Free 100 Prison Meditations: Cries of Truth from Behind the Iron Curtain by Richard Wurmbrand

the whole nation, “The hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing” (Acts 28:24–27).
    Jesus and His apostles often did things that filled others with anger. It was necessary. Similar behavior is practiced sometimes in the underground church today.

29
    About Eternity
     
    Eternity is not endless time. Such a thing does not exist, as there are no spaces without dimension. Eternity is a state in which time no longer exists. The philosopher Boethius has given the definition generally accepted by the Christian church. Eternity is “the total, simultaneous, and perfect possession of an endless life.” As the Greek thinker Parmenides put it: eternity is whole, unique. In eternity nothing has been or will be. “All is at once, one, continuous.”
    Imagine a motion picture. When we view it through the projector we see the events recorded on the film successively, and each one seems to be the effect of those preceding. Once in a cinema I found myself praying for an innocent man suffering terribly on the screen. I implored God to save him. But what was to happen was already recorded on the film. My business was only to behold.
    We should live with the perspective of eternity in the present, in perfect serenity. Everything has been foreknown, predestined (Romans 8:29). Omar Khayyam expressed it so well:
    With earth’s first clay, they did the last man knead
And then of the last harvest sow’d the seed.
Yea, the first morning of creation wrote
What the last dawn of reckoning shall read.
    Therefore the ideal attitude for a believer is the contemplative one. Jesus says, not just to Martha, but to all men: “You are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part” (Luke 10:41,42). Almost every Christian today would say Mary had made the wrong choice: she had chosen not to prepare a dinner for a dozen hungry men, but quietly to behold the beauty of the guests.
    Nowhere does the Bible enjoin us to “Be active,” but on countless occasions we are told, “Behold,” behold without interfering. “Behold, a leper came and worshiped Him” (Matthew 8:2). At that time, men knew no cure for leprosy. Do not interfere unless you are sure of being able to help. Just behold; the Lord will do the rest.
    “Behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea” (Matthew 8:24, KJV). One of two things will happen: either you will drown and go to the Father, or you will escape and live for the Father. So, do not panic but simply behold. In all things, the bigger the fuss, the more discordant the results.
    We are not yet in eternity, but we can catch a glimpse of it by passing as much time as possible in quiet contemplation.

30
    The Quest for God
     
    The quest for God is old. An Ugaritic poem, “Ludlul bel nemequi” (“I’ll praise the Lord of wisdom”), dating from 2500 b.c., contains the moving verse:
    Oh, that I only knew that these things are well pleasing to a god.
What is good in one’s sight is evil for a god.
What is bad in one’s mind is good for his god.
Who can understand the counsel of the gods in the midst of heaven?
The plan of God is deep waters. Who can comprehend it?
     
    In Isaiah 55:9, God tells us, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
    Men seek the right relationship with God but because His will, His predilections, and His thoughts are unknown to us, we tremble at every step that it might sever the loving relationship.
    Such fear disappears only when we pass from relationship with God to possession of God.
    In Jesus, the Son of God became man. A marriage feast between the divine and the human natures took place.
    I can now say, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (Song 6:3). He is my possession. He disposes of me, but I also dispose of Him. It is no longer a relationship between two entities who can at any moment become separate. The