Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

• Deuteronomy 11:18

When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. “By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

• Deuteronomy 32:45-47

“A few minutes later we would return here stripped of everything we possessed. And then we saw them, stacked in a corner, a pile of old wooden benches crawling with cockroaches, but to us the furniture of heaven itself.
“In an instant I had slipped the little bag over my head and, along with my woolen underwear, had stuffed it behind the benches.
“And so it was that when we were herded into that room ten minutes later, we were not poor, but rich—rich in the care of Him who was God even of Ravensbruck.
“Of course when I put on the flimsy prison dress, the Bible bulged beneath it. But that was His business, not mine. At the exit, guards were feeling every prisoner, front, back, and sides. I prayed, ‘Oh, Lord, send your angels to surround us.’ But then I remembered that angels are spirits and you can see through them. What I needed was an angel to shield me so the guards could not see me. ‘Lord,’ I prayed again, ‘make your angels untransparent.’ How unorthodox you can pray when you are in great need! But God did not mind. He did it.
“The woman ahead of me was searched. Behind me, Betsie was searched. They did not touch or even look at me. It was as though I was blocked out of their sight.
“Outside the building was a second ordeal, another line of guards examining each prisoner again. I slowed down as I reached them, but the captain shoved me roughly by the shoulder. ‘Move along! You’re holding up the line.’
“So Betsie and I came to our barracks at Ravensbruck. Before long we were holding clandestine Bible study groups for an ever-growing group of believers, and Barracks 28 became known throughout the camp as ‘the crazy place, where they hope.’
“Yes, hoped, in spite of all that human madness could do. We had learned that a stronger power had the final word, even here.”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

This is an excerpt from a Guideposts magazine in 1972.

Corrie ten Boom was 52 when she was loaded into a cattle car and sent to Ravensbruck.  Her older sister, Betsie, was 59.  They had been in prison in Holland.  But now they were in Germany in a concentration camp.

They were worried that their Bible would be confiscated.  It was all they had.  They made motions like they had to go to the bathroom.  A guard pointed them to the showers where they prayed and found some rotten benches to hide their Bible.

Miss ten Boom prayed boldly that God would basically make her invisible.  Each prisoner was being patted down, not once but twice and they failed in patting her down both times.

Then, she uses that Bible to have clandestine Bible studies leading people to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  All under the watchful eyes of the guards.  It was not just one miracle to get the Bible past the guards.  It was countless miracles in keeping the Bible hidden.  And the entire camp knew that her barracks was where there was hope, yet the guards remained clueless.

God is in control, even when the world has gone mad.  We can take great solace in that fact.  We may be suffering a different kind of madness today, but God’s plan will not be shaken,

Lord, strengthen me.  The struggles that Corrie ten Boom has endured were greater than most struggles that we have today.  She had strength beyond strength, for she had You in her heart.  Help each of us to understand the enormity of Your power.  And when we desire to follow You, You will give us the strength that we need.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.