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In a number of sermons, Corrie Ten Boom tells the story of how she, her father and sister courageously hid Jews in their home during the German occupation of the Netherlands.  Made famous through the movie “The Hiding Place,” her story is one of courage and conviction.  But it is also a story of forgiveness, made possible only through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.   

When a man came to her door claiming that his wife had been arrested for helping the Jews and seeking money to save her, Corrie Ten Boom gave him the money.  But he was a traitor, betraying her to the Gestapo who immediately arrested Corrie and her family.  Upon learning that he was the won who betrayed her, she says: 

There came hatred in my heart.  The man I had given my last penny.  But I know from the Bible that hatred means murder in God’s eyes.  But I also know from the Bible what to do with your murder, when we confess our sins, when we repent and ask forgiveness, then he is able to forgive us in the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all the sins that we tell him and ask forgiveness and repent.  And I repented for my hatred and the Lord took that sin away.  That’s a great joy.  The Bible tells very clearly what the Lord does when you repent.  He takes our sin and casts it into the depths of the sea – forgiven and forgotten. 

After the war that man was sentenced to death because he had caused the death of many Dutch people.  When I heard that, I wrote him: ‘Your betrayal has meant the death of my old father was 84 years old when they brought him into prison, after 10 days he died, my sister who died after 10 months of terrible suffering, my brother, he came out alive, was a sick man and died through that sickness, and his son never came back, and I myself have suffered terribly through many different prisons.  But I have forgiven you.’ 

And that’s because Jesus is in my heart.  And when Jesus tells you to love your enemies, he gives you the love that he demands from you.  I sent that man a New Testament and underlined the way of salvation.  And that man wrote me: ‘that you could forgive me is such a miracle, that I said that Jesus can give such a love in the heart of your followers, there is hope for me.’ 

Pray

Let us pray: 

Lord God, I repent for the hatred which lies in my heart, for the resentment I hold onto, for the harm I wish for others, for the murder in my heart.  Take these sins from me and throw them into the sea.  Pour your love into my heart, that I can truly offer forgiveness.  We pray in the name of the one who said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” Jesus Christ our Lord, 

Amen. 

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