FROM THE HEART OF DR. REXELLA VAN IMPE

Looking Through the Window

Have you ever heard the old gospel song that says, “This world is not my home, I’m just ‘a passin’ through …?”

Lately that’s how I’ve been feeling – like “a stranger in a strange land.” I’m completely out of step with a world filled with child abuse, wife abuse, animal abuse … with a world filled with hatred, violence, war, and famine. I can’t adjust my mind and heart to a place where many people accept no responsibility for their actions and feel no remorse for the bad things they do to others.

Nor am I able emotionally to cope with the throngs of homeless people on the streets of major metropolitan areas. It’s one thing to watch the news and hear statistics about the down-and-out people living in alleys and under bridges – something else altogether to meet these unfortunate ones face to face and look into their eyes. While in Toronto, my heart was abruptly opened to the real tragedy of homeless people.

One night Jack and I went to dinner in a downtown area and decided to walk back to our hotel several blocks away. Our route took us past Eaton Center – an enclosed mall which is open late, with people milling around inside until all hours. We started across a busy intersection near a major department store, amazed at the throngs of people out and about so late at night. Jack and I have always felt very safe in this wonderful Canadian city.

Before we made it across the intersection, a beautiful young girl we’d passed on the corner came running after us. She came up behind me and fell into step. “Hello there,” she said. “Where are you going?”

“Well, my husband and I have been to dinner and we’re on our way back to our hotel,” I said, noticing that she seemed to be one of the homeless crowd. Her face was smudged, and her clothing wrinkled and soiled. But I went ahead and asked, “Are you going home?”

“Oh, no,” she responded, “I am home!” And she pointed to the streets.

We walked the final step or two across the street and stepped up on the sidewalk – beside the department store, its window ablaze with a display of television sets and video equipment. The girl touched my arm and peered up into my face and Jack’s. “I told my friends who you were,” she said. It was obvious she seemed to recognize us.

“Sometimes at night when I can’t sleep,” she continued, motioning toward the display of TV sets, “I look through the window and watch you!”

As soon as she said it, she was gone, running, back to her friends on the street. Then a rush of people gathered behind and carried Jack and me on down the block. I looked back but I never caught sight of her again.

But I will never forget the touch of her hand and her simple words that seemed to bring the whole burden of her desperate situation crashing down upon my heart. “I look through the window and watch you,” she said.

How I wished I could have held her hand and brought her along with me, to tell her she could have a better life. I have no idea what she had run away from or where she was trying to go. I do know that life on the streets so often ends in tragedy. If only I could have a little more time to talk with her, I would tell her about God’s love, about the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I feel almost compelled to go back to Toronto soon and spend some time in the area where I first saw her. I can only hope the Lord will allow me to find her and spend some time witnessing to her. Somehow, my heart is so impacted by her words that I just can’t let go until I’ve at least tried to find her again.

For days now the Lord has been impressing upon my mind the fact that there are countless other people floundering in life who are looking through the window of our lives, seeking for answers and hope. Oh, you may not be on TV like Jack Van Impe and I, but your life, your light, is on view to someone trying to find a better way.

What would people see if they looked through the “window” at you? Are you living a life “like Christ,” filled with love, joy, peace, and purity?

Is the glass of that window dingy and soil-streaked, or is it bright and clear, clean and sparkling? When someone who has lost their way looks through your window, can they see Jesus in you? Or is what you claim blurred by who you are and how you act?

Since I met that homeless girl who said she looked through the window and watched me, I’ve been checking up on myself. The Lord has given me three checkpoints:

1. Living the life.

The great gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson, cried out, “I’m going to live the life I sing about in my song!” The life we live for God must be the same on Tuesday as on Sunday. We must treat our family and neighbors, the people at work and in the marketplace, the same way we treat the people at church when everybody is watching. I promise you that the way you act when you think nobody is looking is exactly what someone will see when they look through your window!

2. Offering a pure and simple testimony.

The most effective testimony is simply to uplift Jesus – He will do the rest. We do not have to know scores of scripture verses, or be able to explain the complexities of doctrine. All that is necessary is to say, “This is what Jesus has done for me.” As one great Christian described it, “Our witness is really just one beggar telling another where to find bread” – the Bread of life!

3. Being consistent.

A nursery rhyme describes a little girl who, “when she was good she was very, very good, but when she was bad, she was horrid.” Have you ever known a person who, on one day, was helpful and kind … and on the next was cranky as can be? What does this kind of erratic behavior say about the depth and validity of our Christian experience? Our Lord is described as Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). And we are to be like Him!

Being on television these last several years has been a real challenge and amazement to me. One thing I’ve learned is that the TV camera sees through our facades and reveals us as we really are to the view of the people. On screen you simply can’t hide who you are. I believe this is why people say so often, “I know you. I’ve seen you on TV!”

I can never forget that the Lord has His divine TV camera on us all the time. He looks past our outer front and sees inside us to our very heart and soul. Lord, help me to live for You consistently.

Although I know our programs are seen throughout the United States and Canada, and in numerous places overseas, it still boggles my mind to consider the numbers of people and the kinds of individuals in different walks of life who are being reached and touched by the program.

I could never have imagined a homeless street girl going up to a department store window late at night to watch Jack and me on TV through the glass. I hope and pray that something she saw and heard will stay with her … and that God and His wonderful grace will reach her.

On that day when we stand before the Lord, this young woman will discover that she need not stand outside on the sidewalk wistfully watching through a glass. For as her eyes catch a glimpse of Jesus and she reaches out to take His hand, He will throw open that window and make it a door – a grand entrance through which she can walk freely into His presence.

Waiting to go home

Never in my life have I felt more of a longing for the coming of the Lord than in recent days. “Oh I want to see Him, look upon His face, there to sing forever of His saving grace.” I long to see Him and feel His arms wrapped around me. I can’t wait to hear His voice saying, “Welcome home, thou good and faithful servant!” Oh, how I pray that my life will allow this salutation to be so.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9). How wonderful that will be.

God is so good to me even here in this life. His presence never leaves me, and I take joy in intimately communing with the Holy Spirit inside my heart. But more and more I feel a strange longing to be in heaven. And I sense that time is running out. Our Lord Jesus is coming soon.

First Corinthians 13:12 says, For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

But until then, I will keep on keeping on. I will try to use all my time, all my talents, all my opportunities to shine out the story of Jesus to help all who may be looking through the window of my life. With God’s help, I will keep on living the life of love, joy, peace, and purity. I will keep on giving my pure and simple testimony about what the Lord has done for me. And I will endeavor to be consistent in my living for Jesus, daily keeping the window glass, looking into my life, clean and unsmudged.

You can do it, too, God will help you. Join me in making a new commitment to Christ’s commission and calling. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (Mathew 5:16).

A CLASSIC MESSAGE OF HOPE FROM DR. JACK VAN IMPE

What Is the Adversary’s Role in our sufferings?

When affliction, suffering, or trouble strikes, it is not unusual for those afflicted, or for family members and friends, to suggest that the devil is to blame. We want to affix blame, if not on the devil, then on God or maybe on the one who is suffering. Surely there is a cause, a reason for all this.

We’ve briefly examined events in the lives of Adam and Eve, Job, and the apostle Paul, and we have, in fact, seen that the devil did have his hand in bringing suffering and trouble into their lives. Remember Paul’s comment that his thorn in the flesh was the messenger of Satan to buffet him (2 Corinthians 12:7)?

One man, a failed-suicide, expressed the belief that the devil was responsible for his giving in to the urge to do away with himself. He said he felt like a pawn in a chess game going on between God and the devil. He felt he was being manipulated by both sides. This man’s life was spared when a friend came to him before the overdosed medicine could do its deadly work. God, in His mercy, affected that rescue. There is much in Scripture which teaches that God’s sovereign will in the affairs of men and nations will be accomplished. Here are just a few examples:

A man’s heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps (Proverbs 16:9).

We . . . being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will (Ephesians 1:11).

The devil is an adversary, and his many schemes to disturb the Christian’s peace and bring unhappiness and suffering upon mankind have been with us since the Fall. However, we must recognize the clear teaching of the Bible that God both orders and controls all things. Satan does not always win. We are told in 1 Corinthians 15:26 that, The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

Satan won a real victory in his temptation of Adam and Eve. They fell into his trap just as many people still do today in so many different ways. Yet, we Christians must recognize that Isaiah 25:8 is also in the Bible when we are confronted with this final blow of the enemy. It is a strong promise that provides sure footing for those who are trusting in God’s sovereignty:

He [the Lord] will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the Lord hath spoken it.

Death is an enemy. Suffering and affliction often precede this enemy. This is all a part of the strategic battle plan between Satan and God, but the final victory for the Christian is God’s. His solution to the thorns in the flesh and to death is to usher us into His presence in His own good time. And when that moment comes, the prophet Isaiah wrote, And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation (Isaiah 25:9).

Those Unfathomable “Secret Things”

I do not pretend to understand why God didn’t stamp out the devil in the Garden of Eden nor why in God’s sovereignty some of the choicest saints, it appears, suffer so greatly. I know of a 65-year-old single woman, an “unclaimed blessing;” who worked hard and supported herself all her life. She was never a burden to others. She finally decided to retire and was looking forward to moving into a small new apartment. “It has a balcony so I can raise geraniums and other plants; she told me. Then suddenly, she was struck down with horrible stroke, which left her totally paralyzed on one side from her face down to her feet. Now she suffers alone in a convalescent center, unable to walk, talk well, or care for herself. I do not understand that.

Nor do I understand why the enemy “death” should rob Mary Dorr of the love and presence of her bright and promising young college-age son. His death came shortly after the tragic death of her husband who died while flying his private plane. It was only through the Lord’s intervention that Mary’s other son, who was with his father when he died, was able to bring that plane safely in for a landing. A year or so after this, Mary went through the death experience again when this second son died in his sleep at home.

When we hear about things like this, we often say, “It just doesn’t make sense.” From our vantage point, many of these things do not seem to have any rhyme or reason. But I like what Barbara Johnson told Rexella, “These are heartache situations, but God doesn’t always promise a quick end to heartache situations:” Then she called attention to Deuteronomy 29:29, The secret things belong unto the Lord our God . . . .

Barbara added, “No, we don’t understand these `secret’ situations – why God allows a beautiful 20year-old Christian boy to go off the deep end and get involved in a homosexual lifestyle (or some other problem), bringing such sorrow and heartache to his family and to others. But through it all, I can tell you, God has used it to mold and shape us and to bring a depth of trusting Him into our lives unlike anything we ever experienced before. Through sorrow there can come joy and peace. It comes as you relinquish yourself and the `secret situation’ causing you such heartache into the hands of God, and then God releases you so that you can reach out in loving care to others who need help . . . .

Barbara and others who have known deep suffering are testimonies to God’s grace. I have heard them say they are glad that God has thrown a veil, as it were, across their way so that they haven’t known what the immediate future held. We may not know the future, but we can know the One who holds the future in His hands and simply take life a step at a time. We can walk moment-by-moment with the One who controls our steps as well as our stops.

I’ve heard people say, “When I get to heaven, I’m going to ask the Lord . . . .” Then they will name the event that has brought such heartache to them or to others. But in the next breath I’ve heard many of those same people admit, “Still, I know that when I get to heaven all that has happened here won’t matter there because all the pain, the sorrow, and the tears will be done.” And how biblical that is. The Bible assures us that God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away (Revelation 21:4).

The apostle Paul talked of the mortal putting on immortality, and then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). Paul is saying that God continues daily to give us this victory.

CHANGED LIVES-one at a time

Thank you Dr. Rexella for this very comforting message of hope in these difficult times. I always look forward to your weekly Newsletter and on-line presentations.

All the best to you,

Pia A.

Rexella, I just want to thank you for your “non” trending telling of the Truth of Jesus’ message. Your show brought me to Christ 20 years ago. It saved me from doing something foolish. I now have 3 beautiful children thanks to Jesus and your program. I pray you continue to spread the message of Jesus for another 70 years! I love you with all heart. God bless you and all your production crew on the show!!

James G.

HIGHLIGHTED MINISTRY OFFERS

The Bear, The Beast, and the Lion

“THIS IS JUST A ‘SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION'”

 

Even as Russian troops amassed on the Ukrainian border, Putin assured the nations it wasn’t a war.  Yet in February 2022, a full-scale invasion began.

Now, years later, this war has cost both nations greatly, in terms of war dollars and, sadly, lives.  And despite their own horrible losses in, Russia hasn’t relented.

What could possibly be driving Russia’s commitment to this prolonged and devastating war?

This is yet another rung in Russia’s ascent to world domination.  The Scriptures forewarn us of even greater aggression from this obstinate nation in the future.

In this booklet, Dr. Rexella Van Impe discusses the major players involved in that future war: a Bear, a Beast, and a Lion.

As we better understand biblical prophecy, we can take encouragement from knowing that God has already foreseen these world events.  And He remains firmly in control.

One day soon, the Lord Jesus will come again.  And when He does, He will bring an end to ALL war.

The Eclipse of God

“By design this volume comes as a direct hit…Erwin Lutzer aims right at the center of our cultural crisis.  At heart, it is a theological crisis.”
R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.

Is God More Tolerant that He Used to Be?

Just as the moon obscures the sun’s light during an eclipse, today’s radical secularism has obscured the light of God.  But God’s light still shines — and He is calling us to shine His light in the growing darkness.

In The Eclipse of God, bestselling author Erwin Lutzer exposes our nation’s disastrous efforts to redefine God in its own image.  The resulting damage has been so great that confusion about God has even crept into the church.  This bold exposition will help you

• understand society’s attempts to make God inclusive and sin-friendly by exploring the intellectual roots of the present darkness.
• renew your faith in God by replacing worldly misperceptions of Him with the biblical truths about His unchanging character.
• resist cultural conformity by counting the cost of faith as you shine the gospel’s light with accuracy and grace

Timely and practical, The Eclipse of God will deepen your love for the sovereign God of the Bible and empower you to live and speak as a light for Him in a culture of darkness.