Real-time obedience

This is a real-time essay. The Lord is calling me to obey him in something today, and I would like to write to you about it as I process it. The matter concerns an angry email I received this morning and my working through how to reply. My first reaction was self-defense. I felt I had grounds. I felt I had been misunderstood. I felt I could justify what I was being accused of.

Still, I have decided to wait a while before replying. In the meantime I have read the Bible, taken a long walk, had breakfast, replied to other emails, and watched a 1974 interview of Corrie Ten Boom.

This was enough time for the Holy Spirit who lives inside me to suggest I trash my scripted reply to the angry letter. It is possible to be right in an argument (and yet I may not be as right as I think I am) but to be called to a higher response than rightness. If I respond to my friend with my justifications, he may agree with me or he may not. But will that produce the best result? Paul says, “The aim of our charge is love” (1 Timothy 1:5). What response could I give to the man that would be most aligned with that aim?

Over the past few hours I have come around to seeing that my words to my friend (the words that prompted his terse email) were not the best; they fell short of Christ’s call to “be perfect.” There are a dozen things I could have said that would have been better—that would have been peaceable, gentle, fruitful (James 3:17). And when we know what is the best thing to do and yet we settle for something less, we sin (James 4:17).

I have found throughout my life that when apologizing and asking forgiveness, it is best to do it cleanly. Tacking on a rider, even a mild and subtle one, ruins a worthy apology. When I speak to my friend next, I will simply tell him that I should not have spoken to him that way—and then may the Lord put a clamp on my mouth. Let me make this a public commitment before you all.

I know that afterward I will feel strengthened in my spirit if I do things God’s way and not in the way of fleshly desire. One always does. The choice of sin always carries its own punishment in the body (Romans 1:27), and the choice o f obedience its own reward (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Courtesy of Andree Seu of Worldmag

Ten Boom | Ten Boom Museum

One Way Door with Corrie Ten Boom

Ten Boom | Ten Boom Museum

The Hiding Place in Glenn Beck's Program, Nov 11th

We have a wonderful opportunity to share the story of Corrie ten Boom with the world. Dr. Michael D. Evans will be New York City next week for an on-air interview with Glenn Beck on Tuesday. He is planning to air "The Hiding Place" on his program on next Friday the 11th. Pray that the message of love and sacrifice to save Jewish people that is found in this movie will spread around the world and touch many hearts. We will be promoting the Ten Boom Museum and the virtual tour as well.

Dr. Michael Evans and Glenn Beck shares the same admiration for Corrie Ten Boom's heroism.

Don't forget to join the Corrie Ten Boom Museum in Facebook!

In My Father's House by Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie ten Boom was fifty years old when she began harboring Jews during World War II. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp, and after her release she traveled the world, proclaiming the gospel. What happened in those earlier fifty years to prepare Corrie for all that lay ahead?

In My Father's House (over 250,000 copies sold) explains how God used life's small beginnings and everyday happenings to prepare Corrie for the suffering and victories to come. The eighth book of the Corrie ten Boom Library, it is the first in the series to focus on the years leading up to World War II and the events of The Hiding Place. More than merely a collection of memories from Corrie's colorful life, this book explores the human side of one of the most authentic Christian witnesses and the faith that kept her going strong.

Holland’s First Female Watchmaker

Ten Boom was born on April 15, 1892, in Haarlem, in the Netherlands. Before her first birthday, her grandfather died and left his home and watchmaking business, founded in 1837, to her father. The family, which included older sisters Betsie and Nollie, and a brother, Willem, moved into the the ten Boom hiding Place on Barteljorisstraat 19, and her father took over the storefront business below. The family lived in a quirky warren of rooms above the shop over three separate floors, and Corrie Ten Boom, she and her sister Betsie shared a room at the back of the house on a high third floor. During their youth, the household also included three aunts, who helped care for the four ten Boom children.

Like Betsie, ten Boom never married, and eventually joined her father’s watch sales and repair business. She also became the first licensed woman watchmaker in the Netherlands. The family members were devout Christians, active members of the Dutch Reformed church, and ten Boom followed in the footsteps of one of her aunts and participated in several charitable aid projects in Haarlem. The ten Boom home and business served as a hub of activity in their neighborhood, and they regularly provided a meal to beggars and took in foster children. All the local children were especially fond of ten Boom’s pious but genial father, Casper, nicknamed “Opa,” or grandfather.

Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Christians who were active in social work in their home town of Haarlem, the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation, they chose to act out their faith through peaceful resistance to the Nazis by active participation in the Dutch underground. In the Corrie ten Boom house, the family were hiding, feeding and transporting Jews and underground members hunted by the Gestapo out of the country. It is estimated they were able to save the lives of 800 Jews, in addition to protecting underground workers.

On Feb. 28, 1944, they were betrayed and Corrie and several relatives were arrested. The four Jews and two underground workers in the house at the time of the arrest were not located by the Nazis and were extricated by the underground 47 hours after they fled to the hiding place.

The Ten Boom family members were separated and transferred to concentration camps. Corrie was allowed to stay with her precious sister, Betsy. Corrie's father, two of his children and one grandchild perished. Corrie was released in December of 1944.

These acts of heroism and sacrifice became the foundation for Corrie Ten Boom's global writing and speaking career which began after she was released.

Ten Boom has received numerous awards for her writing and speaking. Notably, she was honored by the State of Israel for her work in aid of the Jewish people by being invited to plant a tree in the famous Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles, at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, near Jerusalem. She was also knighted by the Queen of the Netherlands in recognition of her work during the war.

The Hiding Place Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie was released from the notorious concentration camp in Germany on New Year's Eve of December 1944. Ten Boom told the story of her family and their work during World War II in her most famous book, The Hiding Place (1971), co-authored with John and Elizabeth Sherrill, which was made into a film by World Wide Pictures in 1975.