Standing Strong Through the Storm
DANGER CANNOT SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall…danger…? Romans 8:35f
The question asked is a personal one. Not “what” can separate us but “who”? The inference is our enemy, Satan, who tries every tactic he can garner to make us think we can be separated from Christ’s love. Today we look at his tactic of “danger.”
Dr. Paul Negrut pastored the largest Baptist church in Europe which is located in Oradea, Romania. He served the church faithfully under the cruel Ceaucescu regime and often suffered personal mistreatment.
He shared with our Open Doors leaders that the most difficult time he remembers was a night he returned home rejoicing after a very successful evangelistic crusade. But when he walked in the house, he saw his wife weeping and his nine-year-old daughter was trembling. Through her tears his wife shared that when their daughter was coming home from school that day, the Securitate (Romanian secret police) tried to rape her to destroy her and the family.
Paul said, “That night I was in a great struggle. For the first time I was thinking to emigrate from Romania. I asked the Lord, ‘Should I leave the blessing of suffering or should I endure to see my girl like that?’
“I talked to my wife and after prayer, we chose to stay. Two days later they tried to rape our daughter again. And two days later they tried to rape my wife. But every time God was protecting them in a miraculous way.”
Today Dr. Paul Negrut is the pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Oradea and the Chancellor of Emmanuel Baptist University. Dr. Negrut weathered the days of communism in Romania and rose to great influence when the Iron Curtain came down. He was offered a job with the new democratic government in a free Romania, but turned it down believing that serving the Lord was a higher calling. Emmanuel University and the Emmanuel Baptist Church in Oradea are known throughout Europe. The university trains people from all over Romania and many other parts of the world.
RESPONSE: I will live this day in the awareness that danger can never separate me from Christ’s love.
PRAYER: Help me remember, Lord, that You are there in the midst of all my troubles.
Standing Strong Through The Storm (SSTS), a daily devotional message by SSTS author Paul Estabrooks. © 2011 Open Doors International. Used by permission.