But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
- Galatians 5:22-23
Nehemiah said, “Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”
- Nehemiah 8:10
“When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.”
- Luke 12:11-12
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
- Revelation 3:20
“ ‘Why don’t we go into the building?’ I asked my interpreter.
“ ‘Impossible,’ she whispered, obviously afraid of the men. ‘There are so many prisoners that even during the night only half of them can go inside.’
“I looked at their faces. Like their skin, their eyes were dark. It was the look I had seen so many times in Ravensbruck—the look of those whose hope had died. Unhappiness. Despair. Hopelessness. Anger. How could I speak to them? What could I, an old Dutch woman, say to these miserable men that would help their lives?
“ ‘Lord,’ I prayed, ‘I am not able to overcome this darkness.’
“ ‘Take My promise of Galatians 5:22,’ I heard an inner voice say.
“Quickly I took my Bible and opened it to that passage. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love . …’
“ ‘Thank You, Lord,’ I whispered. ‘But I have a great love for these men already or I would not be here.’
“I read on. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy . …’
“ ‘Joy?’ I asked. ‘In these surroundings?’ Then I remembered what Nehemiah said, ‘The joy of the Lord is my strength.’
“ ‘Yes, Lord,’ I cried out. ‘That is what I need. That is what I claim. I claim the promise of joy.’
“Even as I spoke the words I felt a wonderful, lifting sensation in my heart. It was joy—more joy than I had ever felt.
… … …
“ ’Say, men,’ I said, ‘do you know Jesus is willing to live in your hearts? He says, “I stand at the door of your heart and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I come in.” Just think: that same Jesus loves you and will live in your heart and give you joy in the midst of all this mud. He who is willing, raise his hand.’
“I looked around. All the men, including the guards, had raised their hands. It was unbelievable, but their faces showed a joy that only the Holy Spirit could produce. As I left the prison and returned to the car, all the men accompanied me. The guards did not seem worried or anxious that they swarmed around me. In fact, they did not even prevent them from going out the gate to stand around my car. As I opened the door and got in, the men began to shout and chant something, repeating the same words over and over.
“ ‘What do they shout?’ I asked my interpreter. She smiled and said, ‘They shout, “Old woman, come back. Old woman, come back and tell us more of Jesus.” ’
“The missionary turned to me as we drove off. ‘I must confess to you that I thought this place was too dark for the light of the Gospel. I had been here once before and was so frightened I said I would never come back. Now, because I had to come interpret for you, I have seen what the Holy Spirit can do. The joy of the Lord is available, even for such a place as this. From now on I shall return every week to tell them about Jesus.’
“Months later I received a letter from her in which she said, ‘The fear is gone. The joy remains.’ “
- Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord
I skipped a lot to get to this point, again. She obtained a travel companion, but the companion was young. She left Tante Corrie’s service to get married, but then she fell ill and died. She wrote about other remembrances along the way, but then she talked about going to Africa for the first time.
Everywhere she had been, that clear soft voice in her mind was urging her to go. That voice would give her the right words to say. But in the part of Africa where she was, there was so much darkness and despair that she despaired that she might have heard the voice incorrectly. Should she have even gone to Africa? And the voice in her mind had vanished. For the first time since she left Ravensbruck concentration camp, she felt alone, that God could not penetrate the darkness.
But then someone suggested that she go to a prison that was nearby, probably the female missionary that accompanied her there. Corrie ten Boom felt she could relate to them, but there had been a riot and the prison administration felt it was unsafe for her to enter the prison. Again, no voice telling her where to go or what to do. As she turned to leave, the prison administrator said that on second thought, they had a special enclosure where fifty political prisoners awaited their executions. Would she like to talk to them?
She gladly accepted. In talking with them, she was still lost as to what words to say. One man wanted to talk to her in private. He had done nothing criminal. He had simply voiced his opinion of the government and his friends had betrayed him, even lying about what he had said. Tante Corrie talked about her experience with the guard at Ravensbruck, who, after the war, had become a Christian and he wanted her to personally forgive him. She said that she did not want to do that, but God wanted her to, and God gave her the strength to do it (last week’s episode). But the African prisoner could not forgive the friends who had betrayed him.
She looked around the room. The room had no lighting. The skin color of the prisoners was black. The prison uniforms were black. The floor was mud. There was nothing but darkness and despair.
She said it once. She said it again. “Lord, I do not think you sent me here. The Light cannot penetrate this darkness.” But she was wrong. Even the missionary, who acted as her interpreter, had felt this darkness in the prison could not be penetrated. But God led Tante Corrie to Galatians 5:22. Until this point in the book, she was led to Bible verses she had memorized, but she had to look that one up. She had already shown them love or she would not be there. But Joy?
I have written recently, just in my discussion sections of yesterday’s quiz, on how Joy is not dependent on circumstances. Indeed, we can have great Joy in our trials and suffering, for we know at that point that God is not finished with us yet, and enduring the trial while clinging to our faith means that we have grown just that much closer to Jesus who suffered more pain than we could ever imagine.
And God gave her that Joy. I put three ellipses in the quoted story in that the results were not instantaneous, but the Joy fueled Tante Corrie. And the Joy was contagious, among men who had only disagreed politically and were not criminals. But they were scheduled to die.
“The fear is gone. The Joy remains.”
And these stories, from over fifty years ago, cause the waterworks to flow freshly from my eyes, after reading the story several times over. God is still there. But do we have the tremendous faith that Tante Corrie had? And can we drop everything and go where God leads us?
Lord, strengthen me. Help me to forgive. And give me the strength and the wisdom to listen to that small voice in my mind. Help me to be joyful in all circumstances. I know from my recent time in the hospital that when I could get the surgical staff laughing before I was put to sleep and I showed love to the nurses who cared for me afterwards, it was contagious. We cannot show our love in our anger or even in our despair, but we can in our Joy. And the Joy is there, in our hearts, because You are there within us. In Your name I pray. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria. Only to God be the Glory.
Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley 
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