Romanians Take Vengeance on Former Dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu
A few years ago Nicolae Ceausescu, the cruel dictator of Rumania, was executed by revolutionaries. You probably remember seeing his bullet riddled body on the newscasts. The revolutionary forces emptied their rifles of ammunition as they shot him again and again and again.
Those who knew the situation in Romania said that it was probably a mercy killing, for if he had been captured by the people in the streets they would have torn him apart tissue by tissue because they hated him so much.
Ceausescu and his wife had held the people in total contempt for years. Romania is a fertile country, and they raised good crops. But he sold the crops to Russia and pocketed the money himself while his people were starving.
His wife once said, If you give those worms food they’ll just ask for more.
Finally, the people had enough. They rebelled, and took him and his wife prisoners. Then they executed both of them, and the news media showed us the pictures of their bodies.
But did you see what happened shortly afterwards? A preacher climbed a balcony in the square where many communist leaders had stood previously proclaiming the precepts of communism, and he began to speak.
His underground name was Brother Paul. He stood on that balcony and as he looked down at the thousands of people gathered there, he began shouting at the top of his voice, Our God is alive! Our God is alive!
Thousands of people shouted back in unison, Our God is alive! Our God is alive! For the first time in decades the people of Romania were free to proclaim their Christianity in the streets of the city.
Doors, all kinds of doors, are swinging open. And there will be opponents, no question about that. But we dare not look at the problems. We must seize the opportunities.
We must see the opportunities to go into all the world and preach the Gospel.
From a sermon by Dan Campbell, An Open Door, 11/5/2009