Episode 97

Lena and her family were refugees in Germany before moving to the United States. The circumstances seemed quite bleak, but God, who would have all men to be saved, overcame many barriers to find and save her. On this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, we speak with Lena about how God removed the barriers she had to salvation, and how those barriers can be removed in the lives of others.

And he preached how the Lord suffered, how Jesus suffered on the cross for our sins. And that made me feel very guilty and I wanted to accept Him.

Thank you for tuning in to the Removing Barriers podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG, and we’re attempting to remove barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross.

This is episode 97 of the Removing Barriers podcast, and this is a 27th in the series of how were your barriers removed. And in this episode we’ll find out how Lena’s barriers were removed when she came to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hi, this is Jay. MCG and I would like for you to help us remove barriers by going to removingbarriers.net and subscribing to receive all things removing barriers. If you’d like to take your efforts a bit further and help us keep the mics on, consider donating at removingbarriers.net/donate. Removing Barriers, a Clear View of the cross.

Lena, it is indeed a pleasure and welcome to the Removing Barriers podcast. Thank you. Great. Well, let’s get into it. Tell us what state or country were you born in? I was born in Poland. Poland, great.

Lena, what type of family were you born into in Poland? My parents were Greek Orthodox. They were law abiding parents. We had icons in our house. They believed in God, but they never went to church.

Can you explain for the audience what is an icon? When you say an icon, is that some type of religious item or what’s an icon? An icon is a picture of a saint or even a picture of Jesus that somebody drew and put it in a frame. And in our house we had it in a corner of the room and I was taught to cross myself with my hand when I had to look at icon. And I was taught to believe that whatever picture is on that icon can see me and that God could see me all the time. Was it more like a Catholic belief? Yes, it is very much like Catholic. Very much. Okay. And if you go in a Greek Orthodox church, it is full hundreds of icons all around the walls. I believe the girl. What did you think about those icons? Well, I lived in Germany when I was six years old, five years old. My parents left Poland and we were kind of moving from place to place for a while and we didn’t have that many, but I don’t know, maybe I had some fear, but when I was eight years old, my parents were saved, amen. So that changed at that time and we didn’t have any more icons. My mom took one icon made of silver and when she understood that that was an idol, she stepped on it and crushed it with her feet, with her shoes and just destroyed it and threw it in the fire. Oh, wow. She was so ashamed that she was worshipping an idol.

Tell us a little bit more about your family before salvation. What was your life and upbringing like? Do you have any siblings? Are you the only child? No, I am the youngest of three. When I was born, my brother and my sister were teenagers, so I was kind a baby when they all were already adults, just about. They loved me. I was like a baby in the family. I was loved.

Do you remember the first time you heard the gospel? I don’t remember. I know that since they were saved when they were eight. At that time we were in a refugee camp in Germany and I am sure they took me to Sunday school because we were in a refugee camp. It was not like here big Sunday school classes. So I don’t remember and I don’t think I understood anything really at that time.

Was it at that refugee camp where your parents actually got saved? Her, the girlfriend got saved. They got saved. That’s where they got saved. My mom got saved there. Someone invited her to come to church and hear the Bible for the first time. And she was very curious. They never had a Bible. And she went and the first time she heard, she understood and she got saved. She came home and told my father she had Bible in her hand. And my father said, you know, the priest says we are not allowed to read the Bible, it’s only for priests. But she talked him into trying to go to church and he got saved. Then they were baptized and my sister got saved and she was married already. So there were four people who were baptized in the month of October in Germany, which there was ice already on the edge of the bank.

So is it fair to say that it’s during that time that you actually heard the gospel, but you don’t remember exactly when? Right. That was the time when my parents heard the Gospel and I was there eight, nine years old. I was not paying attention to that. So I remember them talking how the priest came to our house and baptized my first niece, my daughter’s, and the priest got drunk in her house. Oh, wow. So my parents were ready to accept the truth. They thought that they were not worshipping God the right way.

Okay, so do you remember the first time you came to the full realization of your friend, though? I think it was when I was about 16. Okay. My mom got sick. My mom fell and got hurt very bad when I was eleven. And after that she was sick for five years. But during that time, her patience, her attitude, her acceptance of her condition was to admire and her behavior made me understand that she believed in God and that there is God. So that was the time that I was accepting it, really. I could see the life of my mother.

So as an eleven year old girl, pre teen, early teens girl, you had to see your mother got you fall and she got hurt. How did that make you feel personally? You’ve seen your mother sick? It was hard. We lived far away from many other people. The church was very far. We could not attend the church every week, maybe every two weeks or once a month. And my dad was true believer, God fearing. My dad loved the Lord and he was a calm person who would talk to me many times. There were some kids and I played with them. And I think I wanted to belong to the group of the kids. But it was before my mom died that year, a couple of months before my mom died, that I gave my life to the Lord. Wow.

You mentioned that you came to the realization of your sin at about 16 or so. Right. And you were saved a few months before your mother passed away. How old were you when your mother passed away? 16. So 16. And you mentioned how you played with the other children, and you probably just wanted to be long.

Do you think that perhaps the desire to be long could be one of the barriers that kept you from salvation? Or was it maybe we were angry that your mother was sick or what were some of the barriers that kept you from definitely I just wanted to belong to the group of kids that were in our neighborhood. I was not angry, not because my mom was going through illness and she couldn’t do many things. I started doing the cooking and washing clothes and doing the work, maybe at even 14, even before, because she couldn’t do it. So I was doing my father was always working. My sister was married at that time. She was not with us, but my brother was still living with us. And I remember it was like I had to wash my brothers overall, I think they called them, very dirty, filled with oil. He was a mechanic, and it was my job to do it by hand, pull the water from the well. But I accepted that even now, after being an adult, I understand that was my duty to help. And when it came to reading the word of God and teaching, I was not interested. But a little bit before that, I think the Lord started touching my heart and calling me. And I remember I would hide myself and get the New Testament and start reading that’s before I really repented. I would read that I had the hunger, I was looking for it then. The Lord, of course, gave me the opportunity to do that. That’s wonderful.

So tell us, how would do barriers removed? When did you really repent? Tell us everything that leads up to that. And how did that happen? I told you we lived far from church. We attended a Russian church. We went to Russian church because we spoke Russian and the Russian church was very far. We had to take couple of buses, take one bus, go to the end, take another bus, go to the end, and then still walk. And because of that we attended maybe even once a month. But there was one preacher who decided to go to where we were and preach the Gospel to us. It was a home church. Maybe ten people would get together in that house and that’s where I went. It was Friday before Easter and he preached. I think I was the only young person there. Our family was there. My mom was not because she already had a hard time moving. And he preached how the Lord suffered, how Jesus suffered on the cross for our sins. And that made me feel very guilty and I wanted to accept Him. Now this is how he preached and this is how they preached in the Russian churches. He would say, you have to ask God to forgive you your sins and ask God to write your name in the book of life, not to come in my heart. The first time when I came to United States, that’s when I heard to come in my heart. That was kind of strange to me. It was to ask God to write your name in the book of life. And when he gave the invitation to pray right there in front of all the people that were there, we all knelt down and I just cried to the Lord in front of everybody and asked God to forgive me my sins and to write my name in the book of life. And after that, I was very happy that my name is written in the Book of life. Amen.

I think that’s wonderful because this ask Jesus into your heart is very, very common in the United States and it doesn’t mean anything. I know that here perhaps people know what you’re saying, but generally worldwide it really doesn’t capture exactly what we’re supposed to do to be saved. Not that we could do anything to earn salvation, but to tell people to ask the Lord to write your name in the Book of life. I think it’s quite biblical because the Bible talks about that. That’s right. I think it’s wonderful that the preacher actually gave you a true presentation of the Gospel and shared with you what actually must happen in order to be saved. I think that’s great.

You’re listening to the Remove and Barriers podcast. We are sitting down with Lena and we are finding out how or her barrier is removed. We’ll be right back.

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Two Corinthians 5:17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. So, Ms. Lena, after salvation, what changes were evident in your life? I did not want to go with my friends. I did not want their presence. So when I could not go to church while I was still in school, so when I could not go to church, and many times, like I said, we lived so far that we couldn’t, I just stayed home and I was happy without them. I was much happier. And they did not want me either, because they saw that I was different. Now. I did not want their company.

Now, were they a mixed bag like atheist and Greek Orthodox, maybe Russian Orthodox and mixed? Or were they all generally of the same belief? They were unbelievable. Who couldn’t care less? I see their parents did not attend church. And just like some of our neighbors here who don’t go to church, that you went to church, but they don’t, right.

So think about another Lena, another 16 year old girl growing up. Do you think the way your barriers were removed and the way you got saved would be effective in reaching the Lena number two coming up? Definitely. The Lord calls all Lenas. And if that other girl or whoever will pay attention to God’s invitation to come to him, he definitely will. Yes, it works for others.

So what are you doing personally in the area of evangelism to help remove barriers like the one you face in your life? Well, I spent time with the Lord studying. I love to hear the Christian radio. I have invited people to come to church. I have given tracks, and I pray for them. Great. I think if we have to pray and ask the Lord to give us opportunity and to touch their heart yeah, I think at times when it comes to solo winning, we underestimate the power of prayer. Well, generally in the Christian life, we normally underestimate the power of prayer. We try to do so much things our own strength. I like what Brother Edward Hall said in his lesson that he wrote for evangelism. He said that prayer is our greatest work or first work, and we can go and handle a lot of tracks and knock on a lot of doors, but if we’re not praying, it’s akin to doing it in your own strength and stuff like that.

Well, let’s go into a little bit of fun section. Let’s find out some of your favorites. So what is your favorite scripture verse? My favorite scripture is Matthew 6:33 seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Amen. Have you ever seen it as a chorus in the Caribbean? You sing it as a chorus? No, I don’t know

that’s. Lena’s husband singing in the background, and he will be in episode 98, but he’s making a cameo appearance in this one.

What is your favorite Bible history? Or some say Bible story, but we try to stay away from that word. But we say, I like the life of Joseph. I admire him, how much he endured, and he stood firm and trusted the Lord. So he is one of my admirers. Great. Joseph is definitely one of my favorites as well.

What would you say is the most convicting scripted passage to you? The most convicting for me is Second Corinthians 5:10. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he has done, whether it be good or bad. And that kind scared me and still scares me many times that we will have to give an account for everything. Yeah. That’s very sorry. When you realize you have to one day stand before a holy God, I give account for your life. That’s why I’m so happy when the Bible said that we are in Christ because he’s a shield and a protector, because when we face a holy God and not be in Christ, it’s a faithful thing. Definitely.

What would you say is the most comforting Scripture passage to you? The comforting is, there are many. But this is one of the Matthew 11:28 where the Lord says, come unto me. How nice to hear the Lord say, come unto me, all ye that labor, and I have you laden, and I will give you rest. Yeah. What an invitation, huh? Wonderful. Amen.

What is your favorite hymn of the fate? My favorite hymn is How Great Thou Art. How great our Lord is just we cannot comprehend how great his I love him. There are many, but this is one that I love in many different languages. That’s good.

Who’s your favorite giant of the fate from the Bible? My favorite giant of the faith is Abraham. I cannot understand how he was ready to kill his son, and he believed that even though his son would be dead, still the Lord would use him to raise so many people, so many Jewish people. So his courage I really admire. Yeah, definitely.

How long have you been saved? You said you got saved when you’re 16. How long have you been saved? That’s a very indirect way of asking how old are you? Well, let’s put it this way more than 50 years. More than 50. More than 60. All right, we’ll leave it as that. Praise the Lord. Amen. The Lord has been good.

All right, Lena, let’s wrap it up and tell us how can barriers be removed in the life of others. How can others be saved? The same way you were saved. This verse, Matthew 6:33 seeks one the kingdom of God. The person that wants to live this life and enjoy this life and be happy and be well after they die. What they have to do is seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. If we will seek the Lord, first of all, do what I did, recognize that you are sinner. The Bible says we all have sinned and the Lord says come unto me. Amen. If we will come to the Lord and ask him to forgive us our sins, he will forgive and he promises to give us eternal life. How great can that be? Again, I’ll say the verse give first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And not only these things in this life, but the Lord rewards us for eternity. For the rest of our life we will be happy. Amen. And so I am very happy to share how the Lord saved me and that I have the best of the best in the future. Amen.

Lena, it was a pleasure. Thank you for joining us on the Removing barriers podcast. Thank you. It was my pleasure. I really enjoyed doing this.

Thank you for listening. To get a hold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers, go to removingbarriers.net. This has been the removing barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.