We might have been the most ideal embodiment of the Church.
In the first chapter, ‘Diabolical Attacks’, Father Calciu, a ‘guinea pig’ in the Pitesti re-education program, told us of the ‘infernal and impossible life’ in the adjoining cell, of Ali’s destruction, being unable to give or receive love from anyone. I have saved Father Calciu’s description of his cell for now, for it can only be understood in light of all we have learned since then. “We were united in suffering and pain. If one of us was sick, the others gave him their food. If one of us didn’t get medicines, the others went on strike, and we remained on strike and didn’t eat anything for weeks on end until they got afraid…for they were making an experiment and didn’t want us to die of starvation…and they gave us medicines. Marcel was the most predisposed to diseases, thus we sacrificed ourselves for him, giving him our food and medicines. We could have died so many times but we were saved by that love and that relationship between us. We might have been the most ideal embodiment of the Church, about which Saint Paul said, ‘When a limb gets hurt, the whole body suffers, when a limb rejoices, the whole body rejoices.’ In that prison cell we experienced ecclesiastic unity in absolute form.”
This man ministering to a man dying of AIDS is what that cell must have looked and felt like. It is a perfect example of what the Body of Christ, His Church, can be, really what it is meant to be…shared selfless love, complete inter-relationship.
This man ministering to a man dying of AIDS is what that cell must have looked and felt like. It is a perfect example of what the Body of Christ, His Church, can be, really what it is meant to be…shared selfless love, complete inter-relationship.
We experienced ecclesiastic unity in absolute form.
He is suffering with the dying man…identifying so closely with his suffering, that he experiences it too. This is the opposite of useless suffering caused by sin. It is suffering in the will of God, suffering with an eternal purpose…and it is valuable.
Even while being subjected to heinous strategies for stirring up cell conflicts and driving them into despair, still this was their experience and this is what the guards and Satan, himself, must have been staggered to observe. As you read again Chambers’ words, dwell for a moment on that ‘love and relationship between us by which we were saved.’ “Let it be said with reverence, even with bated breath and in the atmosphere of the deepest humility, that suffering ‘according to the will of God’ raises us to a freedom and felicity in the highest that baffles all language to express…the unspeakable bliss of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit abiding with you, feasting with you and making you one with them is the sublime height of suffering ‘according to the will of God’”.1
The Absolute Believer
Even while being subjected to heinous strategies for stirring up cell conflicts and driving them into despair, still this was their experience and this is what the guards and Satan, himself, must have been staggered to observe. As you read again Chambers’ words, dwell for a moment on that ‘love and relationship between us by which we were saved.’ “Let it be said with reverence, even with bated breath and in the atmosphere of the deepest humility, that suffering ‘according to the will of God’ raises us to a freedom and felicity in the highest that baffles all language to express…the unspeakable bliss of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit abiding with you, feasting with you and making you one with them is the sublime height of suffering ‘according to the will of God’”.1
The Absolute Believer
Costache had become the absolute believer. He put everything in Jesus’ hands.
Father Calciu gives most of the credit for their ‘ecclesiastic unity in absolute form’, even while facing unspeakable horror, to two things: the love and faith received from his mother, which ‘gave me power to pray and overcome hatred and doubt’ and to the presence of a man named Costache. “Costache was the torch and votive light in our cell. When we had conflicts amongst us, as is natural in such a situation, he was the one to settle them. He was an extraordinary man who had outrun the boundaries of a spiritual fighter. He had become the absolute believer. He used to live only in prayer and love. Until he died, he never cursed, he never spoke evil of the guard who used to beat us. He never spoke evil of the doctor who should have given him medicine, but didn’t. Costache put everything in Jesus’ hands.” Costache had climbed to the top of the ladder of the Beatitudes. He was a peacemaker who settled their conflicts; was full of mercy, giving his tormentors not what they deserved; when persecuted for righteousness sake, he was driven deeper into the Kingdom of God.
Looking back at all of his many years of ministry, having resided over a number of churches, Father Calciu considers that cell to have been ‘the most ideal embodiment of the Church’. The pastor/teacher, the priest, in that ‘ideal church’ was a man defined by Father Calciu as ‘an absolute believer’. Their ‘pastor’, he believes, reflected, as closely as is humanly possible, the perfect original, Jesus Christ. From four feet away Father Calciu watched his precious friend die…slowly, painfully, of a diseased lung; witnessed the heinous cruelty of him being denied life saving, pain relieving medicines; knows the natural reactions of just about any man, subjected to such torment, would be mental anguish or fury or wrath, yet heard from Costache not one accusing word…‘never speaking evil of the doctor who should have given him medicines but didn’t’.
‘Life and death’, Costache knew, ‘are in the power of the tongue’. Speaking condemning words about their tormentors, he knew, would be suicidal in that situation. But this does not mean his initial thoughts were without malice. Even Father Cosmovici, a man without the word ‘enemy’, admitted his immediate response to cruel treatment was often to strike back. What it does mean is that Costache knew how to deal with the natural reactions of his sinful nature. Like Pastor Visky, who responded to his irritation at the rude priest with, ‘So, I prayed’, Costache, facing far greater challenges, must have received often, during his prolonged praying, the gift of repentance by meditating on the only truth which can transform such terror, as it did for Elizabeth Ton, into martyr’s courage. Being able, in those circumstances, to live only in love must have had its roots in a full understanding of the Finished Work of The Cross.
We couldn’t question Costache about his prayer life, he died in that cell, but details have surely been supplied by the other ‘absolute believers’. For a victim of such depravity, to transform his anguish into words of forgiveness must have resulted from being able to reach, as Wurmbrand did in the room of the dying, the heart and mind of God. He must have experienced, as Sandor did in the punishment cell, precise communication and profound communion with God.
Looking back at all of his many years of ministry, having resided over a number of churches, Father Calciu considers that cell to have been ‘the most ideal embodiment of the Church’. The pastor/teacher, the priest, in that ‘ideal church’ was a man defined by Father Calciu as ‘an absolute believer’. Their ‘pastor’, he believes, reflected, as closely as is humanly possible, the perfect original, Jesus Christ. From four feet away Father Calciu watched his precious friend die…slowly, painfully, of a diseased lung; witnessed the heinous cruelty of him being denied life saving, pain relieving medicines; knows the natural reactions of just about any man, subjected to such torment, would be mental anguish or fury or wrath, yet heard from Costache not one accusing word…‘never speaking evil of the doctor who should have given him medicines but didn’t’.
‘Life and death’, Costache knew, ‘are in the power of the tongue’. Speaking condemning words about their tormentors, he knew, would be suicidal in that situation. But this does not mean his initial thoughts were without malice. Even Father Cosmovici, a man without the word ‘enemy’, admitted his immediate response to cruel treatment was often to strike back. What it does mean is that Costache knew how to deal with the natural reactions of his sinful nature. Like Pastor Visky, who responded to his irritation at the rude priest with, ‘So, I prayed’, Costache, facing far greater challenges, must have received often, during his prolonged praying, the gift of repentance by meditating on the only truth which can transform such terror, as it did for Elizabeth Ton, into martyr’s courage. Being able, in those circumstances, to live only in love must have had its roots in a full understanding of the Finished Work of The Cross.
We couldn’t question Costache about his prayer life, he died in that cell, but details have surely been supplied by the other ‘absolute believers’. For a victim of such depravity, to transform his anguish into words of forgiveness must have resulted from being able to reach, as Wurmbrand did in the room of the dying, the heart and mind of God. He must have experienced, as Sandor did in the punishment cell, precise communication and profound communion with God.
Those who persecuted
me, I saw as friends
me, I saw as friends
Then, just as Sandor, overflowing with gratitude for such great spiritual blessings, blessed those who persecuted him, and just as Father Sofian called his persecutors ‘friends’, because ‘my suffering pushed me deeper into the kingdom of God’, Costache, because of the blessings received, could offer mercy to those who had none…could live in that cell of horrors, ‘only in love’.
It was that love, Father Calciu knows, that spared them. ‘When we love un-conditionally’, Father Langa told us, ‘God in me loves. And when He loves, He manifests Himself.
God is brought to
where I commit the act of loving.
where I commit the act of loving.
This means God is brought to where I commit the act of loving.’ In Pitesti prison, in Sighet and Jilava and ‘Misery Village’…the presence of God, ‘the unspeakable bliss of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit abiding with them’ enabled them to survive the impossible. Those, like Costache, who had ‘outrun the boundaries of a spiritual fighter’ were those through whom the Presence of God was manifested.
George Patterson, Geoffrey Bull’s partner in Tibet, from their encounters with the demonic, helps us understand the necessity of Costache’s prolonged praying…‘living only in prayer and love’. “The spiritual opposition against us increased steadily and it became daily more difficult to pray and study the Scriptures. What would have normally have been an ordinary early morning devotional reading and prayer became a matter of two or three hours’ concentration, demanding all one’s physical energies. When prayer for any specific matter was required, demanding more exercise than usual to get into the presence of God and the calmness of communion, it became a battle, and the effort left one soaked with perspiration and physically exhausted.”2
Knowing Christ
Costache knew God; he knew Jesus Christ. He knew them in the way Jesus, in John 17:3, used the verb ‘to know’. “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It’s the same word the Apostle Paul used in Phillipians 3:10. “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. In both cases this ‘knowing’ is much more than having knowledge about someone. It is how a man and wife know each other when they’re in love.
To know someone this intimately, to constantly hold the vision of ones beloved before ones mind’s eye, to constantly be interacting with them, means you will begin to resemble them. KNOWING Jesus Christ in this way, Costache had become ‘the absolute believer’. And just as lovers devour each other’s letters when they’re apart, Costache had devoured God’s Word, so, to each new diabolical attack, his response was to automatically apply Bible doctrines. By responding with the wisdom of God to the attacks, God’s power, His grace, was imported into his life. Because he KNEW Christ, he experienced ‘the power of His resurrection’, was ‘lifted up’, as Pastor Visky was, ‘above suffering and pain’, and saw fear banished, as Sandor did, when Holy Spirit quickened to him a verse of scripture.
KNOWING Christ, being in love with Him, meant Costache willingly suffered for Him, thus reaped the phenomenal benefits of ‘the fellowship of His suffering’…the grace, amidst that terror, for ‘doing everything in love’…perhaps, like Maria, ‘felt he could catch Jesus and hold Him in his hands’, or, in his marathon prayers, like Father Sofian, ‘visited another universe’. Receiving such grace, his words were anointed, full of spiritual power, and he could impart peace, ‘settle their conflicts’, be ‘a torch, a votive light’…and they ‘survived on that love between them’. What Costache had, what Paul wanted, is what Jesus Christ desires for all of us…‘to KNOW Him’. Accomplish that and we, too, will experience ‘the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.’
When Grace Reigns
Paul writes in Romans 5:17 of ‘reigning in life through an abundance of grace’. The tremendous spiritual power which created ‘an ideal embodiment of the church’ resulted from the fact that in that cell grace reigned. Not only was Costache in love with Christ, he knew Christ was in love with him. Seeing himself through the eyes of grace, as the Father saw him, in union with Christ, he refused to accept the self condemnation and self hatred which Satan’s diabolical strategies were designed to stir up. He ‘put everything…everything…in Jesus’ hands.’ His thinking could not have been on things below…what he heard and saw and was forced to endure, but on things above; on Bible doctrines and the promises of God…most importantly on what Oswald Chambers calls the foundation and the secret of the Christian life…that because of his union with Christ he knew he was seen as perfect, as having the very righteousness of God in the eyes of the Father. He must have had complete assurance, as the Apostle John did, that “as (Christ) is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) How else, while enduring months of forced perversities and violence, could he continue doing everything in love?
His life puts flesh and blood on Watchman Nee’s challenging definition of ‘true Christianity’. “My reaction”, Nee writes, “if it is truly Christian, is something the world cannot and does not have. It is more than mere patience. It is grace, of which patience is just a part. And no one can exhaust the Lord’s grace in me…a reaction within you which is greater than the evil of men…a transcending power which the world does not know…here is the most powerful person on earth, because this kind of Christian is able to control himself…we have yet to meet a stronger person, for this kind of Christian is so strong he can afford not to care for himself.”3
Costache, by Nee’s definition, ‘one of the world’s strongest, most powerful persons’, maintained peace, not with rules, ‘don’t fight, don’t argue’, not by telling his ‘congregation’ what was wrong with them, but with ‘grace teachings’, telling them what was right with them…how perfect in God’s sight, how beautiful and valuable and loved by God they were. Only their obedience from the heart to Jesus’ command to ‘love one another even as I have loved you’ could have maintained the unity and love in that cell. No self effort could have. That’s what ‘grace teachings’ create, the capacity to obey from the heart. When conflicts did arise, ‘which was normal in those circumstances’, when bringing conviction was necessary, the holiness of a ‘pastor teacher’, who had become ‘an absolute believer’, would accomplish it.
George Patterson, Geoffrey Bull’s partner in Tibet, from their encounters with the demonic, helps us understand the necessity of Costache’s prolonged praying…‘living only in prayer and love’. “The spiritual opposition against us increased steadily and it became daily more difficult to pray and study the Scriptures. What would have normally have been an ordinary early morning devotional reading and prayer became a matter of two or three hours’ concentration, demanding all one’s physical energies. When prayer for any specific matter was required, demanding more exercise than usual to get into the presence of God and the calmness of communion, it became a battle, and the effort left one soaked with perspiration and physically exhausted.”2
Knowing Christ
Costache knew God; he knew Jesus Christ. He knew them in the way Jesus, in John 17:3, used the verb ‘to know’. “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” It’s the same word the Apostle Paul used in Phillipians 3:10. “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering. In both cases this ‘knowing’ is much more than having knowledge about someone. It is how a man and wife know each other when they’re in love.
To know someone this intimately, to constantly hold the vision of ones beloved before ones mind’s eye, to constantly be interacting with them, means you will begin to resemble them. KNOWING Jesus Christ in this way, Costache had become ‘the absolute believer’. And just as lovers devour each other’s letters when they’re apart, Costache had devoured God’s Word, so, to each new diabolical attack, his response was to automatically apply Bible doctrines. By responding with the wisdom of God to the attacks, God’s power, His grace, was imported into his life. Because he KNEW Christ, he experienced ‘the power of His resurrection’, was ‘lifted up’, as Pastor Visky was, ‘above suffering and pain’, and saw fear banished, as Sandor did, when Holy Spirit quickened to him a verse of scripture.
KNOWING Christ, being in love with Him, meant Costache willingly suffered for Him, thus reaped the phenomenal benefits of ‘the fellowship of His suffering’…the grace, amidst that terror, for ‘doing everything in love’…perhaps, like Maria, ‘felt he could catch Jesus and hold Him in his hands’, or, in his marathon prayers, like Father Sofian, ‘visited another universe’. Receiving such grace, his words were anointed, full of spiritual power, and he could impart peace, ‘settle their conflicts’, be ‘a torch, a votive light’…and they ‘survived on that love between them’. What Costache had, what Paul wanted, is what Jesus Christ desires for all of us…‘to KNOW Him’. Accomplish that and we, too, will experience ‘the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering.’
When Grace Reigns
Paul writes in Romans 5:17 of ‘reigning in life through an abundance of grace’. The tremendous spiritual power which created ‘an ideal embodiment of the church’ resulted from the fact that in that cell grace reigned. Not only was Costache in love with Christ, he knew Christ was in love with him. Seeing himself through the eyes of grace, as the Father saw him, in union with Christ, he refused to accept the self condemnation and self hatred which Satan’s diabolical strategies were designed to stir up. He ‘put everything…everything…in Jesus’ hands.’ His thinking could not have been on things below…what he heard and saw and was forced to endure, but on things above; on Bible doctrines and the promises of God…most importantly on what Oswald Chambers calls the foundation and the secret of the Christian life…that because of his union with Christ he knew he was seen as perfect, as having the very righteousness of God in the eyes of the Father. He must have had complete assurance, as the Apostle John did, that “as (Christ) is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17) How else, while enduring months of forced perversities and violence, could he continue doing everything in love?
His life puts flesh and blood on Watchman Nee’s challenging definition of ‘true Christianity’. “My reaction”, Nee writes, “if it is truly Christian, is something the world cannot and does not have. It is more than mere patience. It is grace, of which patience is just a part. And no one can exhaust the Lord’s grace in me…a reaction within you which is greater than the evil of men…a transcending power which the world does not know…here is the most powerful person on earth, because this kind of Christian is able to control himself…we have yet to meet a stronger person, for this kind of Christian is so strong he can afford not to care for himself.”3
Costache, by Nee’s definition, ‘one of the world’s strongest, most powerful persons’, maintained peace, not with rules, ‘don’t fight, don’t argue’, not by telling his ‘congregation’ what was wrong with them, but with ‘grace teachings’, telling them what was right with them…how perfect in God’s sight, how beautiful and valuable and loved by God they were. Only their obedience from the heart to Jesus’ command to ‘love one another even as I have loved you’ could have maintained the unity and love in that cell. No self effort could have. That’s what ‘grace teachings’ create, the capacity to obey from the heart. When conflicts did arise, ‘which was normal in those circumstances’, when bringing conviction was necessary, the holiness of a ‘pastor teacher’, who had become ‘an absolute believer’, would accomplish it.
We started to recover by putting into practice, what Costache had taught us…about forgiveness, love and prayer.
After Costache died, Father Calciu and the two others realized just how much their ‘ideal church’ had been sustained by his teaching and spiritual power. “We recognized Costache’s true worth only after we lost him. For several days after his death we were bewildered, irritated and on bad terms with each other. We couldn’t even stand still.” An ‘infernal and impossible life’ was threatening to also engulf them. “But little by little we started to recover by reminding ourselves, and putting into practice, what Costache had taught us…and he’d taught us a lot…about forgiveness, love and prayer.”
‘Ideal churches’ do just what Costache did…offer an abundance of teaching. Oswald Chambers believes that ‘one disciple is of more worth to God than one hundred who are mere converts’. Without teaching a convert will remain a convert; will seldom, if ever, grow and mature into becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. The strength of the fellowship I belong to is that they major not on worship or prophesy or signs and wonders, they major on the teaching of Bible doctrines. In any new country where they are planting a church, when even one family is converted, a Bible institute, through audio and video tapes, is established. In our church in Brasov, Romania, two thirds are either Bible institute graduates or students. When I minister there, instead of stirring up converts, I’m leading disciples. And in ‘ideal churches’ the teaching majors on what Costache majored on…‘the greater work’, prayer, and grace…receiving the grace of forgiveness and the unconditional love of God and offering both to others.
Without Costache’s wisdom, his prayers and the presence of God his unconditional love brought into that cell, the survivors began ‘stepping outside of grace’ and losing their freedom…the freedom to live for others and freedom from the natural reactions of their selfish natures…but regained both when they put into practice what their ‘pastor/teacher’ had taught them about prayer, love and forgiveness. Through prolonged, fervent prayer their connection to God was re-established and they received the grace they desperately needed to be able to love and forgive…each other, even their tormentors. With the grace they received they regained the spiritual power to wage the spiritual warfare Costache had been waging on their behalf. ‘Through an abundance of grace’, under the fiercest attack imaginable, once more ‘they reigned in life’. In any life, family or church, where grace reigns there is amazing freedom and great spiritual power. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)
In These Last Days
If one were to survive in a communist prison, having climbed towards the top of the ladder of the Beatitudes was not an option. Increasingly, to be able to survive spiritually, as wickedness spreads in these last days, it is not an option for us either. The Apostle Paul saw it coming. These are “the perilous times when men have become lovers of themselves, of money, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unholy and brutal.”4 The decade of rebellion and hedonism, the 1960’s, the decade of self, the 70’s, the decade of greed, the 80’s, led inevitably to the decade of despair, the 90’s.
‘Ideal churches’ do just what Costache did…offer an abundance of teaching. Oswald Chambers believes that ‘one disciple is of more worth to God than one hundred who are mere converts’. Without teaching a convert will remain a convert; will seldom, if ever, grow and mature into becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ. The strength of the fellowship I belong to is that they major not on worship or prophesy or signs and wonders, they major on the teaching of Bible doctrines. In any new country where they are planting a church, when even one family is converted, a Bible institute, through audio and video tapes, is established. In our church in Brasov, Romania, two thirds are either Bible institute graduates or students. When I minister there, instead of stirring up converts, I’m leading disciples. And in ‘ideal churches’ the teaching majors on what Costache majored on…‘the greater work’, prayer, and grace…receiving the grace of forgiveness and the unconditional love of God and offering both to others.
Without Costache’s wisdom, his prayers and the presence of God his unconditional love brought into that cell, the survivors began ‘stepping outside of grace’ and losing their freedom…the freedom to live for others and freedom from the natural reactions of their selfish natures…but regained both when they put into practice what their ‘pastor/teacher’ had taught them about prayer, love and forgiveness. Through prolonged, fervent prayer their connection to God was re-established and they received the grace they desperately needed to be able to love and forgive…each other, even their tormentors. With the grace they received they regained the spiritual power to wage the spiritual warfare Costache had been waging on their behalf. ‘Through an abundance of grace’, under the fiercest attack imaginable, once more ‘they reigned in life’. In any life, family or church, where grace reigns there is amazing freedom and great spiritual power. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Heb. 4:16)
In These Last Days
If one were to survive in a communist prison, having climbed towards the top of the ladder of the Beatitudes was not an option. Increasingly, to be able to survive spiritually, as wickedness spreads in these last days, it is not an option for us either. The Apostle Paul saw it coming. These are “the perilous times when men have become lovers of themselves, of money, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unholy and brutal.”4 The decade of rebellion and hedonism, the 1960’s, the decade of self, the 70’s, the decade of greed, the 80’s, led inevitably to the decade of despair, the 90’s.
Being told that life is a cosmic accident and that they are evolved apes, that their sexual orientation is a preference and the killing of the unborn a choice, plus the 200,000 acts of violence, over 35,000 murders and over 90,000 acts of illicit sex…sex outside of marriage, none with any negative consequences…which the average teenager in the West, (and increasingly now in the East) by the time he is sixteen, has witnessed on television or in the movies, guarantees that unless they hear the truth presented creatively, with conviction and with spiritual power, the progression from rebellion and hedonism to selfishness, to greed, to despair, will repeat itself with each new generation. The urgent warning of Father Calciu, who knows the diabolical as few on earth do, that “the attack Eastern European youth are under from the West is as diabolical as communism’s attack…they are on the verge of despair and must get out from under that attack”, we must take very seriously.
…an attack as diabolical as communism’s…
This is the attack that has turned much of Europe into a moral cesspool. It’s the same attack American youth are under. In the chapter, ‘Love Growing Cold’, Sabina Wurmbrand told us that in the fight with the communists for the soul of her son she had to faithfully and aggressively use the only weapon at her disposal: ‘re-instructing him every night, regaining the ground lost every day to the communists’. The more we see Him who is invisible, build strong faith based on Bible doctrines, learn to love with the love of God…the more of the joy of the Lord we have, the more intimate our communion with God, the more we are prepared to experience the fellowship of his suffering, the greater our capacity to receive grace, the more spiritual power we will have to use this weapon.
And make no mistake about it, spiritual power is just as essential to combat secular humanism’s agenda as it was to combat communism’s. Peggy and I learned just how essential when we lived in America for two years in the early 1990s and worked for pro-life causes. Without spiritual power, being able to respond in humility and love, while being rudely interrupted and screamed at by radical feminists and militant homosexuals, as we picketed and prayed outside abortion clinics, would have been impossible. Spiritual power was also essential in the fight for the souls of our three children. Being able, with truth from the Bible, to retake ground lost to the mass media, to public school curriculums and to the influence of peers was crucial. But God’s victory in each of their lives they credit more to the love and joy and fulfillment, ‘Christ in us alive and powerful’, which they witnessed in our lives.
Under communism, Christians had access to very few weapons, but in a democracy there are many more. A vitally important book, which spells out in detail the root causes and the extent of secular humanism’s attack, but more important, the weapons at our disposal and how to use them, is ‘Mind Siege’ by Tim LaHaye and David Noebel.5 The authors provide detailed case histories of communities that have been taken back out of the hands of amoral leaders…of school boards, district attorney’s offices, congressional seats and other elected positions that are now in the hands of Christians because there were some who cared enough to educate themselves by reading the excellent books on the market today by authors such as the two just mentioned and others such as Charles Colson, James Dobson, Josh McDowell and Brother Andrew…writers whose lives are dedicated to mobilizing Christians and equipping them to be able to enlighten neighbors, to expose amoral candidates and campaign for moral ones, to become active in pro-moral organizations and speak out and write on moral issues…to run for public office.
God’s Call
Dietrich Bonhoffer, during the Allies’ nightly bombing raids on Berlin, when he was incarcerated there by the Nazis, discovered that very few of his fellow prisoners, as the bombs fell, were able to respond in any other way than to look out for themselves. Those who were able to ‘suffer when others suffered’, who risked their lives to rescue the wounded, were those, he came to realize, whose entire lives were lived in response to God’s call on their lives. That call from Jesus to every Christian has not changed in 2000 years. It is still, ‘Follow Me…Learn of Me…Know Me.’
Jesus should have been the most heavy laden person ever to live. Who had a heavier burden or greater pain in His heart…seeing all the sin and lies and evil and heartache? But He wasn’t soulish. He didn’t take those problems into His mind and emotions. He could live in trouble and in troubles His yoke was easy and His burden was light. He said, ‘Learn of Me…I am spirit and by the Holy Spirit I bear all things, and the Father delivers Me from myself and gives me peace and joy and encouragement.’
We have sat at the feet of those who faced problems bigger than most of us will ever face, and they did not try to solve their problems…that’s what a soulish man would do. They were spiritual. They let God solve their problems. By doing what Jesus asks us to do, ‘Learn of Me, Know Me’, they entered His rest…even in prison. They have taught us secrets…of gratitude, of thinking with God through Bible doctrines, of obedience from the heart. They took upon themselves Jesus’ yoke of humility, of listening, of faith. They gave Him their heart and He filled it and they were satisfied…and He will do the same for us. They found rest in the midst of torment and as expert teachers they have shown us the way to find it in the midst of our worries, dilemmas, even diabolical attacks. They gave up carnal, soulish living and gained the filling of the Holy Spirit. They have shown us the path to peace and joy and effective ministry…and the Biblical principles their actions were based on are so awesome yet so simple.
They have reminded us how and why after serving God for twenty and thirty years it is still a joy…because it is so obvious God was with them…and He is with us. They drive home the point a thousand times that this is the way to live, the secret of life…that there is a spiritual life and it is accomplished not by our efforts, but by letting God lead and guide and change us. Then our lives, like those of the prisoners, become unconquerable, even gleeful. In our ‘midnights’, too, we can dance.
Through the spiritual treasures provided for us by the Romanian faith heroes:
By helping us to discern the diabolical in the attack we are under;
By opening our eyes wider to the power and majesty of Him who is invisible;
By deepening our understanding of the mystery of our union with Christ;
By inspiring us to submerge ourselves in Bible doctrines to strengthen our faith;
By igniting in our hearts a spark of love for our enemies;
By pointing us to the source of the joy of the Lord;
By instructing us in becoming co-creators with Him;
By showing us the path to true fulfillment through giving;
By causing us to desire to share in the fellowship of his suffering;
By propelling us up the ladder of the Beatitudes towards perfect freedom;
By imparting a vision of the amazing freedom and tremendous power in lives and churches where grace reigns; God has put fire in our hearts and wisdom in our minds to be able, when the crisis or persecution (or prosperity) comes, to be one of those with the spiritual strength to continue to respond to the call of Jesus Christ to ‘Follow Me…Learn of Me.’
And make no mistake about it, spiritual power is just as essential to combat secular humanism’s agenda as it was to combat communism’s. Peggy and I learned just how essential when we lived in America for two years in the early 1990s and worked for pro-life causes. Without spiritual power, being able to respond in humility and love, while being rudely interrupted and screamed at by radical feminists and militant homosexuals, as we picketed and prayed outside abortion clinics, would have been impossible. Spiritual power was also essential in the fight for the souls of our three children. Being able, with truth from the Bible, to retake ground lost to the mass media, to public school curriculums and to the influence of peers was crucial. But God’s victory in each of their lives they credit more to the love and joy and fulfillment, ‘Christ in us alive and powerful’, which they witnessed in our lives.
Under communism, Christians had access to very few weapons, but in a democracy there are many more. A vitally important book, which spells out in detail the root causes and the extent of secular humanism’s attack, but more important, the weapons at our disposal and how to use them, is ‘Mind Siege’ by Tim LaHaye and David Noebel.5 The authors provide detailed case histories of communities that have been taken back out of the hands of amoral leaders…of school boards, district attorney’s offices, congressional seats and other elected positions that are now in the hands of Christians because there were some who cared enough to educate themselves by reading the excellent books on the market today by authors such as the two just mentioned and others such as Charles Colson, James Dobson, Josh McDowell and Brother Andrew…writers whose lives are dedicated to mobilizing Christians and equipping them to be able to enlighten neighbors, to expose amoral candidates and campaign for moral ones, to become active in pro-moral organizations and speak out and write on moral issues…to run for public office.
God’s Call
Dietrich Bonhoffer, during the Allies’ nightly bombing raids on Berlin, when he was incarcerated there by the Nazis, discovered that very few of his fellow prisoners, as the bombs fell, were able to respond in any other way than to look out for themselves. Those who were able to ‘suffer when others suffered’, who risked their lives to rescue the wounded, were those, he came to realize, whose entire lives were lived in response to God’s call on their lives. That call from Jesus to every Christian has not changed in 2000 years. It is still, ‘Follow Me…Learn of Me…Know Me.’
Jesus should have been the most heavy laden person ever to live. Who had a heavier burden or greater pain in His heart…seeing all the sin and lies and evil and heartache? But He wasn’t soulish. He didn’t take those problems into His mind and emotions. He could live in trouble and in troubles His yoke was easy and His burden was light. He said, ‘Learn of Me…I am spirit and by the Holy Spirit I bear all things, and the Father delivers Me from myself and gives me peace and joy and encouragement.’
We have sat at the feet of those who faced problems bigger than most of us will ever face, and they did not try to solve their problems…that’s what a soulish man would do. They were spiritual. They let God solve their problems. By doing what Jesus asks us to do, ‘Learn of Me, Know Me’, they entered His rest…even in prison. They have taught us secrets…of gratitude, of thinking with God through Bible doctrines, of obedience from the heart. They took upon themselves Jesus’ yoke of humility, of listening, of faith. They gave Him their heart and He filled it and they were satisfied…and He will do the same for us. They found rest in the midst of torment and as expert teachers they have shown us the way to find it in the midst of our worries, dilemmas, even diabolical attacks. They gave up carnal, soulish living and gained the filling of the Holy Spirit. They have shown us the path to peace and joy and effective ministry…and the Biblical principles their actions were based on are so awesome yet so simple.
They have reminded us how and why after serving God for twenty and thirty years it is still a joy…because it is so obvious God was with them…and He is with us. They drive home the point a thousand times that this is the way to live, the secret of life…that there is a spiritual life and it is accomplished not by our efforts, but by letting God lead and guide and change us. Then our lives, like those of the prisoners, become unconquerable, even gleeful. In our ‘midnights’, too, we can dance.
Through the spiritual treasures provided for us by the Romanian faith heroes:
By helping us to discern the diabolical in the attack we are under;
By opening our eyes wider to the power and majesty of Him who is invisible;
By deepening our understanding of the mystery of our union with Christ;
By inspiring us to submerge ourselves in Bible doctrines to strengthen our faith;
By igniting in our hearts a spark of love for our enemies;
By pointing us to the source of the joy of the Lord;
By instructing us in becoming co-creators with Him;
By showing us the path to true fulfillment through giving;
By causing us to desire to share in the fellowship of his suffering;
By propelling us up the ladder of the Beatitudes towards perfect freedom;
By imparting a vision of the amazing freedom and tremendous power in lives and churches where grace reigns; God has put fire in our hearts and wisdom in our minds to be able, when the crisis or persecution (or prosperity) comes, to be one of those with the spiritual strength to continue to respond to the call of Jesus Christ to ‘Follow Me…Learn of Me.’
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