May Christ Be All Again And Again For The First Time!

Richard Wurmbrand wrote:

For me, to preach the Gospel to the Russians is heaven on earth. I have preached the Gospel to men of many nations, but I have never seen a people drink in the Gospel like the Russians. They have such thirsty souls. 

A friend of mine telephoned me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. Knowing however that I speak Russian, he had given him my address. The next day this man came to me. He loved God, he longed after God, but he had never seen a Bible. He never attended religious services (churches in Russia are very scarce). He had no religious education. He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him. 

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, what a wonderful beauty. “How could I live without knowing this Christ” It was the first time that I saw someone so rapturously joyful in Christ. 

Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion and crucifixion of Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it and, when he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified and that in the end He died, he fell in an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead. 

I looked at him and was ashamed that I had called myself a Christian and a pastor, a teacher of others. I had never shared the sufferings of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him, it was for me as seeing again Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross; faithfully weeping when Jesus was a corpse in the tomb. 

Then I read to him the story of the resurrection. He had not known his Savior arose from the tomb. When he heard this wonderful news, he beat his knees and swore a very dirty, but, I think, a very “holy” swear. This was his crude manner of speech. Again he rejoiced. He shouted for joy: “He is alive! He is alive!” Again he danced around the room, overwhelmed with happiness! 

I said to him, “Let us pray!” He did not know prayers. He did not know our holy phases. He fell on his knees together with me and his words of prayers were: “O God, what a fine chap you are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You from all my heart. 

I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from a Russian officer. The man had been won for Christ!

Richard Wurmbrand, Tortured For Christ (Bartlesville, OK:  Living Sacrifice Book Company, 1967), 18-19.