Hearts Attuned to God — Basilea Schlink

Mother Basilea Schlink, of the little land of Canaan in West Germany, is by the Sea of Galilee in the Holy Land. She is overwhelmed by the happiness we have in Jesus. A song wells up within her heart.

Who makes us happy, Jesus, as you? Therefore my heart rejoices in you, Jesus, O joy eternal.

Mother Basilea, founder of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, Darmstadt, is one of those in our times who yearn that many more might come to know and love God. She has written many books about his love and suffering, which are translated into over 60 languages and read the world over.

Countless numbers of all denominations have come to know God's heart and nature more deeply. Heathens and even enemies of God have turned to him and have become truly happy, as only Jesus can make us.

Her song, Born Here by the Sea of Galilee, was soon to become the favorite song of many and to travel from land to land. In Australia, too, Mother Basilea is greeted by this song.

And Mother Basilea says, Who makes us happy, Jesus, as you? This I have experienced. And how, by loving Jesus, the fairest of all, our Savior in bright Rome, who loves us more than words can tell. He is waiting for our love in return and in our times for a very, very special love.

The Lord has laid it on my heart to say something about this today in the Cathedral of Sydney, where I have been invited to speak. And it could be that in this hour you will find a deeper meaning to your life and great happiness, which will transform everything for you.

It is my great pleasure to welcome Mother Basilea of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary to St. Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. It was my joy and privilege to stay with the Mary Sisters at Darmstadt ten years ago, and that made an impression on my life and ministry that has continued on to this day.

Jesus’ Suffering and the Disciples’ Indifference

Before I begin, I would like to say how sorry I am that my English is not so good. Since I was asked to speak directly in English, I will be glad to try. Shortly before Jesus began His path of sorrows, He spoke to His disciples of that which awaited Him, saying, The Son of Man must suffer many sins and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day, Luke 9, 44.

They heard Him say this, but they did not take these words into their hearts. They were only filled with love for themselves, as we read in the scriptures. Immediately after Jesus spoke to them of His suffering, they discussed with each other the question that was most important to themselves, that is, which one of them would then have the most authority to say something, to take over the leadership.

They were so far away from Jesus' heart. They had no heart, no love for Jesus. They are indifferent to Jesus' suffering, just as the priests and the Levites were indifferent to the suffering of the men who had fallen prey to the robbers.

What a grief this was for Jesus, who had given them all His love. Today, we are again living during the time of His Passion, but it is a different time of suffering from the one Jesus endured about 2 ,000 years ago.

The Present Suffering of Jesus in an Age of Apostasy

Not only did Jesus suffer once long ago, but He also suffers today. How is this meant? The scriptures say that the believers who fall away from Jesus are crucifying Him anew. Till a few decades ago, there were only certain individuals in the church who did so.

But today, we are living at the beginning of the end times, the age when large numbers have fallen away from God and turned their backs on the proclamation of His will, His commandments. It is the age of lawlessness.

For the commandments of God, His divine ordinances are being trampled underfoot. We must lament that which has never happened in thousands of years is happening now. Man is rising up in rebellion against the living God, the almighty and immortal God and Creator and Judge, hurling hatred and blasphemy against Him.

Oh, I could bury myself in the dust for shame. The Buddhists revere their Buddha. They heathen their idols. The Muslims consider it a sacrilege if Mormons were portrayed in a film. But our Christian world, oh Jesus, looks on with many believers joined as laughing when you, Jesus, were reduced to a clown, a fool, an immoral man, yes, homosexual, and shown to the world as a failure, a terrorist, as the one defeated by the devil.

This is the passion of Jesus today. Today, the hour of worldwide crucifixion has come for Jesus. And Jesus' heart must be lamenting. Did I not give my life for the redemption of the world because I loved it so very much?

Yet men do not only disregard my sacrifice. Their response is hatred, hatred. As one long ago, at my crucifixion, they blaspheme and degrade me. In my life, I want to save them from their bondage to sin, save them from the powers of darkness, from the abyss of hell.

God’s Lament Over Sin and Rebellion

Yes, God is lamenting as He did once long ago through the words of the prophets in deep grief over His people. Today, the love of God is lamenting for us, for our sin, for His children. In His love, He cannot bear to watch us choose paths of sin and fall away from Him into the cloud of Satan.

But long ago, it was only one nation that fell away from Him, and it was before Jesus' act of redemption. How heartrending must God's lament be today. Oh, hear, hear the Father's sufferings. Oh, listen to His lament.

Oh, hear His great anguish, greater than all our suffering. For never has there been a greater love than His. This heart which loves us dearly, sacrificing His only Son for us, is so deeply grieved because of our sin today.

Oh, that many souls would come to comfort you and be with you. It is still aggrieved to me today that I, as a disciple of Jesus, once took so little interest in Jesus' suffering. I will never forget the time, it was almost 30 years ago, when I was in deeper inner suffering than ever.

I had drawn apart for a time a prayer in the cushion, and so I had nothing to make this time easier for me. And it seemed as if this suffering was, so to speak, opening its jaws to devour me. All at once it was as if heaven intervened.

My eyes fell upon the crucifix before me, and I sensed, Jesus' suffering, this is important. I knew then that I could close the jaws of suffering by loving Jesus, and that my suffering would become unimportant to me if I lived in His suffering.

And it seemed as if Jesus was asking me, do you wish to be comforted? Or are you really living only for me, that is, to love me, to comfort me? And I began to sing of Jesus' love and His suffering for us.

And I wrote one song of comfort after another for Jesus. And like a miracle before my own eyes, the love that comforted Jesus entered my soul. From that point on, the jaws of suffering could no longer threaten to swallow me up.

But now that I have shared this with you, I can only feel ashamed again. And I think we must all be ashamed that we have loved our Lord Jesus so little and have not taken His suffering into our hearts.

Learning to Share in Jesus’ Suffering

Let us stop to ask ourselves whether we have ever wept over Jesus' suffering and how often we have shed tears over our own suffering. I will never forget what I experienced during my traveling mystery in wartime Germany when I stayed at home of a young Soviet widow.

She shared with me how her boys, as little as they were, ever in youth tried to comfort her in many different ways. With a flower that they laid on her bed, with a small picture of the Lord Jesus, with a saying that they wrote with their little hands.

I said to myself, this is how children share in the grief of their mother. But how do we react to Jesus' suffering? Our Lord Jesus has a heart and we can partake of what is in His heart. Jesus is asking us, do you really love me?

Do you share in my suffering? Today Jesus must not be disappointed by us. He loves us so much and suffers so much for His children. And so we do not want to be like the pious priest and Levite and live only for our own interests, our personal life, our family, our job, our concerns, even if they are good, pious concerns.

As in the Messianic Psalms, Psalm 69, Jesus is calling out, I looked for pity, but there was none. And for comforters, but I found none. He is crying for souls who will suffer with Him, who will bring comfort and joy to Him.

This is Jesus' plea, the time of His patience today. In this time the Lord is gathering from all parts of the world souls that will live to fulfill the plea of God, souls that will amend with Him and comfort Him.

Worshiping and Comforting Jesus

How can we comfort Jesus? Oh, it is so simple, to bring joy to His heart. If we, when millions are degrading and blaspheming Jesus, lift Him up and bring Him our praises and honor, singing songs of adoration to Him, the almighty victor of Calvary, the triumphant Lamb that defeated Satan's power, the King of kings who will come again in glory and before whom every knee will bow.

How we can bring joy to our Father's heart. A little child can comfort his earthly father by coming to him full of love and calling his name. And we can do the same if we say to him time and again as a true child of God, My father, my father, I love you.

I am so glad to be your child. Oh, you love me. How happy I am. Love brings joy to the Father's heart. And if we trust Him in every situation as a true child, we will show Him our love in this day when He is hated so much.

And we bring joy to the Father's heart. If we come to the Father time and again, like the prodigal son with a humble, contrite heart, because of the sins that we commit every day and you and say, My father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.

I am not worthy to be your child. Then we will fill the Father's heart with joy. For we hear that the Father prepared a joyous festival for His prodigal son. And today so many are clenching their fists against God.

The heart of God, our Father, will be comforted if we take a stand for His commandments, break with sin, yes, condemn it as evil whenever we encounter it, as we are told to do in Scripture. There is always power in suffering if we bear it in patience.

But the greatest power lies in suffering with God. Because the motivation of this suffering is a love for God. If we suffer with God, we forget our own suffering. And we receive comfort and help for our soul.

Suffering With God and Awaiting His Kingdom

This fellowship of His suffering helps to hold back the flood of darkness and it paves the way for the victory of Jesus and His coming kingdom. For the kingdom of Jesus is coming. Now, when the darkness had reached its peak and Satan had almost won the victory, the hour has drawn very close when he will be defeated.

Jesus will appear and establish His kingdom for all eternity. Those who love Him, who now suffer with Him, will then share in His triumph in eternal joy. Thus blessed are those who weep with their God here on earth, now in the age when sin and blasphemy and the suffering of God are at their greatest.

They will rejoice with their God when the day of redemption for the world has come and Jesus has established His kingdom. Those who love God will devote his life to comfort Him. This is the greatest commission.

It gives the greatest meaning to our lives. Oh, today we want to stay at your side, Jesus. Today we will not forsake you. Today we will live to comfort your sorrowful heart. Today you should not wait in vain for comforters.

We do not want to disappoint you. We want to be your comforters.

Let us now have a time when we are bringing comfort to the heart of Jesus by offering Him our love.

Would you like to respond to the message that has been brought to us tonight? I venture to say that we have never had a message that has been just like that. Jesus suffers today because He is derided by those who do not turn to Him.

We can compensate for that by giving Him comfort by our love. Would you like to respond and dedicate yourself tonight to bring comfort to Jesus in His present suffering? If you would like to join with me in prayer, to that end, would you please stand?

And now heaven witnesses the great wave of expectancy that sweeps through the cathedral as the many hundreds rise to their feet and pray to God that they might become His comforters.

A Congregational Dedication to Comfort Jesus

Our loving Father, our hearts go out to our Lord Jesus Christ, who suffers today because of a world that does not respond, but goes its own way in sin. And we would bring comfort to the heart of Jesus in His sufferings by giving Him our love, our loyalty, our light.

And this we do now and in an ongoing way to the glory of God and for Jesus' sake.

God has found in Australia a host of souls who have this longing. Will He find such souls in your land too? People whose hearts are attuned to Him? Mother Basilea now shares with us some practical steps.

Practical Ways to Bring Comfort and Joy to God

It is so wonderful that the Lord has given us many different ways of bringing Him comfort and joy. And now I would like to read some of them to you. It is my prayer that as I do so, one of them will especially speak to your heart so that you might know this is what Jesus wants from me.

A soul that laments for God and comforts Him, worships Him even when in deep inner night. A soul that laments for God and comforts Him, gives Him all He has, His will and every desire out of love for Him.

A soul that laments for God and comforts Him, bears suffering patiently out of love for Him. A soul that laments for God and comforts Him, is moved by love to bear witness to Him, standing before Him when He is hated and blasphemed.

To lament for God and comfort Him is to bring Him tears of repentance, to change one's ways and hate sin, which causes Him such great heartache.

How to Obtain the Book God Laments

The program has spoken to your heart,.

And you would like to read more about bringing love and comfort to God? Write for a free copy of God Laments by Mother Basilea Schlink. A videocassette of this program is also available upon request. The address is Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, P .O. Box 30022, Phoenix, Arizona, 85046 -0022.

Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, P .O. Box 30022, Phoenix, Arizona, 85046 -0022.