Have these startling unveilings of the nature of God...‘unending joy, unspeakable warmth, a flame of love in the heart like the coronal streamers of the sun, healing power something like lightning, pure white illuminating light’...have they stirred adoration, caused your love relationship for the One Who died for all to grow deeper still? I truly hope so. Ever since I heard of them ten years ago, they have not stopped doing so for me.
Father Galeriu told us that: “At the Canal of death you could test the strength and mystery of the faith, and the secret of personal communication and communion with God, and every person with a strong faith was able to survive and had the chance of tasting the Cross of Jesus...and in the end the joy of Jesus’ Cross and the hope and joy of the resurrection...so to live this mystery, all of a sudden, he who had faith survived and lived.” Since ‘living this mystery’ was a key to survival where so many perished, a key to victory where so many were defeated, then for us to learn to do the same in our lives should certainly be a high priority.
Light of the World
In Romania Father Calciu became a beacon of light attracting young people who had been kept in spiritual darkness, but when he first went to prison this was not who he was, he was an unsaved medical student. “I was part of a group of young people and what we experienced, like the terror and those beatings went beyond our imaginations and our endurance power. We had become so desperate we began losing hope. We didn’t believe God could save us any more. That meant there would be the breakdown the communists had planned for us.” The students’ will power, their courage, even their sanity was breaking. But day after day in the same cell they observed a group who were not breaking down but who were transcending the situation.
Father Galeriu told us that: “At the Canal of death you could test the strength and mystery of the faith, and the secret of personal communication and communion with God, and every person with a strong faith was able to survive and had the chance of tasting the Cross of Jesus...and in the end the joy of Jesus’ Cross and the hope and joy of the resurrection...so to live this mystery, all of a sudden, he who had faith survived and lived.” Since ‘living this mystery’ was a key to survival where so many perished, a key to victory where so many were defeated, then for us to learn to do the same in our lives should certainly be a high priority.
Light of the World
In Romania Father Calciu became a beacon of light attracting young people who had been kept in spiritual darkness, but when he first went to prison this was not who he was, he was an unsaved medical student. “I was part of a group of young people and what we experienced, like the terror and those beatings went beyond our imaginations and our endurance power. We had become so desperate we began losing hope. We didn’t believe God could save us any more. That meant there would be the breakdown the communists had planned for us.” The students’ will power, their courage, even their sanity was breaking. But day after day in the same cell they observed a group who were not breaking down but who were transcending the situation.
The good priests were, indeed, the light of the world…I understood then the mystery of Jesus…
“Those priests and pastors must have been better prepared than we were…they brought us a new hope and opened a field we used to know but had begun to forget. We were then walking on the road of spirituality and we began to understand what Jesus had said, ‘You are the light of the world and the salt of the earth’. The good priests were, indeed, the light of the world and the salt of the earth. I understood then the mystery of Jesus and I decided that if I left that prison alive I would become a priest. So I kept that decision, and after I was released I, too, began to become ‘the light of the world and the salt of the earth.’”
‘Light of the World’ is the only phrase in the Bible that describes both Jesus and the believer. Jesus was ‘the light of the world’ because of His oneness with the Father. Believers are the light of the world because of their oneness with Christ. Jesus reflected the brilliance and nature of the Father, brought the light of salvation to a world in spiritual darkness and the light of revelation that illuminates our minds. He was, indeed, the ‘light of the world’. The measure that we reflect Him is the measure that we become lights in our world.
The Mystery
The students’ lives and destinies changed when they learned that ‘light of the world’ was not just a figure of speech, that what they were seeing must be supernatural, a mystery , something only God could do. Scripture tells us specifically what that mystery is: “The mystery is Christ in you the hope of glory.”1 In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “What an unutterable privilege that He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain condescends to find a dwelling in our hearts.”2 The greatest miracle in all of creation, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in a man, revealed itself in that cell. God’s nature in those priests and pastors, appearing even brighter in that demonic darkness, caused them to appear to shine. A missionary, visiting a late night service of an Underground Church in Russia in the 1970s, reported that, for fear of discovery, no lights were used. He couldn’t understand how, in that dark basement where they were meeting, there was enough light for the worshippers to be reading their hymnals…and then he realized it was from the light emanating from their faces.
The ‘light’ of the Christians in that cell attracted the medical students, and their ‘salt’, their comfort and encouragement and counsel, preserved their lives. If the students had been alone, their fate, most probably would have resembled that of those in Ali’s cell at Pitesti. I had been a Christian for ten years before the incredible reality of that mystery became for me more than just head knowledge. I had been reading a C.S. Lewis book on a airplane in which Lewis was saying that Christ living in us is such a stupendous truth that most Christians, though they pay lip service to it, really don’t, deep down, believe it. I knew that described me...but a second later I knew it didn’t. When the revelation hit me I was so excited I turned around and to a stranger and exclaimed, ‘Do you know what I just learned...Christ put into me His Spirit...God lives in me!’
Sandor saw the lives of fellow prisoners change when he could make them comprehend that this is what Christ, because He is alive, is now able to do for us. “A communist officer was sent to prison for political reasons. And this officer came to me before Easter and said, ‘Father, please tell me something about Easter.’ And I told him, ‘With pleasure. There is an hour to go to work and an hour to come back. In this hour I will tell you about Easter’. So, that’s how it happened. I spoke to him all the way there and back. And one day when we got back the officer told me. ‘It’s interesting, Father, the other priests told me just about the facts alone, but they didn’t speak like you did, what it means for our life. And from listening to you I understand, for this reason I had to be sent here. I was an officer and when I saw my wife praying and going to church, I was mocking her. But God is like this...now I understand’. And he became so joyful and happy.” All of the years the officer spent in prison he considered a fair exchange for what Sandor taught him that day. ‘For this reason’, he said, ‘I had to be sent here’. He had had knowledge of the events of Easter...but Sandor gave him something much more profound…that what the crucifixion and resurrection meant for his life was that the Spirit of Christ lived in him.
‘Light of the World’ is the only phrase in the Bible that describes both Jesus and the believer. Jesus was ‘the light of the world’ because of His oneness with the Father. Believers are the light of the world because of their oneness with Christ. Jesus reflected the brilliance and nature of the Father, brought the light of salvation to a world in spiritual darkness and the light of revelation that illuminates our minds. He was, indeed, the ‘light of the world’. The measure that we reflect Him is the measure that we become lights in our world.
The Mystery
The students’ lives and destinies changed when they learned that ‘light of the world’ was not just a figure of speech, that what they were seeing must be supernatural, a mystery , something only God could do. Scripture tells us specifically what that mystery is: “The mystery is Christ in you the hope of glory.”1 In the words of Charles Spurgeon, “What an unutterable privilege that He whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain condescends to find a dwelling in our hearts.”2 The greatest miracle in all of creation, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in a man, revealed itself in that cell. God’s nature in those priests and pastors, appearing even brighter in that demonic darkness, caused them to appear to shine. A missionary, visiting a late night service of an Underground Church in Russia in the 1970s, reported that, for fear of discovery, no lights were used. He couldn’t understand how, in that dark basement where they were meeting, there was enough light for the worshippers to be reading their hymnals…and then he realized it was from the light emanating from their faces.
The ‘light’ of the Christians in that cell attracted the medical students, and their ‘salt’, their comfort and encouragement and counsel, preserved their lives. If the students had been alone, their fate, most probably would have resembled that of those in Ali’s cell at Pitesti. I had been a Christian for ten years before the incredible reality of that mystery became for me more than just head knowledge. I had been reading a C.S. Lewis book on a airplane in which Lewis was saying that Christ living in us is such a stupendous truth that most Christians, though they pay lip service to it, really don’t, deep down, believe it. I knew that described me...but a second later I knew it didn’t. When the revelation hit me I was so excited I turned around and to a stranger and exclaimed, ‘Do you know what I just learned...Christ put into me His Spirit...God lives in me!’
Sandor saw the lives of fellow prisoners change when he could make them comprehend that this is what Christ, because He is alive, is now able to do for us. “A communist officer was sent to prison for political reasons. And this officer came to me before Easter and said, ‘Father, please tell me something about Easter.’ And I told him, ‘With pleasure. There is an hour to go to work and an hour to come back. In this hour I will tell you about Easter’. So, that’s how it happened. I spoke to him all the way there and back. And one day when we got back the officer told me. ‘It’s interesting, Father, the other priests told me just about the facts alone, but they didn’t speak like you did, what it means for our life. And from listening to you I understand, for this reason I had to be sent here. I was an officer and when I saw my wife praying and going to church, I was mocking her. But God is like this...now I understand’. And he became so joyful and happy.” All of the years the officer spent in prison he considered a fair exchange for what Sandor taught him that day. ‘For this reason’, he said, ‘I had to be sent here’. He had had knowledge of the events of Easter...but Sandor gave him something much more profound…that what the crucifixion and resurrection meant for his life was that the Spirit of Christ lived in him.
Sandor’s understanding of the implications that Christ’s spirit lives in us went even deeper. “And I don’t know how many people I told, ‘Do you know how I will be received up there?’ ‘How?’ ‘Like Christ! And do you know why? Because Christ is here in my life. He made Himself one with me!” Sandor is probably the most positive, gleeful man I’ve ever met. In that statement you find the major reason. His phenomenal expectation, that the welcome waiting for him in glory would not be unlike the one Christ received after his ascension, resulted from his conviction that the Father sees him, because Christ had made Himself one with him, as He sees Christ. He understood, as I believe few Christians do, the meaning of 1 John 4:17…“As Christ is, so are we in this world…” The beginning of joy and growth, as we saw in the last chapter, is seeing Him who is invisible. We are changed even more when we see, as Sandor did, how God sees us…as having a righteousness equal to His, as perfect in His sight. He challenges us to examine just how deep is our understanding of the implications of our union with Christ…that ‘He is in us and we are in Him’.
Salvation
Before going to prison, the medical students would have probably paid little attention to the priests and pastors, or noticed anything significantly different about them if they had, but separated from their books and busy lives, and in a situation of great need, the radiance and spiritual strength of their cell mates became obvious. “Where does the light shine brighter? In darkness! When it’s not day or night, the lights of the car are not quite visible, but when it’s dark, then you see the light.” The mystery shining in that darkness revealed to the students their own lost condition…they knew that what they were observing, the nature of God alive in those men, they lacked. “I believe that God planned the religious arrests purposefully in order to save us and even to thwart the plans of those who were trying to destroy us. God even planned for the communists to help us save our own souls.”
Salvation
Before going to prison, the medical students would have probably paid little attention to the priests and pastors, or noticed anything significantly different about them if they had, but separated from their books and busy lives, and in a situation of great need, the radiance and spiritual strength of their cell mates became obvious. “Where does the light shine brighter? In darkness! When it’s not day or night, the lights of the car are not quite visible, but when it’s dark, then you see the light.” The mystery shining in that darkness revealed to the students their own lost condition…they knew that what they were observing, the nature of God alive in those men, they lacked. “I believe that God planned the religious arrests purposefully in order to save us and even to thwart the plans of those who were trying to destroy us. God even planned for the communists to help us save our own souls.”
God planned
the religious arrests.
the religious arrests.
Some day, when God shows us all the circumstances which He arranged which led to our salvation, we will be amazed. I had to be held in a solitary cell, the prime suspect of a terrible crime, before my need became great enough for me to cry out to God. The Phillips translation of the first Beatitude is, “How blessed are those who know they need God, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Need, needing God, is the essential first step to entering God’s Kingdom. Before he went to prison, Horia Cosmovici was a successful lawyer with no needs. “During communism I was a young attorney and I got what I wanted. I could have had villas, mistresses...I could have traveled abroad.” Father Cosmovici holds the same, almost unbelievable conviction about his eighteen years of prison as the officer who learned about the meaning of Easter from Sandor. “And finally for all those benefits I could have gone to hell for sure. But God took pity on me and put me in prison. What should I say, I suffered? I haven’t suffered. What...that I’ve eaten less? What should I say...that I was forced to remove one of my eyes without anesthesia? So what? It’s good that I didn’t have to remove both eyes. After all, I’ve seen enough of this world. I learned in prison there’s another world which cannot be seen with these eyes! So, prison for me was the most valuable years of my life. Without any doubt...the best and most profitable years of my life!”
Prison for me was the most valuable and profitable years of my life!
Father Cosmovici weighs the loss of his many earthly pleasures and privileges against what he learned in eighteen years of hardship and he calls the latter...even removing an eye without anesthesia, never seeing family, near starvation...‘God taking pity on me!’ He knew that without the great need of prison he would not have found the invisible God, wouldn’t have received Christ’s Spirit within him.
Assignments
Those priests and pastors in the cell with the medical students had been assigned by God to stand in the gap between the students and Satan’s plans for their lives. One of the most tragic verses in the Bible is Ezekiel 22:30: “I looked for a man who would stand before me in the gap…and there was none.” But in this case, in those Christians, he found them. Their obedience to His call to make, possibly, the supreme sacrifice, and ‘love not their lives unto death’, had placed them where He wanted them, doing what He knew they’d do, return the students to the spiritual path by revealing to them the mystery of Christ.
The Spirit of God drove me to tell those things to the youth. They shouted ‘We are not afraid of anything! God is with us!’
Years later God needed a man for just such an assignment for the university students in Cluj who had been fed, for years, only atheistic-materialism…an assignment that carried a great price, Father Calciu’s almost certain return to prison, but also offered a great reward, a first-hand experience with God…and eternal rewards we can’t even imagine.
“I’d like to say that those seven sermons came from God. I didn’t plan them. It was simply God’s intention. I’m not an exaggerated mystical person, but then I felt I had the Spirit of God, which drove me to tell those things to the youth and, afterwards to pay with suffering. They had to understand those weren’t empty words. So, through those sermons, entitled ‘Heaven and Earth’, ‘Friendship and Faith’, ‘Let’s build Churches’…I was able to relate ideas based only on the Holy Scriptures.” God put onto Father Calciu His burden for the students, then gave him ideas to accomplish His purpose. By speaking what he heard from God, the students’ spiritual eyes were opened...his words serving as windows to the true, real world. He had seen something only God could do. The students, fed only atheism for years, must have also...they shouted, ‘Continue, Father, God is with us!’
Father Giurgi told us: “In the church there is a continuation of the life of Christ. If we would listen to the preaching of the church...but we don’t really listen, it enters one ear and goes out the other. These truths of faith that the church preaches, they are not preached by the man, by that priest, but by the Savior, Jesus Christ. The priest is just a servant of The Lord Jesus Christ.” Because Father Calciu’s sermons were what Father Giurgi said preaching should be, ‘a continuation of the life of Christ, not preached by a man, but by Jesus Christ’, they opened spiritual eyes blinded by years of lies. “The Securitate locked the gates, but the students defied them, climbed the walls to hear the preaching. They shouted, ‘If we’ve started we’ll go to the end, and whatever might happen, Father, we’ll support you!’ At that point, I felt I was no longer able to continue and I felt that fear was trying to take over. I was worried that the students might suffer or be expelled. The professors were always saying the institute might be closed. All those were only justifications to stop the sermons. When the students told me: ‘We’d like to go on! We are not afraid of anything! God is with us!’ I was able to continue because of their encouragement.”
Seeing the Mystery
“In every believer”, Wurmbrand said, “you will see something of God which will give your heart joy, and this is the great beauty of God that He is in all believers, but in each one in a different way. But He is in all. The first Christians had a saying, ‘Who sees a brother or sister has seen Christ’. This is real for Christ lives in us.” Jesus said it unequivocally, “On that day (when Holy Spirit comes) you will know that I am in the Father and you are in Me and I in you.”3 Regardless of what our physical eyes tell us, because we know that Jesus’ words are true, by faith we are meant to see something of Christ in every believer. “If you look at a believer with the good eyes of faith, you see that inside them is another being...it’s Jesus Christ who lives in that person. In some it is clear, in some less clear. But like a pregnant woman, even in the first month, when you can’t see she is pregnant, still there is life within her.” Do we do this, or is it social status, diplomas, the group or race someone belongs to that we so often see? That’s the flesh, seeing the seen world only. To know that when we see a Christian we are seeing Christ, as the early Christians constantly reminded themselves, think how this would improve our relationships in the Body of Christ if this reality was constantly before our eyes.
Assignments
Those priests and pastors in the cell with the medical students had been assigned by God to stand in the gap between the students and Satan’s plans for their lives. One of the most tragic verses in the Bible is Ezekiel 22:30: “I looked for a man who would stand before me in the gap…and there was none.” But in this case, in those Christians, he found them. Their obedience to His call to make, possibly, the supreme sacrifice, and ‘love not their lives unto death’, had placed them where He wanted them, doing what He knew they’d do, return the students to the spiritual path by revealing to them the mystery of Christ.
The Spirit of God drove me to tell those things to the youth. They shouted ‘We are not afraid of anything! God is with us!’
Years later God needed a man for just such an assignment for the university students in Cluj who had been fed, for years, only atheistic-materialism…an assignment that carried a great price, Father Calciu’s almost certain return to prison, but also offered a great reward, a first-hand experience with God…and eternal rewards we can’t even imagine.
“I’d like to say that those seven sermons came from God. I didn’t plan them. It was simply God’s intention. I’m not an exaggerated mystical person, but then I felt I had the Spirit of God, which drove me to tell those things to the youth and, afterwards to pay with suffering. They had to understand those weren’t empty words. So, through those sermons, entitled ‘Heaven and Earth’, ‘Friendship and Faith’, ‘Let’s build Churches’…I was able to relate ideas based only on the Holy Scriptures.” God put onto Father Calciu His burden for the students, then gave him ideas to accomplish His purpose. By speaking what he heard from God, the students’ spiritual eyes were opened...his words serving as windows to the true, real world. He had seen something only God could do. The students, fed only atheism for years, must have also...they shouted, ‘Continue, Father, God is with us!’
Father Giurgi told us: “In the church there is a continuation of the life of Christ. If we would listen to the preaching of the church...but we don’t really listen, it enters one ear and goes out the other. These truths of faith that the church preaches, they are not preached by the man, by that priest, but by the Savior, Jesus Christ. The priest is just a servant of The Lord Jesus Christ.” Because Father Calciu’s sermons were what Father Giurgi said preaching should be, ‘a continuation of the life of Christ, not preached by a man, but by Jesus Christ’, they opened spiritual eyes blinded by years of lies. “The Securitate locked the gates, but the students defied them, climbed the walls to hear the preaching. They shouted, ‘If we’ve started we’ll go to the end, and whatever might happen, Father, we’ll support you!’ At that point, I felt I was no longer able to continue and I felt that fear was trying to take over. I was worried that the students might suffer or be expelled. The professors were always saying the institute might be closed. All those were only justifications to stop the sermons. When the students told me: ‘We’d like to go on! We are not afraid of anything! God is with us!’ I was able to continue because of their encouragement.”
Seeing the Mystery
“In every believer”, Wurmbrand said, “you will see something of God which will give your heart joy, and this is the great beauty of God that He is in all believers, but in each one in a different way. But He is in all. The first Christians had a saying, ‘Who sees a brother or sister has seen Christ’. This is real for Christ lives in us.” Jesus said it unequivocally, “On that day (when Holy Spirit comes) you will know that I am in the Father and you are in Me and I in you.”3 Regardless of what our physical eyes tell us, because we know that Jesus’ words are true, by faith we are meant to see something of Christ in every believer. “If you look at a believer with the good eyes of faith, you see that inside them is another being...it’s Jesus Christ who lives in that person. In some it is clear, in some less clear. But like a pregnant woman, even in the first month, when you can’t see she is pregnant, still there is life within her.” Do we do this, or is it social status, diplomas, the group or race someone belongs to that we so often see? That’s the flesh, seeing the seen world only. To know that when we see a Christian we are seeing Christ, as the early Christians constantly reminded themselves, think how this would improve our relationships in the Body of Christ if this reality was constantly before our eyes.
He was so beautiful...
Who have I seen, this brother, Hue Ding or Jesus? There is no difference! Christ lives in him.
In some Christians the life of Christ shining through is so powerful and alive that their beauty is staggering. Pastor Wurmbrand continues: “Just recently I have met with a brother from China, Jon Hue Ding, he is seventy-four, and he was in prison for twenty-two years...twenty-two years! But what tortures he endured I can’t tell you or you would faint. I will tell you one. With his hands tied behind his back for days they threw human excrement over his head and the food was thrown on the floor and he had to eat it with his mouth mixed with the excrement...but he was so beautiful...his face was shining! I was thinking that if I would be a girl I would fall in love with him, he was so beautiful...and to me he sang...for twenty-two years with excrement he was given food as for a dog, but he was singing, ‘We don’t fall exhausted because even if our outer man gets older, our inner man gets renewed every day because our affliction is light’...Listen! Light affliction! He was singing, ‘Our light afflictions of but a moment’...twenty-two years...but a moment...our light afflictions of a moment work for us! Well, whom have I seen, this brother, Hue Ding or Jesus...which have I seen? There is no difference! Christ lives in him; it was as if you’ve seen an angel...and his face, like they said about Stephen, the first martyr, his face was shining. I was with many in prison...my wife saw it in the women...for years their faces were not washed but their faces were shining like angels! Look at the beauties in others and that way you will always have the Lord before you.”4
Living the Mystery
Living the Mystery
At Securitate I understood what the resurrection of the Lord means...
Pastor Wurmbrand saw so much of Christ in Pastor Visky he described him as the holiest man he met in all of his prison years. Pastor Visky’s great joy, even while hungry and beaten and not knowing if he’d ever see his family again...his great joy was a victory over forces of evil doing everything to destroy him...but he knew it was not his victory. “This joy is related to the resurrection. It means Jesus is victorious, not me.” From Sandor we learned how this joy is related to the resurrection. The risen Christ can now impart His life into us...and one quality of His life is ‘unending joy’. “He is in me and we have great joy if we focus ourselves on Jesus, on the Cross and on salvation.” The secret of Pastor Visky’s exceptional joy was that he focused on the indwelling Christ, actually experienced Christ’s joy in him...he lived Christ’s victory.l
“At the interrogations by the Securitate I lived many times this joy in very difficult situations, because the Lord showed us His power and presence in those situations and covered all our needs.
God lifted us up above sufferings and pain.
“At the interrogations by the Securitate I lived many times this joy in very difficult situations, because the Lord showed us His power and presence in those situations and covered all our needs.
God lifted us up above sufferings and pain.
...but I was here, above.
I wasn’t there where there was suffering...
I wasn’t overwhelmed by suffering or pessimism or disappointment. At Securitate I understood what the resurrection of the Lord means...that the Lord was lifted up and together with Him He lifted us up above all things and situations. I told an officer one Easter what the ascension means, that it isn’t just a liturgy, but a reality...and this was a very hard day, but the Lord lifted me above these things. Imagine that the officer was here but I wasn’t there where there were many sufferings, pains and death...but I was here, above.” Seldom will you find a clearer description of, or a more dramatic example of, the transcendent life, of ‘living the mystery’. 
He actually experienced a physical elevation over sufferings, pains and death. Bela Balog’s experience was identical. “It may seem strange, but such a spiritual elevation I never experienced here outside but was given by God to live in prison. Here we can see clearly the privilege of God’s sons. He lifted us up to high places above sufferings and pain.”
Father Langa credits his survival of prison to having lived this same mystery. “If I survived seventeen years of prison, it’s not to my credit at all. But it is to the credit of Christ’s presence in me! It’s not me who works but God who is in me!” He points us to the source of the heroic courage of those who chose martyrdom rather than becoming collaborators. “I opened the coffin and was terrified by what I saw. In front of me was a completely disfigured man, with an eye so mangled you couldn’t recognize it as an eye. And his cheek was gashed and through it you could see his teeth. He was the Catholic Bishop, Vasile Eftenie from Bucuresti.
He actually experienced a physical elevation over sufferings, pains and death. Bela Balog’s experience was identical. “It may seem strange, but such a spiritual elevation I never experienced here outside but was given by God to live in prison. Here we can see clearly the privilege of God’s sons. He lifted us up to high places above sufferings and pain.”Father Langa credits his survival of prison to having lived this same mystery. “If I survived seventeen years of prison, it’s not to my credit at all. But it is to the credit of Christ’s presence in me! It’s not me who works but God who is in me!” He points us to the source of the heroic courage of those who chose martyrdom rather than becoming collaborators. “I opened the coffin and was terrified by what I saw. In front of me was a completely disfigured man, with an eye so mangled you couldn’t recognize it as an eye. And his cheek was gashed and through it you could see his teeth. He was the Catholic Bishop, Vasile Eftenie from Bucuresti.
‘Being one with Christ, knowing permanently Christ was in him, he didn’t betray for a moment the One who died for him.’
Because he had nothing to sell, he was beaten to death. He’d made a choice between the patriarchal chair or to be tortured to death...he chose the latter, but not with his power. But being one with Christ, knowing permanently Christ was in him, he didn’t betray for a moment the One who died for him.” Only with trembling do I presume to comment on one whose shoes I am not fit to tie, but I believe there are valuable lessons here. Bishop Eftenie knew, as few do, the responsibility that comes from ‘carrying permanently the presence of God within’. He knew it meant the loss of the right to his own life, the loss of the right to live by sight, or live by human reason, or live for himself. We must believe that, as happened to Pastor Visky, when the suffering exceeded his power to endure, he was lifted up above the sufferings and pains and death. Martyr’s grace must have been his.
In a cell of thieves and murderers, in which he was the only Christian, Pastor Vadan experienced with such intensity Christ’s life within him, he could hardly contain it. “Suddenly I received joy! I was so happy I was jumping for joy, singing and praising God. The cells resonated. An officer told me, ‘Sing lower, Father, it can be heard outside.’ But I was singing so that the cell resonated with joy. And I felt that Christ was in my life, and that the Holy Spirit was in me!” When he experienced Divine energy working within him, his joy resonated throughout the cells, and the thieves and murderers were no longer a threat...just the opposite...he became a threat to Satan’s hold on their lives. His joy drew many to him...many were saved. Let the picture of Pastor Vadan jumping up and down, praising the Lord in the midst of a bunch of rough characters, pose to you, as it often has to me, the challenging question: ‘In my, by comparison, very luxurious life, does my joy resonate in my family, in my church...on the job?’
For years now, as we have studied and compared the experiences of these heroes of the faith, and come to see them not just as brilliant exceptions, but as the living out of principles and disciplines which are readily applicable in our lives, they have become increasingly valuable to us as teachers...they have put flesh and blood onto Scriptures like Galatians 2:20. For our old man to no longer be living, but to ‘live the mystery’...experience life as an adventure of Christ living His life through us...had been, as I believe it is for most Christians, an ultimate goal, but with so many testimonies that this was their expectation and experience, it’s becoming for us, and I hope for you, more of what, I believe, Paul was actually saying...that experiencing Christ living in us is not a goal to strive for but actually the definition of the Christian life, the secret of Christian living. Our daily question to ourselves should be, ‘Is this life within me powerful and alive?’ That it would become so in all of us is the purpose of this book.
For years now, as we have studied and compared the experiences of these heroes of the faith, and come to see them not just as brilliant exceptions, but as the living out of principles and disciplines which are readily applicable in our lives, they have become increasingly valuable to us as teachers...they have put flesh and blood onto Scriptures like Galatians 2:20. For our old man to no longer be living, but to ‘live the mystery’...experience life as an adventure of Christ living His life through us...had been, as I believe it is for most Christians, an ultimate goal, but with so many testimonies that this was their expectation and experience, it’s becoming for us, and I hope for you, more of what, I believe, Paul was actually saying...that experiencing Christ living in us is not a goal to strive for but actually the definition of the Christian life, the secret of Christian living. Our daily question to ourselves should be, ‘Is this life within me powerful and alive?’ That it would become so in all of us is the purpose of this book.
