Mercy And Pain

April 5th, Mercy and Pain

The Holocaust had a profound impact on those of the Jewish faith.

As more and more Semitic families were ripped apart, tortured and killed,

many abandoned any kind of practicing religion.

They determined the senseless brutality they had witnessed

could not be explained by the existence of God.

He seemed to have all but disappeared.

But for others, the Holocaust forced them to see God through a new lens,

one that went beyond the Mosaic law and included the Messiah Jesus.

Today we'll hear from Svi, a Jewish man who survived the Nazi occupation in Poland.

He's here to share his true story on this unshackled, daily devotional.

To save my life, my mother put me in an orphanage run by Germans

and I never saw my family again.

I ran away from the orphanage at age 11 and searched for my family in the Warsaw ghetto

but could not find him.

Thousands were starving and dying there each day.

So I went into the Poland countryside where I found work

helping a German who had confiscated the farm.

Then his sons were all killed under Russian front.

I overheard him planning to kill me in revenge.

Again I ran away.

I was 12 years old as I wanted from village to village begging and stealing to survive.

Once I helped commit sabotage against the Germans it was caught and tortured

to let me go in order to follow me to the others but I managed to escape.

When the war was over I emigrated to Palestine and helped fight the war in 1948.

I could have died and knew that God spared my life.

Wanting to know him I read the Hebrew Bible.

Then a stranger gave me the New Testament in Hebrew.

I loved to read about Jesus what he said indeed.

I began to see that it was God who brought me through the horrors in Poland

and it was God who brought me to freedom in Israel.

I found a Christian church and listened to the gospel week after week.

Then gave my heart and life to Messiah Jesus.

God brought me a wonderful wife who also accepted Christ.

I lost my family in Poland but the Lord has given us three children to carry his love into the future.

David says in Psalm chapter 13 verses 3 through 6.

Consider and hear me O Lord my God.

Lighten my eyes lest I sleep the sleep of death.

Lest mine enemies say I have prevailed against him and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved.

But I have trusted in thy mercy.

My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation.

I will sing unto the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me.

Friend, while pain, intense incredible and unfathomable pain exists alongside us in this world.

God's mercy toward us is unmoved.

Like David, even in his anguish, Sv was grateful for God's provision.

Through every hardship, God continues to protect us from Satan's domination.

Actually, transforms our deepest sufferings into elements of strength.

Will you receive this truth today?

Unshackled daily devotionals are built on true life accounts and help us ponder the application of Scripture to our lives.

Each devotional tells a dramatic testimony of transformation of a real person while addressing a relatable issue of the human condition.

A key Bible verse is provided so you can dig deeper into its specific intent and what it means for our lives in these unshackled daily devotionals.

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