Facing Execution With Faith
The two Christian girls waited in the Chinese prison yard for the announced execution. A fellow prisoner who watched the scene from his prison cell described their faces as pale but beautiful beyond belief; infinitely sad but sweet. Humanly speaking, they were fearful. But ChiuChin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu had decided to submit to death without renouncing their faith.
The Pastor’s Dilemma
Flanked by renegade guards, the executioner came with a revolver in his hand. It was their own Pastor! He had been sentenced to die with the two girls. But, as on many other occasions in Church history, the persecutors worked on him, tempting him. They promised to release him if he would shoot the girls. He accepted.
Last Words of Gratitude
The girls whispered to each other, then bowed respectfully before their pastor.
One of them said, “Before you shoot us, we wish to thank you heartily for what you have meant to us. You baptized us, you taught us the ways of eternal life, you gave us holy communion with the same hand in which you now hold the gun.
“You also taught us that Christians are sometimes weak and commit terrible sins, but they can be forgiven again. When you regret what you are about to do to us, do not despair like Judas, but repent like Peter. God bless you, and remember that our last thought was not one of indignation against your failure. Everyone passes through hours of darkness.
“May God reward you for all the good you have done to us. We die with gratitude.” They bowed again. The Pastor’s heart was hardened. He shot the girls. Afterwards he was shot by the Communists.
The Enduring Power of Love
Love [God’s love in us]…takes no account of the evil done to it pays no attention to a suffered wrong…Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances and it endures everything [without weakening]. 1 Corinthians 13:5-7
Date: 3rd December 2022
Martyr: Chiu-Chin-Hsiu and Ho-Hsiu-Tzu Jiangxi
Location: Mainland China During the Red Guard Era, 1966-69
Source: Tortured for Christ (The voice of the martyr)
Author: Richard Wurmbrand
Suffering Saturday 020
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