She called herself a "Tramp for the Lord"No! Corrie ten Boom has gone to be eternally married to Jesus, but this morning I'm in the midst of preparing a wedding ceremony for a bride named Corrie. It prompted me to reflect on another Corrie who is now part of the great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) who followed Jesus faithfully. Thinking about people like her prompt me to want to do the same! If she walked with God through the intense suffering and injustices of the Holocaust, I can walk with Him through whatever He brings in my future.

Below are a few facts about her life and some great quotes from her pen. I hope you'll receive a blessing like I did.

Corrie Ten Boom

Born: December 13, 1901

Died: April 15, 1983

Her place of birth: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Website: http://www.corrietenboom.com/

 

Corrie Ten Boom and her family were Christians who were active in social work in their hometown of Haarlem, the Netherlands. During the Nazi occupation,they chose to act out their faith through peaceful resistance to the Nazis by active participation in the Dutch underground. They were hiding, feeding and transporting Jews and underground members hunted by the Gestapo out of the country. It is estimated they were able to save the lives of 800 Jews, in addition to protecting underground workers.

 Here are Some Thoughtful Quotes from Her Writings:

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."

"There is no pit too deep that God's love is not deeper still."

"Hold everything in your hands lightly, otherwise it hurts when God pries your fingers open."

"Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart."

"If you look at the world, you'll be distressed. If you look within, you'll be depressed. If you look at God you'll be at rest."

"It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts."

"Any concern too small to be turned into a prayer is too small to be made into a burden."

""Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings...It's something we make inside ourselves.""

"What wings are to a bird, and sails to a ship, so is prayer to the soul."

"There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans."

"Some knowledge is too heavy...you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able." 

"This is what the past is for! Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."

"Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself."

"Trying to do the Lord's work in your own strength is the most confusing, exhausting, and tedious of all work. But when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the ministry of Jesus just flows out of you."

"Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn't empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength."

There are no 'if's' in God's world. And no placess that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety - let us pray that we may always know it!"

"Whenever we cannot love in the old, human way . . . God can give us the perfect way."

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future."

"Don't bother to give God instructions; just report for duty."

"Dear Jesus...how foolish of me to have called for human help when You are here."

"And so seated next to my father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sexsin?"
He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case off the floor and set it on the floor.
"Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?" he said.
I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with the watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
"It's too heavy," I said.
"Yes," he said, "and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you.""

"Child, you have to learn to see things in the right proportions. Learn to see great things great and small things small."

"Mama's love had always been the kind that acted itself out with soup pot and sewing basket. But now that these things were taken away, the love seemed as whole as before. She sat in her chair at the window and loved us. She loved the people she saw in the street-- and beyond: her love took in the city, the land of Holland, the world. And so I learned that love is larger than the walls which shut it in. "

"The tree on the mountain takes whatever the weather brings. If it has any choice at all, it is in putting down roots as deeply as possible."

"Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear."

"God's viewpoint is sometimes different from ours - so different that we could not even guess at it unless He had given us a Book which tells us such things....In the Bible I learn that God values us not for our strength or our brains but simply because He has made us."

"And our wise Father in heaven knows when we're going to need things too. Don't run out ahead of Him."

"We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world and the spiritual agents are from the very headquarters of evil. Therefore, we must wear the "whole armor of God," that we may be able to resist evil in its day of power, and that even when we have fought to a standstill, we may still stand our ground."

"If God has shown us bad times ahead, it's enough for me that He knows about them. That's why He sometimes shows us things, you know - to tell us that this too is in His hands."

".....joy runs deeper than despair."

"Perhaps only when human effort had done its best and failed, would God's power alone be free to work."

"When we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus"

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings. It's something we make inside ourselves."

"(on forgiveness) Didn't he and I stand together before an all seeing God convicted of the same murder? For I had murdered him with my heart and my tongue."

"Childhood scenes rushed back at me out of the night, strangely close and urgent. Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do."

"And for all these people alike, the key to healing turned out to be the same. Each had a hurt he had to forgive."

"Today I know that such memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work He will give us to do. "

"How often it is a small, almost unconscious event that makes a turning point."

"'No hatred'"

"Every experience God gives us, every person He puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only He can see."

"You saw we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family."

"You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family."

"Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God."