Christian Missions to the Communist World International - Pt3 — Richard Wurmbrand

Zephaniah’s Call to Rejoice

Now chapter 3 verses 14 to 17. Sing, O daughter of Zion, shout aloud, O Israel. Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away your punishment, he has turned back your enemy.

The Lord, the King of Israel is with you, never again will you fear any harm. On that day they will say to Jerusalem, do not fear, O Zion. Do not let your hands hang limp, the Lord your God is with you.

He is mighty to save, he will take great delight in you. He will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing. And at that point we conclude the reading from the Holy Scripture. And may God bless its message, Amen.

I've been called sometimes to perform a wedding. And they asked the young couple, how did you meet? And they said it was at a meeting like yours. You said we should become acquainted. And so we got acquainted, I looked around, I greeted.

I said she was nice, now you perform the wedding. If you will need a wedding after these acquaintances, call me. For those who have not been at the formal meetings I have to repeat I apologize for speaking to you being seated.

During my 14 years in jail We almost never walked. We had heavy chains at our feet, sometimes 20 kilograms. There were beatings with rubber truncheons on the soles of the feet. And now it is difficult for me to stand a long time.

So please forgive if I speak to you being seated. My text is from Tephaniah 3, verse 17. There it is written about the Lord God. He says to his people The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He will save thee.

He will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will rejoice over thee with singing. God will rejoice over us with singing. I have a granddaughter of eight, nine now. And a grandson of three.

Childlike Faith and Making God Glad

And once in a discussion the granddaughter said I will become a pet doctor. And then the brother of three was asked What do you wish to become? Now he had also something to say. But he did not know names of professions.

So he said I wish to become a man Who will make my mother happy. A splendid program of life. A man who makes his mother happy. Perhaps you make your old mother happy today. Just by giving her a ring over the telephone.

Just caressing her, writing to her Telling her a nice verse. A child who has as his ideal To make his mother happy. There exists a higher ideal than this. In this verse of Stephaniah we see That we can make our God happy.

God sits on his throne. Now it is four o 'clock our time. I don't know what time they have there in heaven. And God begins to sing. It is written you will make him to rejoice singing. And the angels ask him why do you sing?

Well I have motives to sing. Just look down in Brisbane In St Paul's Presbyterian Church. You will see how many souls love me there Passionately are ready to serve me. And God rejoices over you singing.

Think about this. We sing to God. And as our singers this afternoon. Some of them sing very beautifully. To sing to God is splendid. To make God to sing to you To make God happy. To make him rejoice singing Is even a more beautiful thing.

And there exists something even more beautiful It is to make God to rejoice singing When you pass through deep tribulation. Sing to God not only when everything is smooth in your life. I know a man Six children on one day They were killed.

He was a Christian On that evening in his home. The day finished as usually By praising God By reading the Bible And by quietly adoring him. You can make God to rejoice singing When you adore him. Not only as long as things go smoothly in this life But also when you pass through trouble and through suffering.

Faithfulness in Communist Prisons

I come from a world In which people adored God Though God at that moment seemed to give them nothing. There are at this moment thousands of Christians in communist jail. In Vietnam In Red China In Russia In my homeland Romania In Albania In Cuba the Christians Valladares, Gomez, Nobel Are in jail for their faith since 20 years.

Not too much Because brother Nikolai Krapov A Russian Baptist pastor Is in jail in Russia since 26 years. Which is not much. Because brother Paulitis Is in jail since 34 years. Which is not much Because brother Michael Ashok Is in jail in Russia since 43 years.

Most of you were not born yet. When he was already in chains and beaten And deprived of everything. Since 43 years Behind locked doors and iron bars. He had in prison none of the joys of life. Not. I have never heard music.

I have never seen a beautiful painting. I have never seen a color. We always saw the gray walls of the cell And our gray uniforms. I had forgotten that red and blue and green and yellow and violet existed.

We never saw somebody smiling at us. Nobody hugged us. Nobody showed us love. And in those circumstances Saints made God to rejoice singing. We were so terribly hungry. The other prisoners who did not have Christ Because of this unspeakable hunger.

If some food was given And one had a smear of food on his lips Another prisoner would jump at him and bite his lips To get the smear of food. We were not only hungry We were thirsty. They tortured to thirst.

You were hungry, you would have eaten stone and wood. And they gave you a dainty, salted herring. Who would not eat such a dainty? You would like it too. But after the salted herring You did not get a little bit of water.

Sometimes they would open forcibly the mouth of Christians Would shed spoons with salt into the mouth. And then they kept you for hours without a drop of water. It gave such hallucinations. You saw before you showers of rain.

And you heard pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick drops Dropping on your lips. But your lips remained parched in this world In which there is so much water. Not one drop for a child of God. But the greatest torture.

You will excuse me for saying some very coarse things Which usually are not even mentioned in churches. The most terrible thing was not that we did not have food enough. The most terrible thing was That you could not go to a toilet.

You were behind locked doors. And you could go to the toilet. But only when the warden liked it And he did not like it. Women would bang at the door of the cell during the night. Please, please, please Allow me to go to the toilet.

And they would make some obscene joke. You will not go. And women said I will kiss your hand Only allow me to go to the toilet. And they replied you are too old I will allow a younger one to go. It was an object of mockery.

And the little food which you got You tried not to eat it. In order not to have the problem of the toilet. We were put in cells Full with hungry rats Who did not allow you to sleep Neither day and night.

And there were all kinds of other such things. One of the greatest tortures Has been the fact That for ten years I have never seen a child. If you can imagine what it means. A world in which you never see a child.

You never hear their laughter Or their cry. You never see their pure faces. You don't see their play. A terrible world. And prisoners. I have seen prisoners Who took a cushion A pillow in their hand And would call this pillow Michael or Judy Or Margaret or Joan.

They would remember their children And would caress the pillow And would speak to the pillow And imagine they have their child In their arms. And in nights when you could not sleep You could see how in their dreams Prisoners would pronounce The name of the one or the other Of their children.

Making God Rejoice Through Suffering

In those times we knew We have one purpose in life. My grandson has said at the age of three When he does not know yet What the difficulties of life are. I wish to make my mother happy. I don't know if he will have a happy life Or an unhappy life.

But the purpose is the right one. And we knew we are believers in Jesus Christ. We are members of his church. We are children of God. I have to make men happy. But I have foremost to make God happy. To make him rejoice singing.

And I will do it. Though I myself pass through unhappiness. Caruso has been one of the biggest tenors Who has ever lived. Caruso, you might have heard about him. And he had to sing in the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

Thousands had bought tickets and were there. And in the last minute He got the news His most beloved mother had died just then. And he was called back. His heart was broken. But he said I have to sing.

That is my calling in life To make men happy. Thousands have come And he sang in that evening As beautifully as ever. To make others to rejoice Forgetting his own tragedy. And children of God Have one purpose in life.

Whatever happens to them Through whatever they themselves pass. I myself perhaps will make the confession That usually When I preach. Many tell me afterwards I was very happy to hear He did me good. I myself on those evenings Passed through very much suffering.

I personally suffer now much more Than I suffered in communist prisons. But the purpose in life Must never be abandoned. We have a sad God. He is terribly sad. First a multitude of angels rebelled against him Under Lucifer.

Then he created men And men rebelled against him. And since Adam and Eve Every man has been a sinner. And every man has been a cause of sadness to God. And he has a small elected flock. This at least should not give him sadness.

This at least has a purpose. I from my side I will do my best That God should rejoice singing. And this purpose We are not allowed to abandon it. Because my marriage does not go well. Because my husband speaks ugly with me Or bothers me.

I can't abandon this Because my wife has betrayed me. I can't abandon this because my boyfriend Has found another girl. I will not abandon this Because my business has gone bankrupt Or I have lost my employment.

Or now I have gotten cancer. Or I have been bereft of my husband Or of a beloved child Or of a mother. My purpose is To make God to rejoice singing. I will not abandon this purpose. As I told you We were very hungry.

And we had times When we had one slice of bread a week. Otherwise soup of dirty potato peels And cabbage with unwashed intestines And other such dainties. And we remembered Bible verses. And I remembered It is written in the parable of the prodigal son That the father When the son returns says Let us eat and drink and be merry.

And I said to God It is written right in your Bible That let us eat and drink and be merry. And for me you ask to be merry Without eating and without drinking. Well I will not eat I will not drink. I will be merry Because I wish That you should be happy In my company.

God’s Presence in Isolation

During years we were kept alone Everyone alone in a cell 30 feet beneath the earth Absolutely alone. We never saw a man. Never did we see a sparrow Ever Except dead ones in the soup. Otherwise we never saw a living.

Once a spider somehow Arrived into my cell. I don't know from where a spider could arrive into the cell. But he did not survive. We were alone Absolutely alone. And we remembered in the Bible it is written That God when he created Adam he said It is not good for man to be alone.

You say in your Bible it is not good. And you give me to be alone. I don't know why. But my purpose will remain. You pass me through suffering Through tragedy. But I wish to make you To rejoice singing.

We never saw the sun. We never saw a drop of rain. And we remembered it is written That God is so good That he gives his sun and his rain To the good and to the evil. And we asked him Now in what category of man are we?

If we are good You have promised the good will have sun. If we are evil You have promised that the evil also will have sun. But what are we? Neither good nor evil. We never see the sun. During years I have never seen the sun.

And we could not understand The mysterious ways of God. But God does not owe us any explanation. He does not owe us any reply. Nightingales sing Not because they have a reply to their problems. They sing because they have a song in their heart.

We serve God Not because he gives us all the explanations. I could not give to my grandson of three. The explanation why a doctor comes And makes him a vaccination And this hurts him. And why he must get a spanking sometimes.

And why he can't eat all the chocolate Which he wishes to eat But has to eat things which it does not like. We can't explain to our little children. How can a God explain everything which he does To such a small creature.

Christians in communist prisons With quiet, bored They are very dramatic. Christians in our country have been compelled During two years Day after day To eat their own feces Their own dirt And to drink urine.

But not simply to drink and to eat these things. A catholic priest, a friend of mine Who was half-mad because of torture. He did not know anymore what he does. He is not responsible for what he did. On a Sunday morning he was given into one hand A plate with human dirt.

Into another hand a chalice Stolen from some church With urine in it. And he was put to say the words of the mass. The words of Jesus Instituting the Holy Communion Over dirt. And he said he did not know what he does.

And gave a mocking form of communion With human dirt. In communist countries Christian ladies have been undressed. They had their hands tied behind their back. So they could not defend themselves. And then snakes were slipped into their underwears.

They had snakes creeping upon their bellies Upon their thighs, upon their breasts. None of the amenities and of the joys of life Had remained for those prisoners. My wife was in prison too. My children were far away.

My mother had died while she was in prison. Her last words were my beloved Richard. And I don't describe to you the things through which I have passed. I use the first person in the story as a personal experience.

But you have before your eyes the thousands of other Christians Who are today in communist prisons. I speak in their name. They had none of the joys of life. And they had one fixed purpose. I wish to make God to rejoice over me singing.

And then something very interesting happened. They had renounced everything. They had sacrificed everything for the love of God. They asked nothing for themselves And were ready to give everything for God.

And when this was accomplished An unspeakable joy entered in the heart of the sufferers. And now because I am Jewish My beautiful wife is Jewish too I will tell you a secret of the Hebrew Bible. You know the Old Testament is written in Hebrew.

Union With Christ

And there is a part of it which could not be translated literally in our English Bible. But I will try to translate literally. In Isaiah 44 verse 6 it is written. So says God in Hebrew I am the first and I am the last.

But in Hebrew it is not quite like this. In Hebrew it is so. Be very attentive. So says God I am the first And I am the last. A me who is seen me is the first. And a me who is only me is the last. Did you understand?

The revelation of the Bible. I am 6 feet 3 If this is my whole me. And where the 6 feet 3 have finished I am finished. And I am 72 years old. And what is beyond these 72 years. What has been before, what will be afterwards.

If I die this year. That also does not concern me. I am such a little me Such a little person. I am the last. But a me who is seen me A combination between me and him. A union between me and God. This is the first.

A girl finds a handsome boy whom she can love. And at once she is no more only herself. She and he together become one flesh. And the soul becomes a bride of Christ. And she is no more the 6 feet Or 5 feet 8 Or how much she is 20 years or 50 years or 70 years.

But she becomes a me he. A union between me and him And his whole infinitude And his whole eternity And his whole almightyness Belongs to me too. In a marriage The bridegroom takes upon himself all the debts of his bride.

And the bride gets all the riches of the bridegroom. And so it happens in our marriage with Jesus. All his riches become ours As our sins become his. And I become a me he A me who A me who is he me Is the first.

And when you renounce everything That he should rejoice singing At once your eyes open. But with he He is me And I am he. And we are united. And all his joy is my joy. And such a joy Entered In the hearts of those in prison cells That even would not have danced for joy.

Our hearts would have rent in pieces. So great was the joy. And the grey walls of the cell shone like diamond As there was light in the darkness And flames of love Burnt in these prison cells. And the prisoner rested At the bottom of Christ Was embraced by him.

The non-embraced by anybody Was embraced by him. The non-kissed Received his holy kisses. And they would never have changed Even with American millionaires. Because of this A me who a me Because of this possibility Of union with him Jesus and I Are not two persons.

Jesus says this. He meets Saul of Tars The great persecutor of Christians. He was at that time a communist actually He was a Bolshevik, not a communist. And he persecuted the Christians. And Jesus appears to him On the road to Damascus And says to him Saul, Saul Why do you persecute me?

And Saul of Tars could have replied very correctly Sir, there must be some misunderstanding. I never touched you. I touched your disciples, not you. But Jesus might know everything. One thing he does not know A difference between him and his disciples.

When his disciple is persecuted He is persecuted. He says, why do you persecute me? When his disciple is in prison He says, I was in prison. When the disciple is hungry He says, I was hungry I was thirsty I fasted all these things.

There is no sorrow of yours. If you belong to Christ Which is not shared by Jesus But you suffer in your marriage In your relationship with children of his parents With your employer, with your employees With whatever you have in this life.

Jesus says, me Not he. He suffers with you He rejoices with you. His song becomes our song Because our dramas Become his drama. And those who realized The secret of the Anihu Though they might not have known Hebrew These could be happy Even in the dramatic circumstances Of prison life.

Mission to the Underground Church

We worship here In such beautiful circumstances In a historic church And everything is nice And everything is quiet And so on. Not everywhere do Christians Worship in this manner. In communist countries We have underground churches.

Now the Christian mission To the communist world Which I represent here We help the persecuted Christians. I have decided to speak for an hour. But I did not look to the watch When I started. So I will make it an hour from now.

The Christian mission to the communist world Helps the persecuted believers In communist countries We help in Russia In the European satellite countries In African communist countries In Cuba In China.

In China in the last years 20 millions have died from hunger. Not everyone has eaten a lunch. I have skipped lunch. Many years I have skipped the breakfast And the dinner too. I have been to India Myself.

In India Many died from hunger. I have seen them dying from hunger. Children died from hunger. And in China 20 millions died from hunger. And the church has passed Through terrible persecution. It is considered that 1 million Christians Were killed by the communists.

And I use a very mild word When I say killed. They were tortured to death. Many of them Some of you might know The name of Watchmen Ni The renowned Chinese evangelical writer. The news from his fellow prisoners are That he had his tongue cut off His eyes gouged out And his hands cut off.

And after this he died And his wife died in prison too. And many many such happenings In Red China. In Red China now In spite of these things The church is mushrooming. We have these persecuted Christians There we have smuggled in 6 printing presses So they might print for themselves Gospels and other things.

We also print. We print right here in Australia. We have created our printing press And smuggled into China. But we have given to them That they should print for themselves. The church is growing Mightily In Red China.

It is considered that there are At this moment 100 ,000 underground churches in China. Home churches as they are called now With an attendance Every Sunday Of 5 million. An underground church With 5 million.

But a church which does not have The advantages which you have. They have no pastors. The real faithful pastors Have died in prison. Or even if they came out They came out as broken men Which can't be used anymore.

An evangelist A pastor in China Has today usually The age of 60. A boy of 60 Who has not read the Bible himself. It is considered that in China There exists one Bible For 1000 Christians. One Bible for 1000 Christians.

It is difficult to smuggle in Bibles For a nation with 1 billion inhabitants. And all these Faithful boys Who themselves don't know much. One of them has been asked What is Good Friday? He had not heard about Good Friday.

What is Easter? He did not know about Easter. He knew a few words About a loving God And a Savior who died for us Something like this. And on this They bring souls to salvation. And more and more souls Are born for Christ In this great China.

There is a report From the town of Chongqing The town of Chongqing. In Chongqing the communists had come One day From house to house of Christians Had confiscated all Bibles Hymns books, prayer books, devotions, whatever they had Have compelled the Christians To gather in a marketplace.

And there they made a bonfire And burned All these books In the presence of Christians Profiting from a moment Of inattention of the Red Guards. A Christian thrust his arm In the fire And just at random Tore out one page from the bag.

One page. And the Christians in Chongqing Gathered again and again During two years. They gathered every week To read this one page from the bag. Some tell me, you know Church is boresome. For them it was not boresome To read again and again the one page of the Bible.

Why do you go to tennis? Why do you watch on television Tennis ball to that side and she throws it to this side. And I throw it to that side and she throws it to this side. And from this side to that side And from that side to this side.

Is it not boresome? The church is boresome. Not tennis is boresome or football is boresome. Well, they were not boresome. They read one page of the Bible. And after two years They succeeded to slip out Through Hong Kong.

Christlike Christian Living

A small letter. I had it in my hand And I have learned it by heart. They said brethren From this one page we have learned That it is wrong to strive To become a better Christian. It is wrong to try to be a better Christian.

We must strive To become the only kind of Christian Whom Christ meant us to be Christ like Christian. It was just such a discovery for me. Don't strive to become a better Christian. Strive to be the only kind of Christian Whom Christ meant us to be Christ like Christian.

This word Went directly to my heart. Because I had been a man who every Monday morning Would take the decision This week I will be a better Christian. And usually I succeeded Monday, Tuesday Wednesday until noon time.

Now Wednesday at noon time My wife made something wrong. It is always the wives who do something wrong. And I I am a husband. So a husband must show that he is a husband. How do you. And then I said to myself Well I have not succeeded to become a better Christian.

I will start again next Monday. Because it is not good to start on Thursday or on Friday To become a better Christian. Monday is the right day. And years had passed I had not become a better Christian.

And now I learned Don't Strive to be a better Christian. Strive to be the only kind of Christian Whom Christ meant us to be Christ like Christian. I did my utmost to find out What page of the Bible they had.

And I succeeded. And I expect To meet in heaven the angel of the church Of Shem King, every church has its angel Who has lit The hand of this Christian. To tear out the right page from the Bible. He could have torn out A page from Nehemiah with genealogies Or from Leviticus with all the Sacrifices there, they are also valuable.

But what would poor guys have understood From this page. They tore out Matthew 16 And they gathered again and again And they read On this rock I, Jesus Christ The Son of God I will build my church My church.

And neither Mao Tse Tung Nor all his comrades Nor his Imprisoning of Christians Nor his torturing them with snakes On their naked bodies Nor shedding salt Into their throats. Nor the beatings, nor the killings Not even the gates of hell Will ever prevail against you.

Because I love you. You are my bride. You are me, he me. What happens to you Happens to me. And even if they kill you I will resurrect you. You will be with me comforted in paradise. In two years they read this And they found Don't strive to be a little bit better Than you have been last week.

Be Christ like. There exists such a church Which passes through Very difficult circumstances. And in these Difficult circumstances It continues to serve Christ With love And has as purpose To make God happy.

And I would recommend to everyone of you Never allow yourselves To be deterred From the supreme purpose in life. Make God happy. Renounce lust And greed and temptations Of this world And try to make God happy.

When you will have made him happy You will discover that it is not he. Ani hu ani. He is me And I am he. We are united. Every joy of his is my joy. He has taken all my sufferings and sicknesses Upon himself And has given me His unspeakable joy And behead this joy in prison.

I have seen more Shining faces In communist prisons Than if I stood outside the door Of a beauty parlor And saw ladies coming out from that beauty parlor. You have seen my wife. She has been in jail. She is more beautiful than every woman here.

She has passed through God's Beauty parlor of suffering. And I have Known more Triumphant songs In these communist prison cells Than I have known In very well-to-do homes In the free world. And I have seen a greater passion for Christ In these prison cells Than here Where you have all possibilities.

The Church’s Mission and Sacrifice

I have checked a few figures. They might not be exact to the second But will give you Approximately a figure. There are approximately One million Presbyterians In Australia. The average yearly income Of an Australian is $10 ,000 a year.

So one million Presbyterians Earn $10 ,000 ,000 ,000 a year. $10 ,000 ,000 ,000 a year $10 ,000 ,000 ,000 a year. And for $10 ,000 ,000 ,000 a year. They support 100 foreign missionaries. Which means for every $100 ,000 ,000 Which Presbyterians earn.

They support one foreign missionary. In order to have one man To preach Christ in a foreign country Presbyterians have to earn First $100 ,000 ,000 With the Baptists. The figure is a little bit nicer.

There are 50 ,000 Baptists Who earn $500 ,000 ,000 And for $500 ,000 ,000 They have 250 missionaries. Which means For $2 ,000 ,000 Which Baptists earn in Australia. Before they earn $2 ,000 ,000 ,000.

They would not send a missionary Who costs perhaps $20 ,000 ,000. If they earn $2 ,000 ,000 ,000 Then they will go And win another soul. The passion does not burn in the heart. I know when I fell in love With my wife.

I fell in love with my wife. I walked on the streets. Friends met me and asked me Hello Mr. Bernard, how are you doing? And I said Sabina loves me If you would know what a beautiful girl. But who is Sabina?

I said that is a girl whom I will marry. I could not speak about something else Because I had fallen in love. And those who have fallen in love With Christ They can't expect To earn first $100 ,000 ,000 To tell somebody else about Christ.

We were during years alone in a cell. Alone, alone, alone Who can understand What it means to be alone During years. And we wished to tell others What we have found in Christ. And when being alone we communicated With those to our right, to our left With murderers, with thieves, with political By tapping through the wall in Morse code.

You know there exists such a code through which cables are conveyed A B C D E F and so on,. I will not teach you this whole alphabet for free. But there exists such an alphabet. And one prisoner learns it From the other.

And men were born For Christ Men whom we had never seen before By telling them in Morse code That the Son of God has loved us And has come from heaven to earth To save us. And how he has been mocked and how he has been spat upon.

And how he had nails driven into his hands and into his feet. And how he endured all these things In order to save us. How he gave his blood. And then after eight years We were already in common cells.

One day the cell was unlocked. The guards pushed in a new prisoner. And his very first words were about God and about heaven. He was such a happy man. I asked him since when are you a Christian. He said hallelujah Since eight years.

And I asked him how did you become a Christian. He said I was arrested for some political motives. If you are a dissident with the government They put you in prison. And I did not agree with the government.

I was put in prison and I was an atheist. And nearby was a pastor. And he talked to the wall And told me That I can be saved from every sin. Can become a heir of eternal life Through believing in Jesus.

And I believed and since then I am such a happy man. I asked him in what cell have you been. He said in cell number twelve. And I said come here I will embrace you. I happen to know who has been in cell number eleven at that time.

There exists This passion To make God happy. To make God to rejoice in me. Does not matter that I sit In a solitary cell. Does not matter that snakes creep upon my belly. Does not matter That I have to eat feces and to drink urine.

My purpose is one. Does not matter That I have an unhappy marriage. Does not matter that I don't earn enough. Does not matter I can't buy a new car. The old car you can get Tickets from the police and have accident with the old car.

You don't need a new car. And all these things Which concern us Are secondary. One thing is important. My God should rejoice. Singing as a mother Sacrifices her sleep And everything For her child. Her little child should be happy.

And so it is with Christians. Our God should be happy. And when you have denied yourself When he Becomes your everything. Me, he, me When that is your me. Then his exuberant joy Becomes your joy. And amid these sufferings You can sing too.

Becoming Like Little Children

This is my message for today. We have suffered. And so many suffer now in communist prisons. I know that you in Australia You have your sufferings. I know that so many hundred people are gathered. Hundreds of sorrows are gathered.

You have your sorrows. Don't trouble yourself with your sorrows. If in trouble You are troubled Then you have your trouble doubled. If in trouble You are troubled Then you have your trouble doubled. You have your troubles.

And you have the trouble about being troubled. Whatever trouble you have. My purpose in life Is to make God To rejoice singing. And you will see The troubles passed. You have the joy of the singer And you sing together with him.

I come to the end Of my message. Never be happy. Too quickly that I come to the end of the message. Because an end of a message can be very long. But I wish to tell you only If you were to I have waited 14 years To speak with you.

So have patience with me. If I speak a little bit longer Than your pastors usually do They have you every Sunday, I don't have you every Sunday. Jesus says We must become Like little children. And we, when we read this We imagine some child of ours Some grandchild or of a neighbor.

How nice and how rosy And how quiet and so. Yes, also to be like him. How do you know that he thought About such a child. He himself, Jesus Has not been such a child. He has been a child born in a stable Unwashed.

No midwife when he was born No doctor No water to be washed. He was in his blood In the blood of his mother And in his hair Of the babe. There was a straw from the crib. He was not such a nice child. Jesus said Become like children, like what child.