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<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center">“<font size="3"><b>TWO
ARE BETTER THAN ONE” MINISTRIES</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><font size="3"><b>Jim
& Marie Watt</b></font></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><b><font size="3">Tel:
253-517-9195 - Email: <a href="mailto:jmbetter@gmail.com">jmbetter@gmail.com</a></font></b></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><b><font size="3">Web:
<a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">www.2rbetter.org</a></font></b></p><p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><b><font size="3"><a href="http://www.2rbetter.org/">December 19, 2009<br></a></font></b></p>
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<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><b>TIME
OF TRIBULATION - Corrie Ten Boom</b></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="center"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><b>This
letter was written by Corrie Ten Boom, a Nazi Concentration Camp
survivor, and lifelong missionary - in 1974. (forwarded by
<<a href="mailto:prophetic@revivalschool.com">prophetic@revivalschool.com</a>>)</b></p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has
already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work
for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water,
channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible
for them to do this because they are overcomers.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from
Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things
will change.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at
Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven
hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were
herded into a room built for two hundred. As far as I knew, Betsy and
I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
We may have been the Lord's only representatives in that place of
hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus
said, <b>“In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world.”</b> We too, are to be overcomers
- bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and
hate.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this
world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the
Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid,
that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting,
“Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written
that Jesus said, <b>“He that overcomes shall inherit all things:
and I will be His God, and he shall be My son.”</b> This is the
future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive - but
that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal
Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,”
Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not
understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along
with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose
for all that. Yet because of Betsy's death, today I am traveling all
over the world telling people about Jesus.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that
the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false
teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days. Most
of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the
world. I have been in countries where the saints are already
suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told,
“Don't worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated -
raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution. Millions of Christians
were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop for China say, sadly,
“We have failed. We should have made the people strong for
persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the
people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when
the tribulation comes - to stand and not faint.”</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this
world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of
the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the
tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus' sake, and since I
met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I
think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I
write it down and learn it by heart.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty
percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up
by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would
find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that
I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. <b>“If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the spirit of
glory and of God rests upon you; on their part evil is spoken of, but
on your part He is glorified.” (1 Peter 3:14)</b> I found myself
saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape
tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already
arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand
Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get
into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I
know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down
in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners.
Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death
at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all
going to escape the tribulation.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government
had come into power. The first night I was there some of the
Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register.
When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were
executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians.
The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district
were being systematically murdered.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came,
but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service
they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one
I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the
screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare
wooden benches. I told them a story out of childhood.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
“When I was a little girl,” I said, “I went to my father and
said, 'Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a
martyr for Jesus Christ.'” “Tell me,” said Father, “When you
take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the
ticket? Three weeks before?” “No, Daddy, you give me the money
for the ticket just before we get on the train.” “That is right,”
my father said, “and so it is with God's strength. Our Father in
Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus
Christ. He will supply all you need - just in time ...”</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy
descended upon that church and the people began singing, “In the
sweet by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” Later that
week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard
later that the other half was killed some months ago.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me
to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had
the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus
said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who
remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
How can we get ready for the persecution? First we need to feed on
the word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will
mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long
passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the
life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the
right hand of God.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command
of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples
could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and
Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own
personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be
able to stand in the tribulation without it.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and
encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation
comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant
force of every Christian's life.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too,
am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years,
including the horrible nazi concentration camp, that I might have to
go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am
glad.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I
were prisoners for the Lord. We were so weak, but we got power
because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of
the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in
yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in
the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I
have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me
down. Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him, for I know that to all
who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Hallelujah!</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in;" align="left">
Corrie Ten Boom, 1974 - Permission is given to post these emails to
friends or other groups, boards, etc.</p>
<p style="margin-top: 0.01in; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; text-decoration: none;" align="center">
<br>
</p>
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