How Christian is your bomb?
The present up scuttle in the world is that termed the "War on Terror". News photos and headlines reflect the world's angst over the Iranian nuclear program and North Korea's launch of a crude missile system that could deploy a weapon of some sort to the west coast of the United States. These jihadists must be stopped at all costs even if it decimates the populations of the world in the gross tonnage of munitions expended.
Philip Yancey in his book "Finding God in Unexpected Places" details the peaceful overthrow of Communism in Germany based in the city of Leipzig. There a handful of Christians, and I mean a handful, began to pray and seek God for the relief from their burden because they had no access to the centers of political power as we do in the West their only resort was prayer.
As their numbers grew they began peaceful nonviolent candle-light vigils and marches through the city streets. As their numbers swelled to thousands to almost the entire city population the secret police began to threaten and harass them. In a final showdown the East German dictator threatened to shoot the protesters as they gathered and silently marched through the city. One evening which was to be culminated with a church service the air was thick with tension; the police had orders to shoot to kill. As the church doors opened the Communist party members stormed the church and filled the pews, the protesters simply marched upstairs and sat in the balconies and the worship ensued.
It became apparent that the protesters were seeking nonviolent solutions to the problems they all faced. In short the dictatorship toppled and a stream of East Germans flowed through the wall unmolested for the first time since its erection nearly a half a century before. The power of prayer and vigilance not based in political power or expedience, but of hopeful expectance in a loving God won the day.
As I’ve written elsewhere we pray our prayers and go to bed at night under a nuclear umbrella that has the capacity to unleash enough destructive power to exterminate 100 million people in the span of time it takes to watch a prime-time sit-com.
John
The present up scuttle in the world is that termed the "War on Terror". News photos and headlines reflect the world's angst over the Iranian nuclear program and North Korea's launch of a crude missile system that could deploy a weapon of some sort to the west coast of the United States. These jihadists must be stopped at all costs even if it decimates the populations of the world in the gross tonnage of munitions expended.
Philip Yancey in his book "Finding God in Unexpected Places" details the peaceful overthrow of Communism in Germany based in the city of Leipzig. There a handful of Christians, and I mean a handful, began to pray and seek God for the relief from their burden because they had no access to the centers of political power as we do in the West their only resort was prayer.
As their numbers grew they began peaceful nonviolent candle-light vigils and marches through the city streets. As their numbers swelled to thousands to almost the entire city population the secret police began to threaten and harass them. In a final showdown the East German dictator threatened to shoot the protesters as they gathered and silently marched through the city. One evening which was to be culminated with a church service the air was thick with tension; the police had orders to shoot to kill. As the church doors opened the Communist party members stormed the church and filled the pews, the protesters simply marched upstairs and sat in the balconies and the worship ensued.
It became apparent that the protesters were seeking nonviolent solutions to the problems they all faced. In short the dictatorship toppled and a stream of East Germans flowed through the wall unmolested for the first time since its erection nearly a half a century before. The power of prayer and vigilance not based in political power or expedience, but of hopeful expectance in a loving God won the day.
As I’ve written elsewhere we pray our prayers and go to bed at night under a nuclear umbrella that has the capacity to unleash enough destructive power to exterminate 100 million people in the span of time it takes to watch a prime-time sit-com.
John
posted by John R. Jones at 8:23 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home