When Faith Is Tested | Weekend Devotional

There are privileged saints whose faith is tested to its uttermost and who have the chance to show their loyalty to the uttermost.

In sixteenth-century Spain, Antonio Herrezuelo was sentenced by the Inquisition to die at the stake for his belief. Julian Hernandez had smuggled Spanish Scriptures and reformed literature into the country, hidden in wine casks. Smuggling is an old habit in the church of Christ. When caught, Hernandez was brutally tortured for three years, but did not betray those to whom he had given the Bibles. Herrezuelo had received such a Bible and had been converted.

When brought to the stake, Herrezuelo was tormented by the knowledge that his wife, also a believer, had recanted for fear of death and that because of this, the generous inquisitors had changed her death sentence to life imprisonment. One word from the mouth of Antonio and he could escape the stake, too. He could go to jail and hope that one day a pardon would be given and he would be reunited with his wife.

He knew of a better hope: the promise of God given to all believers that they and their houses would be saved. Until the gag was put into his mouth, he admonished his wife to repent. He believed that the Word of God, effective in saving sinners, would also be effective in making a backslidden saint return to the fold of Christ.

He died. His wife went to jail, but had no peace there. The inner fight lasted eight years. After this time, she withdrew her recantation and threw the affirmation of her faith in the teeth of the inquisitors. She was burned, too, and went to join her husband in heaven.

Believe in the promise of God for all who constitute your house.

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