A Solid Identity

"The Jews, however, became jealous. So they brought in some troublemakers from the marketplace, formed a mob, and sent the city into an uproar. They raided Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas, hoping to bring them out to the people. But when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have now come here," Acts 17:5-6 BSB

Born on 15 April 1892 to a working-class family in Amsterdam, Netherlands, near Haarlem, Cornelia Arnolda Johanna "Corrie" ten Boom was a Christian watchmaker and later a writer who worked with her father, Casper ten Boom, her sister Betsie ten Boom and other family members to help many Jews escape the Nazis from the Holocaust during World War II by hiding them in her home. 

Named after her mother, Cornelia, but known as Corrie all her life, she was the youngest child of her father Casper ten Boom, a jeweler and watchmaker. Her father was fascinated by the craft of watchmaking and often became so engrossed in his work that he forgot to charge customers for his services. Her three maternal aunts, Tante Bep, Tante Jans, and Tante Anna, also lived with the family.

She trained to be a watchmaker herself, and in 1922, she became the first woman to be licensed as a watchmaker in The Netherlands. Over the next decade, in addition to working in her father's shop, she established a youth club for teenage girls, which provided religious instruction and classes in the performing arts, sewing, and handicrafts. She and her family were Calvinist Christians in the Dutch Reformed Church, and their faith inspired them to serve their society, which they did by offering shelter, food, and money to those who were in need.

She believed her actions were following the will of God. 

They were caught, and she was arrested and sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp.   

On February 28, 1944, a Dutch informant, Jan Vogel, told the Nazis about the ten Booms' work; at around 12:30 p.m. of that day, the Nazis arrested the entire ten Boom family. They were sent to Scheveningen Prison when Resistance materials and extra ration cards were found at the home. Nollie and Willem were released immediately, along with Corrie's nephew Peter van Woerden; Casper died ten days later. The group of six people hidden by the ten Booms, made up of both Jews and resistance workers, remained undiscovered. Corrie received a letter one day in prison, "All the watches in your cabinet are safe", meaning that the refugees had managed to escape and were safe. Four days after the raid, resistance workers transferred them to other locations. Altogether, the Gestapo arrested some 30 people who were in the family home that day.

Ten Boom was initially held in solitary confinement. After three months, she was taken to her first hearing. At her trial, ten Boom spoke about her work with the mentally disabled; the Nazi lieutenant scoffed because the Nazis had been killing mentally disabled individuals for years in accordance with their eugenics policies. Ten Boom defended her work by saying that in the eyes of God, a mentally disabled person might be more valuable "than a watchmaker. Or a lieutenant

Corrie and Betsie were sent to prison in Ravensbrück concentration camp, a women's labor camp in Germany. 

While they were imprisoned at Ravensbruck, Betsie and her sister began to discuss plans for finding a place of healing after the war. Betsie's health continued to deteriorate, and she died on 16 December 1944 at the age of 59. Before she died, she told Corrie, "There is no pit so deep that He [God] is not deeper still." Fifteen days later, Corrie was released. Afterward, she was told that her release was because of a clerical error and that a week later, all the women in her age group were sent to the gas chambers.

Corrie returned home in the midst of the "hunger winter". She still opened her doors to the mentally disabled who were in hiding for fear of execution

After the war, Corrie returned to the Netherlands to set up a rehabilitation center in Bloemendaal. The refuge housed concentration-camp survivors and exclusively sheltered jobless Dutch who had collaborated with the Germans during the Occupation until 1950 when it accepted anyone in need of care. She found out her nephew Kik ten Boom had died in a concentration camp. She returned to Germany in 1946 and met with and forgave two Germans who had been employed at Ravensbrück, one of whom had been particularly cruel to Betsie. Ten Boom went on to travel the world as a public speaker, appearing in more than 60 countries. She wrote many books during this period.

One of these books is entitled “Tramp for the Lord” and was written in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Each chapter tells a short, different story about her world travels and sharing the Gospel message in Africa, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and even in difficult to reach and dangerous countries such as Russia (then-USSR), Cuba, and China. It features photographs of Corrie and her important messages of forgiveness, hope, Love, and Salvation through the saving grace of Jesus Christ

Her most famous book, The Hiding Place, is a biography that recounts the story of her family's efforts and how she found hope in God while she was imprisoned at the concentration camp. 

 She had built a solid identity. My question for you is what will you be known for?.

He was a graduate of the school of Gamaliel with masters in Jewish Laws, a former persecutor of the faith with Roman citizenship. His encounter with the Lord on the road to Damascus birth a new man in him making the worse enemy of the Christian faith the greatest and the most effective proponent of the Faith. His conversion, a point of U-turn was the beginning of his life long journey as he carried the Glorious Gospel of our Lord Christ Jesus to the gentile world. In his visit to Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue where they spoke so well that and a great number of Jews and Greeks believed. But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers. But Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord who affirmed the message of His grace by enabling them to perform signs and wonders. ( Acts 14:1-3). This was the story everywhere they went. In the city of Lystra, there sat a man crippled in his feet, who was lame from birth and had never walked. This man was listening to the words of Paul, who looked intently at him and saw that he had faith to be healed, in a loud voice Paul called out, “Stand up on your feet!” And the man jumped up and began to walk. When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices in the Lycaonian language saying “The gods have come down to us in human form!” Barnabas, they called Zeus, and Paul they called Hermes because he was the chief speaker. Even the priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the city of Lystra, brought bulls and wreaths to the city gates, hoping to offer a sacrifice along with the crowds. (Acts 14:8-13). 

This was the story everywhere they went and by the time they reach Thessalonica, it was said of them that the people who have turned the world upside down are come here too, (Acts 17:6). At this point, they had a SOLID IDENTITY. They were known for turning the world upside down 

A solid identity is what someone is known of. It is the legacy you have left for your generations and the world at large. It is what you will be remembered after you are long gone and laid to rest forever. It is what gives your life significance and the purpose you have achieved on planet earth. Your solid identity is what makes you live on after you are long dead. 

  Today, if you and I remember someone like Adolf Hitler of Germany, the picture that comes to our minds is the death of over one million Jews burnt in a barrel. It plagues us with the pictures of the Nazi regime the horrific death and concentration camps that came with it one of which the Ten Boom family was imprisoned. That was the picture, the solid identity we have of Hitler, just like the Idi Amin of Africa. If you watch the movie: Hotel Rwanda and Somewhere in Africa, you would have saved me many words here. But the horror that had plagued our world as a result of people who tried building a solid identity in a fashion that spilled the blood of the innocent was a unspeakable factor that darkened the historic pages of relevance and influence. Nevertheless, we can also talk about men who have had a positive influence in the world forcing changes that shape the lives of people for the better just like Corrie Ten-boom. If we will leave a lasting legacy, we must have a positive influence on the world, forcing changes that construct and shape the lives of people for the better. 

How can we do that?

No1. You must become a person of one thing. Brother Paul made it clear that his exploits were a result of him being a man of one thing. He revealed it in his later to the church in Philippe saying; " Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have laid hold of it. But one thing I do: (what is that one thing); Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead" (Phi 3:13)

You see, Brother Paul was a man of one thing, forgetting all that which is behind and reaching forth unto that which is ahead. The question is, what was ahead of Brother Paul which is the very one thing he does? And the answer was in the verse which proceeds the former, and it reads, " I press on toward the goal to win the prize of God’s heavenly calling in Christ Jesus. (Phi 3:14). So the very one thing brother Paul did was to " press toward the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly calling in Christ Jesus." What will give you and I a solid identity is our devotion to our ordination, the heavenly calling, the purpose for which God sent us into this world. 

Most of us our lives, get a job, pay bills, and die. That is how we are living our lives. We get a job and use the salary to pay our bills: electricity bills, water bills, school fees, rents, fuel, just to mention a few. Are you ready to achieve relevance, a solid identity? It is your devotion to your ordination, the purpose for which you are born that will give you that recognition. Proverb 18:16 said, " A man’s gift opens doors for him, and brings him before great men." It is your gift that gives you recognition. It is your gift that will bring you before great men. Find it, search for your gift, and be deployed. 

No2. You must be a man of strict discipline. Brother Paul said,  "No, I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified." (1Co 9:27 BSB). It means that, after you have laid a legacy, your legacy can be tempered with by one act of indiscipline. Do you remember Bill Clinton, of cause, you do. But the question is, what memory is invoked as you heard the name Bill Clinton, I know you do not remember him just as once a president of the United States but you also remember his affair with that young lady. As once the president of the US, his legacy is stained forever with that single affair, that one act of indiscipline. You don't need two or three acts of indiscipline to stain your legacy, you just need one. And when it happened, you will have to go through the fire to redeem your image but for your legacy, it is forever tempered with. Discipline is a key to building a solid identity.

No3. You must study to show yourself approved. It is agreed across all fields of theology and among theologians that, one key contributor to Paul's great ministry exploit was his educational background. Paul was a graduate of the school of Gamalie, of which he obtained a certificate which may be equivalent to today's Master's degree in Jewish laws. It is highly likely that Steven, the first martyr of the kingdom was his classmate. Steven himself attended the school of Gamalie. Apart from Paul going to school, he was an avid reader. In his second later to Timothy, he asked young Timothy to bring along his special books. 

" I left my coat with Carpus at Troas city. Bring it when you come. Also, bring the books. If you cannot bring all of them, then bring my special books only." (2Ti 4:13 EasyEnglish)

You see, Paul reads so much that he even had special material which he reads which emphasized the point of reading if you are going to build a solid identity. What are the things we should read about? 1. Read about history, it will inform you of the past so as not to repeats mistakes. Most of the mistakes we made today, if we could only have caught a glimpse of history, we would have saved ourselves from trouble. 2. Read about your calling. 3. Read to have general knowledge.

You have just received a key to build a solid identity, to leave a legacy worthy of emulating. It is my prayer that the Good Lord will help you leave a legacy worthy of emulation. Blessings.

Lord, lead me into the place of my ordination in the name of Jesus. Amen