I'm so glad that I can tell you a little bit about the reality of the love of Jesus Christ. The greatest of them is love. Faith, hope, and love. The greatest is love. And I'm so glad that I can tell you about it.

Because I know that many of you know the Lord Jesus not such a long time. Some of you just came in, were born again, so you are babes in Christ. And of course, there can come into your heart moments that you think, well, should it really be so good as the other people tell me?

And then I can tell you that I was five years old when I asked Jesus to come into my heart and he came. He didn't say you are too little. He just came. And he never left me. And that is 75 years ago.

75 years I have walked with the Lord Jesus. Jesus walked with me. And I had a very happy life. But it was not always easy.

And I will tell you something that I have learned in the most difficult time of my life. For in a difficult class of a school, you learn so much. And exactly there I have learned so much.

No, I have always been a watchmaker. I was the first licensed woman watchmaker in Holland. I repaired watches the whole day. I had a jewelry store together with my dad. And I could sell good watches.

When you came to me, I could tell you now, when you buy this watch, it is so good that even if it makes a difference of two minutes in a month, you come back and I can change it.

But then I thought later, I hope I have not boasted too much about my watch. What must I do when it makes a difference of five minutes in a week?

You know, I do not sell watches anymore, but I sell the gospel. And I'm so glad that when I tell very much about the great joy and love of the Lord, then that I can never boast too much.

For the reality is far and far greater than I can tell you and you can tell me.

And I hope that when we come in heaven and we look back at this time, we will not be ashamed that we have so lived as beggars. And we are king's children, tremendous rich.

And that's why I am so glad that I can tell you a little bit what I experienced.

You all have heard of that terrible time that we have had in Holland. And then when the Germans came under the leader Adolf Hitler and he intended to kill all the Jewish people.

We started to save as many as we could. I had never planted, but God had planted. After some time, I had a gang of 80 people, 30 teenager boys, 20 teenager girls, 20 men and 10 women.

And once we heard that in a Jewish orphanage in Amsterdam, all the babies had to be killed because they were Jewish babies.

When we heard that, Our boy said, we will save them and we will steal them. And they went to that orphanage and they stole all the hundred babies.

You will say, how is that possible? I will tell you a secret. You know, sometimes there came to us good Germans who were soldiers, who were in the army.

And they said, we don't like to work any longer for Adolf Hitler. We will not kill the Jewish people. Can you help us?

And I always said, sure, I will help you. Just come in.

And we gave them, of course, a sip of clothing, and we took the uniforms.

I have not to go into details, but you understand how my boys stole the hundred babies.

Hallelujah.

One of my bravest boys was Pete Hartog.

And Pete said that evening, I believe we do the most important work that exists. Just saving life from the morning till the evening.

I don't long to go back to college.

This is life.

I said, Pete, I am so happy when I think of the babies that we have saved.

But Pete, there is a work that is more important even than saving lives and that is saving souls and tell the people about the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then Pete smiled.

And Pete said, I'm a Christian boy. I go to church, I read my Bible, and I pray about telling people the gospel, telling them about Jesus.

That is good business for my pastor.

I said, Pete, every Christian is called to be the light of the world.

And every Christian must be ready to tell the way of salvation to anyone who needs it.

And in your time, in your life, Pete, there will come a time that you will see it the most important work for you to win souls for Jesus Christ and to show that the way of salvation by believing in Jesus and inviting Him into your heart.

Half a year later, Pete came into prison.

And when he came into the cell, he heard that he had only one week to live.

And the day before he was shot, he wrote a long letter.

And he wrote, all the men and the boys in this cell are sentenced to death.

And I am so glad that I could tell them that when they received Jesus as their Savior,

That the Lord Jesus will make them children of God,

And that when they go to be killed,

That they go to the house of the Father with many mansions where Jesus is preparing a mansion for everyone who believes in him.

Say, young people, I have a message for you.

From Pete Hutto, don't wait till the last week of your life like he has done.

But give your life today to the Lord and say, Lord, use me. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to me.

How you will say it, I don't mind.

But tell the Lord that he may take you to use you as the light of the world,

And then I can tell you he will use you.

And my, when you really will be used to win souls for Jesus Christ once,

When you enter the beautiful city and the safe all around you appears,

Many of them will tell you, it was you that invited me here.

Oh boy, that will be a joy.

Then you will know that you have not lived in vain.

Once there came a man to me.

And said, will you save my wife?

She is arrested. She has saved Jewish people.

And now she is in a police station.

And there is one policeman who will run the risk to set her free if we pay him 600 guilders.

But I have no money.

I said, oh man, what does money say?

Let's see, I have 200 guilders. Come back after an hour.

And in that hour, I asked all my friends, say, have you money? Give it.

It means to save the life of a good woman.

When that man came back,

I gave him 600 guilders.

That man was a quistling, a betrayer.

His wife was not at all in prison.

But the Gestapo, the police of the enemy, had said, find out if Corridor and Rome save Jewish people.

And he thought, I can do it and make some money.

And he made some money.

He went home with 600 guilders.

But five minutes later,

The Gestapo surrounded our house and we were all arrested.

Later, when I was in a concentration camp,

Ravensbrück,

There came a prisoner from my hometown.

And she said, say, do you know who has betrayed you?

I said, no.

And then she told that it was that man.

And there came hatred in my heart.

The man I had given my last penny.

But I know from the Bible that hatred means murder in God's eyes.

But I also know from the Bible what to do with your murder when we confess our sins,

When we repent,

And ask forgiveness then he is able to forgive us

And the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from all the sins that we tell him and ask forgiveness for

And I repented for my hater

And the Lord took that sin away as the great joy

The Bible tells very clearly what the Lord does when you repent

He takes such a sin and He casts it into the depths of the sea, forgiven and forgotten.

That's what the Bible says.

The Bible doesn't say it,

But I believe He put a sign,

No fishing allowed.

True.

And do you know,

When I had repented of that sin,

The Lord cleansed my heart with His blood.

And a heart cleansed by the blood of Jesus,

He fills with the Holy Spirit.

And the fruit of the Spirit is love.

Love even for enemies.

And instead that I hated that man,

I loved him.

And after a war,

That man was sentenced to death because he had caused the death of many Dutch people.

When I heard that,

I wrote him,

Your betrayal has meant the death of my old father

Who was 84 years old when they brought him into prison.

After 10 days,

He died.

My sister,

who died after ten months' terrible suffering.

My brother,

he came out alive with a sick man and died through that sickness,

And his son never came back.

I myself have suffered terribly through in three different prisons,

But I have forgiven you.

And that is because Jesus is in my heart.

And when Jesus tells you to love your enemies,

He gives you the love that he demands from you.

And I sent that man a New Testament

And underlined the way of salvation.

And that man wrote me that you could forgive me is such a great miracle that I have said,

Jesus,

When you give such a love in the heart of your followers,

There's hope for me.

And I have read in the Bible that you sent me that Jesus has died at the cross for the sins of the whole world.

And I have brought my terrible sins to Jesus.

And I know that they are forgiven.

Your forgiveness has shown me what it means that there is forgiveness through Jesus Christ.

And that man was brought to death that same week.

But he was reconciled with God,

And God had used me,

Who had hated him,

To bring him to the Lord.

You know,

I like that little poem of John Bunyan.

Run, John, run,

The law commands,

But gives us neither feet nor hands.

Far better news the gospel brings,

And bids us fly and gives us wings.

Isn't that good?

It says,

You must love your enemies,

And he gives you the love that he demands from you.

The greatest of all is love.

In 1 Corinthians 13,

I believe that Paul describes God's love.

There are two kinds of love,

Human love

And God's love.

Human love fails on the long run,

But God's love never fails.

And I believe that this love that is described here is the love of God,

Not only in the heart of the Father,

But shed the blood into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us.

Romans 5, 5.

And when Paul uses the translation of Philip,

Then he says,

If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels,

But have no love,

I become no more than blaring brass and crashing cymbal.

If I have the gift of foretelling the future,

And hold in my mind not only all human knowledge,

But the very secrets of God,

And if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains,

But have no love,

I amount to nothing at all.

If I dispose of all that I possess,

Yet even if I give my own body to be burned,

But had no love,

I achieved precisely nothing.

This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience.

It looks for a way of being constructive.

It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people.

On the contrary,

It is glad with all good men when truth prevails.

Love knows no limit to its endurance,

No end to its trust,

No fading of its hope.

It can outlast anything.

It is in fact the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

And in my life

All else has fallen.

I stood in roll call in the concentration camp Ravensbrück

Where 97,000 women were killed or died,

Also my sister.

When I stood there on roll call,

One of the guards used her time to demonstrate her cruelties.

I could hardly bear to see or to hear what had happened in front of me.

But suddenly a skyline came.

And he started to sing in the sky.

And all the prisoners looked up.

And when I looked up,

I looked at the sky.

And then I thought

At Psalm 103,

Where it's written,

As high is heaven over the earth,

So far is God's love and mercy over all that fear Him.

And suddenly I saw it,

O love of God,

How deep and great,

Far deeper than man's deepest hate.

God sent that skylight three weeks daily,

Exactly during roll call time,

To turn away our eyes from the cruelty of men unto the ocean of God's love.

How can you and I understand God's love?

At the cross,

When I first saw the light

And the burden of my sins rolled away,

It was there by faith I received my sight.

When we look unto Jesus,

We understand.

When we look at the cross,

What an ocean of love he has for you and me.

I was questioned by a man in whose hands my life was.

He was my judge.

It was wartime.

And if that man should say I had to be shot,

I should have been shot.

He asked me much

About my spare time,

About my certificates,

And I told him all.

When he asked me about my misdeeds,

I did not tell him all.

He has known only of eight Jews that I had saved,

And I hope that there were more than 800.

But when he asked me about my spare time,

I told him about that work that I had with fidel-minded children in my little booklet,

So in sense not needed,

You can read about it.

And when I told that,

The man said,

What a nonsense.

Hasn't it far more value to convert a normal person than an abnormal one?

Then I said,

If you should know Jesus,

You should know that he has a great love and concern for everyone who is in need.

It is possible as a poor, feeble-minded child has more value in his loving eyes than you and I together.

And he was angry.

And he called a policeman and said,

Bring her back to her cell.

The next day I was again brought to him.

And then he said,

I could not sleep this night.

I had always to think of what you told about Jesus.

We have time enough for the questioning.

First you must tell me what you know of Jesus.

Boy,

That was a chance.

I said,

Jesus is a light.

Come into this world

That everyone who believes in him does not remain in darkness.

And I asked him,

Is there darkness in your life?

That man said,

Darkness,

There's no light at all in my life.

And I brought him the old, old story of Jesus and his love.

After me,

Betsy,

My sister,

Was questioned.

What great joy she testified to her faith.

And she told about Jesus.

And then she said,

It is important to speak about Jesus.

It is more important to speak to him.

Do you allow me that I pray with you?

And he said yes.

And she prayed with him.

The prisoner with her judge.

Five times Betsy was questioned.

Five times she prayed with that man.

Betsy died in prison.

But after the war,

I met that judge,

And he said to me,

I can never forget your sister's prayers.

Through her and through my testimony,

God touched the heart of that man,

And he became a friend instead of an enemy.

But he had to do his job,

And suddenly he showed me papers found in my house,

And to my horror I saw names.

Addresses and particulars.

That could mean my descendants and the descendants of my family and my friends who were in prison.

You will say,

How was it possible that such dangerous papers were found in your house?

But I must tell you that my teenagers have done a tremendous courageous job.

But they were not always careful.

And so it happened that these terrible papers were found in my house.

The judge said,

Can you explain these papers?

I said,

No,

I can't.

And I felt deep unhappy that he knew how dangerous they were.

And suddenly he turned,

Opened the door of the stove,

And he threw all the papers into the flames.

Oh my,

How happy I was.

I should never have believed,

And you should have told me that I could be happy when I was in a prison of an enemy.

But that moment when I saw the flames destroy these horrible papers,

It was as if for the first time I understood Colossians 3.20,

Where it's written,

Jesus has taken the handwriting of ordinances that was against us.

Has taken them out of the way and nailed them at the cross.

Hey,

Do you realize that there are dangerous papers for you?

Do you realize that in heaven all our sins are written down and we have all to come for the judgment day of God?

And if we have refused Jesus Christ in this life,

The judgment day will be terrible,

For we will have to pay and to carry the punishment for our sins.

But when we have found Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior,

In this life we have nothing to fear,

For we will find out

That Jesus has taken all our sins and nailed them at the cross.

Hallelujah!

What a love, what a Savior.

Yes,

I understood that better than ever before.

I had a little Bible when I was brought into that concentration camp Ravensbrück.

I had a small Bible,

But a whole Bible,

Old and New Testament,

Specially printed for what they called the underground workers.

It was very small.

I had it on my back.

But when they entered,

I saw that they all had to be searched.

And I saw that they took away everything that the prisoners had hidden under their clothing.

And I got scared.

I said,

Oh God!

God, these people may not see me.

God, send your angels and let them surround me.

But then I thought,

Yes,

But angels are spirits and you can look through a spirit.

I said,

God,

Make your angels untransparent today.

You can pray very unorthodox when you are in great need.

But God did it.

God did it.

The woman who stood in front of me was searched and then back to you stood behind me.

And they did not see me.

So I came with my Bible in the prison.

Strange story.

No,

That's not strange.

That is what is written in the Bible.

Angels are ministering spirits sent to this planet for your and my help.

And there are far more angels than demons.

Yes.

There are demons,

And they can really come into your heart when you do these occult sins of what Alan told.

You play with a witchy ward,

You go to a spiritualist meeting,

You go to a fortune teller,

Then a demon comes in your heart.

But praise the Lord,

You can send him away in the name of Jesus.

And don't forget,

There are only one-third of the angels fallen.

So there are twice as many angels as there are devils.

And really far more,

For many of these devils are already sent to hell.

So we can

Here is the cleaned-up version of the sermon transcription:

ng. And what a joy. Many of the people around me were killed or died. But many died with Jesus' name on their lips. And that was worthwhile. Even Betsy's death and all the suffering that I had to endure. Once Betsy said to me, Corrie, when we are free, we must travel over the world. We can tell from experience that the light of Jesus Christ is stronger than the deepest darkness.

A week later she died. Another week later I was set free by a blunder of men and a miracle of God. For one other week later they killed all the women of my age. So I became a tramp for the Lord. Twenty-six years I have traveled over the world, and I could bring the gospel to many people also behind the Iron Curtain. Oh, it was a joy. It was always a joy when we work in Russia and the other communist countries.

You know, I... We bring there, we smuggle as many Bibles as we can. I will never forget the first time that I came in Moscow. I had a big red suitcase and it was full of Russian Bibles and Christian literature. And I saw how the custom officer ransacked every suitcase. And I got scared. I thought, "My, when he finds what is in my suitcase, what will he do?"

Perhaps he will send me to prison or send me back to Holland. Of course, he will take away the Bibles. And then I started to pray. Now, I like to pray with an open Bible. I like to say, "Father, you have said it. Now you must do it." And God likes it. God likes it when you say that.

For God has meant all the promises of the Bible. And they are for you and me. And the bank account of the Bible is not frozen. You know, I don't know if there are people here who have never received the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. Then I hope you will not leave this tent tonight before you have done it.

And Christians pray for them. And when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, when you ask Jesus, "Come into my heart," then he comes. And then Jesus does that miracle that you are born into the very family of God. And that very moment all the promises of the Bible are yours.

You have not to wait until you are a mature Christian or until you have studied much in the Bible. No, that's very good. But this riches is yours. All the thousands of promises are yours the moment that you are born into the family of God.

And I know what some think. Some people think, "Oh yeah, that's good for that lady there, and for that boy there, for that girl, for these good people." But I can tell you a secret. The promises of the Bible are for sinners only.

So when you know that you are a sinner, just come to Jesus. He died for you. And you may cash all the checks. And then you may say, "Lord, you said it, now you may do it."

When I stood there in Moscow, I said, "Lord, you have said in Jeremiah 1: God watches over his word to perform it." Now, Lord, these Bibles in my suitcase are your word.

Now, with my hand on Jeremiah 1, I pray that you watch over your words, my Bibles, to smuggle them. That's not what Jeremiah said. But, you know, I found out that it does not matter so much if you pray with an open Bible in your prayers, that first the Lord says, "no, you must have a very sound and good exegesis before I will listen."

No, the Lord looks at your heart. And you know what I saw? The same moment that I prayed it, I saw around my big suitcase light beings. I saw for the first and only time in my life angels.

And the moment that I saw them, they disappeared. They didn't disappear, but I couldn't see them any longer. But my fear also had disappeared.

I knew those who are with me are far more and stronger than those who are against me. And at last the man came to my suitcase. He said, "Is it your suitcase?" Yes, sir. And everyone? Yes, sir. Oh, wait, lady, I have time. I can bring it to your car.

And he brought that suitcase to my car. I... I had almost shouted hallelujah. I didn't do that. No, I surely did not do it.

But what a joy to know that all the promises of the Bible are in Jesus, yea, and amen, and say, that tremendous privilege that you have, that you can love your enemies, that was for me one of the greatest lessons that I learned.

I was some time ago in a cell in Africa with a man who was sentenced to death, a political prisoner. I was so sorry. I asked him, "Say, do you know about Jesus?" He said, yes. I have a Bible at home. I know that Jesus died at the cross for the sins of the whole world, also for my sins.

I was so happy that he knew it. But then I asked him, "Say, do you know who has caused your imprisonment and your death sentence?" He said, yes.

I can tell you all the names of those who have betrayed me and caused my descendants, and I hate them. I opened my Bible and I read what Jesus says in Matthew 6. When you do not forgive those who have sinned against you, your Heavenly Father will not forgive you your sins.

It was Jesus who said it must be true. But the man said, "I cannot, I'm not able." I'm young and strong, I have wife and children, and now I must die.

I said, "I understand that you cannot forgive. And then I told what Jesus had done in my heart. How I could bring that man who had really by his betrayal murdered four of my beloveds to the Lord.

I told him a little experience some time ago that I was in Berlin and there came a man to me. And that man said to me, "Do you know me?" Suddenly I saw that man. That was one of the most cruel gods in Ravensbrück.

And that man said, "I have found the Lord Jesus as my Savior." I have brought all my cruel sins to the Lord, and I know from the Bible that I have forgiveness.

But then I have prayed, O God, give me the privilege that I ask one of my very victims forgiveness. And now I saw that you were speaking here in Berlin, and now I ask you, Fr. Lentenbaum, will you forgive me my cruelties?

And I must confess you, That moment there came a bitterness in my heart. And I thought who my dying sister had suffered under that man.

But then suddenly I said, Lord, I thank you for Romans 5:5. Thank you, Jesus, that you have brought into my heart God's love through the Holy Spirit who has given to me.

And thank you, Father, that your love is stronger than my bitterness and hatred. And that moment my heart was full of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit, love.

And I could say to that man, Brother, give me your hand. And I shook hands with him and I said, "I forgive you everything."

And it was as if I felt God's love streamed through my arm when I shook hands with that man.

When I told this to that prisoner in Africa, he sent his wife a message. And this message was, don't hate, love the people who have brought me here. You are not able, I am not able either, but Jesus in us is able.

And I knew why I had to be in Africa. Can you forgive your enemies? I cannot, but Jesus in me can.

Some time ago, I had a difficulty. That some friends, some Christian friends of mine did something very mean and I had difficulty to forgive them.

And I said, now Lord, you have given me that grace that I could forgive the murderers of my family. Now Lord, it is not difficult for you to give me forgiveness and love for my Christian friends.

It took some time, but I forgave them. I was glad that I had forgiven him, but do you know what happened?

One night, two o'clock in the morning, so really in the midst of the night it was, I thought, no, then I think what my friends have done for me.

I said, oh, Lord, dear, it is again. I thought I had forgiven, but I am angry again. Lord, take it away. Help me to forgive.

And the Lord did. And I slept well, and the whole day I was happy.

But believe it or not, the next night at 2 o'clock I awoke and I thought, when I think what I have done for my friends, I did this and this and this and now they did.

I said, Lord, there it is again. Oh, Lord, take away this resentment and help me really to forgive and to forget.

And the Lord did. I had a good night's rest and a good day.

But the third night at 2 o'clock, the same happened.

And then I was disgusted. That day I met an old minister from Germany.

And you know, in Germany, when you ring the bell for the church on Sunday morning, you do that with your hands. Ding, dong, ding, dong.

But there comes a moment that you stop. But after you have stopped, there comes some other ding and dong, ding, dong.

He said, but those ding-dongs do not belong to the rest, and you don't worry about it, that stops very soon.

And now, your unforgiveness, that were ding-dongs who did not belong to the rest. And he said, you just bring it to the Lord, and say, Lord, this ding-dong doesn't belong to the rest.

And I was, I was free. Oh, that was a joy.

But, you know, that book that I have written in the hiding place, I rode together with John and Tibby Sherrill, and I had to tell really my whole life many things to them, and so they had also heard of my friends.

And John Sherrill once said to me, say, Corrie, these friends of yours who did that mean thing, what about them?

I said, that is forgiven and forgotten, and I will not speak about it anymore. He said, I know that.

But I should like to know, what do they think of it? They take it easy. They simply say they have not done it.

But I can tell you a secret. The promises of the Bible are for sinners only.

So when you know that you are a sinner, just come to Jesus. He died for you. And you may cash all the checks.

And then you may say, Lord, you said it, now you may do it.

When I stood there in Moscow, I said, Lord, you have said in Jeremiah 1: God watches over his word to perform it. Now, Lord, these Bibles in my suitcase are your word.

No, the Lord looks at your heart.

And you know what I saw? The same moment that I prayed it, I saw around my big suitcase light beings. I saw for the first and only time in my life angels.