Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
    the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
    and established it on the waters.

• Psalm 24:1-2

“Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
    and establishes a town by injustice!
Has not the Lord Almighty determined
    that the people’s labor is only fuel for the fire,
    that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing?
For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

• Habakkuk 2:12-14

“To give a tract to someone in Russia is always a risk. If the person you are talking to is alone, then there is a little more freedom. However, if a third person is present both are always uneasy—each afraid the other might turn him over to the secret police.
“Conny and I had been in a Leningrad hotel for about a week when one morning, on our way down to breakfast, I handed the cleaning woman a tract. It was a simple tract, written in Russian, called ‘The Way of Salvation.’ It used only Scripture verses with no commentary.
“She glanced at it and then glanced at the other woman cleaning the hall. She pushed the tract back to me, motioning with her hand as if to say, ‘That is nothing for me.’
“I felt sorry for her. The answer ‘no’ hurts when you want to help someone. … I cast this latest burden on the Lord. ‘Father, I can’t reach this woman. Do bring her in contact with someone who can tell her the Gospel in her own language. Lord, I claim her soul for eternity.’
“I was shocked by the boldness of my prayer.
…
Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Conny opened it and there stood the cleaning woman, the one who had refused the tract. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and I noticed her heavy leather shoes squeaked when she walked. She closed the door behind herself. From her lips poured a stream of Russian words, not a single one of which we could understand. Then she pointed a finger at my brown bag. ‘Conny, she wants to have a tract,’ I almost shouted.
‘Conny gave her one but it was not the same one as we had given her the first time. She looked at it, shook her head, and pointed again at the bag. ‘Conny, she wants to have “The Way of Salvation.” ‘
“I got up, rummaged through my bag, and found the original tract. I smiled and handed it to her. She looked at it and her face burst into the great light of joy. Smiling and nodding in appreciation, she backed out of the room.
“I was beaming with joy too, for God had answered my prayer. I had not claimed too much after all. …”

• Corrie ten Boom, Tramp for the Lord

Corrie ten Boom was so shocked by her first bold prayer that she continued to pray, to ask God if it was right in praying such a bold prayer.  She had led so many to Christ, but to pick out a total stranger, a woman who they could not communicate with in a common language.  Was this too much?  After all, the woman could get into serious trouble for becoming a Christian in the Soviet Union.  But as she was praying, she heard herself ask for God to save Russia.

She did not make that decision to say those words.  They simply came out.  Now, again she prayed wondering if she had gone too far.

Then God answered with a knock at the door.  When the cleaning lady disappeared again, with Joy in her heart, Tante Corrie wondered if God had answered her first bold prayer so quickly, would He answer the second?

Billy Graham received ridicule for having a six-day visit to the Soviet Union.  He met with government officials and with members of the only Baptist church there (preaching while there), and meeting with other protestant churches and the Russian Orthodox.  They discussed their faith for the first time and learned they had a lot in common.  Back in the USA, it was unsure if this trip would end Billy Graham’s ability to continue with crusades.  Political backlash was vocal, and Billy Graham was portrayed as a possible turncoat by the media.  But this was in 1982.  Tante Corrie’s book was published in 1974.  Since she mentions Conny being with her, it was some years before that.  Conny died, and she got a new companion to help her before finishing the book.  With the groundwork done in 1982 by Billy Graham and by Tante Corrie a decade or more before, the Holy Spirit was at work.  When Billy Graham returned in 1992 as the Soviet Union collapsed, people came to his crusades and accepted Jesus Christ in great numbers.  Could this be Tante Corrie’s answer to her second bold prayer?  Our prayers for others do not die when we do.

May we be equally bold?  The governments of this world are nearly as aggressive against Christianity as the Soviets had been, and they are trending toward that goal.  Can we pray that God sends the Holy Spirit to revive the world?  To bring the world back to a world repentance of their sin?  Is that too much to ask?  Corrie ten Boom would say that we follow a God of infinite power and nothing is too much for Him.

Lord, strengthen me.  Help us to be bold.  Lord, many nations, most of the powerful nations of this world, ignore You.  They do not turn to You in the good times or the bad times.  Lord, we can make a difference one on one, with the help of the Holy Spirit.  But for nations to wake up and realize that they need You, it takes Your monumental power.  Lord, bring Your Holy Spirit, in great force, to turn the direction from destruction to repentance, and a return to You.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.