the soup why did you put salt in the soup put Jesus between you and the soup and my wife you know it's always the wife who make the mistakes, husband make no mistake but put between you and your wife Jesus and she will be changed she will become so beautiful and by the way husbands can also become handsome and the whole world will change with you Dr. Gerditsen I presented you he's pastor of the biggest baptist church in Europe we can both visit the biggest baptist church in Europe is in Romania in the town of Aradia and he is the pastor of that church and if you remember when I preached in that church and I said I regret that I have not been in Romania when they judged our dictator Ceausescu and they sentenced him to death and executed him if I would have been in Romania I would have taken his defense because I can see the beauty in a persecutor like this everybody wonders how in the world would you have defended Ceausescu and I told them I was in jail with an officer in the former police of capitalist times and this man was sentenced to 20 years in jail, he was a very religious man, always he made the signs of the cross and he bowed and he prayed to God and to Christ and to Virgin Mary and to a couple of other saints and so on, the whole kind of the whole kind of religion and during the war during the war Romania was on the side of Nazi Germany against the Soviets and during the war he arrested a boy of 16 who had spread secretly communist leaflets against our government and for the Soviets which was a very big crime at that time he arrested this boy and he had before him a boy of 15 had become an atheist had become a communist who did not know anything about God and instead of seating him and telling him, my dear, dear young boy I will tell you a better way than you I will tell you about God, about Christ he has beaten him to the pulp and with every lash he gave him, he convinced him there is no God and communism is the right thing the name of that boy is Nicolae Ceausescu so we can't condemn only Nicolae Ceausescu without asking ourselves, is there no guilt in us that somebody else becomes a torturer did we not inflict a duty of ours when I was in a cell once they pushed in a new prisoner it was a priest and they beat him, blood was streaming we washed him a little bit, we gave him water to drink, and they asked him father, can you say the prayer father forgives them they don't know what they do he said, I can't say this prayer, Jesus said it my prayer is, father, forgive me and them because if there would have been a better priest he would not have been so badly tortured so it is somehow when you look through Jesus to me, you have more understanding, love understands everything, covers everything, has the capacity to forgive everything, the whole life is changed, and you live in a beautiful life, I can't tell you some have said that I'm a propagandist of communism because I described life even in communist prisons was beautiful but it was beautiful I've heard you singing, and I heard your pastor, your rabbi when he blessed this child how he repeated a verse from the Psalms this is the day which the Lord has made, we should rejoice and be glad in it now it's interesting, this Psalm 118 was sung by Jesus on the last evening before going to get the money because it was Easter, Passover and that belonged to the ritual of Passover, that is what Jews said to sing on that evening and when he went to crucifixion when he went to crucifixion that was his song, this is the day which the Lord has made, what for? to rejoice and be glad in it in prison we sang every day, when I came to America I found a strange kind of birds, which sing only once a week nightingales and larks sing every day but there are Christians they sing only once a week only once a week we in prison we sang every day and we sang being accompanied by musical instruments the communists have been very nice to us they knew that Christians Jewish believers usually call themselves messianic Jews they avoid the word Christians but we have the same faith and we also sang with musical instruments in prison, the communists have been very nice to us, they knew we like it to praise God with musical instruments and therefore they could not give us violins or mandolins it would have been too big an expense for the communist government but they put chains at our hands and at our feet and we discovered that chains are splendid musical instruments and we could sing the day the day which the Lord has made which the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it if you would ask me what our faith is it is something which changes fairy tales in reality when I was young I also sought happiness I read fairy tales there was not this happiness, there was nowhere I had a very unhappy childhood and a very unhappy youth and I did not believe that happiness exists somewhere but this fairy tale has been changed in reality some of you might have very difficult life some of you might be very poor very poor from American standards if you would ask in Bangladesh or in India there is no poor American, a homeless American one who lives on social security I don't know what, on poverty very rich if you are interested to know a Romanian pastor who has a salary of $50 a month is very well to do a Romanian pastor is very well to do and in India $30 a month but we can have our great difficulties but we have God we have Jesus we have the Holy Spirit and we are His sickness from non-existence and this made us to be forever and ever and it has given us a life full of joy even in those circumstances I speak to you from experience many men have suffered much in life almost our whole family has been killed in the Holocaust we know what it means to lose your whole family not to have family anymore no and so many other things not only communist prisons I have known much suffering in life and I know very much suffering even in America you can suffer very much in America too but there exists this joy this new life which Jesus gives in the name of God and I recommend to every one of you not to leave this whole without having Jesus as your bridegroom you might have believed in Him you might have been somehow a believer just leave it leave it to have Him as your bridegroom to have Him in your embrace have Him in your embrace usually they tell you if you wish to know about God and so and to know how to solve your problems here you read the Bible it's a book with 1200 pages you wish to solve your problems and you read the whole Bible you don't even find the word problem in the Bible and you don't find the word solution in the Bible you are told it gives you a new character the word character does not exist in the Bible it will fill you with new sentiment the word sentiment does not exist in the Bible the Hebrew language was so poor only 6500 words the biblical Hebrew English has 300,000 words in the last 10 years now there is a new edition of the dictionary of the English language in the last 10 years 20,000 new words have been added to the English language in Hebrew there is only 6000 words now why in the world did God choose such a poor language to give His revelation why did He not take the Latin language the Greek language which was much more advanced the Greek of the New Testament is not advanced, it is a slang it is the manner of speech of the low people, not the culture why did God choose the Hebrew language because He wished our religion, our faith should not be talk and talk and talk and words and words it should be something entirely else it should be life and joy and song the Bible is very useful, I also study it everyday but it is a book which shows us for a living being to Jesus the Savior and you should know Him and you should be with Him may I tell you one word from the Greek New Testament in the Greek New Testament you will find the word proskuneo proskuneo is the word for worship in the Greek language it is also the word for kiss where it is written in the New Testament in Greek, you should worship God in spirit and in truth in Greek it is, you should kiss Him did you ever think about kissing Him? but did you not read Psalm 2 how does it finish? kiss the son, which son? Jesus, no? no, you all believe in the Bible and wish to fulfill it there it is written, kiss the son how many of you have ever kissed Him? why don't you kiss Him? it is written there, you should kiss Him the bride in the song of Solomon says, let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth why don't you wish His kiss? Jesus enters in the house of Simon the Pharisee he has been invited to a dinner you can be sure there were all kinds of appetizers and all kinds of meats and soups and pies and everything and fruits was there on the table and there were flowers and there was wine and there was everything and Jesus looked to all these things and said, I have entered into your house, Simon and you did not give me what did I not give? I told the maid to put everything on the table, what is missing? I entered in your house and you did not give me the one thing after which I long a kiss, why don't you give me a kiss? we all are somehow faithful somehow we are believers we would not be here otherwise but are you one who gets kisses from Jesus and gives kisses without? when He was on earth it was easy to kiss Him His mother must have kissed Him thousands of times like every mother Joseph must have kissed Him so many times it was a habit among the Jews at that time to kiss each other when they meet even Judas kissed Him but now when He is not here how can I kiss Him? when my wife got more kisses from me when I was in jail than now now when I wish to kiss her the telephone rings another time I wish to kiss her and I have to run to some meeting and so on but in prison I did not have any of these things and I could really kiss her kissing is not only the approaching of two pairs of lips but it is a melting in love of two souls forever this should be our connection with Jesus and through Him with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit it is a life of joy I made it too I never know I have had already three heart attacks I don't know when I will have the fourth I don't know when I start the sermon I don't know if I will finish it and I try always to give the best I wish that you should love God but really from all your heart and it should be like a wedding feast like a wedding feast that is what our faith gives the possibility of such a wedding feast that is what I have to tell you we are gathered here in these good conditions not everywhere believers can gather like this I work in a mission called Christian Mission to the communist world a mission which helps the persecuted Christians not only in communist countries we help also in Muslim countries not everybody can worship God like you in Sudan no, in Sudan they cut off the arms of Christians and use the arms for beating the drums in Iran believers have been sleep naked and buried in the snow until they froze and good Saddam Hussein our friend in Iraq has killed 5000 Christians many of them with poisonous gas and so on and so on in China we received the news only this week our brother, one of our brothers has been turned head down and left to die like this no, yeah, turned head down he died like this we have brothers and sisters like this and they know that it is a path of suffering Jesus has gone the way of the cross and we must also be ready to walk the way of the cross but this way is a beautiful way when we were in prison we never greeted each other with good morning or good evening when we arose in the morning there was somebody else near us we would tell him may roses blossom on your cross and he answered and on your cross too, amen that was our greeting which we gave and there are heavy crosses but roses can blossom on the crosses and on your you also have crosses some of you I know you can be free, not in prison you can be in America, you can have dollars in your pocket you can have money in the bank and there is some great sorrow there is so much, so much sorrow in the heavy crosses and when you share the cross of Jesus when you share also his joys when the roses begin to blossom on this cross you are a changed man when a pastor gives a blessing in the Christian church or when the Jews the priest of the Jews gives a blessing they say in the synagogue may God shine his face upon you when a reflector shines his face upon you then your face begins to shine and God's face shines upon you and you are a transformed man I have known such men our mission works is helping these persecuted but we learn from them more and we are helped by them more than we can help them I met just now in Russia brother Victor Belich he has been 24 years in jail in Russia out of which 20 years 20 years alone in a cell no family, no correspondence not seeing his wife, mother nobody, no nothing 20 years alone in a cell that's all 7 hours at night they would put a mattress of straw and he could sleep and the other 17 hours he was not allowed to lie down even on the cold concrete of the cell he was not allowed to sit on the concrete he was not allowed to stand on the concrete 17 hours a day he was managed running around the cell he had to run continually and through a hole in the door of the cell the wardens surveyed and if he fell down or stopped they would come and beat him 17 hours a day 20 years like this it's terrible I've been in solitary confinement but I've been only 3 years I did not dare to lift my eyes towards such a man and after 20 years they sent him to Kolyma to the north of Siberia where the ice never melts and they asked him, dear brother but how could you bear it after the first 20 years of such suffering to have another 4 years there in the cold and he answered, singing, singing can you sing when your husband yells at you and as I'm 82 and I'm in many houses wives would open their hearts and one would tell where my husband yells at me and do you sing when he yells how can I sing when he yells that would make a very nice harmony he would go boo boo boo boo la la la la la la la la that is a melody this is a contrast can you sing what if he beats me can you sing when he beats me he replied singing after 20 years in the solitary cell and 4 years in Kolyma I asked him how could you bear the cold and he said with the fire of love burning in my heart I made the eternal ice to melt that is what love can do isn't that amazing this is victory we have a faith which leads to victory we have a God as it is written in the verse which I told you I am the Lord your God your God He's your own, your God you know when I look towards the heavens and towards the gardens and towards this I just see that's my real estate belongs to me belongs to my father I'm your God I'm the God, your God who is taking you out out from sadness out from hell many of us have been saved from hell through the blood of Christ we will not go into eternal hell but we have a hell in our hearts there is still hatred and there is still strife and there is I don't know what He saves us from all hell and puts a song on our lips and we should know Jesus is the same if you allow me just 2 minutes more I promise it will not be more than 2 minutes I can't promise that every minute will be just 60 seconds but it will be 2 minutes it will be 2 minutes there is one very strange verse said by Jesus now Jesus is God and He says that at the last judgment some will appear before Him and He will tell them go away from me, I never knew you but this is a great shame for a God not to know His creature what kind of a God is He if He doesn't know somebody He has said that God knows even a little bird, a sparrow He knows it and He will tell men I don't know you how can He say it's downgrading for a God to say I did not know you this is just a thing it's not an issue because perhaps you will not have the occasion to hear this from somebody else the word to know in Hebrew yada and in Greek gnosis means sexual union the Bible says Adam knew Eve and a child was born yada to know is the same word as to have sexual union the same word and Jesus knew these men in the sense that I know many men I shook hands with him once he told me hello, hello I know many men but there are a few whom I know really who have been near to me and we all know Christ but we are meant to know Him in an entirely other sense we should know Him as a bride we should know the bridegroom who embraces her and kisses her we should know Him, we should become one just like in a wedding a believer in Russia is killed and one of his prison comrades said that once we discussed in prison you have time to discuss and I asked him are you married? and he replied when did you love your wife more? before the marriage or after? and he replied well before the marriage I loved her very very much after the marriage to tell you the truth I can't tell you that I loved her because there was no more me and she we were one there was no end to me and she should be gone we were just one heart we were one soul there was not somebody else to love and that is to mean Jesus we are so united with Him He lives in me, I live in Him we live in His embraces we worship Him really we receive His kiss and give His kiss that is what I had to tell you and with this I finish