Even though there are those who deny that the “Holocaust” ever happened, history records the events that occurred when 6 million European Jews were annihilated at the hands of a ruthless, murdering dictator, Adolf Hitler. The Nazis' persecution and genocide of millions of precious people was carried out in stages. There were even laws that were written and enforced to totally remove the Jews from civil society. The Nuremberg Laws were enacted in Nazi Germany years before the outbreak of World War II. Concentration Camps were set up and prisoners were subjected to slave labour until they died of exhaustion or disease. There were units established called Einsatzgruppen that murdered Jews in mass shootings! Others were carried away on freight trains to extermination camps where, if they even survived the journey, most were systematically killed in gas chambers. It was during this horrifying time that there was a little church that would hold it’s regular Sunday meetings. It so happened that the church was situated near one of the railroads that carried these people to the concentration camps. As the congregation would gather and conduct their services, every so often there would be a train with freight cars full of Jews that would pass by. Inside the church, the congregation could hear the wailing and screams from the people in the train cars being taken away. This went on for quite some time until the leaders of the church spoke about it and how it was so disruptive to their meetings. In a specially called meeting to discuss the situation, they collectively came to a decision. And here’s is what they decided to do. During the next service everyone would be prepared so that whenever a train would pass by, the people would simply play their music stronger and sing louder.... to drown out the screams! We’ll turn up the volume so we can’t hear those that are in torment!
As my wife and I listened to her story, all three of us began to sob there in the kitchen as we thought about that awful solution just so the ‘church people’ wouldn’t hear the horrific sounds of people heading to their demise. We also began thinking of the church, the world, and this day that we live in. It seems that it is so easy for us to be in our comfortable homes, cars and churches that we forget that we have a world of people passing by us in their proverbial ‘freight train’ headed for an eternity without God. Often it’s easier to simply turn up the NOISE so we cannot hear their cries of desperation. The noise can be as simple as our own busyness and we become too busy to hear the cry of the lost. There are many ways to create 'noise'.
May our hearts break inside of us today with
compassion for lost souls. Please don’t turn up the volume this week! But LISTEN..... listen to the cry of those
you see at the mall, at work, or on the street and then do what’s right.
PRAY..... pray for the lost and usher them right into the throne room of heaven
before the very Throne of God. Ask the Lord to place people strategically in
your pathway so that you can become an instrument in His hands to lead them to
Calvary! Remove the NOISE so you can
hear the cry of someone’s heart! There
is a song that goes like this; Lord lay some soul upon my heart, And love that
soul through me, And may I ever do my part to win that soul for Thee! SRR
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