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the Roman centurion, He did not lash back at him, nor did He threaten him. Instead, He won him over with forgiving love. Even as Jesus died, the centurion exclaimed, “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).
There is something nobler than winning. There is something more rewarding than conquering. It is possible to be more than a conqueror. You may not live to see it, but you had better believe that when you maintain a positive attitude in the face of persecution and persevere in doing what is right, you will be blessed.
PARDON THOSE WHO HAVE HURT YOU
/
“Not easy,” you say. And you are right. One of the most difficult things to do is to forgive someone who has hurt you. Again, we take a lesson from Jesus in dealing positively with our persecution.
When he was on the cross, stripped of his dignity, Jesus cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
Sometimes it is humanly impossible to forgive. When that happens, we need to call upon divine intervention. We ask God to forgive those who hurt us and to work on our hearts so that we can eventually see our hurt from their perspective.
Frequently, more often than not, people who hurt others through their words or their actions are unaware that they’ve injured anybody. They “know not what they do.”
Other times, they are incapable of being held accountable for their actions. “They know not what they do” in terms of being so mixed up, so troubled, so spiteful, or so insecure that they act purely out of gut instinct. They are incapable of thinking about others’ feelings or others’ lives.
Have you been hurt? Are you still carrying that pain within? Is it impossible to forgive and forget? Then start by saying the prayer Christ prayed: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
PERSIST IN TRUSTING GOD
When we are suffering, it is tempting to lash out at everyone around us—including God. And it is hard to keep on trusting Him when we are being rejected or ridiculed. But if we are to be victorious in the face of persecution, it is vital to maintain our trust in Him.
The Book of Job has been hailed by students of literature as one of the greatest epic poems ever written. But it is far more than a beautiful piece of literature. Job is a story of triumphal trust—for surely nobody has ever faced more persecution than Job.
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“When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
“Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him” (Job 13:15, Kjv).
Both of these statements made by Job after he faced persecution are testimonial to the fact that he successfully endured his persecution. Job illustrates a faith that will not lose its grip, a faith that never lets go.
Let’s examine Job’s trials. He was very rich. He had three thousand camels, which would be like having a few hundred Rolls-Royces today. He had seven sons and three daughters. His fame was worldwide. He was what you could call super-rich, super-successful. At the age of thirty-nine, he had it made. And on top of everything, he had a reputation for being religious.
One day, according to the book of Job, the devil appeared to the Almighty and said, “So, you think Job’s such a good guy? Let me tell you—it is easy to have faith when you’re rich like that. The truth is that Job only comes across with a smiling, happy faith because life is easy for him. He’s rich. But if he were poor and suffering, then we’d see what kind of faith Job really has.”
In this epic poem God agrees that the devil can try Job. The first thing that happens to him is financial ruin. He loses all of his property. The
next thing that happens is that his house collapses and all of his children are killed. Then once the money is gone, Job’s opportunistic friends go. He’s lost his money, his family, and his power; the community just doesn’t respond to him anymore. Finally one day he sits in the ashes, naked. And he says, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord”(Job 1:21).
Then he adds this inspiring pledge: “When he has tried me, 1 shall come forth as gold!” (Job 23:10). It is the same faith that 1 describe in the Possibility Thinker’s Creed: “When faced with a mountain, I will not quit! 1 will keep on striving until I climb over, find a pass through, tunnel underneath, or simply stay and turn the mountain into a gold mine with God’s help.”
This is the kind of faith we used to sing about in a hymn:
Oh, for a faith that will not shrink, though pressed by every foe—
That will not stumble on the brink of any earthly woe;
A faith that shines forth bright and clear when troubles rage about;
A faith that in the darkest time will know no doubt.*
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Such was the faith that Job had: “Though God slay me, yet will I trust him.”
This faith is sensational! Fantastic! Awesome! And it’s exciting to study it in depth because it puts us squarely face to face with three questions concerning persecution.
The first is, “How do human beings react to persecution?”
The second question is, “What is the nature of this trust that Job sustained?”
And the final question is, “Is it possible for you to acquire that same positive mental trust?”
Consider the first question: “How do human beings react to persecution?” The answer is threefold: (a) The most common negative reaction is simply to give up—and accept defeat. I call people who react like this CINDERS.
(b) The second common reaction is equally negative. Consider the SINNERS. What is a sinner? A sinner is somebody who deliberately chooses to abandon all faith. A sinner is somebody who by an act of choice takes the negative reaction. The ultimate sin—what is it? It’s choosing to be a cynic, choosing not to believe.
(c) One reaction is seen in the cinders —the burned-out people. The second reaction is seen in the sinners—they’re the burned-up people; they become angry at God and everybody else. Finally, there are the SENDERS. They don’t get
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burned out. The don’t get burned up. They just burn brighter—and shine like gold!
That’s the way it was with Job when he was tested and tried. He did indeed glow with the golden light of inspiring faith.
The senders. They bum bright and send out a light in the darkness that says, “Watch me, world! I may be tested! Tried! Persecuted! But I still trust God.” They send out a message to the world that you can believe in God even when He is silent. The amazing thing is this: The darker the suffering, the brighter the message that the sender shares with everyone.
The principle is best illustrated by a sight I witnessed while flying over the Pacific Ocean. I thought I’d seen the wake of every possible boat or ship. I’ve seen the gorgeous wakes of luxury cruiseliners, and I’ve seen the lovely little wake of a canoe on a quiet stream in Canada. I’ve watched my children ski behind a motorboat in glassy wakes on an early morning mountain lake.
Long or short, narrow or wide—it’s always been a thrilling sight to me to look back and see the wake that’s left behind. But flying over the ocean I saw a wake such as I’ve never seen before. I saw it from the window of a commercial jet. At first I thought the marks on the water were hidden reefs. But my companion said, “It
looks like the wake of a vessel, but those lines are too far apart to be that!”
As we flew on, we could see that the lines were in fact moving closer together, the way a wake would look. And finally we saw the vessel that created the wake. What had made this mammoth wake? Was it an aircraft carrier? No. It was just a very slim, slender, black, short line in the water with a periscope piercing the surface.
I said, “It’s a submarine!”
My companion said, “It is, at that.”
It had just surfaced. And a submarine, when it surfaces after plowing through the depths, leaves a wake that is remarkable.
I tell you today: People who go through the deep waters of suffering leave a wide wake if they choose (and it is a choice) to trust and forgive. In spite of their suffering, they send a huge message of hope to the world.
What are the reactions you can choose in the face of suffering? You can bum out, bum up, or burn bright! You can be a cinder, a sinner, or a sender. Your reaction must be to tmst God— anyway! Your reaction must be to forgive— anyway! When the suffering is horrific, then trust and forgiveness are your only positive options. All of the other possible choices are negative. Don’t be a cinder. Don’t be a sinner. Do be a sender!
The first question I’ve already asked and answered is: “How do people react to suffering?” The second question is: “What is this trust, really?” It’s really quite simple: Trust is the belief that God is alive anyway!
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Scrawled in the basement of a German home was a Star of David next to these words:
I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God even when He is silent.
God is alive. Even though you may not be hearing Him or feeling Him —do not discard Him.
The truth of this statement came through to me with renewed power in an amusing incident that happened to me several years ago. That week, I lectured on Tuesday at the University of Berkeley, and I was scheduled to speak on Wednesday to the Lutherans in Arizona on the five-hundredth anniversary of Martin Luther’s birth. On Thursday I was to be at Northwestern College in Iowa, and on Friday I had to be at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. As you can see, it was really a tightly scheduled week. Everything was carefully timed and planned. If I missed a connection, I would really be in trouble.
Everything went smoothly until I got to
Phoenix to catch my eastbound plane. I was first at the check-in desk, to make sure that I would not be late. Soon there was a line of about thirty or forty people behind me with all their suitcases, waiting to check in. The plane was scheduled to leave in thirty minutes. Eventually the lady came to start the check-in. She look harassed. Trying to be understanding, I said, “You look as though you have troubles.”
She didn’t even look up to see my face. She just mumbled, “Boy, have I got troubles!” She said, “I suppose you’re here to check in on this flight to Denver.”
I said, “Yes.”
She said, “Well, I just got word that that flight’s going to be cancelled, and I suppose you are now going to want me to help you, which I’m obligated to do, but I don’t know what I’m going to do!” Then she looked up and said, “Oh! Dr. Schuller!” And she took hold of my hands and added, “Say a little prayer for me; I’m in trouble. I don’t know what I’m going to do. Let me talk to the computer for a minute.”
She began to type on the keyboard, then she stopped and looked at the screen. Her face registered dismay and frustration. Frantic, she picked up the phone, “Ben! Help! The computer’s dead! Nothing! It’s just looking at me. You say we have a line problem? I don’t care if it is a line problem. Make it come alive, please/”
The point is this: Some of you complain when God is silent, and doubt His existence. However, you don’t stop believing in computers when one is silent because there’s a line problem. Don’t stop believing in God because you’re not hearing from Him at the moment.
What was this trust that Job had? Job trusted that God was still alive, even though He seemed silent in the face of his persecution. But there’s a second element to this trust. The second element is that God will have the last word. What you are facing now will not last forever. It is merely a phase in your life. It’s not the end of the story.
Oral Roberts went through a horrific tragedy a few years ago when his son was found dead. I sent him a telegram, which said, “Dear Oral, first let me quote you: God knows a lot more about this than we do. And now. Oral, may I add my own line, God will have the last word, and it will be GOOD!’*
Don’t blame God, don’t lash out in bitterness at Him. Even though He may have allowed your suffering. He never caused it. He can help you turn it into something beautiful if you will remember that God is not finished with you—yet. Know that God will have the last word, that this suffering you are going through is not the last word. It is a passage, not a dead end.
What is the best possible reaction to persecution? The answer is: Trust is the only sensible response.
And what is this trust? This trust is that God is alive, even if He’s silent. It is the trust that God will come back “on the line” and His last word will be good.
Now we come to the third question: “How can we trust God in times of suffering?”
Let me give you two positive thoughts. The first positive thought is this: Can you trust the banker if he has all his own money in the bank? Of course. And the same is true with God. God has a lot more to lose than you do. Really, it wasn’t Job alone who was on trial. God was also on trial.
Every time you face suffering, remember that you are on trial, but so is the Almighty. He must come forth as gold too. His honor is at stake. At worst, all you could lose is your life or soul. But God could lose His honor. After all. He has made Promises. His Word is filled with them.
There is a second positive thought to keep in mind in the tough times that test our faith. What kept Job’s trust going? He was an upright, honorable man. If your heart is right, your faith will bum bright. You can trust Him if you know you’ve done—and are doing—the best you could—or can.
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274 BE-HAPPY ATTITUDE #8
PRAY FOR UNDERSTANDING AND STRENGTH
Persecuted? Facing enormous adversity? Then don’t lash out. Don’t reject the help God offers. Grasp His helping hand and fall to your knees in prayer. Thank God for the help that He is giving you and will continue to give you. Ask Him to send companions who can help. Ask Him for a supernatural strength to believe and to rejoice an3rway!
Many of you know who Corrie ten Boom was. Either you read the book or you saw the movie of her life, The Hiding Place.
Corrie ten Boom participated in an underground railroad in the Netherlands during World War II. Untold numbers of Jews, who were hounded and hunted by the Gestapo, found escape in her house, where they were hidden in a remote, specially constructed room. Corrie, her sister Betsy, and her father hid numbers of Jews who are alive today, but would have been killed in concentration camps. But eventually the Gestapo caught up with the Ten Booms. They were sentenced to prison and hence to months of persecution.
I was so impressed with Corrie’s story that I made a long-distance call to the Netherlands, which is where Corrie lived when I first met her. She came and spoke in our church. She was eighty years old at the time. I recently reread
her unpublished sermon. It deserves a wider audience that I hope this book will offer. Here, then, is her testimony:
“Once I met a parachutist, and I asked him, ‘When you jumped for the first time from an airplane to the earth, what did you think?’
“He said, ‘I thought only one thing, and that was, “It works! It works!’
“I am going to tell you that it works when you go with Jesus. Some people think that it does not work, and I hope that we will persuade them that they can never trust the Lord too much. The Lord said, ‘In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’ (John 16:33, kjv).
“Years ago my grandfather started a prayer meeting for the Jews. Every week he came together with his friends in an old watchmaker’s shop. There he prayed for the peace of Jerusalem and the salvation of the Jews. That practice was so unusual that I remember the year when they started—1844. Today it is not unusual when Christians pray for the Jews.
“A hundred years later, in the very same house where my grandfather prayed for the Jews, his son—my father—four of my grandfather’s grandchildren, and a great grandson were all arrested because they saved Jewish people in Holland during World War II. Four of them had to die in prisons. I came out alive. I cannot un-
BE-HAPPY ATTITUDE #8
derstand it, but that does not matter. We have to be ready for tribulation.
“I can tell you that I never had experienced such a realization of Jesus being with me as during the time when I was in the concentration camp. Ravensbruck, located north of Berlin in what is now East Germany, is far away from my home in Holland. The barracks where we lived, my sister Betsy and I, was in the shadow of a crematorium. Every day about six hundred bodies were burned there. When I saw smoke go up, I asked myself, ‘When will it be my time to be killed?’ I did not know beforehand that I should be set free by a miracle of God, and a blunder of man, one week before they killed all the women of my age.
“I have looked death in the eyes, not once but often. When you see death in people’s eyes, you wake up to reality. What a joy it was that Jesus was with me, that I knew He had died on the cross for the sins of the whole world and also for my sins. I was not afraid. I knew that when they killed me I would go to the house of the Father with many mansions. I would go into the world of the living. What a joy! I knew the best was yet to be. How can we know how strong and rich we are in Jesus Christ and in His presence? By looking at the cross.
At the cross, at the cross
Where I first saw the light.
And the burden of my sins rolled away.
It was there, by faith, I received my sight.
And now I am happy all the day.*
“Sometimes in that terrible concentration camp we had to stand naked; they stripped us of all our clothes. Seven times I went through that ordeal. The first time was the worst; I could hardly bear it. I never felt so miserable, so cold, so humble. I said to Betsy, T cannot bear this.’ Then suddenly, it was if I saw Jesus at the cross. The Bible tells us they took His garments. He hung there naked. By my own suffering I could understand a fraction of the suffering of Jesus, and I was so thankful I could feel as He had felt. ‘Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all’ [John Newton]. We must not forget we follow a scarred captain. Should we not have scars?
Under His faultless orders, we follow through the street.
Lest we forget. Lord, when we meet.
Show us your hands and feet.
“Jesus was with us, with Betsy and me, at the camp. In the morning we had to stand roll call very early. The chief of our barracks was so cruel that she sent us out a whole hour early. Betsy and I did not go to the square where we
would have to stand for hours during roll call; we walked around the tent. Everything was black. The ground was made black with coal. The barracks were painted black. The only light we had was from the stars and the moon. But Jesus was with us; He talked with us and He walked with us. Betsy said something, then He said something. How? I don’t know, but we both understood what Jesus said. There was a little bit of heaven in the midst of hell.
“Once Betsy woke me in the middle of the night. ‘Corrie, God has spoken to me. When we are set free we must do only one thing. We must bring the gospel over the whole world. We can tell so much experience, and that is why people will listen. We can tell them that here we have had real experience that Jesus’ light is stronger than the deepest darkness. When we meet people who are in darkness, we can tell them that when they go with Jesus they cannot go too deep. Always deeper are His everlasting arms.’ One week later, Betsy died. Two weeks later, I was set free.
“Christian, are you afraid of tribulation? Don’t be afraid. Do you know that Paul once said, in 2 Thessalonians 1:4-5, ‘We ourselves glory in you... for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: ... Ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer’ (kjv)?
Don’t be afraid, for God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, and of power, coupled with a sound mind.
“I remember when I was a little girl. I once said to my father, ‘Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus.’ Daddy replied, ‘Corrie, when you plan to take a train trip, when do I give you the money for the train? Three weeks in advance?’ ‘No, Daddy, the day I leave.’ Father then said, ‘That is what God does. Today you do not need the power and the strength to suffer for Jesus, but the moment He gives you the honor of suffering for Him, He will also give you all the strength.’ I was happy with his answer and went back to play with my dolls. In the books I have written, I have told how the Lord gave me the strength and all the grace when I was persecuted and suffered so terribly.
“Not long ago, when it was still possible but already dangerous to enter China, a missionary was asked, ‘Are you not afraid?’ She replied, ‘I am afraid of one thing, that I shall become a grain of wheat not willing to die.’ That is good. I hope that you will feel this way, too. I know the Lord has all the power and the strength available for you. Yes, also for you young Christians.
“Are you thinking that maybe it does not work when Jesus is with you? Do you know
why you are thinking this? Because you have never tried working with Jesus. Try it. Give yourself to Jesus. Open your heart to Him. In His words, ‘Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in’ (Rev. 3:20, kjv).
“Did you hear His voice this morning? When will you say, ‘Yes, Lord, come in’? He will come in. He will not let you down. If you must go through dangerous and dilRcult times, don’t be afraid, for Jesus is victor; Jesus is victor and Jesus will be victor forevermore. He is willing to make you and me more than conquerors!”
PASS TRIUMPHANTLY THROUGH THE PHASES
Now, to keep a positive, Be-Happy Attitude in painful times, remember: “This, too, shall pass away.” Persecution is never eternal. To recover from persecution, be prepared to pass through three phases. The first phase is collision. This is the phase that occurs when the consciousness of the awful reality of the situation really hits you. Your peace suddenly clashes with conflict. This is the phase when you realize this horrible thing that is happening is not a dream. It’s really happening—to you!
The second phase is withdrawal When you talk about fear, guilt, hatred, or anger, all of these emotions are expressions of the tendency
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to retreat, recoil, withdraw from accepting the horrible reality.
Collision is the first stage. Withdrawal is the second. Phase three is adjustment In this third phase, you finally learn how to accommodate yourself to the loss. The only way you can reach this phase is to realize where you came from, who gave you what you have.
“The Lord gave . . .” Everything you have is from God. Your very life is from God. But not as a gift—mind you. For life is not a gift from God; it is a sacred trust!
The story was in the papers—the tragedy of little David Rothenberg, who was set on fire by his troubled father. David suffered third-degree burns on much of his body, including his head and his face. He lost most of the fingers on his hands. But he is alive—and that is a miracle!
I count it an honor to have David and his remarkable mother, Marie, as dear friends. I know of no one who has faced more persecution than David. But when I met him I could see the sparkle in his eye. I could hear the humor in his voice. In spite of the physical deformities that David will have to live with all his life, as well as the emotional scars that he will always carry, he is a shining example of courage.
Of course, a great deal of credit goes to his mother. I shall never forget when she told me: “Dr. Schuller, it wasn’t until the third day after
the fire that I was able to turn Davy over to God. That’s because those three days I was battling back and forth as to whether Davy should live or die. I didn’t know if it was fair for him to live a life with such severe injuries. But when I gave it over to God and placed Davy in God’s hands, then I knew I could accept God’s will— whatever He decided would be best for Davy. Today, of course, I am very glad that David has lived. I feel that he’s been a tremendous inspiration to millions of people throughout the country. He’s been an example of courage, an example of faith. In fact he has given me more faith in God. Because of Davy I know that God never gives us any more than we can handle.”
Marie also shared with me how much it meant to David when her friend, Judy Curtis, read to David the parts in the New Testament that described the suffering of Jesus. David said to Judy, “They did that to Jesus—and He didn’t do anything wrong!” David could relate to Jesus. And so he loves Jesus.
I was thrilled to be able to give David the Scars into Stars award that my church has given previously to Art Linkletter and Della Reese. It was the third time in the history of our ministry that I have given that award away. The award is a silver plate. For David we had inscribed on it these words:
“The Scars into Stars award presented to David Rothenberg in the Crystal Cathedral, Sunday, November 4,1984, because you are turning your tragedy into a triumphant miracle by teaching millions of people the meaning of bravery in the face of incredible pain and suffering, the meaning of forgiveness in the face of unbelievable provocation, and how to turn a scar into a star by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.”
It is possible! No matter how great, how deep, how bitter the suffering—when we turn our trials over to Jesus, He can turn them into triumphs! He can do the impossible. He can work miracles. And He can carry us through the phases of collision and withdrawal into the healing phase of acceptance, if we but let Him.
I was first introduced to Rita Nightingale, a lovely young Englishwoman, through her book. Freed for Life* Her story is gripping. Compelling. And unbelievable.
Rita’s story began in Bangkok, Thailand. She was ready to board her plane to Paris when she was suddenly called aside by an officer. She wasn’t worried. She had nothing to hide—or so she thought. They took her to a room full of soldiers with machine guns and all kinds of weapons. They emptied all of her luggage. She
still was not worried. Then they started to tear out the linings of the bag that her boyfriend had given her in Hong Kong, and they pulled out several small packets. They told her it was heroin.
From that moment on, no one told Rita anything. She was shocked and afraid because suddenly no one would speak English to her; ever>d;hing that was said was uttered in a language foreign to her. The next thing she knew she was in a police cell.
Rita admits that she had been living a rather wild life, looking for adventure, yet she had never dreamed she would one day find herself in a prison cell. She had gone from being a glamor girl from Hong Kong to a cell in Thailand.
Glamor was one thing. Drugs were another. Rita had never been involved with hard drugs. The heroin was a shock to her. She had not put it there, so it must have been planted by someone.
Trying to convince the police in Thailand that she was innocent was an impossibility. The courts believed the police. She had been found with heroin in her possession, and that’s all they cared about.
Rita was sentenced to twenty years in prison. The prison conditions were primitive—thirty women to a cell nine feet by fifteen feet. They
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slept feet to feet on the wooden floor with the mice and the cockroaches.
You can imagine the rage and the bitterness Rita began to feel when it dawned on her what had actually happened. She had been used by a boyfriend who she had thought cared about her. The prospect that she would lose the next twenty years of her life was real. Her rage soon spread toward the whole world, even to the lawyers and embassy officials who were trying to help her.
When a lady came to visit her in prison and told her that God loved her, Rita was furious.
“How could God let this happen to me if He is so loving! If He loved me, I wouldn’t be here!”
Then Rita had another visitor. She was an old lady—in her seventies—from Rita’s hometown. Rita couldn’t believe that this sweet little old lady would come all the way from England to Bangkok to talk to her.
When Rita heard her Lancashire accent, she started to cry. This was something for Rita, who had grown hard in the past months.
After the lady left, Rita asked herself over and over again, “Why?”
The little old lady had left a book with her. It was called. The Reason Why. In it Rita read the words of Jesus again. Although she had heard the story of Jesus before, it had never meant much to her in a personal way before. Through
reading the book, she thought again about all she had wanted before—the excitement, the night life, the casinos. She had had it all, but there was still something missing.
It took prison for God to open Rita Nightingale’s eyes. She suddenly knew that Jesus was who He claimed to be, so she asked Him into her life.
Overwhelmed by the flood of emotions that came when she gave her life to Christ, Rita fled to the one and only private place in the prison— under the hospital hut. The buildings were all built on stilts, but no one ever went under them because of the snakes. It was there, under the hut with the snakes, that Rita’s eyes were opened to the reality of eternal life. There, huddled in the darkness under the floor, she prayed and accepted Jesus Christ as her personal friend—her Lord, her God, her Savior.
It wasn’t long before Rita noticed that her attitude was completely different. God didn’t change the circumstances around her for a long time, but He began to change Rita and her attitude toward them.
Suddenly, one day, she was notifled that she had been granted a pardon. No reason was given; the pardon came out of the blue. Rita attributes it to the fact that Christians around the world were praying for her.
She heard about her pardon through the news. That made it official. The news also said that the situation was very unique. Never before had a convicted drug smuggler been granted a royal pardon by the king of Thailand.
The day after Rita received the news of her pardon, the gates were opened and she was free. Today, Rita is a beautiful, born-again Christian. She is working in England for Chuck Colson in his prison ministries.
THE BEATITUDES~THE BE-HAPPY ATTITUDES
They were taught by one Man.
They were lived out by one Man. He remains himself the best example of how to deal with persecution.
He lived through persecution. He died by persecution. He rose again after the persecution. If you want to find happiness—real, deep, forever happiness—then wrap up your lessons on the Be-Happy Attitudes by learning more about this man who originated them and lived them: Jesus Christ. I have referred to him as the greatest possibility thinker who ever lived.
Jesus should have been the world’s greatest impossibility thinker. He had nothing going for Him.
Jesus was a member of a despised minority, a citizen of an occupied country, a nobody as far
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