The Watchmaker’s Daughter
As I travel the world, I love to visit locations that are especially noteworthy within the history of the Christian faith. These may be spots where great events unfolded or spots where great people once lived or labored. Sadly, it is rare that these locations are still in any way consecrated to the Lord and to the spread of the gospel. In many of these places, you’re more likely to hear about the sexual revolution than the Protestant Reformation and more likely to have a guide lead you toward atheism than Christianity. I once found a notable exception, though, in the Netherlands.
There are some stories that are just so good and some characters who have accomplished or endured such amazing experiences that it’s only right we learn about them. One such character is Corrie ten Boom. Her story is well known. But by way of reminder, here’s a miniature refresher:
Ten Boom was raised in a devout household by a father who had an especially great love for the Jewish people. When war came to Europe and Germany conquered the Netherlands, the ten Booms quickly began to shelter Jewish refugees and to become involved in the resistance movement. The family was eventually found out and sent first to prison and then to labor camps. Sadly, few of the family members would survive the experience. When Corrie was eventually released, she returned home without her beloved father and sister. She also returned home in a time of extreme deprivation as the nation was slowly starved. After the war finally came to a close, she lived out her life telling about her experience and serving the needy.
Ten Boom’s story has been told a number of times in a number of forms. Most recently, it has been told by Larry Loftis in The Watchmaker’s Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom. Loftis is an accomplished writer whose preferred genre is nonfiction thrillers. He tells ten Boom’s story in that stylized form and it makes for an intriguing and fast-paced read. Before he set pen to paper, he did extensive research and includes information that, to my knowledge, has not been shared before and helps close out some open loops. He’s a talented writer and tells the story very well, though I might have preferred a bit more detail on her life after the war.
I mentioned earlier that in my travels I had found a notable exception to all the locations that now tell a story inconsistent with the Christian faith. But that was not the case at Corrie ten Boomhuis in Haarlem. When I visited that location and joined a public tour, the guide showed us around and told us the story of the place and its people. Then, best of all, he shared the gospel that was so important to the ten Boom family—he shared it and encouraged us to believe it. It was a sweet, encouraging, and appropriate moment.
The Watchmaker’s Daughter tells that story and tells it well. If you’re not familiar with Corrie ten Boom, you will appreciate it as an introduction to her life and influence. If you are already familiar with her, you will appreciate the book as a different telling that includes some new facts. Either way, you’ll find it well worth the read.
(As I was writing this review, I noticed that there is also a graphic novel adaption of her story that is releasing next week. It may be worth a look as well.)
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A La Carte (December 19)
The God of love and peace be with you today.
Newsletter subscribers, I apologize for the second email this morning. It’s my fault!
There are a few new Kindle deals today for the collectors.
(Yesterday on the blog: 32 Random Thoughts About the Local Church)This is such a sweet article about an incredible moment.
This is another sweet and encouraging read. “With my firstborn, I learned that my child was not a problem to be solved or fixed, but a person to be loved and understood as God made him. I came to believe in my heart that this child was given to us for a reason—because God knew that we were exactly the parents and the family that he needed.”
“Earlier this month, a man named Michael Cassidy allegedly tore down and beheaded a statue erected by the Satanic Temple in the Iowa state capitol. He reportedly took this action because ‘it was extremely anti-Christian.’” Robb Brunansky considers whether Christians should applaud this action.
There is a really solid admonition at the heart of this piece by Jacob Crouch. “I want to be honest about my sin and shortcomings, but I also want to be honest about my God. He has not left me or forsaken me. He is accomplishing all that He has promised.”
“You have probably seen pictures, movies, or cartoons portraying angels, but it’s likely that none of them portrayed angels in any way close to what they are actually like! What does the Bible say?” Jon Nielson answers well.
Kraig transparently expresses embarrassment over his former embarrassment (which you may well identify with).
I am convinced that the best measure of a church’s music is not what takes place on the stage, but what takes place in the pews. It is not so much the sounds and sights of a band leading, but the sounds and sights of a congregation worshipping.
The gospel isn’t a summons to work harder to reach God, it’s the story of how God sovereignly worked all things together to reach you.
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A La Carte (December 8)
I’m wondering if I have any readers in Croatia. If I do, and especially if you’re in or near Split, would you mind getting in touch?
Since Eerdmans is offering 80% off the Kindle editions of all of their books, I spent a long time yesterday scouring their rather extensive catalog. I came up with a long list of books that may be of interest.
Westminster Books has some favorite ESV Bible editions discounted up to 63%.
The Antipsalms We Sing
“Our heads may love the psalms from 20,000 feet—the passionate pleading, the glory in God’s grandeur, the praise of his perfect providence. It’s a captivating landscape of raw emotion and spiritual vitality. But our hearts sing plenty of antipsalms.” Pierce explains and provides an example here.
Don’t Lose Hope – God’s Writing a Story of Redemption in Your Life
Sarah Walton: “I have been increasingly convicted by my attitude of entitlement and discontentment. Entitlement to health, success, financial relief, and God’s favor in ways that make sense to me. And yet, the truth is, he doesn’t owe me anything. He’s already given me more than I deserve and increasingly, I believe that God is pouring out his favor on me – and most likely you – as he strips away the lesser things that we measure his goodness by and sows in us a deeper, more settled faith that praises him in the darkness and rejoices in what he will do, even when that hope is yet to be realized.”
Seeing What You Have as Something That Doesn’t Belong to You
This is a brief reminder that the things you have don’t actually belong to you and, therefore, must be treated accordingly.
7 Tips for Loving “Those” People in Your Church
“If we’re to love our enemies, surely we’re to love ‘those’ people at church. Even the ones who drive us crazy. So how can we do that?” Jamie Dunlop offers a few ways.
A Lavish Love
This is such a sweet celebration of grandparents and grandparenting.
Light Overcomes the Darkness
“When we read of ‘people walking in darkness’ or a ‘land of darkness’ it’s not hard to relate. That’s our reality. We feel the burden of the world’s evil daily—injustice, political upheaval, heinous crimes, greed, spite, dishonesty, exploitation, outrage, slander. And that’s all just in the morning’s headlines and a scroll through social media.”
Flashback: The Legend of the Battle-Weary Crusader
Each of us who is in Christ is tending a little garden in which heavenly seeds have been planted and begun to thrive—seeds of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.The coming of Christ is not only a magnificent spectacle; it is a personal welcome. And the welcome is supremely to himself. —John Piper
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Extending the Borders and Enlarging the Territory
The Israelites had sojourned in the wilderness until the last of an entire rebellious generation had died and been buried. They had walked to the banks of the Jordan and had seen its waters part before them. They had crossed the river and entered the Promised Land. And now the true work and the true challenge would begin.
Though God had promised that this people would inherit this land, and though he had promised that it would be their possession, he did not intend to deliver it to them in its completed form. He did not intend to give them a land whose every field was forever cleared and tilled, whose every crop was forever ripe for harvest, whose every barn was forever full. Rather, he intended to give them a land whose climate was right, who soil was rich, whose nutrients were plentiful, and whose waters were pure. He intended to give them a land that would respond appropriately and provide bountifully to their hard labor.
And so as the people took possession of the land, as they displaced its inhabitants, they set to work. They claimed the fields that had already been broken and planted, but they also claimed new fields and prepared them for sowing and watering and reaping. Year by year they expanded their territory, season by season the portion of the land that would provide for its new people.
And in much the same way, we as Christians are given a great promise—that the God who has claimed us will reshape us. We are told that we are to be perfect even as God is perfect, told that we are to put every sin to death and come alive to every virtue, told that we are to become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. But as the Israelites had to labor to claim what was theirs, so too do we. As the Israelites had to take possession of what God had promised, so too do Christians.
And so we enter the new life united to our Savior by faith and indwelled by his Holy Spirit. We come to understand the great promise that we are to be joint heirs of his inheritance and that all that belongs to him is to be ours. And then we come to learn how to receive and how to use what he offers to us so we can extend the borders of our possession, enlarge our territory, always pressing back the chaos of depravity so divine graces can take root and grow and bring forth precious fruit. Even our ugliest faults, our most established habits, and our most coddled sins begin to waver and crumble. Bit by bit we conquer the old and come alive to the new. Day by day we take more and more of the vast possession that is ours in Christ. And always and ever we look with expectation to the day the battles will finally be over, the land will finally be fully conquered, and we shall reign forever with Him.
