In my post yesterday I mentioned a lunch with two wonderful Christian men from the Ukraine. What I didn't tell you were the stories we shared over lunch. Today I want to share one of those stories.
During our meal I asked both men to tell me about their lives growing up under communism. How did they come to faith? How did they find the Lord in a communist country. My friend, Volodia, was too young to have gone through much of it, but our companion at lunch, Pastor Volodia (yes, they have the same names) had a big smile and some wonderful stories. Here is one of his stories-
He told me that while he was growing up no one had a bible, and you couldn't get one anywhere. But he found in his life a hunger to know God. He discovered that one of the atheist textbooks he read had a number of scripture verses in it with an explanation following each verse why this was foolishness and not to be believed. They had no bibles, but the communists themselves had provided him the bible verses he needed to get started. He wrote down the verses from the atheist textbook and took them home to memorize. This is how his faith began....with bible verses provided by the communist government in an atheist textbook!
God is so amazing. When a person has a hunger to know him then he will provide a way. We worry about how God will get his word to those lost ones around us. How will they hear? Who will reach them? Let me just say that God is big enough to do amazing things even using the very government that claimed he didn't exist.
Volodia is now a pastor in western Ukraine working with the Russian people there. His story of faith and how he came to know God is inspirational.
Is your God big enough? He's busy working in a fallen world every day...even in places where they say he doesn't exist. I hope Volodia's story enlarged your view of the God who is.
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