A Call to Revival

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    Brief Introduction

    
    

              At the promptings of some brothers and sisters who have heard me telling of events that happened in my life and about some miracles that God has done under the sight of my eyes, I wrote several articles on the leaflets and then I was asked to put them together in a book. Therefore I offer some of them here. I sincerely wish God to bless all those who read these words. If the reader will have views contrary to those written or other comments can contact me by email at: ioannita48@gmail.com.

    
    

    The Miracle of Crossing the Romanian Border in August, 1987

    
    

              During the “Cold War” in Europe, behind the “Iron Curtain” (the invisible border that separated the two different political systems, the oppressive communism and the socialist democratic system), a beautiful country, but unlucky, Romania, had to suffer from lack of freedom, both physically and spiritually. For many inhabitants of the country, the desire to escape from “The Huge Prison” was an obsessive and hard to realize dream. Many tried to escape, but reached behind the bars of the communist prisons, or were killed by the ruthless bullets of the soldiers guarding the border.

              In the summer of 1987 my friend and brother of faith, John, was warned by God that he must leave the country. Because he lingered, feeling that he had not the power to go alone, God has spoken to me to accompany him to Italy, promising me that He will put in my mind the plan of the illegally crossing the border and everything about this very dangerous adventure. Thus we have advised and started to implement the plan of passage.

              To leave a country that we loved with all our friends, families, and homeland, and especially for John to leave his family and to throw himself into a very risky adventure involves a great trust in God. We were sure that this is God’s will, and that He will support us, and just so happened to be.

    We started with the most important thing: we asked God’s help. So we prayed and asked Him to give us guidance on how to prepare, when to go and where to cross the border of the country. Romania, a country situated in the eastern part of Europe, which remained after the Second World War in the communist zone, was surrounded by other communist countries. Its Border largely made out of barbed wire fence was guarded by state troopers, holding people as prisoners in the country. The soldiers were well equipped with weapons and all that was needed to catch or kill anyone who tried to cross the border. For a Romanian, seeking a way to “escape”, meant to take the risk of going through many and great troubles. First, he had to be careful to keep everything in secret because all over the country, the communists had their informants ready to sell any information about the “enemies of the people” (a name given by the communists for nonconformists). You were always in danger, even in your own home, if something “dubious” reached the ears of communists.

              At one point, God helped us develop a plan. We had a target: Italy. We had to cross by swimming Danube River between Romania and Yugoslavia (another communist country to the south-west of Romania), and then to cross Yugoslavia and reach the border with Italy, where another adventure had to take place. This meant we had to practice swimming in order to become sufficiently trained to swim across a river wider than the Columbia River. We also set the place and time for departure.

              One Sunday afternoon we entered a cornfield near the river. The guards were not seen, nor did they hear us, because it rained from noon until midnight. We planned to leave the cornfield at midnight and go to the river. At midnight, standing under an umbrella, while praying, my friend asked this: “Lord, give us a sign that we’re going to Italy, let the rain stop right now.” A miracle happened, the rain stopped just in that time. Our faith in God’s help became stronger. “Let’s go,” we said, full of trust.

              We left the cornfield, we entered a forest, we passed through a marshy area and then - appeared before us, wide and quiet, with Yugoslavia on the opposite bank, the legendary “Blue Danube”. Fortunately, there were no soldiers. We entered the water and started swimming. A merchant ship slid down the Danube, with its noisy engine making our swimming noise not being notified by “rabbit ears” of soldiers. Imagine two people swimming in the night, no sound of a rifle bullet, just the waves produced by ship and its engine that can be heard more slowly as departing at night. ”I’m tired,” said my friend John, after an hour of swimming. “There is still a little ... and we reach the shore,“ I replied.

    Our feet finally stepped on the other side and after a break, we entered a small village where no man was met on the streets, it was about two o’clock at night, “Is this Yugoslavia or Bulgaria?” we asked ourselves. (Bulgaria is a country just hundred meters away from Yugoslavia, and has a common border with Romania). In order to find the name of the country, we looked behind the cars parked on the streets to see the country initials marked near the plates. “Yes, Yugoslavia!” we exclaimed joyfully.

              The first step of our adventure was done. But what’s next? And how we travel through a foreign country with people who speak a very different language, a country with cops searching “Romanian fugitives” to be hunted, packed, and sent back to Romania to be thrown in jail? “Good Morning” a Romanian voice but with a foreign accent greet us at an open window, “What are you doing?” Enjoying his cigarette a gentleman saw us in the street and undoubtedly understood our problem. “We escaped from Romania and are heading to Italy,” We answered him. “You have to go to the train station, two kilometers from here,” said the man, pointing westward. Then he gave my friend a glass of cold water. We thanked him for his help and left. We traveled by train a distance of about fifty miles until a good man warned us that the trains were inspected by police in the search for “Romanian fugitives,” so we decided to use the bus. We got out of the bus in Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, seeking to understand what is the next step in our long and dangerous journey. “Then a lady greeted us in Romanian. “What is the best place to cross the border to Italy,” We asked her. “You must be careful not to approach the area of Trieste, it is supervised by the police and the Yugoslav Army. Go to Nova Goritza; not many Romanians use that place to cross the border so your chance to enter Italy would be better.“ God sent that lady of good faith that gave us good advice. And so following her advice, after a long bus trip, we arrived at Nova Goritza.

              The border between Yugoslavia and Italy divides the city into two halves, the Yugoslavian side called ”Nova Goritza” and the Italian side called ”Goritzia.” We wandered along the border near the checkpoint in the hope of finding a place to cross the border in Italy, when a police car stopped next to us and we found ourselves arrested just a few meters away by Italy. “Romanians?  Your place is in Romania “called an angry voice of a policeman. We weren’t deposited at the police station as expected, but at the border checkpoint (which was very close), where pedestrians and the cars were inspected before entering Italy. Police left us in the supervision of two guards at the checkpoint.” What happened to us?” We looked at each other, not understanding what it is for now. Italian checkpoint, only one hundred yards of our vision and our eyes on people traveling freely and indifferent to the two Romanian arrested for longing freedom.“  “We lost our last chance or else God has in store for us”? In a vision given by God to me before leaving Romania, were seen two tunnels whose entrances were guarded by two lions each. Sleeping lions were at one and awake at the other. The accompanying message of the vision was that were the lions sleep is not the place of passage, but were the lions are awake. Indeed, walking along the border we intended to use a place where two soldiers were laying near the border). “This is the point of crossing. You must run through the checkpoint to Italy, these guards are the two lions that are awake,“ a message from above warned me.

              I said to my brother: “We have to run to Italy from here, be ready to run when the guards are busy with passers.” We waited a moment of poor supervision and like at a ”green signal” we fled from Yugoslavia to Italy under the powerless gaze of the Yugoslav guards. (The guards were not allowed to use firearms in the direction of neighboring country, area that we ran being a neutral zone between the two checkpoints: the Yugoslav and the Italian).

              After a “sprint of hundred meters,” we stepped on Italian ground. A guard, at the Italian checkpoint,  with a jovial face, greeted us and gave us two chairs in the Italian office of the control-point. The rest is easy to imagine: how happy we felt after a long and adventurous journey praising God for His faithfulness in helping us to the last point of his plan. We stayed for a while in Italy, a democratic country with wonderful people and a government that has helped many “Romanian Fugitives” like us. Today, my friend John lives in Sacramento, California, and enjoy the sun of freedom in a blessed country with his family from Romania who followed him through another adventure that will be the subject of another article, when God will help write it. I praise God for the opportunity to be a witness and a subject of some of His miracles, and to show how those who trust God, can achieve their objectives.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Chapter 3

    
    

    The Miracle of Crossing the Romanian Border in September 1987

    
    

              In my first story, entitled “The miracle of crossing the Romanian Border in August 1987,” I wrote about miracles that God did during crossing the border between Romania and Yugoslavia, along with my friend John, about the journey through Yugoslavia and the crossing of the border between Yugoslavia and Italy and that my friend John ended up in California, USA. In that history, I was writing that his family came from Romania following him through another adventurous journey which was to be the subject of other writings. About this another series of miracles that the same God Almighty made, I will write in the following lines.

              It was in August 1987, when after our entry into Italy we received approval to stay in a town near the border with Yugoslavia called Gorizia. We stayed in a hotel waiting to be sent to Rome where to go throughout the procedure of emigration to the U.S. We got everything free at the hotel; we did not do anything but rest, eat and walk. We visited the city beauties including Fidardo Castle. We were most interested to meet Christians like us so that one Sunday we went to a church of Reformed brethren. They were very good to us, and a family that was called Zidarich invited us to her house. So we became close friends with this family. In another Sunday we visited a church of Mormons. For us who had lived under a communist regime was something special to see a very clean city, with very nice people, where people were treated as humans. It was like being in a dreamland. But something upset my friend. There was abundance of food in Italy, but his six children who remained in Romania and his wife could not enjoy all this for as many know, at that time in Romania was a famine caused by forced industrialization by those who ruled the country, through purchasing of industrial equipment from abroad in exchange for agricultural products. My friend, when sitting at the meal table, remembered his children and crying said: “I eat here many good dishes, but my kids, what are they eating there in Romania?” For me, it was easier because I was not married. But this situation made me think. There was a tension that even sat between us.

              After a stay of approx. 40 days in Gorizia, in a Sunday morning I went out alone to meditate while walking the quiet streets of the city. I was talking to God being concerned about the situation of my friend that I wanted to help but did not know how. I remember asking God to fill my heart with His love. I found a garden on the outskirts where I came and spent all the night in prayer. I asked God saying: God give me love, or take me out of the earth for I am not worthy to live as I see myself now. When dawn He answered what I did not expect at all. God told me, “You must go back to Romania to take out your friend’s family.”

              I said to the Lord, “If this is your will, please give me two things I ask, as signs that You send me. First, to provide someone to help me with money for the trip, and the second, give me a man of yours from Yugoslavia who will guide me where I can cross the border back to Romania because I stepped ashore out of Romania swimming the Danube and now I need to go on dry land as to get out there with my friend’s family. “I felt filled with love that I asked for; did not seem too difficult any commandment of the Lord, I was available for him, even to the death. I loved the Lord and the people. But overall He gave me a full faith in His faithfulness that He will be with me all the time as He has promised to do. I was doubled by another person who was inside me, communicating with me and I knew that this person was the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

              I had not eaten anything since Saturday evening and I decided to not eat and do not drink anything until the night of Tuesday to Wednesday when, as I was said by the Holy Spirit, had to cross the border from Italy back to Yugoslavia, of course, illegal. All along I needed these days of fasting to be sufficiently sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit who guided me and always told me what to do.

              I returned Monday morning to the hotel where I found my friend very worried because he did not know what happened to me. I said to him, “God sent me back to Romania to get your family out there.” Then my brother was quiet and all passing concern. “If it is true that God sent you, please just take my wife and our two daughters out, but our four sons to remain with our relatives.” But I knew that God had told me to take out the whole family, the mother, and six children.

              There was the same hotel another Romanian who hearing me planning to go back to Romania said that he wants to go with me to take off his wife who remained in Romania. I prayed to God saying, “Lord, if it is your will for him to come with me, let him come, but if it is not your will, make him change his mind.” I said this because I saw that his relationship with God was not quite right and may even confuse God’s work. Something strange happened on the last day even when being Zidarich family’s yard we made a prayer holding hands us we formed a circle. The Romanian was next to me and his hand was caught mine. While we prayed, the Holy Spirit came upon me, so something like an electric current flowed through my hand to his hand. Suddenly, gripped by fear he exclaimed, “I’m not going. I’m afraid.” I saw that all I asked, God accomplished.

              The time was near when to begin the adventure. It was five o’clock on Tuesday evening when the Mormon Church sent two young brothers at our hotel asking us to get them at eight o’clock at the church because their pastor wanted to talk to us. We went as we were told. We were introduced to the pastor’s office where there were several brothers of his. He addressed us saying, “We want to help you.” Then I said, “If you really want to help us, behold, God sends me back to Romania to take out my friend’s family and I need money for the trip. The pastor replied, If God sends you, we want Him to tell us too. Then we were asked to wait in an adjoining room. After a while, I was called back and was told, “Yes God told us that He sends you and we have to help you not only with money but with the whole church to support you in prayer until the work of escaping of Your brother’s family from Romania will be done. “They gave me in the name of the Lord, one hundred thousand lire which then worth about eighty dollars, they embraced me and I was entrusted in the hands of the Lord.

              Midnight was the time the Lord decided I had to go to Yugoslav land. Zidarich family of Reformed brothers lived right next to the border with Yugoslavia. Zidarich sister stood on a balcony of the house to watch the passage of the Yugoslav border for guards patrolling along the border. Once at a signal, I jumped the fence in their yard that was adjacent to the border and I got on Yugoslav land.

              During the forty days in Italy I learned to speak a little in Italian, so I could easily communicate with the Yugoslavians as some understand this language. I entered the town of Nova Goritza in Yugoslavia where after I exchanged Italian money to Yugoslavian money at one of the stories in the city, I took the bus to Belgrade. When the bus arrived in Belgrade a taxi driver insisted a lot to me saying that with his taxi he will drive me to the Romanian border. I left myself pulled into his cab waiting to see what follows. After leaving Belgrade I asked him how it cost to go to Romania. The amount which he said was as all my money. I said I could not go on. Then he said, “I leave you in the town Pancevo which is 20 kilometers from Belgrade to Romania.” So he took me to the bus station to wait for the bus to Vršac, another city closer to Romania.

              I was sitting on a bench in the bus station, when suddenly the Spirit of the Lord said to me, “Speak to the man next to you in Romanian.” Then I said to the man who sat next to me on the same bench, “Excuse me, Vršac bus stops here?” “Yes it stops here, but how do you know that I am Romanian?” “I was told by God,” I said. “Oh, yes I understand, you are an evangelical Christian. I know that God speaks to them. I am a Christian too, an Orthodox,”  he answered. Then I said to him all I wanted to do, as I was coming from Italy and I wanted to go to Romania to take out a family, a mother with six children. And because I did not know any place where I could go there on dry land, because I was out of Romania on the water, he had to tell me where I could get that all and to come back through the same place, because between children was even a few years old girl. His answer was very telling: “I really am born in a village near the border known of old that is a God’s blessed place where people can pass easily. I do not live there but I will explain how you can get there. Here, take the bus to Vršac, then take another bus that will lead to the village named Marghita. There you will find Romanian Christians who will tell you what to do. “And he went to the same bus for a few stops to Vršac. Before descending he gave me some Yugoslav money and hugged me, making sure that he will support me in prayer for God to do His work. He was the man of God asked by me as a sign of sending me on this trip.

              I arrived at Vršac at nine o’clock in the evening. Marghita bus was gone. There was not another bus until the next morning. I took down asking the Yugoslav people about the direction to Marghita. “You’re crazy, some answered, no one walks away for as a distance (about 20 km) and especially at night.” God gave me a wind back and even when I was physically weak after fasting days held in Italy I got only three hours Marghita village. Yugoslav police patrols did not stop to arrest me though they were seeking to arrest Romanians to be handed over to Romanian border guards. Perhaps they could not think that a Romanian can go illegally into Romania while all Romanians came illegally from Romania. It was midnight; the whole village of Marghita was dark. One window was lighted. I went in there. It was the tavern. One man was there, the tavern keeper. I asked whether any known Romanian Christian in the village. “I’m not from here, so do not know anyone.” He replied. While talking with him, two children passed on a moped. He whistled and they turned back. They were Romanians. I told them that I am looking for a Romanian Christian. “I live right next to a Romanian Christian,” said one child.“ I go with you and leave to the gate, I tell you his name, you have to call, but I will not stay with you so he does not know who helped you (Yugoslav police tried to catch the Romanians fugitives and those who helped them cross the border).“

              I called the Romanian Christian name. I was introduced to the house. It was a family of two old. After we prayed together, I told them my story and what I wanted to do. They made me a sketch of the road I would go through it. They told me so: “Go back one kilometer on the road by which you came, you’ll find a channel called Moravitza. You will have to go towards the border with Romania, seven kilometers along that channel. Your right you will see many lights. That is the check-point of the route between Romania and Yugoslavia. You thus reach the border with Romania. We broke up peacefully after I was entrusted to the Lord. I followed instructions received; after seven kilometers with the channel on my left and through a very high and green cornfield, I came to a barbed wire fence. I departed the wires and went through that fence in Romania without being seen by those guards who were busy checking the incoming and outgoing cars at that hour of midnight, though I was just a few hundred feet from that crossing point.

              Now I wanted to make sure if I really came into Romania, or I entered a Yugoslav village just close to the border. It was deserted at that time of night. I was looking to find a Romanian inscription and I reached a store which read: “Cooperative” (a Romanian name for the store). I thanked God that helped me to get well in Romania. That village is called Stamora Moravitza.

              I crossed the village and being informed by the Spirit of the Lord I left the main road and walked across the fields. My goal was to reach a small city named Gataia for there was a station for the train to Timisoara. Something unexpected happened to me going over the fields. Suddenly I was surrounded by a pack of dogs that were very vocal. Shepherds were sleeping next to the flock. A shepherd woman woke and saved me from the mouths of dogs ordering them to shut up. I saw how the Lord has watched so as not to wake the shepherd men for it was known that they were informants of the border guards in the border areas. Some had even been caught by shepherds and handed to border guards who mocked and beat them, even some very serious, then sent forth to be put in jail.

              Gataia village was still far and I was very tired after walking about 40 kilometers. I said to the Lord: “Lord give me a means of transport to arrive at Gataia for you see I can not go on.” Very soon afterward I saw in the field a team of farmers. Their leader said to me“ Wait here, for a tractor for Gataia will leave at noon.” It was about 9 am. I stood there. I used that time to rest, I held the feet in cold water for they were swollen. One thing that caught my attention was that it was a big difference between cornfields, in Yugoslavia and in Romania. In Yugoslavia corn was very tall and green, while in Romania was small and yellow. The leader said to me, “Look, we have nothing to reap.” It looked like the difference between blessing and curse.

              At Gataia I entered a restaurant in the vicinity of the train station where I ate and where I got Romanian money by selling a tape player that I had brought from Yugoslavia. I traveled by train to the town of Pitesti, then with a taxi to the town of Colibasi where my friend’s family lived. It was three in the morning when I reached the door of the apartment. I told the sister to prepare for departure. I have not entered the apartment but I immediately went to another friend and Christian Brother’s house named George where I stayed to not be found by police. George wanted to go with us in Yugoslavia. Also has come with us a girl that I thought I would marry, but it was not. We were in total ten people. Children were fully convinced that the Lord helps them to come and meet with their daddy. We traveled by train to a boundary neighboring town called Jamul Mare. From there we went down the road that parallels the border to Stamora Moravitza.

              I remember a miracle that happened out of the village Gherman. It was approx. seven o’clock that evening. We walked on the left side of the road. George led the girl into his arms. I was the last in the series of ten people. Suddenly I saw in front of us on the left side of the road two guards standing in a booth. When I saw them I cried: “Lord, stuck them to so remain.” We went all ten before them about a meter away from them. They were stuck until we came out of their visual field. I knew from the Lord that border crossing had to take place at around three o’clock in the morning. Therefore we waited under a bridge to pass the time approached. We went to the border on the same route that I had come from Yugoslavia. Another miracle was when crossing Moravitza, we had to pass right by the border guard headquarters. There was no sentinel to see us. We approached the checkpoint where is the entry to Romania. We were not seen by border guards.

              We reached the barbed fence, I held the wires apart until one by one all passed to the other side of the fence, and then I passed myself. We walked the seven kilometers along by Moravitza canal until we reached the road to Belgrade. We stopped a bus that took us and drove straight to a police station in the town of Pancevo. Mother and six children were staying at a hostel for workers for ten days, and after legal proceedings have been staying at a hotel in the city of Belgrade. My friend who was in Italy came to his family in Yugoslavia and immigrated together to the U.S. So were fulfilled all the promises that this family had when was in Romania, that they will go after their father John in the same way and will have abundant food while in the country will be famine. Indeed it was the abundance of food in Yugoslavia. I can not forget the so tasty bread, that if you could not get enough.  I returned to Romania where the Lord performed other miracles narrated in the next chapter.

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Chapter 4

    
    

    The Miracle in Prison of Timisoara

    
    

              In 1988, in January, I ended up getting arrested along with two other brothers of faith to attempt crossing between Romania and Yugoslavia. We were deposited at the prison located on Popa Sapca Street in Timisoara, Romania. There we met with four other brothers who were arrested for the same reason. We were in total seven brothers of faith in a room of forty-seven prisoners; most of us were arrested for crossing or crossing attempt of the country border.

              At the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I said to the brethren: “Let us unite and pray to God to give an amnesty, to remove those arrested out of jail.” We all agree to pray and to fast every day calling on the name of our Lord Jesus to bring deliverance. About this decision of ours, I told the other prisoners who were with us in the same room. When they heard what we want to do were happy, some of them making promises that if God will answer us, they will lead the congregation and repent.

              We prayed and fasted for ten days. In all this time, we not only prayed but talk to people about Jesus, sang spiritual songs and poems telling. Those in the room did not disturb us, saying among them: “The Christians pray for decree”. I remember it was a young man who tried to disturb us, mocking us, though as I found out he came from a family of believers. But something strange happened because he got a toothache and left us in peace to the end. A beautiful memory I have is about a robber from Constanta which in those ten days he repented, quit smoking and swearing, and very glad said he knew for sure that God brought him to prison to repent and would also deliver him off there.

              Another miracle was that during these ten days we have prayed for one of the seven who hadn’t been baptized with the Holy Ghost. He received the baptism with the Holy Spirit right there in prison and began to speak in other languages. As we prayed the Lord told us through the Holy Spirit that He was on our side and that we had to fight in prayer and not give back. We were shown through visions even posing in the air the battle between evil spirits who opposed this prayer and the angels of the Lord who fought on our behalf.

              Two important things we kept the focus: full unity and unwavering faith. We watched one another lest any spirit of the doubt  creep between us. I remember, once one of us had said that after free from jail after he served his sentence, he would do a certain thing; then I immediately warned him, saying, “How can you say that, because now you’ll be free. “Thus he was immediately placed in a position of faith.

              During these ten days I was taken for investigation at the prison’s secret police officer to be interrogated by him as to them I was considered dangerous because crossing the border often and being a guide to others. Because I felt the presence of God’s Spirit in me, I boldly told the Colonel many miracles that God used me to the border crossing with others, since even with a family of six children. He listened to all of them, and then said, “Nita, you’re a bag of stories, I do not believe anything.” I replied: “You’ll see that God will escape us this time from here in prison,” to which he replied: “Not at all.”

              At the end of the tenth day, God gave us a message saying “Now, you won, I heard your prayer, tomorrow you have to eat because you have to.” Next day, which was actually the eleventh, we ate, and really needed, because we were taken out of the room to load some scrap metal in a truck in the prison yard. After our return to the room, we got in an agreement that the next day, which was the twelfth, to bring God as a day of thanksgiving because he heard the prayer for deliverance from prison. So we fasted and sat in thanksgiving to the Lord. At the end of the day of thanksgiving, at half past ten in the evening, we heard whistling coming from outside the prison. The whole room became quiet. All listening, when suddenly a loud voice rang out in the streets: “Great decree .... general amnesty to ten years! “

              All those who were convicted or had to be sentenced for up to ten years were released from prisons in Romania. Those who were convicted or had to be sentenced to more than ten years have benefited from reduced penalties. I remember that in an adjacent cell to our room was a prisoner convicted with a death penalty that was holding a hunger strike in the hope that he will be able to get a change of his sentence. Even he benefited from this amnesty and begun to eat. In that prison, it was said that of approx. 1,200 prisoners, remained in jail about 30. In all the land were released about 60,000 prisoners of whom many were jailed for crossing or attempting to cross borders, between which were children of God. Old jail inmates, who knew even earlier times, said that never, throughout the history of Romania, was given a decree so great. Prisoners in the room, crying, said: “We saw the power of God, we go to the church, and we want to repent.” Much joy was upon them all.

              But I had a great time just before final release. After I was dressed in my civilian clothes, I was taken by a policeman and left behind the door of a large room which was next to the prison gate and left there. The room was filled with prisoners like me waiting to be handed over documents for release. Next which opened the door and entered the room behind me was... the Colonel. When he saw me, he asked me what I was doing there. Then I got up and I said, “See Colonel that God saved us.” He replied: “No God, but Ceausescu ( the then president of Romania).” But I raised my voice and shouted to the crowd of prisoners who were there: “It is true that God has escaped us?”  “Yea…” echoed around the room. The Colonel never said a word, God leaving him embarrassed in front of us.

              I wrote these things to strengthen the faith of those who intercede for God’s people in times like these. Times are tough; we need to come together in a unity in the Spirit. Let us strive in prayer with a sincere repentance, with fasting, weeping, and mourning. For the people there are many who are bound by the enemy, have become prisoners of things down and have not power forward on the path. There are families who have troubles with their children who wander away from the Lord. Families are divided. There are many sick in souls, and therefore the Lord permits over them bodily illness or other afflictions. Many churches, expanding the way, do not differ too much from the world because accepted the world fashion and other more serious things they consider innocent, but that the Lord hates. We need a real awakening repenting in dust and ashes. Let us join our hearts and voices before Him who is able to release from the prison of sin and make us ready, as it ought to be, as a bride adorned for her husband, clean and Beloved. Maranatha!

    
    

    
    

    
    

    Chapter 5

    
    

    Tales from Communist Prisons

    
    

              By God’s grace, I had to be in prison several times. In the winter of 1969-1970, I was arrested for not taking military oath, and put in prison of Vãcãresti, a former monastery that was converted in prison. The atmosphere in the prison was one of frustration and dissatisfaction. People were angry, sad, and hungry. I felt happy for the privilege of suffering for the faith in truth. Others were amazed that I chose to suffer for such a reason and judged me saying that I could be free. Since I knew I am a child of God I was looking for opportunities to do well to fellow suffering. Once a cellmate manifested his disagreement with me because I was a Christian and he spoke badly of me to others. I kept silent and wanted to do well with him. God gave me an opportunity to express my love for him. It happened that his stomach was upset, being very nervous because he was arrested. The food in jail was very little and accompanied by polenta. Each morning we were given a small piece of bread. Because polenta made him sick in the stomach Lord gave me the urge to give him my bread. He agreed to be helped and after he healed said to others that he understood now what is it to be a Christian, for being in trouble only the Christian helped him. I liked to encourage them by telling them that God can do a miracle and get us out of jail. And indeed, even at that time was changed the penal code and many were released. I was moved to another cell where I met another Christian arrested for failure to take the oath, a young Adventist reformist. He was very gentle. He, as a vegetarian suffered additionally because though the food was less, he did not eat that which contained meat. He was sentenced to two years in prison. When he was released due the change of the penal code was taken to army again, and for the same reason, he was sentenced to four years in prison.

              Through the years 1983-1985 I was arrested three times. As for working and living together with two of my brothers the police came to Oarja from Pitesti and arrested us. We were tried and sentenced to six months in prison because we had no jobs. In fact, we were not parasites, but the communists used Decree 153 in order to arrest and convict people which they were supposed to have suspicious anticommunist meetings.

              Because we did not belong to a state-affiliated congregation of worship were always followed by the secret police, we were watched by some neighbors or relatives who were recruited as agents or informers of the secret police. We were harassed because they thought, we were doing clandestine meetings where they could not know what was happening. We were said that if we go to the assembly of cultic worship and make ourselves members there, we’ll be left alone. This was because there were already recruited staff members of the congregations as agents that reported what was happening in. They watched us when leaving home. If a foreign person of village visited us, agents came to find out who he was and why he came. So that was the situation of the Church in communist countries. Because of this, it was called the “Underground Church.” After the arrest, we were investigated on the things they feared, as links to suspicious persons or things concerning the faith. But God was on our side and gave us words to stand up when asked to give account for the hope that was in us. Once, when I was arrested along with some brothers, at the police headquarters in Pitesti, an officer addressed me in a very arrogant tone: “Tell me why you Christians, since the Catholic Inquisition, have done so many crimes?” Very quickly the Spirit of the Lord gave me the right answer: “If I’m dressed as a policeman and make a crime it is it to blame the police?” He has not said a word and left ashamed. After several days of keeping under terror and investigations they led us to the “black room” where masked men beat us to draw, they said, faith from us. It was a dark room, isolated from other buildings, where after we were put blind glasses, were led by policemen and given in the hands of those who were skilled in beating. Inwardly, a rhythm of rock music was resonating to cover the screams of the tortured. From there, bound with chains we were moved to the prison of Colibasi.

              At Colibasi, because we were considered dangerous, they kept us in separate rooms lest we meet with each other. But God who does wonders provided that we could meet. We had no right to work, so we were kept in cells. But it happened just at the time that plumbing repairs were done in prison. Craftsmen who worked on the repairs needed help and came to police-guards asking to be given them prisoners who will work with them. Of course, we were the first at the door. Then craftsmen came and asked only for us because we were already specialized. I stayed in a room with a brother of Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was called Basil. He was a very honest man. He was arrested for worshiping in a house with other brothers. One day it was brought to our room a prisoner who was known in the underworld as “The Snake”.  All feared him. One day he was in a bed on the second level and asked me to give him a cigarette that was on the floor. I refused. Then he went down on me and gave me a slap on one of my cheek. But I calmly turned back the other cheek. He remained blocked for not encountering such a situation before and I was received only one slap. Then he asked others about me for he did not understand my strange reaction. He was told that I was a Christian. Since then he had an attitude of respect for me and Brother Basil. He terrorized everyone in the room, but we were not touched.

    While we were in prison the policeman of village Aorta said that he will not allow us to live in the same village after our release. But after six months we returned there. Meanwhile, the policeman had been caught committing a shameful act and was moved disciplinary by his superiors in another village. God was in control of all things. After a while, we have arrested again. Lord said to one of the brothers that we would have to spend in prison, by that time, a month. We were taken all at the prison of Colinas. It was a very hot summer. We were placed in a cell where, because of the crowds and the heat, we felt like in a sauna, the concrete floor of the room was flooded with water from sweat and condensed steam. We were very happy discussing only subjects of faith. A few days later they separated us because we were considered dangerous. I was moved to a cell where there were three other inmates. Every day one of us was on duty with cleaning. When I entered there I saw that it was a mess and so many flies. I cleaned and caught all the flies. Then every day I was cleaning and if a fly got in I killed it immediately, so the others were not bothered either by flies nor by care to clean. Just sitting in bed and talking. I did not interfere in their discussions for they were discussing many vanities. Once I heard one of them saying to others: “I would go mad with boredom if I were forced to live with this Christian only in the same cell.” My behavior, in their view, was unbearable. After a while, an amnesty came. I was the only one in that cell under the conditions of release. So I had to leave them. Again I heard them talking about me. One said: “If all men were like this one, would not need prisons.  “We were released after a month spent there, as our Lord had said.

              After a while, it happened to be with some brothers in Craiova. One day we took the bikes and Bibles and went to a place in nature. We sat down on the grass and talk from the Bible. The place was near the railroad linking Craiova with Bucharest. It happened that a freight train passed by and because it was before entering the train station, it stopped at a signal. A policeman who was in the driver cab saw us and thought that we stood there to steal from the cars of the train. He came to us and arrested us. We have confiscated Bibles and put in jail for five months. After a stay in prison in Craiova, we have been moved to the prison of Bacau.

              At Bacau, we were used as farm workers. The Prison has had contracts with farms to use prisoners for harvesting agricultural products. Farms paid to prison not by how many products were harvested but for the size of the area harvested. Therefore policemen guarding us forced us to work very fast to finish an area as large as possible in the shortest time. There was only a few percent of the cultivated area harvested. The products remained largely untouched. Then behind us came tractors plowing and burying them under furrow. It was, as said, the communist curse which was known throughout the country. I was looking to harvest more as I could because I felt sorry for that waste. But because of that, I left behind and those who were guarding us were screaming at me saying I’m lazy. My brother worked at harvesting potatoes where few were saved, most remaining to be buried by plows tractors. I told him that we must be fair and not let destroy crops. He was trying to harvest all, and their policemen rushed the prisoners to go fast forward. Then my brother had a dream that looked like someone put a very heavy bag on a child back to be carried. I understood that I was the one who asked my brother to do something that was impossible to do. Once a policeman who was wiser he called me and told me: “Move the cart in which is the drinking water barrel.”  He asked me something impossible. I answered: “I can not” Then he told me: “See that you can not, why God does not help you?” God was speaking me through him to understand that there are things beyond our control. I learned in the school of life...     

              In 1988, being in Yugoslavia, the Lord told me that He needed me in a place of suffering. I said: “Lord I want to be where is your will.” I left myself arrested by the Yugoslav police and was sent to Romania. I was taken to prison in Timisoara where I had been released only a month before. The first Sunday I was taken to the kitchen along with other prisoners to peel potatoes. I talked about God’s power to work miracles, and about how at the prayer of a group of seven, where I was one of them, God had worked to be given a large general amnesty in January of that year. Hearing me, the cook began to cry. I asked him wherefore weep, and he said, “Pray to God for me because I repent if escaping from prison.” “What did you do to got here?” I asked him. “I killed my father in law, “he replied. “I have to pray,” I promised. In the week that followed, I stood before God with fasting and prayer. On Saturday I was talking with the Lord saying: “Lord, I now have to be moved to Craiova and do not know if you’ve heard my request.” Even at that time, I was called by a policeman who came, get me out of the room to take me to shed clothes to return some clothes because I had to be moved to the prison in Craiova. The policeman took me and left me there to wait in line, for there were others before me. But the kitchen was near that center. Therefore as the policeman left I went to the kitchen window to see the cook. I have not seen him but was another who had not been before. The bystanders asked me: “Are you looking for Chef?” “Yes,” I replied. “The Chef is not. It is a quarter of an hour since he went by. He was dressed in civilian clothes and farewell to all saying that God escaped him“ I was told.

              Then I was moved to Craiova. At Court, the judge was a woman who said: “I’m very sorry to have to sentence you to only three years in prison just because the law does not allow me more.” My fault was that I crossed the border to Yugoslavia and helped others to do that.

              Shortly after entering the prison in Craiova, in the same cell where I was placed, were brought some young men who had been trapped in Craiova while traveling to the country border. Because I knew, my purpose there was to preach Jesus, I kept not silent. One of them received the Lord Jesus as Savior. He was an engineer from Bucharest named Costel who, as he said, felt a great emptiness in his soul. Therefore he was decided to leave the country, and his wife and start a new life in America. But after receiving the Lord Jesus, he said that the emptiness of his soul was filled with His presence. This was what was missing. He was no longer interested in leaving for America. He was sentenced to eight months in prison. After a while, I saw him fasting so much that got physically weak. Because his friends reproached me, saying: “Nita what you did to Costel, you want to kill him, look at him as weak he is?” I asked him: “What do you ask from the Lord, why are you fasting so long? “He replied:” I ask the Lord to make this miracle: after I get out and go home, not telling my wife that I repented, to take her with me to the Christian meeting and she to accept the Lord right then,“ Costel issued. After few months he was released. Then, a year later, I was released too. I met a friend who had been arrested and that he had stayed six months in jail. He did not know  Costel’s request because he was released before that event. I asked: “Nicusor, what you know about Costel?” He replied: “Nelu, Costel is happy. Here’s what happened: after his release, he went home and not telling his wife that he repented, he took her with him to the Church and she accepted the Lord right then. “

              In prison of Craiova happened that I was accused unjustly of being staged an escape from prison. Therefore I was declared dangerous without the right to work, but only to stay in the cell. Every month prisoners without work were taken out of cells to stand before a committee of policemen who chose some of them to be assigned to jobs. I had no chance of being elected because my file was written “dangerous.” Every time my file going through the committee was just moved from side to side of the head of the commission.

              At that time it was a shoe factory attached to the perimeter of the prison. There worked prisoners with great punishment. Prisoners like me never worked there. I was considered dangerous, and there worked some civilians that I should not come in contact, not plotting any escape from prison. But in my heart, there was a burning desire to proclaim the Gospel to those who worked in the factory. Therefore I came to request the Lord asking Him to perform the miracle to be assigned to work in the factory. After 70 days of fasting and prayer, the Lord revealed me that in the factory He had 50 souls that needed to hear the gospel. Then the miracle came. I was taken out to the committee work and when the deputy commander of the prison, Lieutenant Lepadat took my file in his hand, did not move it to the other side as usual, but put it in the front of him. Looking at me, he took the eraser in his hand and wiping the writing against me on my file he said: “Nita, I send you to work in the factory, just be careful to be a good man there.” In that room were many others that were not dangerous, but God chose me who was the most dangerous from their point of view.

              For three months I preached the gospel to prisoners in the factory. I have never got caught. Sometimes prisoners gathered around me to listen to me speaking and singing Christian songs. There were two buildings. We were not allowed, as prisoners, to go from one building to another without being accompanied by policemen. However, I went in the other building and preached the gospel. Those who were touched by the word of God asked me to teach them how to pray. I was writing the Lord Prayer on the notes, together with verses from the Bible. Though we were not allowed to have pencils and paper, God created the possibility that I might have. Policemen checked the pockets of prisoner’s clothes which were hung on pegs but never finding any note. I had the assurance of the Holy Spirit. I was doubled by another person that was Jesus in me and with me all the time. I came into contact with civilians, not plotting any escape, but to proclaim Jesus. God worked in such a way that even the wife of a police officer who worked there asked me to fix an electronic device and thus I had a chance to speak her about the Lord Jesus.

              Once reached the number who needed to hear the word I knew that my mission there has ended. And I was catch. I have given two notes to two teens and I was seen by a secret agent recruited from prisoners.  Shortly afterward I was taken by a policeman and brought to the plant commandant’s office. He was with my notes in hand. He asked: “What have you done Nita?” And I said, “ Lieutenant, you know, ...God has appointed a day of judgment when we’ll have to give an account of our actions and therefore He calls us to repent and to change our way of living. “He said, You now want me to repent, didn’t you?”  “I would,“ I replied. “You know Nita, because your actions, now you have to stay in isolation room with chained hands and feet for ten days, then you have to stay in the cell, without seeing work until you finish the whole sentence.”

              I was full of joy. After two hours of my entry in isolation room, the door opened and two other prisoners were introduced. I talked to them about Jesus. One of them, looking at me with sad eyes asked, “May I be forgiven by God, for it is not any single sin that I have not done.” “Yes,” I replied, for the blood of Jesus washes us from all sin. He received Jesus. Once we sang together the songs of Zion, the door was opened and with a harsh voice, an officer who was known for his authoritarian communist way asked who sang. I replied that I was the one. “Yes, but I heard another voice,” he added. “And I,” replied my new brother. He threatened us and left. Later, after the fall of communism, I met that inmate in Italy. He married a Christian girl and told me that he was happy.

              As the two young men that I had given notes with verses from the Bible, I found out later that they were put in chains and in isolation too. I met one of them telling me full of faith that God will do a miracle for us to be taken out of the prison. And really wonder just came, for the communism fell and many have escaped from prison.

              After ten days in chains, I spent the remaining days in prison in a single cell. I was preaching every day, for at least the cell was small, for only five people, was always overcrowded, sometimes being even 10 to 13 inmates. Another miracle was that I was not moved from that cell, but others always were moved and replace with new prisoners, so that more and more people heard the word.

              At that time in the same prison was a young prisoner called Marian. He had a maintenance job, cleaning the corridors that connected the cells. He also served food to the prisoners by some small windows provided at the cell doors. He was brought in the same cell with me. He received Jesus. He helped us a lot in terms of food, for the prison food was little and low in calories. We were together a long time and we even released the same day. We went together to prayer meetings in Craiova. He married a Christian girl and keeps the faith of the saints.

              In the same cell was an inmate who was convicted of embezzlement. When I was talking about Jesus, he was greatly disturbed and hated me. The other inmates asked him: “What have you against Nita, you do not see that he teaches us good things.” “I can’t suffer him,” he said. He knocked on the door to talk to the policeman-guard. Being asked what he wanted, he said, “Sir, move me out of here because I can’t stay with this repented one in the same cell.” But the guards did not care about someone’s lack of comfort. Rather they said: “Why have you come here, you should stay out.”

              In prison we had books. They were communist propaganda books or other books that did not affect their educational system. I wrote verses from the Bible through books to be read by them who used them. Once, an officer came and interrogated me for this thing, then ordered the policeman on duty to send me to isolation. But the policeman has not executed the order and I remained unpunished. He was another man of God.

              In the article, I called “The Miracle from Prison in Timisoara” included in this book I wrote about the great amnesty since January 1988 when along with six other inmates we prayed and fasted for ten days in prison in Timisoara. At that time we started praying for the fall of communism in Romania, to which God replied that He would be on our side, but to strive in prayer until we prevail. The Lord showed us in a vision as President’s Picture was thrown away and high ranked people were talking about God. Since then I have continued to fight this prayer. In November 1989, I was in the same cell in prison in Craiova. In the room’ speaker, I heard the speech of the president held at the Congress of his reelection. Throughout his speech, I was struggling in prayer for his downfall. At one point I heard a message from God that sounded like this: “Okay, you have overcome, he will fall.” And he fell in December.

              Immediately after the fall of communism, the border-crossing prisoners, being presumed innocent, have been set free. I was in prison yard wearing civilian clothes. The lieutenant Lepadat, the same who assigned me to work in the factory, was writing my document of release. Near him were other policemen from the factory, was the commander who had put me in chains, and others who had fought against me. I was looking at them and they looked at me. There was an atmosphere of tense silence. I broke the silence saying, “You’ve put me in chains because I talked about God, but God prevailed, see that all?” No answer… Then I said: “Now you better repent.” The lieutenant said, “We will repent.” After a while, Lieutenant Lepadat became Commander of the prison and then retired. It was formed an organization for educating prisoners through the preaching of the gospel in prisons in Romania. Lieutenant Lepadat came to be one of the members of its board of management. He was another man of God.

              After release from prison, I had a great joy to proclaim the Gospel to unbelievers, especially since there was not a hindrance, but God told me that I have to leave to the west. And I left. In two weeks I received the passport and at the beginning of 1990, I passed the border with Yugoslavia legally, the same border that I crossed illegally five times during the communism. I arrived at the border with Italy and then I passed it illegally through the same place on the trail in 1987. I spent six months in Italy and came to America where there were already four of my brothers. In 2002 I married Mary (Marina), my dear wife. God has given us six children, for which we thank Him very much. Hallelujah!

    
    

    
    

    
    

      
    

    Repentance, repentance, repentance!

     

              On January 10, 2013, I had a divine dream. I was at a church meeting that I could not identify. I was asked to pray, and while I prayed I said: “Lord have mercy on us, forgive us for we have expanded the way.” The whole congregation started crying, asking for God’s forgiveness, and I cried: “ Repentance, repentance, repentance!” The Spirit of repentance came upon the whole assembly. The Assembly was not a big one.
    

              Thinking about this dream I understood that the Lord calls us, His people, to wake up. This was a small gathering, which shows us that being few in number is not proof that we are truly on the path of the few chosen.  Asking forgiveness for us all, this means that the call is not only to others but first of all, it was telling me that I need to wake up and repent for I am in the same number of those who have broadened the way. Therefore I consider myself guilty and humble with all others.
              I have found myself many times looking at my own way as being narrower than others which gave me a sense of satisfaction. However, the widened way is not the narrow path anymore. It is now another way to which I slipped onto, off the narrow path. The narrow path is one only and was drawn for all generations of people, regardless of culture or customs.
              When  Jesus traced the path, He traced it once and forever and it is the same for all people, of all ages. Changes or ‘improvements’, according to the cultures of the peoples, time or circumstances, are not allowed. We can not change the path after our own way of living, but instead, we need to change our way of living in according to the standards.Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'  (Jeremiah 6.16). Our Lord said: “You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD, am holy” (Leviticus 20.26).
               Indeed, we have the best in our Christian life, things that early Christians would not have accepted. So we gave free entry, even in assembly to the fashion of the world by allowing indecent apparel by using ornaments, uncovering the head of the female, and the neglecting and replacing of the work of the Holy Spirit with all kinds of programs produced by human wisdom and talents {The first who introduced the wearing of jewelry in Romanian church meetings were the men wearing ties, thereby giving opportunity to weaker vessels, the women, to take over and carry on the baton, leading to the state that we see today}.
                Many gathering places have become theaters where the audience does not really have the opportunity to bring pleasant worship to God with fear and reverence since prepared programs are offered by those who pose as spiritual leaders. We replaced the worship “in spirit and in truth” to artificial works that can only impress the spiritually blind or those who are asleep to sleep.
                Sheep, little sheep, and lambs suffer from the lack of true spiritual food. Elderly people who should graze and watch the sheep, are left over on the last row of the congregation while work is done by young people, unappointed by the Holy Spirit which, from pulpits, cause to resound beautiful preaching but without spiritual power. Leaders are too busy with religious programs to have time left for “those poor sheep”.
              It is fulfilling the God’s word given through the prophet Ezekiel 34.6-9:"Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy, and say to them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord GOD: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep?
    You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness, you have ruled them.
    So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts.
    My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them."  
               Instead of the presbyterian surveillance of His flock, we adopted a hierarchic - pyramidal system of leadership. Lord Jesus said that among us is not that kind of world government:  as kings of the Gentiles over them, and those who master it are given the names of benefactors. "The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors.
     But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest and the leader as one who serves.
     For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves (Luke 22.24-27). "   How can people forming the pyramid come down to the sheep which must bear all her weight?
               We see no one “Pastor” or one “Bishop” among all the elders called by Paul from Ephesus at Miletus, but he addressed to all alike: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood“ (Acts 20.28).
               Pastors and bishops are not titles people should give, nor positions that should be attributed in an assembly, but are spiritual services that must meet the elders of the people (the white-haired) being placed by the Holy Spirit.
               To graze the sheep means to search for them where they are, to spend time among them, to know them face to face, to give them practical advice on the spot depending on the situation, trouble or life difficulties, and the status of each. It means knowing every sheep and lamb, both spiritually, emotionally as well as materially. The kind of people that can do these works are people with life experience that have families, raised with the fear of the Lord, that have all the children that He gave them (not just how many they wanted to receive by stopping birth or other works, foreign to the narrow way). 

    The assembly of the elders also included in their number the prophets of the people: “Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, a Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.
     While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."  Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off (Acts 13.1-3).
                In our time, in the work of prophecy, women that should remain silent in the churches are in the majority (Paul writing to prophets: 1 Cor. 14.34). Well the Lord said through Isaiah: My people – infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O, my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths “(Isaiah 3.12). The job of a prophet is assigned specifically to man. We can understand very well from the story of the house of Philip the evangelist when even though there were four daughters, virgins, that did prophesy, prophet Agabus had come from Jerusalem to convey Paul’s message about his arrest, that was supposed to take place in Jerusalem (Acts 21.10,11). Anyway, the woman can prophesy outside the church.
             I am confident that the Lord who has only good thoughts about us, his people, sent us notice because He wants us to be ready to meet Him, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and beloved. To be found ready to meet the bridegroom means that you first need to become ready, and then to remain in this state until the time of his coming.
               Readiness means being perfect. Who is perfect? He who does not err in speech: “…if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. “ (James 3.2). So I can check myself if I have reached perfection checking my way of speaking; every idle word must have gone out of my speech.

    To achieve perfection, we are told in Ephesians 4.11, 12, that God gave the five spiritual services: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, for perfecting the saints. Without these jobs absolutely necessary for God’s people, we can not achieve perfection and remain in this state until the coming of the Bridegroom moment. We know that these jobs, which actually should form the working hand of God, are missing in these difficult times. If we look carefully at how people get to perfection at this time, we can see that God uses the rod: He gives our bodies into Satan’s hands to destroy the flesh, turning off the power of our flesh through suffering, then He takes us home, or keeps us alive until our bodies are weakened by old age, having no cravings, so we can touch the readiness and are taken home. If in the moment of coming of the Bridegroom, I, who have not reached perfection, being caught committing an error, having no time to apologize and to be washed by the blood of the Lamb, will remain down.
             I pray anyone who reads this calling and truly feels the real state of affairs and the absolute need to wake up, to join intercessory prayer, to apologize for expanding our way through indifference, to return all to the holy path through real repentance in sackcloth and ashes, and to remove every sin in our lives that we may truly be the light of the world.
             The prayer, which became very neglected in these times, is a spiritual ministry at everyone’s hand and is well rewarded by the Lord.
             Let’s gather in the Spirit, putting our time in service to the Lord and beseech Him to bring back those blessed old days when the church did not lack in any spiritual gift while waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 1.7). Pray for God’s people that surround us and intercede as saints like Jeremiah, Daniel, Nehemiah cried out for the deliverance of God’s people. Let’s sit in the “gap” and watch for prayer, as we are told in Isaiah’s message given for a time like this: “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have set watchmen; all the day and all the night they shall never be silent. You who put the Lord in remembrance, take no rest and give him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it a praise in the earth. (Isaiah 62.6,7).” 

              Lord, bless all who will receive this message seriously and give them the power to spread it for the sake of the people of God!
    
    
    
    
    
    
    Let the Children Come
    
             Many Christians act like the world, putting on fashionable clothing, wearing jewelry, putting on makeup, and so on, not only outside in their daily lives but even at Christian gatherings and meetings. We are not going to discuss all these aspects of the decline of the “End Time Christianity” but we will deal with only one issue that is disregarded by many of those who would have the responsibility to pull the alarm, given the seriousness of the sin that crept into the Lord’s people. It is the refusal of many Christian families to give birth to all children, whom the Lord has planned for them to be brought up in faith and love.
             This sin, which should have been noted as a warning at all marriage events, defiles people and prevents the Holy Spirit to work with great power among the people of God. Also, prayers are often hindered by the defiled hands of those who should ascend clean hands to God in intercession, for the salvation of others.
             It is known that since ancient times people used various methods to prevent the birth of children, from the bloody method of abortion up to the most modern methods of avoiding conception of the fetus. Some Christian families have borrowed from the world, some of the so-called innocent methods, because they do not involve bloodshed or killing of the seed using drugs. Such methods are: avoidance of intimate relationships in some calendar days in which fertilization of the fetus can occur, abstinence for longer periods of time or even sterilization of one conjugal partner.
             Life is the gift of God that we rejoice and give thanks for His grace to exist, and we are grateful to our parents that we were accepted in their families. This same gift of life should be enjoyed by the children that we deny the right to come into the world.
    Life itself is the very Lord Jesus Christ and to not allow His work to give life to our children, means to challenge His right to be Master and Lord in our lives.
             How can we save people from death, bringing them to life in Jesus Christ, if we refuse to bring our own children to life? People refuse children for fear of suffering, because they worry about tomorrow, or because it seems a shame to have too many children in families. Christians who think like the outsiders are powerless to trust in the Lord, rejecting their coming children for the same reasons.
              Getting married entails willingly taking a yoke to be led in together as a team. This yoke is all the troubles and difficulties that arise in family life. We can avoid this yoke if we remain unmarried (1 Cor. 7.7, 26, 27). If we want to benefit from the pleasure of being married, it is lawful to accept the price to be paid for this pleasure, resulting in the birth and growth of all the children God wants to give us.
               Those who forbid marriage are appointed by Paul, as people that have departed from the faith, marked with red iron in their conscience (1 Tim. 4. 1-3). The question is, what sin is greater: to stop the marriage, or to stop having children? Can those, who stop giving life to those ordained to life, hope that God will give them eternal life? Paul says, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap” (Gal.6.7).
                In a vision of a faithful sister in Romania, was seen a woman in a gathering of believers, who was very well appreciated by the congregation’s elders for her work in the vineyard of the Lord. But Jesus said to them: “In my book, it is written of her that she is dead forever. Why? Because when asked how many children she has, she responds, ‘The Lord only gave me two.’ I wanted to give her more but she did not want to receive them. Her sin to refuse children is doubled by her lie, which drew upon her eternal punishment because she will not repent and cry to God to head remission.”
              The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you” (Jer. 1.5). So if God is the One who plans beforehand the coming of a man in the world, who are we to interfere with our will against His will by planning how many children to bring into the world, and when to bring them?
              King Solomon wrote: “In the multitude of people is the king’s glory but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince” (Prov. 14.28). The Lord, our king, needs a great and strong people, as said in Psalm 112. 2: “His seed shall be mighty upon the earth; generation of the upright will be blessed”; and it is promised Abraham a seed as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven. We are descendants of Abraham through faith like his and our duty is to fill God’s house with children blessed by God.
               The command given to humans and animals, to multiply and replenish the earth remains valid, for the earth is not filled. David says that God gave His commandments to be sacredly obeyed. God has not changed, and this command has been given before putting the law of Moses. Animals respect this command, only humans violate it. If animals would not breed, there would be a loss for the man, and when the man does not multiply, it is a loss to God. By opposing this command, it is thwarting God’s plan to fulfill His number of elects with children written in the Lamb’s book of life.
               Souls of those killed by abortion are already in heaven, but those who were not allowed to exist by using the methods considered innocent will have to be born in other families that are already numerous and are usually in poor countries. Thus, as in the parable of the talents happens when that which had ten talents received in addition the one of whom hid it in the ground.
                Some living in this sin criticize those who have many children saying that they don’t have wisdom because God gave the people wisdom to regulate the number of their children and this can even adjust the earth’s population. To consider this work as God’s is an offense to Him. How could God, who can’t even see evil, be Himself the source of this evil? This “wisdom” does not come from above.
               Parenting is reasonable and is a spiritual service. Some of those who refuse to receive from God their own children are very willing to help orphans and others are very active in childbearing spiritual children by spreading the gospel to the unsaved. These are oddities of walking in the semi-darkness.
               Muslims, who do not even have the light of the Gospel of Christ, have many children even in monogamous families, making the balance of births to be very much in their favor compared to Christians, that in some countries are even declining in number. The people of Israel precisely wished to be greater in number, to be superior to other nations.
               God gave the barren a house and made her a joyful mother among her children (Ps. 113.9). Here is how the man who fears the Lord is blessed: “Your wife is like a fruitful vine by the sides of your house; your children are like olive plants around your table” (Ps. 128.3,4). The question is: what kind of wine is the wife who refuses to give rise to all the children and what kind of blessing may be of that man?
               God’s Word says in Ps.107: “He blesses and multiplies exceedingly the families as the herds. Uprights see this work and enjoy it and unrighteousness close its mouth. “ Today we can say just the opposite, that the wicked opens his mouth saying, “Behold, they are like us, why should we repent? The Christians only have two children as well”.
             Solomon says: “Behold, children are a heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is his reward” (Ps.127.3). When Esau saw Jacob’s children, he asked, “Who are they?” And Jacob answered, “They are the children God has given your servant.” Paul says: “The woman shall be saved in childbearing if they humbly persevere faith and holiness” (1 Tim. 2.15).
             There are some Christians who fear to prevent the birth of children, but they are not happy of their coming as they should, by muttering and grumbling against God who, they claim, gave them too many children. For this reason, they are deprived of true blessing from the Lord and it just happens that they are punished through those children, is that they are sick or disobedient to their parents.
             If we refuse the heaviness of raising children, how can we weigh heavily in the scale of God when He will separate the wheat from chaff? David says: “I have been young and now am old, but I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37.25). Peter says: “Throw all your anxiety upon Him; for He cares for you.” (1 Pet. 5.7).
    Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. If we do not believe the promise of God: that He will care for us and for our children, that means that we are making Him a liar and we are believers only by name.
               God’s love is manifested in us through the love of brothers. Babies are our brothers, and even more, they are the fruits of our love as parents. If a family does not accept these wonderful fruits of love, can there be real love?
               A large part of the blame for this sin that has crept into lives of many last days Christians, is on some spiritual shepherds, since many of them, being defiled by this sin, not only refuse to rebuke it but even encourage the sin by saying that God has given people this “wisdom”. Regarding this subject, some believers point to their own pastors and argue that they should be the ones to receive the children, seeing as they only have two or three. So while shepherds sleep, sin multiplies and weakens the people spiritually.
               It is time to wake out of this sleep, rending our hearts before God, to confess our sins, asking Him if it is possible to forgive us, to wash our hands and clothes in the blood of the Lamb through sincere repentance. Also, those whose eyes are opened and see this state of affairs, must cry to God and intercede in prayer, begging mercy for awakening the sleepers, while looking to save some of them, snatching them from the fire. Jesus said, “Whoever welcomes a little child like this in My name, receives me” (Mat.18.50). May God help us to receive them so gladly in the name of Jesus so He will not fail to reward us. If we open to those who knock at the door of life, in the same way, He will open to us when we will knock on His door.  Let’s all ask God to soften our hearts to all of our children, so we can totally witness His love to all He brings into our lives; accomplishing our calling by being the light of the world. God bless you all! Amen.
    

    
    

    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

    
    

    Wearing Adornments, Jewellery
    
                It is known that since ancient times people liked to wear adornments. What are adornments? They are objects made of gold, silver or other metals, ivory, precious stones, textiles, etc.. that some people used to attach to clothing, certain parts of the body or drawn on clothing or body in the form of tattoos.
                Adornments purpose is to draw attention to the person wearing them, to mark a person's social position, membership in a religious group or of another kind, to define marital status (marriage or engagement ring) or to provide protection or favor of the gods or spirits. Some Christians wear crosses, icons, tattoos on biblical subjects or other religious objects believing that in this way  they receive the favor of God and the saints who have died. Many believe that jewelry or tattoos bring luck having magical power. Some wear adornments in memory of loved ones passing, or because they have received them as gifts from some loved ones. Most wear jewellery or other adornments for pleasure or simply because it is fashionable.
                Now let's see what the Bible says about wearing adornments. Jewellery appears first in Genesis 24:22, where we find Abraham's servant giving Rebekah a gold ring and two bracelets. They were principally designed to prove Rebekah and her family the generous nature and wealth of the family of her future husband. Notice the reaction of Laban, the brother of Rebekah, when he saw the gifts in Rebecah’s hands (verses 29-31).
                The second time we find jewellery is in Genesis when Jacob, before offering sacrifice to the Lord, commanded his family to remove all the foreign gods from among them. They gave Jacob all the foreign gods which were on their hands and the rings which were in their ears, and Jacob buried them in the earth (Gen. 34. 2-4). In Genesis 32. 2-4 we find that Aaron made the golden calf-idol using the Hebrew women’s earrings. In Exodus 33.5, we read that God was angry with his people and asked them to throw their adornments to see what decision he will take on. So jewelry appears in the Old Testament as both signs of prosperity and signs of idolatry.
                In the New Testament in 1 Peter 3.3, it writes: "Your adorning let be not that outward adornment of braiding of hair, and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel." In 1 Timothy 2.9, we read: "I also want women to pray decently clothed with shame and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. "
                Apostles Peter and Paul address women because generally, they were carriers of jewellery. In Isaiah 3. 16-26 where God rebuked the women of Judah, there is a list of ornaments which they wore.
                If the new covenant ornaments are prohibited, why in the Old Testament were they not banned? We find the answer in Matthew 19.8 when Jesus addressing the Pharisees said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning, it was not so." We find that even God himself had given David multiple wives, although from the beginning it was not so (2 Samuel 12.8). It is understood, therefore, that the old forbearance of God was one that allowed people to do abnormal things, because of the hardness of their hearts.
    
    
    
    The Covering of the Woman Head
    
                In the New Testament in 1 Peter 3.3 it is written for women: "Your adorning let be not that outward adornment of braiding of hair, and of wearing of gold or of putting on of apparel."  In 1 Timothy 2.9, it reads: "I also want women to pray decently clothed with shame and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes. "Worship to God is required to bring fear and awe and unadorned. But yet God gave women an ornament, her long hair (1 Cor. 11.15). How can then worship a woman if she can not wear adornments? God through Paul gives us the solution: to cover the adornment that may not be visible or to shear it for no longer have it. The man’s short hair need not be covered.
                The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor. 11.10 that she should cover her head to have a sign of authority on her head, because of angels. This is because angels represent God who is not a God of confusion but of the ordinance.
                Do only married women have to cover, or unmarried girls too? Paul does not use the expression wives or married women, so it is understood that it is the female. Also, he says that it is shameful for a man to pray with his head covered is clear that it is a male, otherwise it would mean that young unmarried men can pray with covered heads.
                The sign of authority means that the married woman has her husband as a master and the unmarried woman has her father as her master.
                If a woman who does not want to cover will shear her head, how long will her hair have to be cut? We can find the answer in the Bible where the same word "shear" is used for the sheep (1 Sam. 25.2). How short is the sheep's wool after being sheared?
                We must point out that transparent scarves, half scarves put on the top of the head, or ribbons, cannot be called coverings.
                Is it required that women be covered only in the assembly? Paul did not say only there, and the words of Jesus to the Samaritan woman learn that true worshipers worship the Father in spirit and in truth without being tied to a place like Jerusalem or Mount Gerizim. The Apostle Paul exhorts men to pray everywhere (1 Tim. 2.8), and from 1 Thess. 5.16  he urges us to pray without ceasing.  
    

            Peter nevertheless recommended an adornment: "... the hidden man of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God" (1 Peter 3.4).

    
    
    Painting and Styling Hair  
    
                By painting the hair we artificialize it. Hair of the head must be covered, but not with paint. The white hair is a crown of glory (Prov. 16.31), not something about someone should be ashamed.
                For hair styling apostles Paul and Peter use expressions like "braided hair" (1 Tim. 2.9) and "Hair Braiding" (1 Peter 3.3), and Isaiah, "curly hair" (Isaiah 3.24).
    This doesn't mean you can’t braid it or put it up in a simple fashion to not be messy, it just means that you can't style it in a way that the fashion world does, or adding ornaments.
    
     
    High Heels Shoes and Other Disrespectful Aspects
    
                The high heels shoes are used for adding height to the person wearing them, to give a touch of modernity or because it is fashionable, although God when he created woman pleased not to provide her heels higher than man's. They fall into the category of adornments.
                Also, wearing short, tight or split skirts, pants worn by the women, use of makeup and tattoo; painting eyes, lips and nails; long nails, using of artificial nails and eyelashes, plucking eyebrows, using wigs, putting on transparent clothes or dyed strident colors, wearing low-cut dresses or torn clothes to expose parts of the body, wearing sagging pants as in young men, wearing long hair on men, are all deviations from the  decency, and from worshiping with shame and shyness (1 Timothy 2.9).
    
    
    Man's Tie
    
                It is an adornment made from a fabric. It takes different forms as those of string, bow tie, scarf, tie, etc.. Men wearing ties in the church could not mean to preach the whole truth about wearing adornments because they would be answered: "You who teach others, do you not teach yourself?" Therefore it is reached the disastrous situation that we see in these times regarding the entering of the fashion world in the church.
    
    

    
    

    
    

               How we dress when coming to the church is very important both in terms of piety and in terms of how we relate to those around us. We can sometimes through the way we dress to cause children of God to sin. Being an offender is a sin that Jesus regarded as very serious (Matthew 18.6).
    
    

    
    

    
    
    

    Marriage

    
    
    

                When we talk about marriage we refer to the marriage established by God, the Only One who has made heaven and Earth. This means marriage between a man and a woman, that is between two people of the opposite sex. It is a perpetual statute that cannot be changed. This kind of marriage remains valid for all generations of people who will inhabit the earth regardless of culture, race or religion. This is not a traditional custom, which might be considered old and obsolete for those who refuse to obey God, but is the command given by God himself right from the beginning of the world. In the book of God called the Bible, we find the first commandment given by God to man after He created him: "Increase, multiply and fill the Earth (Genesis 1.28)." Because multiplication is to occur, it is necessary that two persons of the opposite sex must unite through marriage. The union of two persons of the same sex can't achieve the multiplication ordered by God, and neither can it be called marriage. Instead, it is an abomination that God hates (Lev. 20.13).

    
    
    

                "It is not good for the man to be alone," said God after He created the man (Gen. 2.18). That is why he made a woman for him. "Each man should have his wife (1 Cor. 7.2) and if someone is unmarried it is better for him to marry than to burn (1 Cor. 7.9)". Paul says it would be better for the unmarried to remain unmarried as he was, but each has his gift (1 Cor. 7.7). He who remains unmarried without having this calling from God will expose himself to great dangers from the tempter.

    
    
    

                If someone came to the conclusion that has the calling to remain unmarried, it would be good for him or her to ask God if his decision is according to His will. God knows us better than we know ourselves in terms of power and calling.

    
    
    

                Marriage is the most important thing a person can do in this fleeting life. How you choose your spouse will affect your happiness on this earth and even your eternal happiness. Paul tells us that everyone is free to marry whoever they want of the opposite sex but only in the Lord. Marriages made without the Lord create many problems in churches. The Christian who marries an unbeliever can expect many troubles because it is as if you put together an ox and a donkey to pull from the same yoke. Even marriages made in Lord, but without consulting the Lord have encountered big problems, many ending in divorce.

    
    
    

                In order to have a strong family, it is very necessary that the two spouses were made for each other and that they are spiritual enough to overcome the troubles of life together.

    
    
    

                If you have come to the conclusion that you have to get married, the best thing is to start to pray for your marriage, because unless the Lord builds the house, the builders will work in vain (Psalm 127.1).

    
    
    

                There are two ways to pray for a spouse:

    
    
    

                1) pray to God to give you light and guidance in your choice, or to choose a spouse  for you;

    
    
    

                2) ask God to make you a spouse, just as he did for Adam.

    
    
    

                Whichever method you use, you must have certainty that this is the spouse you prayed for. Also, you must pray to God to make you the right spouse for the person you will marry. Asking God for a faithful spouse while you yourself don't want to be faithful means that you canceled the opportunity to be heard by him.

    
    
    

                In order to have a happy marriage, it is a good idea to start praying for it as soon as possible. As a parent, I started to teach my children how to pray for their marriages when they began to understand what it implies to have a family.

    
    
    

                Personally, if I had understood the importance of prayer for marriage in my childhood, it would be that time that I would have started praying for it. Later as a teenager, I was guided by an uncle of mine to pray to God for help. He taught me this:

    
    
    

                “You have to pray for your marriage. But in order to have a better understanding of this, imagine that you want to buy a suit. For this, you have two possibilities. The first is to go to a store where you find suits that are already made for all sizes and preferences. There you will choose the one which suits you the best. It may fit but it might not be your perfect match. If you want your perfect match, there is a second possibility. You will have to go to a tailor. He will get all of your body dimensions and will make an outfit that matches you only. The difference between the two methods is that in the first method things are resolved quickly while in the second method you will have to wait."

    
    
    

                So it is with marriage. The first method is the easiest and quickest. You pray to God to help you choose the spouse that fits you the best and He will help you in your choice and even He can choose for you the spouse that much you. The second method is the hardest because you have to ask God to prepare a spouse to match you perfectly and to your preferences. But you will have to be patient and wait for God to fulfill your request.

    
    
    

                I have taken this issue very seriously and began to put into practice the second method as a teenager. I prayed asking God to make me a helper that would match exactly to me and with my preferences, in terms of spiritual, mental and physical. I also asked him to make me the right husband for my wife, which He would prepare for me.

    
    
    

                Through faith I knew that she is somewhere, so I prayed to God that he may keep her, protect her, process her and make her the right help for me. During this time of waiting there had appeared some marriage opportunities, but because I prayed for my marriage, God had protected me and He put obstacles to stop me from marrying another girl. After several years of praying and waiting, God showed me her in a vision while I was praying for her. Then in the dream, I was confirmed that her name was to be the one that I had preferred.

    
    
    

                Parental cooperation is very important if the parents are spiritual. That's why I shared my prayer request with my parents and they supported me in prayer. When the girl whom I was asking for appeared, I considered that my parent’s consent would be a sign that she was the person that God had prepared to be my wife. So I asked my parents what was their opinion regarding this subject. Both of my parents were fully convinced that she was the one that we've asked for. God gave me what I asked, fulfilling all my wishes.

    
    
    

                We got married and the banner over our house is love. My parents also love my wife as their own daughter. Now, after 21 years of happy marriage, I continue to thank God for my wife and for our six children with which He has blessed us.

    
    
    

                We as humans can go wrong in our choices, but God is never wrong. He gives good things to his children. We just have to ask with humbleness and piety and have patience till He, the skillful Potter, will make for us and of us, vessels of honor.

    
    
    

                When you make the choice, you have to make sure that the person you marry is totally free to marry, and does not have a husband or wife who is still alive. Otherwise, you can get into a sinful relationship.

    
    
    

                Weddings of believers should be totally different than those of the unbelievers. The fashion of the world and ornaments that have emerged at this time at the many Christian weddings are only to withdraw the blessing hand of God from those who are getting married.

    
    
    

                Sexual aspects should not be neglected by those who advise young people who are getting married. Many families are suffering from lack of knowledge in this direction because often parents or the elders of the church do not realize the importance of these things or are too shy to discuss this topic.

    
    
    

                Marriage means accepting a yoke that the two persons must wear together. This involves many troubles. Those two must be fully decided to receive from God all the children He had in mind for that family. The most wonderful blessings given by God in a family are children. Any complaint or grumbling about the high number of children born in the family will cause God to withdraw His other blessings, or even to use the rod to correct us.

    
    
    

                Now some advice for young women who want to marry. It is very important what a girl wears and how she dresses. Why? Because spiritual young boys are attracted to the spiritual young girls, and carnal young boys are attracted to carnal young girls. If you want God to give you a spiritual spouse this means that you have to be spiritual. A spiritual young woman is humble in heart, but you can see this by how she dresses. If a young woman dresses after the fashion of the world, a carnal young man will naturally be interested in marrying her, then the problems come...

    
    
    

                Parental consent is of very high importance in the choice of spouse. But it is absolutely necessary for the parents to be spiritual. Spiritual parents have from God an inside feeling that tells them if it is  God's will regarding the choice that makes their child. At the time of the Apostle Paul, the father had such great authority over the children that if a parent wanted to keep his girl unmarried, she would have to obey (1 Cor. 7.37). In our time the parents do not compel us to remain unmarried, so it is very good to have their approval for the blessing to be full.

    
    
    

                Marriage is the beginning of a journey that lasts your whole life. To be successful in this journey it is absolutely necessary to take God with you as the Master and Lord. He comes if it is asked and conjured. But where there is no God, the snake will surely come up; he doesn't need an invitation.

    
    
    

    
    

                                                    Family

    
    
    

                After the family is founded, much prayer is required to be guarded by God, because unless the Lord watches over the city the watchman stays awake in vain (Psalm 127.1). Of the two spouses, it is known that man has the responsibility as the head of the family. So if in a family there are things that go wrong, God will judge the head of the family first.

    
    
    

                One can understand the story of Eden when after the snake entered the family deceiving the weaker which is woman, God had not asked “Where are you, Eve?”, but “Where are you, Adam. Why? Because he had to ensure that no foreign influence might break into his family. We know that Adam was near when Eve discussed with the serpent, and he had not taken any measures to stop this dangerous talk. Then things went so far that the first family founded by God himself lost the happiness of earthly paradise.

    
    
    

                If in a family, things are not going well the husband must examine himself before God, asking, what exactly he has not done that it was obliged to do. If a family had reached the point of breaking up, the man should ask God saying, "Lord, why have You punished me like this, show me what I did wrong!" Usually, they use blame each other as in the case of Adam which throws the blame on Eve when questioned by God.

    
    
    

                Man is like a shepherd and his family is his flock of sheep that the Owner of the sheep had entrusted him with. After a time, the shepherd is asked about the sheep that were entrusted to him, but if he presents himself with sheep that were lost or eaten by wolves, won’t he have to pay for the missing sheep? Will he be able to say, “here am I with the sheep that You have entrusted me”?

    
    
    

                The wife is a great blessing to man and the man is required to keep this given blessing, being aware of the existence of the snake. We love God because He loved us first. His love towards us makes us reflect our love towards him. So it is in the family if the husband loves his wife she will respond with love for him. Don't wait to be loved if you don't love first. Your wife needs to feel that she is loved and then she will love you. The God of love will fill with love all the heads of families! And this love shall grow more and more.

    
    
    

                The family can be compared to a ship which is in the midst of the sea. High winds and waves can hit the ship. To be safe the most important thing is that Jesus must be on the ship. Then there will be no fear. When the sea will be enraged, there will be peace and tranquility, for Jesus is steering us even if we have the impression that He is asleep at the helm.

    
    
    

                Even if two who start a family are fit for each other, this does not imply that they are perfect. They need to grow together to the fullness of Christ. That's why it requires a lot of understanding and patience on the part of everyone.

    
    
    

                The laundry is washed at home, says a proverb. The disagreements that can arise in a family should be solved only by those two together with the Lord. If one of the spouses complains about the other spouse to a third person the situation might become worst. Many families have even come to breaking up because of bad advice was given by others. Even the parents helped the destruction of families when a spouse complained to his or her parents about their spouse.

    
    
    

                It is written that the man will leave his father and his mother and will join with his wife. You never have to say negative things about your spouse towards the other person. The snake is looking for information that it can use against your family. When these requirements are not fulfilled, things can get worse and the two no longer know what to do. Then they need to seek the help of parents and elders of the people, but only if they are spiritual, otherwise things will go worse.

    
    
    

                A very common problem we need to recognize that exists even among Christians is the mother-in-law. If a spouse is suffering from the mother-in-law, the other spouse should not stand idle, but needs to act through encouragement, comfort, prayer, and discussion with his or her mother which might not realize what she is doing. It is desirable for each woman to be a housewife at her home, not her mother-in-law as a mistress in the woman's house. If it is possible, in order to avoid friction between the wife and mother-in-law, it is good for spouses to live separately from their parents.

    
    
    

                One very important thing is communication between spouses. Many families are destroyed because of lack of communication. A spouse is going through some critical situations and the other does not know anything because they don't have time for each other. Apathetic, and Adam silence helped the snake to his work of destruction. It is required to spend time with the family. There were even Ministers of the Gospel who being very busy with work in the Lord's Vineyard have neglected their families and the snake has done them great damage. At the same time, the fasting, that is very necessary to be united with the prayer, if practiced without wisdom can be a cause of the destruction of the family(1 Cor.7.5). It happened as the wife separated from her husband because he fasted very much and has not fulfilled the duty of the husband.

    
    
    

                Sometimes it may happen that one of the spouses happens to be deviating from the right path. The one who has more light can help the other through prayer, through patience and love, not shouting at him: "You have to change." It is best to say, "I need to be changed, then being a light for my spouse, God will change him too."

    
    
    

                It happens in many families that the woman, assuming the leadership of the family, raises herself above the man, and it would seem that things are going well. This is not the order placed by God. Children will learn from their mother's disobedience of man and it will be difficult for them to obey their parents and their spouses when they marry. Whether her husband is a believer or an unbeliever, the woman must obey the man in all things except sin. Safira, Anania's wife was subject to her husband in a bad thing and was punished with the same punishment as himself (Acts 5-10). As long as the man is sane, he is and should remain the head of his family.

    
    
    

    
    

    
    
    

    The Children

    
    
    

                Many families have been destroyed because of incorrect understanding of God's blessing. Many believe that being blessed means having wealth and earthly prosperity. In reality, things are not really so. For he who fears the Lord is blessed to have true love, peace, and health, through the presence of the Lord. Psalm 128 shows us how the man who fears the Lord and walks in his ways is blessed: “He enjoys working with his hands, is happy and things go fine. His wife is like a fruitful vine in his home, and his kids are like olive shoots around his table.”

    
    
    

                Working day and night to make money and focusing on comfort means neglecting your spiritual condition, not having enough time for the wife and kids, and you can lose the real blessings. Many successful businesses have destroyed good families.

    
    
    

                Communication with children is very important. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother (Prov. 29.15). Punishing your child without talking to him, or to be overly harsh even though God is patient with us, can make children become rebellious against their parents and even against God. On the other hand, too much permission and spoiling the children can make them rebels.

    
    
    

                The family altar, which is “prayer together with the whole family”, must not be neglected. Personally, I started to pray for my children before I got married, putting aside one day of each week as a day of fasting for the family. I've asked the Lord to give me faithful and healthy children who are written in the book of life. To this day, I pray not only for them but also for their children until the children of the one thousand lineage. I asked God and I prayed to the Lord to always be himself a wall of fire, a wall of defense amongst themselves and the world. I also pray for their marriages so they will be blessed as my marriage was.
    
    
    

    
    
    

    Separation

    
    
    

    
    

    
    
    

    What God has joined together, let no man put asunder (Mark 10.9). Satan is fighting to destroy the faithful families to weaken the Church of God. Families are attacked by all kinds of spirits. It requires a lot of watching and prayer in order to be able to deal with all these attacks. But if the family’s altar is knocked down, or the spouses are too occupied with things devoided of spiritual significance, love cools and the snake penetrates and weakens the family unity. It happens that each has his own life, and no longer care for each other. Staying together in the same house but being alienated one of the other, it is as they are as separated. In such circumstances, it is very easy for Satan to bring another person into the life of one of the spouses, leading him or her to very bad things. Some families are together only because of the presence of children or other material goods they own together. Some spouses appear in public together, smiling as if all things are going well, but at their home it is a thunderstorm. Some are very careful to hide the reality from their children, but the atmosphere of coldness cannot remain unnoticed. Children have their own lives as arranged by their friends or the circumstances that are becoming more dangerous. Sometimes spouses seek reconciliation solutions but not where they should be sought. Each of them considers that the other is guilty. Neither can humble themselves to ask for forgiveness to each other and to God.

    
    
    

                So it comes down to a split. One of the spouses realizes that there is no point to hide the garbage under the rug, but that it is better to take the things as they are and decides to separate.

    
    
    

                Some believe that if they will be separated for a while, things will improve, but God hates the separation in marriage (Malachi 2.16).

    
    
    

                Things can get even worse. They appeal to judges or lawyers who don't really encourage reconciliation, considering broken families as sources of gain. They lose time and money, share things accumulated together, children are separated from parents or divided among their parents. There is no longer a blessing but the curse replaces it and the couple divorces.

    
    
    

                What is the divorce? It is a violation of a Covenant that the two had made before God and before man saying that they love each other unto death. Can the judgment of divorce abolish a family? Not at all. The formalities of divorce do not have the power to unbind the things which God has bound, and have no value before God, being a violation of his commandment.

    
    
    

                Who is more guilty of the two spouses in case they came to breaking up? Of course, it would be the head of the family. By neglecting, he has lost the sheep which had been entrusted to him by God.

    
    
    

                What should the husband do if he wakes up and recognizes the guilt before God? The first thing is to abase himself in sackcloth and ashes to ask for forgiveness from God. He is not to blame his wife or others that contributed to the breakup but to take upon himself the guilt as it should be. Then he must call out to God to change him and make him a repairer of damages because Satan has entered into his family through the gaps which have been formed by his careless. God gives grace to the humble and acts in their favor. Even Ahab, who was one of the evilest emperors of Israel, when he humbled himself,  entreated God to ease the penalty.

    
    
    

                In the event that the husband never wakes up from his wrongdoings, but his wife wakes up and asks for forgiveness from her husband and from God, her prayers to God can be persuaded to act in her favor by working at her husband's heart. The wise woman builds her house, but the foolish tears it down with her own hands (Prov. 14.1).

    
    
    

                When one of the spouses falls in the sin of adultery and afterward he or she is sorry and asks for forgiveness from the other spouse, it is good that they are forgiven, especially because very often a spouse falls into sin due to lack of care from the other. The woman caught in adultery had a husband (John 8.4) (in the Bible, the word "adultery" is used in the case of married people, while in the case of the unmarried the word "fornication" is used). Jesus said, "neither do I judge you, go and do sin no more." This is as He would say:  “go and do not ever cheat your husband." The commandment to forgive applies in this case. There are families of unbelievers who forgive one another and continue to live in peace, so as believers have even more of an obligation to be forgiving.

    
    
    

                A spouse may say, "I forgive but I don't want to have a relationship with my spouse who has committed adultery, lest I’ll become unclean in this way." Paul assures us that the unbeliever does not defile the faithful (1 Cor. 7.14), and adultery is a common sin of unbelievers.

    
    
    

                At marriages, the spouses promise that they will love each other when it is well or it is bad. When one of the spouses is ill in the soul or spiritually and begins to make unhealthy decisions, deciding even to leave the family, this is bad. This puts love to the test. As the other spouse, you have to pray very hard for the other’s healing for whom you have stated that you will love unto death. He who returns a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5.20). Then God knows who is to be blamed and how much your contribution is to the fall in the sin of your spouse, and that you might ask your forgiveness from the other and from God.

    
    
    

    
    
    

    Engagement

    
    
    

                Engagement is a solemn pledge before God and men, whereby a man and a woman that will get married after an amount of time that they decide on. Engagement is not required, not all marriages must be preceded by the engagement. This Covenant has the same power as the Covenant of marriage and cannot be broken other than the one reason which is shown below. God is not yes and no, and therefore a decision taken in this way cannot be disbanded. If a man would break off the engagement, it would bring great pain and shame for the girl who was engaged. One who walks uprightly throws not reproach upon his neighbor and did not take it back if he made an oath to his disadvantage (Psalm 15.3-4).

    
    
    

                From Matthew 19.9 we find that only because of fornication would a man be permited to leave his wife. Here the word fornication is used, which the Bible uses for those that are unmarried. To understand what this means, we can read from Matthew 1. 18-20  where we see how Joseph thought to leave Mary, his fiancee when she got pregnant. Fiancee has the status of a wife (Deut. 22.23-25), therefore the Angel of the Lord tells Joseph to not be afraid to take to him his wife Mary. So the man may separate, (break the engagement) only when he learns that his fiancee has committed fornication before or during their engagement. Break-up can take place in this case because the two did not become one body through marriage. So engagement is a Covenant that is not allowed to be broken other than for this reason. The one who breaks the engagement and marries another woman commits adultery (Matt. 19.9). After they become one body through marriage, it is too late for them to be split, because they are joined for life. That's why you need to open your eyes well before making the act of marriage.

    
    
    

    
    

    Remarriage

    
    
    

             According to the Bible, only death can unravel a marriage. The Apostle Paul writes that a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he lives. If he dies, the woman is free to marry (Rom. 7.2;  1 Cor. 7.39). This means that the two are bounded to each other for life even if they are forcibly separated or divorced. If a man has a woman bound to him and marries another, this means that he will have two women linked to him.

    
    
    

                In 1 Cor. 7.15, Paul writes that if the unbelieving husband breaks up the marriage, the brother or sister is not bound. And they fall into the category of separation: "If she is separated, she must remain unmarried or reconcile with her husband (1 Cor. 7.11)."

    
    
    

                There are people who are saying that they will remain separated because Paul gives permission to remain separated if he or she does not marry another person. But when Paul says to remain separated, he refers to a situation in which the woman's husband does not want reconciliation. Otherwise, she will be guilty of violating the commandment of the Lord by Paul as the wife not to separate from the husband (1Cor. 7.10). Then, separating will give the opportunity to the other to fall into the sin of adultery.

    
    
    

                The marriage someone made prior to repenting, is still recognized as valid by God (Malachi 2.14). When an unbeliever breaks up with their unbelieving spouse and later he or she becomes a believer, they must reconcile with the spouse or live unmarried. If the person is already married with another spouse at the time of repenting, in this case, the elders of the people will have to investigate thoroughly all aspects of the situation before they make a sound decision in the light of truth and with the help of the Holy Spirit about the situation. The first spouse may wait for returning of the separated that has repented, whereas now he will fix their fămily. Contrary, the first spouse could blame the church because it did not tell him or her who has repented to return home.

    
    
    

                A separated spouse may say it would be better for him to remarry, than burning, to fall into sin. But even by remarriage he or she falls into sin.

    
    
    

                Jesus tells us that if a woman leaves a man and marries another, she commits adultery. Some say that this law is only valid for women and that the man left by his wife is allowed to marry. Paul says that in Christ there is no longer male and female because of all us are one in Christ (Gal. 3.28).

    
    
    

    Now the Word applies equally to both men and women.

    
    
    

                If a husband that was left by his wife that marries another and after a time, in response to his prayers made in advance, the true wife heals of the disease of sin and returns home, will she not find him with another woman? Therefore one should expect the healing of the sick patiently and with love as God is waiting for us.         

    
    

    
    

    
    
    

    
    
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