Archive for May, 2011

Ellen deKroon Stamps and Corrie ten boom

Saturday, May 28th, 2011

 

On Sunday, June 12, Ellen deKroon Stamps and her husband, Robert, will be speaking at Amelia Plantation Chapel. They are here to speak at the Institute for Worship Studies in Orange Park, June 13-14, and I invited them to share their ministry with us. Bob will be preaching, and Ellen will lead our adult class on her association with Corrie ten Boom. She was Corrie’s traveling companion, nurse and secretary for many years. 

You may not be familiar with Corrie ten Boom. She had an enormous impact in my life when I was a fourteen year old in 1955. She spoke at my church in Hokitika, New Zealand as part of a mission team that was conducting evangelistic services throughout the country. She played a great part in my own conversion and commitment to Christ. I have copied an extract about Corrie and her family so that you can know more about her.

     
 

 

 
History

 

  

   This is a drawing of the Ten Boom family home, Barteljorisstraat 19, Haarlem, Holland. The drawing looks very much like the house does today.  In 1837 Willem ten Boom opened a watch shop in this house.  His family lived in the rooms above the shop.  The home was later passed down to Willem’s son, Casper, and then to Casper’s daughter, Corrie.  In 1987 the Corrie ten Boom House Foundation  purchased the building. To continue this family’s witness, in 1988 the Foundation opened this home as a museum.  It is often called the Hiding Place.  It has become a symbol that surpasses national boundaries.  Let us share the inspiring story of the Ten Booms and the Hiding Place with you!  

   The Ten Boom family were devoted Christians who dedicated their lives in service to their fellow man. Their home was always an “open house” for anyone in need. Through the decades the Ten Booms were very active in social work in Haarlem, and their faith inspired them to serve the religious community and society at large.

   During the Second World War, the Ten Boom home became a refuge, a hiding place, for fugitives and those hunted by the Nazis. By protecting these people, Casper and his daughters, Corrie and Betsie, risked their lives. This non-violent resistance against the Nazi-oppressors was the Ten Booms’ way of living out their Christian faith. This faith led them to hide Jews, students who refused to cooperate with the Nazis, and members of the Dutch underground resistance movement.

   During 1943 and into 1944, there were usually 6-7 people illegally living in this home: 4 Jews and 2 or 3 members of the Dutch underground.  Additional refugees would stay with the Ten Booms for a few hours or a few days until another “safe house” could be located for them.   Corrie became a ringleader within the network of the Haarlem underground. Corrie and “the Beje group” would search for courageous Dutch families who would take in refugees, and much of Corrie’s  time was spent caring for these people once they were in hiding. Through these activities, the Ten Boom family and their many friends saved the lives of an estimated 800 Jews, and protected many Dutch underground workers. 

   On February 28, 1944, this family was betrayed and the Gestapo (the Nazi secret police) raided their home. The Gestapo set a trap and waited throughout the day, seizing everyone who came to the house. By evening about 30 people had been taken into custody! Casper, Corrie and Betsie were all arrested. Corrie’s brother Willem, sister Nollie, and nephew Peter were at the house that day, and were also taken to prison.

   Although the Gestapo systematically searched the house, they could not find what they sought most. They suspected Jews were in the house, but the Jews were safely hidden behind a false wall in Corrie’s bedroom. In this “hiding place” were two Jewish men, two Jewish women and two members of the Dutch underground. Although the house remained under guard, the Resistance was able to liberate the refugees 47 hours later.  The six people had managed to stay quiet in their cramped, dark hiding place for all that time, even though they had no water and very little food. The four Jews were taken to new “safe houses,” and three survived the war. One of the underground workers was killed during the war years, but the other survived.

   Because underground materials and extra ration cards were found in their home, the Ten Boom family was imprisoned.  Casper (84 years old) died after only 10 days in Scheveningen Prison.  When Casper was asked if he knew he could die for helping Jews, he replied, “It would be an honor to give my life for God’s ancient people.”  Corrie and Betsie spent 10 months in three different prisons, the last was the infamous Ravensbruck Concentration Camp located near Berlin, Germany.   Life in the camp was almost unbearable, but Corrie and Betsie spent their time sharing Jesus’ love with their fellow prisoners.  Many women became Christians in that terrible place because of Corrie and Betsie’s witness to them.  Betsie (59) died in Ravensbruck, but Corrie survived.  Corrie’s nephew, Christiaan (24), had been sent to Bergen Belsen for his work in the underground, and never returned.  Corrie’s brother, Willem (60), was also a ring leader in the Dutch underground.  While in prison for this “crime,” he contracted spinal tuberculosis and died shortly after the war.

   Four Ten Booms gave their lives for this family’s commitment, but Corrie came home from the death camp.  She realized her life was a gift from God, and she needed to share what she and Betsie had learned in Ravensbruck:  “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still” and “God will give us the love to be able to forgive our enemies.”  At age 53, Corrie began a world-wide ministry which took her into more than 60 countries in the next 33 years! She testified to God’s love and encouraged all she met with the message that “Jesus is Victor.”

   Corrie received many tributes.  Corrie was knighted by the Queen of Holland. In 1968, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem (Yad Vashem) asked Corrie to plant a tree in the Garden of Righteousness, in honor of the many Jewish lives her family saved.  Corrie’s tree stands there today. In the early 1970′s Corrie’s book THE HIDING PLACE became a best seller and World Wide Pictures released the major motion picture “The Hiding Place.” Corrie went on to write many other inspiring books and make several evangelical videos.

   Corrie was a woman who was faithful to God.  She died on her 91st birthday, April 15, 1983. It is interesting that Corrie’s passing occurred on her birthday.   In the Jewish tradition, it is only very blessed people who are allowed the special privilege of dying on their birthday!

   Corrie’s story is recounted in her books THE HIDING PLACE and TRAMP FOR THE LORD.  These, and many other books and videos about this family are available from the Book Shop on this web site. 

     Announcing a very special new book, A VISIT TO THE HIDING PLACE:  THE LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES OF CORRIE TEN BOOM.  This is the most complete book ever written about Corrie and her family.  It contains over 200 photographs (many in color) and the inspiring story of Corrie’s life, told primarily in her own words.  The Book Shop has more information. 

     Any items ordered from our Book Shop will help support the Corrie ten Boom Museum! 

 
 
 

 

 

Content © Corrie ten Boom House Foundation, E. Smith.
Site design and graphics by ATS.

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Real Hope

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

 

At the moment I am reviewing a final draft of a book that is going to the publisher entitled, Real Hope. It is an exposition of Romans 8, based on a series of messages I gave at Amelia Plantation Chapel a couple of years ago. This is my introductory chapter.

“If you were wrecked at sea on an island and a single chapter of the Bible washed up from wreckage, which would you like it to be?” Dr. Ralph Keiper reported five of twenty said Romans 8. Charles Hodge called Romans 8 “a rhapsody on assurance.”

“If Holy Scripture was a ring, and the Epistle to the Romans a precious stone, chapter 8 would be the sparkling point of the jewel.” Philipp Jakob Spener (1635-1705)

“Romans 8 is without doubt one of the best known, best-loved chapters of the Bible,” wrote John Stott. Douglas J. Moo has called it the “inner sanctuary within the cathedral of Christian faith.”

Tony Campolo writes: “This particular chapter is one of my favorites and over the years its verses have provided me with more texts for sermons than any other section of Scripture. It is a chapter that, for me, addresses almost all the components of a holistic theology.”[1]

What is it that is so special about these 39 verses?  The theme of the chapter is hope. Paul continually mentions the importance of faith, hope and love. Hebrews 11 is the “faith” chapter of the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 13 is the “love’ chapter of the New Testament. I maintain that Romans 8 is the “hope” chapter of the New Testament. It is the prescription for the hopelessness that characterizes these troubled times. I write at a time of earthquakes, tsunamis and revolutions in the Arab world. It is a time of economic turmoil with government budget deficits, high unemployment and declining real estate values. Many people have lost hope in finding work and in selling their homes.

What is hope? Hope must be rooted in reality.

            What is hope? It is not wishful thinking that hopes against hope for that which flies in the face of reality. It is not just optimism, which will not face up to sober evidence. It is not the same as expectation, which implies a high degree of certainty based upon what obviously is going to happen. “For in this hope we are saved. But hope which is seen is no hope at all.” (Romans 8:24) We must have some basis, some reason, to hope. Hope must be rooted in reality. I believe in the reality of divine redemption: the saving purpose of God in Christ and the work of the indwelling Spirit. That is why I call what Paul describes as “real” hope. It is the anticipation of victory over sin, guilt and death. It is the belief that, in Christ, we can be conquerors in the battle of life. That is why Paul concludes the chapter in v.37 with the cry of triumph: “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” It is the answer to depression and despair.

            Why do we experience so much depression in our society? Dr. Armand Nicholi, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital maintains that many young people today feel that their cultures fail to provide answers to questions of purpose and meaning and destiny. “We fail, they feel, to provide some reason for hope.”[2]

The causes of depression and hopelessness.

Two people who have influenced our secular society more than many others are Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud. Both attacked belief in God. Both men died bitter and disillusioned with little compassion for humanity. Both had virtually no friends. “As one reads about the ends of their lives – of how they finished the course – one notes an overwhelming sense of despair and hopelessness….Though they experienced extensive hardship and adversity, they apparently lacked the spiritual resources to enable them to finish the course with any sense of hope.” Modern secularists are their heirs. Their influence can be seen in the deletion of any mention of Christian faith in modern movies and novels.

            Dr Nicholi analyzes what he considers to be the causes of depression and hopelessness. “What often appears to be the cause of despondency in many today is an awareness of the gap between what they think they ought to be and what they feel they are. That is, there is a discrepancy between an ideal they hold for themselves, and at times think they measure up to, and an acute awareness of how far short they fall from the ideal.”

            “Other causes of depression are associated with loss: loss of a friendship, a job, a loved one, or a broken engagement or marriage, etc. Loss usually results in grief or mourning, a normal type of depressive reaction, relatively short-lived, self-limited, and not usually requiring medical help. Many, however, suffer depression without an associated loss. And in these people the cause often appears to be the disparity between what they ought to be and what they fear they are.”

            “An additional characteristic of depression is the feeling of hopelessness: the feeling that there is no way out, that things will only get worse, and that one is completely helpless.”[3]

Guilt Feelings

Dr Nicholi asks, “What causes these universal feelings of worthlessness?…. In our society, moral and ethical guidelines have become less and less clear, and people’s consciences less and less discerning. People nevertheless feel guilty about their behavior…I have observed many college students who express surprise that their actions produce feelings of guilt. They say that they have thought clearly about what they are doing and can give good reasons why they think specific behaviors are not wrong. Yet for reasons they don’t understand, they feel guilty and worthless when they break the traditional moral code. We have already begun to accumulate clinical data that clearly demonstrate that this moral code which has survived the centuries provides guidelines that enhance individual dignity and ensure the greatest pleasure and the greatest good to the greatest number of people. One thing we know: when a person transgresses these guidelines, he or she will, sooner or later, experience feelings of guilt and worthlessness.”[4]

All these symptoms of our spiritual condition are addressed by St. Paul in Romans 8. The gap between what we ought to be and what we feel we are is the theme of Romans 7.

The prescription to remedy depression and hopelessness.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the [moral] law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself [my new Christian nature] who do it, but it is sin living in me [my sinful nature]. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law [principle] at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s [moral] law; but I see another law [principle] at work in the parts of me, waging war against the law of my mind.” (Romans 7:15-23)

What is the prescription to remedy this spiritual condition of depression and hopelessness?

“I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

“The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” (Romans 7:24,25 The Message)

This is the spiritual diagnosis of the human condition in the New Testament. It describes the conflict in each one of us between the ‘flesh’ and the spirit; the two natures or principles within us.

Reassurance of our future and our hope.

In Romans 8 Paul gives us his remedy to the human condition. His diagnosis in the preceding chapters leads to his treatment of our condition of spiritual schizophrenia, the war between good and evil in us, the weakness of our moral center, and the continuing infection of self-centeredness that causes our hopelessness and despair.

“With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation.” (Romans 8:1,2 The Message)

Over 39 verses Paul expounds how this power furthers the purpose of God in us and in all creation. It is a staggering vision of a universe remade and our part in it. It is meant to reassure us of our future and our hope. It takes us from our individual struggles to our cosmic destinies. It shines light on what God is doing in a suffering world. It encourages us to persevere in the face of difficulties and discouragement. If God is for us, who can be against us? Then we can know the unexpected and incredible truth that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.

Read through Romans 8. It is rich fare – not for the faint-hearted, nor for those of a delicate digestion. It is strong meat, not baby food. But if you can ruminate upon its truth, and absorb its nourishment into your life, you will be richly rewarded with real hope. That was Paul’s desire for his readers, as he expressed, in this blessing, at the end of his teaching.

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

[1] Tony Campolo, Stories That Feed Your Soul, Ventura: Regal 2010, p.18

[2] Armand Nicholi Jr., Hope in a Secular Age, in Finding God at Harvard, ed. Kelly Monroe Kullberg, IVP, 112-120

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

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Thriving Christianity

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

 

Mark Tooley wrote this special report, Thriving Christianity, in the American Spectator website on February 28, 2011. It deserves wide publicity to encourage us in our faithful witness to Christ.

“Most secular media in the U.S. imply that the world is largely dividing between resurgent Islam and enlightened secularists, with isolated evangelicals and Catholics left on the sideline. A recent report by the ;International Bulletin of Missionary Research indicates otherwise, with one third of the world professing Christianity, virtually unchanged as a global percentage since 100 years ago. Christians today are estimated to number about 2.3 billion. About 1.5 billion are estimated to attend church regularly at over 5 million congregations, up from 400,000 100 years ago. 

There are 1.6 estimated Muslims, 951 million Hindus, and 468 million Buddhists. Atheists are thought to be 137 million, a declining number. The report estimates about 80,000 new Christians every day, 79,000 new Muslims every day, and 300 fewer atheists every day. These atheists are presumably disproportionately represented in the West, while religion is thriving in the Global South, where charismatic Christianity is exploding. Over 600 million Christians, including millions of Roman Catholics, are charismatic or Pentecostal.

Where Christians live has shifted dramatically of course. Once Christian Europe is now largely secularized, while “heathen” Africa is largely now either Christian or Islamic. China is on its way to possibly becoming the nation with the most practicing Christians. And Latin America has surging Catholic and evangelical populations. Contrary to common assumptions, America remains about as religious as ever. A 2008 Baylor University survey showed the percentage of American atheists at about 4 percent, unchanged since 1944. The survey also showed that only about 10 percent of Americans are religiously unaffiliated, unlike the 15 percent or so claimed in other recent surveys that claim growing secularization. Baylor found that many “unaffiliated” are actually tied to non-denominational churches or spiritual groups. Mainline Protestantism continues its 45-year meltdown, with Americans less and less identified with old denominations. But Americans by and large are attending churches at about the same rate they have for most of the last 70 years. About one third of Americans are now evangelical. Fewer and fewer attend, or even have a cultural memory of, oldline Episcopal or Presbyterian churches. Many stately old urban sanctuaries sit empty, while nearby thriving congregations meet in school gymnasiums or hotel ballrooms, if they haven’t already built a mega-church campus.

A Gallup poll in 2010 showed the percentage of Americans reporting to attend church regularly (at least monthly) was 43 percent. In 1937 it was 37 percent, was slightly lower in the early 1940s, reached 49 percent during the 1950s, and settled at 42 percent in 1969, where it has remained steady for the last 40 years. Current church membership is about 61 percent of Americans, lower than the 73 percent reported 70 years ago, but also reflecting the increased fluidity of Americans religious affiliation and not a reduction in religious belief or practice. Many evangelical churches especially deemphasize membership and instead focus on attendance at worship and in small groups. A Pew survey found that about 44 percent of Americans have switched religious affiliations since childhood. Mostly they are switching away from Mainline Protestantism. Forty-five years ago, about 30 million Americans belonged to the top 7 Mainline denominations, accounting for about one sixth of Americans. Today, it’s about 20 million, accounting for about one fifteenth.

One standout from the Mainline implosion is the United Methodist Church. It has lost over 3 million U.S. members since the 1960s, more than any other U.S. church. But, almost uniquely among U.S. denominations, its membership is international, and it now has more than 4.4 million members overseas, mostly in Africa. The church’s global membership just surpassed 12 million for the first time in its history. Just released data shows the U.S. church lost more than 300,000 members just across four recent years, while the African churches gained almost 1 million. The denomination’s most liberal U.S. regions, on the West Coast and in the Northeast, were the fastest declining, while the relatively more moderate Southeast remained almost steady. The United Methodist News Service quoted a U.S. academic faulting U.S. church decline on a U.S. population shift from the country to urban areas. This is nonsense of course. Like all Mainline denominations, United Methodism’s many once potent urban downtown churches are largely shells of their former glory. Its growing, mostly conservative U.S. congregations are in Sun Belt suburbs. The nearly century old Mainline Protestant liberal project, so preoccupied by secular fads rather than the historic faith, is collapsing from its own irrelevance.

At current rates, the Africans might achieve a majority of United Methodism within 12 years or so in what used to be an almost entirely U.S. denomination. The Africanization of America’s third largest religious body is underreported but its impact may be significant. Almost all the U.S. Mainline denominations have liberalized their views on homosexuality, as on so many other theological and ethical issues. But the United Methodists are edging in the opposite direction thanks mostly to the dramatic growth of conservative African churches. At its next governing convention in 2012, about 40 percent of the delegates will come from outside the U.S., virtually guaranteeing United Methodists will not follow the Episcopalians, Evangelical Lutherans, United Church of Christ and others whose membership declines accelerated after accommodating liberal sexual standards. Those denominations also have suffered schisms, with conservatives forming new communions. Many traditional Episcopalians are now aligned with autonomous, and thriving, Anglican churches in Africa. 

Church liberals, so proud of their historic liberationist solidarity with the Global South, are befuddled by conservative African churches. The American United Methodist bishops even contrived to contain the African influence by proposing a new U.S. only church convention that would omit the Africans and other internationals. That plan failed in 2009 when local United Methodist annual conferences voted overwhelmingly against it. The Africans will remain full partners in United Methodist governance, with increasing repercussions for U.S. church members. African church growth will dramatically affect global Christianity. The International Bulletin of Missionary Research reports that Africa had fewer than 9 million Christians in 1900, compared to 475 million today, and 670 million expected by 2025. 

More somberly, the missions report also cites 270 new Christian martyrs every day in the world over the last 10 years, reaching 1 million during 2000-2010, and compared to 34,000 Christian martyrs in 1900. Presumably, radical Islam can be faulted for most current-day Christian victims. But overall, despite the distortions of secular, U.S. elite culture, people of faith in America and around the world can be hopeful that faith, and not Western secularism, represents the future for the vast majority of the world.”

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John Stott 2

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

 

Last Sunday I was asked to speak to a class at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Raleigh, NC on my experience as the last assistant to John Stott as Rector of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. I shared with them that John Stott modeled for me, six enduring qualities of life.

  1. Kindness and Generosity. He took an interest in everybody. Polite and courteous to everyone. He always remembered birthdays. He shopped for gifts from all over the world so that he could give them as Christmas presents to his staff and leadership. He gave royalties from his books to a trust to purchase books for pastors overseas who could not afford them. He opened his rectory and his Welsh retreat to all and sundry.
  2. Future Orientation. He mentored younger men through the Timothy Fellowship for prospective ordinands, through the Eclectics Society for younger clergy, through InterVarsity Fellowship for students, and through John Stott Ministries to enable potential leaders in the third world to do postgraduate work.
  3. A Worldwide Missionary Vision. He began the All Souls International Fellowship to minister to overseas people in London. At Christmas the All Souls International Carols by Candlelight used readers from the foreign embassies and music from around the world. His travels to all parts of the world endeared him to all races, cultures and ethnic groups and All Souls became a magnet for them when they came to London.
  4. Discipline and Focus. His schedule was unrelenting. He was indefatigable. One of his favorite passages of Scripture was 1 Cor. 9:25-27. There was no time in his life for marriage or parenting. He majored on his strengths. Over a lifetime he wrote over forty books.
  5. Intelligence. He valued the mind and feared emotionalism. His approach was rationalistic but aimed at convincing the mind and moving the heart. He respected the minds of his listeners and always preached to engage them in dialogue and not to speak down to them. He tried to anticipate their questions and to answer them. History and theology was important to him but he did not engage in academic debates over disputed beliefs. He was willing to acknowledge his agnosticism about how exactly the world began or will end. In that sense he was a moderate Reformed theologian with Wesleyan sympathies like his hero, Charles Simeon, the founder of the modern Anglican Evangelical movement.
  6. Recreation. He loved to get away to the Hookses where he did most of his writing. He also bird-watched wherever he was in the world, and indulged himself in many bird-watching trips. He never watched television.

One of his small booklets was entitled Balanced Christianity. It summed up his character and contribution to so many of us.

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