God's Beauty Parlor (Mrs. Wumbrand) — Richard Wurmbrand

Acts 6: Stephen Before the Council

Mrs. Wernbrandt's Bible is in Romanian, so she can't very well read to you, can she? But the text that she's chosen this morning is from Acts, and it's from chapter 6. So if you'd like to turn to your Bible, Acts chapter 6, and it's about Stephen in front of the council.

And we're going to start reading from verse 6 through to verse 15. "...whom they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. And the word of God increased, and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.

And a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Then there arose a certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and the Syrians, and the Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and Asia, disputing with Stephen.

And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. Then they subdued men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God. And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council.

And they set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

And all that sat in the council looked steadfastly on him, and saw his face as if it had been the face of an angel. Now turn over to chapter 7, and we are going to read 54, 55, 56, 57 and 58. And here Stephen is speaking about his faith.

And when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.

And then they cried out with a loud voice, and they stopped their ears, and they ran upon him with one accord, and they cast him out of the city, and they stoned him. And the witnesses lay down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

May Jesus bless this reading to us this morning. My very dear sisters, and dear brethren in Christ, it is true that my Bible is Romanian, because I come from Romania, but it is still the same Bible as yours.

And there, in my Bible, and in your Bible, it was read to you about Stephen, the first who gave his life for Christ, the first martyr. And I would like this morning to take you with me to a very special beauty parlor.

The Beauty Parlor of Jesus

I would like to take you this morning with me to a very special beauty parlor. But before this, I have to remind you that a television crew is here in the church in order to make an exact videotape of this meeting.

You would wonder, perhaps, that you don't see the men. They are here. Angels of heaven are around you. For it is written that whenever those who fear the Lord are gathered, the angels of God are around you.

And a book is written in heaven. So one day, when we will be home in heaven, we will find many books. And about the many books, we will find also the pages written this morning. And I pray to God that he may fill your heart with his grace, with his peace, and with his deep compassion in order that the pages written this morning may be beautiful ones and a blessing to all those who will read them.

Persecution in Communist Romania

From a world apart, Romania, my homeland, is a communist country in the communist bloc. One third of the world is under communist dominion or influence. I come from a world of prisons, of slave labor camps, a world where Christians are put in asylums for madmen.

I come from a world with many fears and many, many tears. And whatever newspapers or different even churchmen would tell you, don't forget the tears of your brothers and of your sisters in communist countries.

We were thousands of women in communist prisons. One hundred thousand men. I don't know if many of us, we know to count to one hundred thousand. But it is very, very much. One, two, three, four, five, till one hundred, till one thousand.

One hundred thousand men, Christians, political fighters, were put in prisons and in slave labor camps when the communists took over Romania. And when the men were put in prisons, and churches and Christians remained without pastors, the women, the Christian women, did not start to discuss about rights.

They just took over the work. The communists did not expect it. They looked amazed. And so we could work nearly two years afterwards. After these two years, the communists did not look anymore. They gathered the Christian women, and thousands, thousands of women were put in prisons and in slave labor camps.

Suffering, Motherhood, and Gratitude

Dear sisters, as I speak specially to you, I look at you, you are so beautiful. You are a happy and blessed company. When we were put in prisons, without anything absolutely needed, hungry, beaten, we worked at a certain moment at the canal, and we had to throw heavy stones in the river.

So we picked up the heavy stones, and the stones cut our hands and made them bleeding. But not only our hands were bleeding, our hearts were bleeding. Mothers, wives, behind locked doors and iron bars, sometimes the communists would gather a few children and put them in a cell near ours, and started to beat the children.

We were some six or seven in the next cell, and when the children started to cry, the first one among us said, Oh, it is my Mary! It is my Mary! We began crying, every one of us. We were convinced it is my child, my child in the hands of the communists and beaten.

And all together we cried, my child, we never saw it. You have your children, dear sisters. Treasure them. Give them your time. Give your children your heart. Thank God for having them. And give your children your best.

Give them your savior. So dark clouds are all over the world. All over. The communists would like to have your children, too, in their hands. And so we worked at this canal. We never knew what day it is.

There was no Sunday, no Christmas, no Easter. When we worked on the field, somebody would whisper, It is Sunday. And you could see the prisoners working and weeping, remembering such a beautiful morning when they could be in the house of the Lord.

How you should treasure your church, your pastors, all the gifts, all the blessings that God has given you. Pray for those who today, thousands and thousands and thousands in the communist bloc, are somewhere in the snow, freezing, hungry, beaten.

Remember them. Pray for them. And learn to thank God for the many blessings which you have. On such a Sunday, when we were reminded it is Sunday today, we were brought back to the prison cell and a few Christians wished to read the Bible together and to pray.

Worship and Scripture in Prison

Sometimes I am asked, but were you allowed in communist prisons to read the Bible and to pray? We surely were allowed. We made a deal with our communist guards. We allowed them to beat us, so they allowed us to read the Bible and to pray together.

On this special Sunday, when we were brought back to our prison cell, some five or six women gathered on the concrete under the bed in order to be able to pray together without being seen through the peephole, because the door had a peephole.

And in order not to be seen by the guard who looked again and again, we gathered under the bed on the concrete. And there we sat and read the Bible during years and years. In communist prisons, we had not seen a Bible.

We didn't have a bit of paper. We didn't have any book all these years. We didn't have a Bible. We didn't see a Bible. We just come from India. India, you know, is so very poor. Very, very poor. But we were in a gathering with tens of thousands.

And people, the Christians, came with their Bible. And I stood there and looked, and I so envied them. Thousands and thousands and thousands coming. And everyone with his Bible, although they are so poor, they had their Bible.

And I told them, have you ever thought about how rich you are? You hear always speaking about poor India. But have you ever thought how rich you are having the Bible? It is only in communist prisons that I understood how rich we are having the Bible.

The Word of God Stored in the Heart

All together there, we were so poor. We were so hungry that during the night we could not sleep. We would awake and we would cry. I'm hungry, I'm hungry. Nobody could help us. But we could not sleep. So hungry we were.

And while we were thousands, so poor and so hungry, the Christians discovered how rich they are. We could not come with our Bible as our beloved Indian brethren did it. But Christians had gathered in their heart the Word of God.

The communists had taken everything away from us. Everything. Our beloved ones, our children, were put somewhere on the street without father, without mother. We didn't know anything about them. But they could not take away what we had gathered in our heart.

A little bit of faith, a little bit of hope, and a little bit from the Word of God. And we have seen there, in communist prisons, how one word from the Word of God taken out from the heart of a Christian and given to some prisoner in despair.

One word from the Word of God has brought new light and new hope. Lives were saved by this, our richness. You have the Bible, dear sisters. Just thank God for having the Bible. Read it. Study it and treasure the Word of God.

And gather it in your heart. You can need it very soon. We have seen the greatest richness which we ever could have gathered was the Word of God. And it gave life to those in despair. Now I told you that being gathered there under the bed, we read the Bible.

We had among us a young Christian lady. She knew whole chapters from the Old Testament by heart. I wonder how many of you are reading the Old Testament. And I often, when I am in the free world among my sisters, I read especially from the Old Testament.

It doesn't happen often that I take the New Testament just in order to bring this book to your heart. She knew by heart whole chapters from the Old Testament. But she knew also the chapters 6 and 7 from the Book of Acts.

Stephen's Faith and the Beauty of Holiness

And so, we were under the bed and we read chapter 6 about Stephen, how he stands before his enemies and the enemies, his enemies, looked at Stephen and they saw that his face was beautiful. So beautiful like the face of an angel.

This was the last verse of chapter, what chapter? 6? Please read it again at home. It's a very interesting chapter. It is written there that Stephen was full with the Holy Ghost and with the wisdom of God.

And when you are full with the wisdom of God and with the Holy Spirit, no wonder that his face was beautiful like the face of an angel. And while we finished this chapter and we started to speak about Stephen, we had among us, we were Christians all together.

Can you hear me well there? Are you still with me? I can assure you that there, under the bed, it was not so comfortable as it is for you, but it was still a corner from Paradise. We were Christians, but we had among us one lady, one of the richest ladies of Romania.

She was not a Christian. She was in prison because her husband had been the political leader of the country. So she listened with us about all these things, about Stephen, and then she said, I wonder about you, the Christians.

You seem to be intelligent women, but how could you believe that Stephen, standing before his enemies, knowing that he will be put to death, could you believe it that his face would be so beautiful? In what beauty parlor could he have been in order to have a face like the face of an angel in such a crisis, in such critical moments when he was before death?

A Christian lady answered, I'm sorry for you. You don't know Jesus, the Son of God, but whenever Jesus comes in a heart, he is alone. He always comes with all his richness. He comes with his angels. He comes with the glory of heaven.

And so, when you open your heart and Jesus comes in your heart to be your Lord and Savior, he brings his beauty. And so Stephen could be so beautiful like an angel. And while we spoke, at once the door opened, the communist guard entered, came directly to the place where we were gathered under the bed, took us out all, gave a very hard beating to everyone, bleeding, and with many tears, he threw us back in the prison cell.

Conversion Through Persecution

Now, we the Christians, we knew what price we have to pay to read the Bible and to pray. But we were afraid about this lady who was not a Christian. How will she react? What will she say? And while we were thinking about these things, the first one who came to speak with me was this rich, rich lady who now was poor and hungry, bleeding all over, the face besmeared with blood, with tears.

She said, Now I know the very fact that the communists are persecuting the Christians, the very fact that they have beaten us only because we would speak about Jesus, this very fact is for me the best proof that your God is God indeed, and your Jesus will be also my Jesus, the Savior.

And she didn't know that now her face besmeared with blood and with tears shone and was beautiful like the face of an angel. It is wonderful to pass in the beauty parlor of Jesus, the Son of God, who has given His life for you and who wishes to be Lord and Master in your heart.

He forgives your sins. He takes over your problems. He brings His grace and His peace and His richness in your life, and you become beautiful like the angels in heaven. It is quite a beauty parlor, a part, but the best which can exist.

Then you will read further, Act 7. We see there another picture, the picture of those who were the enemies of Christ and the enemies of Stephens. And you saw how they are described ready to throw stones and to put to death Stephens.

Righteousness, love from heaven makes you beautiful. Anger and fight against God and against His people makes you ugly. Remember this too. And I invite you, everyone, come, come in the beauty parlor of Jesus.

You need it. Your heart will be washed clean and will be filled with the joy of heaven. And now I would like to tell you how God loves you, how He knows everyone of you. First, we have learned in prison how rich we are, having such a Savior and having the Word of God.

The Savior Who Knows His People

And now I would like to tell you how beloved you are, every one of you, how God knew us. It is written that Jesus calls those who are His by their name. He calls us by names, that means He knows everyone.

And very shortly, don't mind it, the little ones have their rights. May I just keep you a few minutes more? I would like to tell you how in communist prisons, when it was very, very hard, and it was very hard, there are no human words who could ever describe what it means a Christian woman in the hands of the communists.

And when it was very, very hard, we thought, are we forgotten? Nobody cares, no help from anywhere. And then the Lord Himself would remind us that He cares and knows us. As I told you, our children, we didn't know anything about them.

Somewhere on the street, hungry, eating from the garbage, if they found something in the garbage. Mothers, did you ever think the children of your sisters in the hands of the communists, without father, without mother, hungry, so working at the canal, hungry and sick.

We got so weak that we couldn't work anymore. So the communists thought to lure us, and they said, if you work and make such an amount of work, which was very, very hard, you will be able to see your children.

They may come on such and such a day. Never human words express what it meant for us after, let me say, two or three or four weeks on such and such a day. You will see your children. Nights and nights we did not sleep, preparing everyone the words which we will speak with our children.

Because there were only ten minutes fixed, and the guard stood around, and we could not speak whatever we would have liked. So, I'm sorry, we still love him. So, during nights, we didn't sleep and prepared the words which we will tell our children.

Shame, Poverty, and Thankfulness

Then we had a very big problem. We were very dirty, and the stones had cut our clothes and made it just like rags. We were ashamed to appear so before our children. We tried to have a scarf from somewhere which went around to every woman, somewhere a skirt in order to appear before our children.

Perhaps, dear sisters, you know how we are, the women. We always have the impression that we don't have clothes enough, and we need absolutely a new dress, and we are ready to quarrel and to fight. I need it absolutely.

Perhaps sometimes when your heart is so unhappy about the new dress which you need, remember your sisters in rags, hungry, beaten, mocked, put to shame by the communists. Pray for them, and praying for them, thank God for all you have, and learning to thank God, your heart will be blessed and will be happy, and you will be a blessing to those around you.

Reunion With His Son

And so the nights passed quickly, composing and recomposing and again composing the words which we will speak with the children. And the great day came when two guards took me out from the prison cell in a room, let me say, like this room.

At the door, I being here, at the door stood my son, two guards around him. I looked at him. He was so pale, so frail. And while I looked at him, he looked at me, and all I had composed during nights and nights, in a second, it was forgotten.

And I didn't know to say one word, but neither would he speak. He too, he had prepared something to say. And the minutes passed, and the guards were already taking him out, taking me back to the prison cell.

And while I saw him leaving already, trying to give him my best, perhaps I will never see again my child. So I said, Mihai, love Jesus from all your heart. With these words, he was taken out. I was brought back to my prison cell.

The prisoners, the mothers, the women, came around me, gathered all together. How does your child look? What did he tell you? How is it outside in the free world? Many, many days, I couldn't speak a word.

But after a long time, when I was freed, I had the great joy to find my son, a young Christian, ready to fight for the kingdom of God. These few words, God has blessed them as a sign of his love, as a sign that we were not forgotten, as a sign that our children were in his care.

The Glory of God in Persecution

We have a savior whose name is wonderful. All praise be to him. In communist prisons, tears and mocked by the communists, we have seen the glory of God. And there we have understood that our Lord and Master Jesus, the Son of God, has his name wonderful.

Wonderful are his deeds, and my very, very beloved ones, wonderful are all those who are his. May God bless you, and may God help you, not to forget the beauty parlor, for whosoever takes Jesus in his heart as savior, as Lord, as Master, as heavenly friend, he will be brought in the beauty parlor of Jesus, and the glory of God will shine over him.

Not only the Christians have seen it, even communists saw the glory of God shining over those beaten and tortured by them. And therefore, in our country, in the communist bloc, where we did not have Bibles, we have changed a song of yours.

You sing here, Jesus loves me. And thus we have seen, Jesus loves me, yes, I know, for the Bible tells me so. As we didn't have the Bible, we changed the song, Jesus loves me, yes, I know, for their faces tell me so.

Hungry, sick, beaten and mocked by the communists, the faces of the Christians shone with the glory of God. And even communists could learn the song, Jesus loves me, yes, I know, for their faces tell me so.

May God bless you, everyone. May God fill your heart with his glory in order that your faces and your life should witness to all those around you that Jesus, the Son of God, loves you and loves all those who need him as Saviour and Lord.

God bless you all.