Reaching Toward the Heights

384 Pages·00.924 MB·English

by  Richard Wurmbrand

R
EACHING
Toward
the
h
eights
D M
AILY EDITATIONS ON
G ’ W H L
OD S ORD & IS OVE
R
ICHARD
W
URMBRAND
Living Sacrifice Book Company
Bartlesville, OK 74005
Reaching Toward the Heights
Living Sacrifice Book Company,
A division of The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 2273
Bartlesville, OK 74005-2273
© 1979, 2006, 2009 by The Voice of the Martyrs. All rights re-
served. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, with-
out prior permission in writing by the publisher.
Cover, design, and production by Genesis Group
Printed in the United States of America
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture references are from the New
King James version, © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson Inc.,
Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee.
Scripture references marked KJV are from the King James version.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Wurmbrand, Richard.
Reaching toward the heights.
1. Devotional calendars. I. Title
BV481 1.W87 242.2 77-4488
ISBN 978-0-88264-048-8
To Mihai and Judith
and their little
Amalia and Alex

J A N U A R Y 1
“Teach us to number our days.”
PSALM 90:12
A
n American urged a friend of his who had just arrived in
this country from Thailand, “Quick, let’s run to catch this
bus!” Once inside, the happy American said, “We have gained three
minutes.” The Thai asked, “What do you intend to do with them?”
Men in advanced Western countries have no answer to this
question. Our generation has forgotten how to walk. It knows only
how to run and to drive.
Jesus never ran; He only walked. There were chariots, horses,
and camels in His day but we don’t read that He used them. It is
recorded only once that He rode, and then on an animal that ad-
vances at an even slower pace than a human’s walk.
We do well to save minutes. Every minute is a jewel, but we
often realize its value too late. The story is told about a man who
walked in the dark along the shore of a river. He stumbled on a
small bag containing stones, which he picked up. As a pastime, he
amused himself by throwing a stone in the river every once in
awhile. He liked to hear the plitch-plitch in the water. When he
arrived home, only two stones were left in the bag. He saw that
they were diamonds.
We run to save minutes and squander what we have saved in
unworthy activities, conversation, and amusements. A cashier is
answerable for every cent that has passed through his hands. A man
who has lived seventy years will answer before God for thirty-seven
million minutes.
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J A N U A R Y 2
“God is love.”
1 JOHN 4:8
A
Soviet Christian released from prison wrote the following
in a letter:
My outward appearance is not attractive. In the slave
labor camp, I worked beneath the earth. I had an accident
that made me a hunchback. Once a boy stared at me and
then asked, “Uncle, what do you have on your back?” I was
sure that some mockery would follow, but still I answered,
“A hunchback.”
“No,” said the child. “God is love and gives no one
deformities. You do not have a hunchback but a box below
your shoulders. In this box, angel wings are hidden. One
day the box will open and you will fly to heaven with these
wings.” I began to cry for joy. Even now, I write and cry.
Every man has some kind of “hunchback,” some physical, men-
tal, or spiritual handicap, something that makes him different from
everyone else. Things appear this way only if we look at them from
the perspective of our limited earthly life. Here we “know in part”
(1 Corinthians 13:12). And because of this, our lives and sufferings
often seem meaningless.
God has allowed one person to have a hunchback, another
sickness, or poverty, or a prison term, or bereavement, or some
other sorrow. But we will not accept human standards that catego-
rize such things as catastrophes. We will apply to them the standard
of this Spirit-filled Soviet child and see in our sorrows boxes that
hide angel wings, with which we are meant to fly to heaven.
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J A N U A R Y 3
“But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all
the earth keep silence before Him.”
HABAKKUK 2:20
T
wo thousand years ago an Athenian statesman named Phocion
waited wearily while his barber gave to the customer he was
shaving a summary of the current Athenian political situation. At
last the barber turned to Phocion and said, “How would you like to
have your beard trimmed?” Phocion replied, “In silence.” This sim-
ple answer often is quoted in the great literature of the world.
We are victims of a plot against silence, without which no spiri-
tual life is possible. We are subjected daily to the noise of cars,
trains, planes, radio, TV, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, fans—not
to mention the chatter and clatter of children and much useless
speech of adults.
I have known Christians who have spent years in solitary con-
finement in complete silence. When they once again heard humans
speak, they wondered that so much of their speech lacked content.
If you wish to reach God, create some silence around you. Switch
off the many intruders on silence. Enter your closet, or teach your
loved ones to be quiet at certain hours.
But silence is not altogether silent. All the screams of men in
pain, all the weeping of sufferers, all the cries of real joy, the most
earnest discussions, a multitude of sermons, and scientific truth are
embedded in the silence that surrounds you. Above these you will
hear the voice of God. You will become illuminated if you will lis-
ten, as did Jesus when He spent whole nights in prayer on silent
mountains.
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J A N U A R Y 4
“The angel said to [Mary], ‘Rejoice, highly favored one,
the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’”
LUKE 1:28
I
n a Communist country, a young prisoner was taken from his
cell to court. When he returned, his face shone. The other pris-
oners asked how it went in court. He answered, “As on the day of
Mary’s annunciation. What a beautiful day! A pure virgin alone in
meditation. At once a radiant angel appeared before her. He tells
her that she, a creature, will have the Creator as a babe in her arms;
that she, a creature, will wash her Creator. She will wash the One
who later will cleanse millions of men of their sins. She, a creature,
will teach her Creator to walk. She will teach the eternal Word of
God to speak. He will be the sun and joy of her house.
“There will be a few difficult moments. She will have to stand
weeping at the foot of a cross where her Son—God’s Son—will die
for our salvation, but this will pass. He will be resurrected and will
go to heaven, and surely He will take His mother to be with Him.
And it will be joy again, without end.”
The prisoners thanked him for the nice little sermon, but they
insisted, “We asked you something else. How was it in court?”
He repeated, “I told you already. It was like the day of Mary’s
annunciation. The judges told me that I am sentenced to death. Is it
not beautiful? Gates of pearl, streets of gold, angels glorifying God,
the communion of saints, and above all, rest on Jesus’ bosom.”
Every year of our life is a new step toward death. Let us make
this step joyfully and hopefully. Jesus was resurrected. Those who
believe in Him will be resurrected too.
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J A N U A R Y 5
“The LORD opened the mouth of the donkey.”
NUMBERS 22:28
B
elieve the Bible. Some of its stories can be accepted by our
reason only with difficulty, but there is no alternative. If we
don’t accept the difficult parts of the Bible, the only choice that
remains is to accept the absurd.
Atheists scorn: the Bible says that a donkey could speak. But
the Bible does not say this. Rather, it states, “The LORD opened the
mouth of the donkey.” Where there is an almighty God, He can
cause a donkey to speak at any time.
Set aside belief in God for a moment. What remains? Unbelief
says man evolved from the ape. This means that at a certain mo-
ment an animal, the ape, started to speak without the aid of a high-
er, more intelligent being than himself. No child learns to speak
without being taught by an adult. How did the ape achieve what a
child cannot?
You have to accept the fact that an animal spoke—either an ani-
mal unaided by anyone, as Darwinism teaches, or an animal whose
mouth a wise and almighty God opened. It obviously is easier for
reason to accept the latter alternative.
Think also about the inner truth of the first words an animal
ever spoke: “What have I done to you, that you have struck me?”
(Numbers 22:28). One day all those whom we have wronged will
ask this question of us. What will we answer? Even if those we have
struck were guilty, was it absolutely necessary to strike them three
times as the false prophet Balaam struck the donkey? Would less
than that not have been sufficient? Don’t listen to those who quib-
ble about the Bible, but rather ponder its words carefully.
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J A N U A R Y 6
“If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of
the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.”
HEBREWS 10:26
A
n old Christian legend says that when God announced to
His angels His purpose in creating man in His image,
Lucifer, who had not yet fallen from heaven, cried, “Surely He will
give them no power to disobey Him.” The Son answered him, “Power
to fall is power to rise.” The devil then willfully decided to fall, tak-
ing others with him. His expectation that he would rise again was
never fulfilled because he had fallen purposely.
In the story where the sinful woman washed Jesus’ feet with her
tears, Lucifer began to understand how power to fall is connected
with power to rise. He understood the profoundness of the words
of the Lord, “To whom little is forgiven, the same loves little,” and,
“Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much” (Luke
7:47).
So the devil thought that if he could check the power to fall, he
might check the power to rise. Therefore he tried to impose the
Mosaic law upon the first Christians. Through this teaching he
fooled the Galatians (Galatians 3:1) and many others. He also tries
to subject today’s Christians to ordinances such as “Do not touch,
do not taste, do not handle” (Colossians 2:21), and plays upon our
fears.
But we have the word, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by
which Christ has made us free” (Galatians 5:1). We will not continue
in sin that grace may abound (Romans 6:1). Sin will never again be
the content of our lives. But neither will we despair if we do sin.
Peter could strengthen his brethren because he was converted after
having fallen into grievous sin (Luke 22:32).
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