A candle in the darkness

Found this through my God Promises emails..

A candle in the darkness

In 1989, Lazlo Tokes was the pastor of a fast-growing reformed church in the city of Timisoara, Romania. His powerful preaching had caught the attention of communist officials, and they began a strategy of suppression. Just before Christmas, they decided to send him into exile.

But when the police arrived to hustle Pastor Tokes away, they were stopped cold. Around the church stood a wall of humanity. Christians from around the city�Baptist, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic�had joined together to protest.

All through the day they held their post. As it grew dark, a Baptist student named Daniel Gavra pulled out a packet of candles, lit one, and passed it on to his neighbor.

Then he lit another. One by one the burning candles were passed out among the crowd. Soon the darkness of the December night was pierced by the light of hundreds of candles. When Pastor Tokes looked out his window, he saw a sea of faces lit up by a warm glow.

Two days later, police finally broke through the crowd and dragged Pastor Tokes away. But that was not the end. People streamed to the city square. Hundreds were shot, Young Daniel's leg was blown off. Yet the brave example set in Timisoara inspired the rest of the nation. Within days, the entire population of Romania had risen up and the bloody dictator Ceausescu was gone.

adapted from How Now Shall We Live? Devotional by Charles Colson (Tyndale) pp 711-12

Twist

When I talk about how I came to know God, I used to tell them that I had a trip on drugs, nearly killing myself, which then lead me to ask questions, things like 'Is there a God? If so Who is He?', 'Whats the meaning of life?', etc.

Some people (pro-drugs) would twist what I said. They'd say, 'If you hadnt have taken drugs you wouldnt have found God!' and in their own reasoning create a profile that drugs are somehow good.

The fact of the matter is that if I'd have sorted out my issues instead of running away from them (with drugs etc.), and stopped trying to live for my own personal pleasure, then I wouldn't have taken drugs and hopefully not messed up my life, and then in sober consideration, asked the same questions as before with a more mature attitude!

The if 'this and thats' are hard to work out in present time, but that doesn't excuse the way of not thinking logically, and with wisdom.

People will try and twist your words to say what they want to hear, or to support their belief system!

Throwing out the truth and creating our own truth can avoid reality and this way, keep bad things we like, growing. The good things slowly die, while the bad things grow and have more unreal excuses to support them. Like a virus with a pass card (e.g. HIV).