Life lessons from Corrie ten Boom - Part 2预览

The Bouncing Ball  

1 John 4:4 (NIV)

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

Corrie often used very simple but surprising examples to support her talks. She could stand in the pulpit and throw a bouncing ball all through the church.

Corrie had experienced that God does have an enemy, and she was aware of the fact “that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

But she also knew that the Lord Jesus has said: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

As the ball bounced down and up, she explained: “The devil can try to put us down, but as the Lord Jesus lives within us, He that is in us, is stronger than he that is in the world. God’s power and endurance will make us bounce up again.  The harder the devil tries to put us down, the higher we will bounce up.” Having said this, she threw the bouncing ball down powerfully and caught it higher in the air. (Sometimes the bouncing effect of the ball was so strong, she missed catching it and it went all through the church to the amusement of the congregation☺) 

To reflect upon

Does watching the news and the situation in the world far and near, get you discouraged? It seems as if the devil and evil powers are on the winning side. Do not get discouraged or confused. Do not believe the lies that evil is victorious. Jesus is Victor and He that is in you is stronger than he that is in the world!

Prayer

Father, thank You that Your Kingdom does come and has come, that Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. You have delivered us and You will deliver us, for Thine be the glory and the honor and the power forever and ever Amen.

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During the Second World War, Corrie ten Boom and her family worked in the resistance in the Netherlands. They helped about 800 people. Many of them were Jewish. Corrie was betrayed and spent 10 months in imprisonment in Scheveningen and in the concentration camps, Vught and Ravensbrück. After the war, she traveled all over the world to tell others about God's love, forgiveness, and grace. Corrie came from a Bible-believing family which reached back many generations. The Bible had a central place in their lives. The Living Word of God: the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke to them through the written Word of God. They read the Bible on a daily basis and knew many Bible verses by heart.

Dientje Wiersma is a tour guide at the Corrie ten Boom house in Haarlem in the Netherlands. She wrote this reading plan. She used Bible verses that were very important to the family and wrote about both the significance and the applications of these verses in the lives of the family Ten Boom. 

A question and prayer at the end of each devotional may help you to see the significance and application of these verses in your own life as well.

Do you want to know more about Corrie ten Boom? Go to www.corrietenboom.com