Corrie ten Boom
told of her experience in Ravensbruk prison during World War II:
I did not understand the "why" of suffering, except that of my own suffering in this place, God had brought me here for a specific task.
I was here to lead the sorrowing and the despairing to the Savior. I was to see how He comforted them. I was to point the way to Heaven to people
among whom were many that would soon be dying. . . . The "why" of my own suffering was no problem to me.
This, too, I had learned: that I was not called upon to bear the grief and the cares of the whole world around me.
And so I prayed, "Lord teach me to cast all my burdens upon Thee and go on without them. Only Thy Spirit can teach me that lesson.
Give me Thy Spirit, O lord, and I shall have faith, and faith that I shall no longer carry a load or care."
Marine Lieutenant Clebe McClary's Testimony
Marine Lieutenant Clebe McClary was in a stationary combat observation post deep in enemy-controlled territory in Vietnam. Five months went by without casualty or injury. One night in 1968 the enemy targeted his foxhole with grenades. That night he lost his left hand, his left eye, and one leg. As he described it, "Death looked me over-a helpless heap of bleeding flesh and broken bones."
McClary did live, a miracle of God's grace. Although a "religious" man, it was not until he left the hospital on his first leave and went to a stadium in South Carolina, where he heard evangelist Billy Zeoli preach the gospel, that he invited Jesus Christ into his heart. A year later McClary gave his testimony at a Crusade in Anaheim, California, where he shared with fifty-six thousand people what God had done in his life.
Did Clebe McClary profit from the horrible ordeal that left him disabled for life? This is what he wrote: "I don't think my suffering was in vain. The Lord has used my experiences for good by drawing many lives to Him. It's hard to see any good that came from the war in Vietnam, but I don't believe our effort was wasted. Surely some seed was planted for Christ that cannot be stamped out."
Billy Graham
Nothing will drive us to our knees quicker than trouble. When war was being waged in the Persian Gulf more was heard about prayer than in any recent year. Even hardened newsmen were talking about prayer.
On a final note:
when there is trouble, the seeds of Christ are left behind to spring forth and multiply - never to be stamped out.
Amen
