| "A pastor by the name of Florescu was tortured with red-hot iron pokers and with knives. He was beaten very badly. Then starving rats were driven into his cell through a large pipe. He coulnd not sleep, but had to defend himself all the time. If he rested a moment, the rats would attack him. He was forced to stand for two weeks, day and night. The communists wished to compel him to betray his brethren, but he resisted steadfastly. In the end, they brought his fourteen year-old son and began to whip the boy in front of his father, saying they would continue to beat him until the pastor said what they wished him to say. The poor man was half mad. He bore it as long as he could. When he could not stand it any more, he cried to his son; 'Alexander, I must say what they want! I can't bear your beating any more!' Then the son answered, 'Father, don't do me the injustice to have a traitor as a parent. Withstand! If they kill me, I will die with the words, 'Jesus and my fatherland'.' The communists, enraged, fell upon the child and beat him to death, with blood spattered over the walls of the cell. He died praising God."
-Tortured for Christ (p.36)
Do you have faith in Jesus Christ like this boy does? I don't know if I would be able to withstand that! I pray that God gives me the faith in Him, like this boy, that I would be able to react the same way; and I pray that for all of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ this as well. Jesus Christ suffered for us, would you be willing to suffer for Him? Just take a peek into the book of 1st Peter its all about how if we suffer for Christ, not to count it as a loss, because of all of the suffering that Christ went through for us. |
