If one ever had the opportunity to see Pastor Richard Wurmbrand (author of Tortured for Christ) speak, one would know he preached sitting down with his shoes off.

This was because the communists had beaten the souls of his feet so terribly that they had permanent damaged and it was too painful to stand, or even wear shoes.

I traveled with Pastor Wurmbrand for a number of years in the early 1990s. At each event where he was speaking I would walk him to the stage, help him sit, place his Bible in his lap, and then remove his shoes.

From the outside it may have seemed like a lowly task, but I was so blessed to assist him. I felt like the most honored guest in the building, although few knew my name.

I see Jesus

Richard always looked out into the audience, slowly from right to left before speaking, making eye contact with each person. I asked him once if he was looking to see if they were paying attention. He said “No, when I look into their eyes, I see Jesus and it helps me to preach.”

“When I look into their eyes, I see Jesus and it helps me to preach.”

Richard often had intense coughing when he preached. He had suffered from Tuberculosis in his homeland of Romania a decade earlier and his body struggled until the end.

Those in attendance would start to worry, and the room would fall completely silent. When he caught his breath he would simply say, “Don’t worry, as long as I am coughing, they won’t bury me” and resume his sermon.

In communist prisons

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand had suffered 14 years in communist prisons. He was placed in the “death room” because of his Tuberculosis and told he would die there.

When medicine was smuggled in to help him, he offered it to the man next to him in bed, a former communist officer who said, “I would rather die than take medicine from a dirty Jew.”

Beyond expectation

When he was ultimately released from prison and came to the USA in 1966, the doctors told him he would be lucky to live a few years. Some were even surprised he was still alive, given all he had gone through.

This incredible faith hero lived to be 91-years-old. This was well beyond anyone’s expectation! When I was by Pastor Wurmbrand’s bedside in his final days, it was not how long he lived that amazed me, it was how he lived.

Having suffered through communist prisons, unbelievable torture, and tuberculosis, he knew his health was frail and could turn at any time.

He lived every single day to share the gospel even if with a single person. He prayed for the persecuted, studied his Bible, and wrote sermons in his notebooks consistently.

He enjoyed a kind word, fellowship over a meal, and a good joke. But most of all he wanted to preach; with the desire that everyone he came in contact with should experience Christ’s love.

Pastor Richard Wurmbrand is a true spiritual giant. He has given me an amazing example of the importance of “how” we live versus “how long.” I know that regardless of any medical statistics, God will decide when I take my last breath and enter eternity. I rest in knowing that he saved me twice already this year.

Earthly success

I have known many people who had acquired more wealth in this life than they could ever spend and were still fixated on making more.

They believed that their earthly success could somehow increase their happiness, or even their lifespan. It is depressing to imagine a person gaining so much only to lose their soul.

Pastor Wurmbrand encountered a physical and horrific persecution during his life. He knew what it meant to be an evangelical Christian under communism.

Replacing eternal rewards

In America we typically do not experience physical persecution. However, our fixation on health, wealth, peace, and prosperity can be even more dangerous to us. If we are not cautious, we can easily replace our eternal rewards with those of this life.

In America we typically do not experience physical persecution. However, our fixation on health, wealth, peace, and prosperity, can be even more dangerous to us.

Pastor Wurmbrand was one of the most joyful Christians I have ever met. And he knew that his best life was yet to come!

Even Satan challenged God stating that Job was only blameless because God had blessed him with riches. However, when Job had lost all and was overcome with excruciating pain from boils, he held his integrity before God. It is a critical and sobering lesson.

Source: Steve Cleary