timing

So as most people know by now I have been doing a little bit of hurting and a whole lot of being sick over these past few days. It's so funny because I am still working through the book "Desiring God" by John Piper and I have read about 4 other books during this time, but as timing would have it just Monday I started reading the chapter on suffering. how funny is that? I've been reading about how Paul suffered, Stephen suffered and many others for the advancement of the Gospel. This week I have been studying for the sermon this Sunday on Acts chapter 9 where GOd gets Paul's attention on the road to Damascus. Putting those two together this week has fell right into a storybook type setting for me.
I read this story in the book and I want to share it with you. It's part of Serei Kourdakov's autobiography, The Persecutor. Sergi was commissioned by the RUssian secret police to raid secret prayer gatherings and use whatever means necessary no matter how brutal to stop them. Instead, he was eventually stopped by one young girl's faith.
I saw Victor reach and grab for a young girl who was trying to escape to another room. She was a beautiful young girl. What a wast to be a Believer, the writer recalls thinking. Victor caught her, picked her up above his head, and held her high in the air kicking and screaming for a second. She was pleading with him not to hurt her. Victor threw her so hard she hit the wall at the same height that she was thrown from, then dropped to the floor, semiconsciously moaning. Victor turned and laughed exclaiming, "I'll be the idea of GOd went flying right out of her head."
On a later raid, Sergei was shocked to see the same girl again. I quickly surveyed the room and saw a sight I couldn't believe! There she was, the same girl! It couldn't be. But it was. Only three nights before, she had been at the other meeting and had been viciously thrown accross the room and into the wall. It was the first time I got a really good look at her, she was much more beautiful than I could imagine. I picked her up and flung her on the tabel face down. Two of us held her over the table and began to beat her again and again. My hands began to sting under the blows. Her skin started to blister all over her back and legs. I continued to beat her, still as she screamed for mercy. TO suppress her cries she bit her upper lip and eventually bit all the way through it and blood ran down her face. At last she gave in and began sobbing, When I was so exhausted I couldn't raise my arm any more I pushed her off the table and she collapsed into a ball on the floor.
To SErgei's shock a few weeks later he encountered her once again at another Christian underground meeting. Several of the others saw her. Alex Gulyaev moved toward her, hatred filling his face, his club raised high above his head. Just then, something I never expected to happen, happened. WIthout warning, Victor jumped in between the girl and Alex, facing him head on. "Get out of my way," ALex said angrily. Victor didn't move, He said "Don't toucher her Alex, I'm telling you no one in this room better touch her, you got it!
Angered, Alex shouted, "You want her for yourself, don't you!"
No, Victor shouted back. "She has somethign that we don't have! Nobody touches her! Nobody!
... For the first time in my life, I was deeply moved.. this young girl did have something! She had been beaten horribly. She had been warned and threatened. She had gone through unbelievable suffereing, but here she was again. Even Victor had been moved and recognized it. She had something se didn't have. I wanted to run after her and ask, "What is it?" I wanted to talk to her but she was gone. THis heroic young Christian girl who had suffered so much at our hands somehow touched and troubled me very much. Sergie later got saved and became a believer with a great testimony. Later in the book he wrote:
And, finally, to Natasha, whom I beat terribly and who was willing to be beaten a third time for her faith, I want to say, Natasha, largely because of you, my life is now changed and I am a fellow believer in Christ wit you. I have a new life before me. God has forgiven me, I hope you can also.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!
P.S. I'll take my kidney stones over this any day!