Several years ago in Timisoara, Romania, Laszlo Tokes became pastor of Timisoara's small Hungarian Reformed Church. Tokes preached the Gospel boldly, and within two years membership had swelled to five thousand. But success can be dangerous in a Communist country. Authorities stationed police officers in front of the church on Sundays, cradling machine guns. They hired thugs to attack Pastor Tokes. They confiscated his ration book so he couldn't buy food or fuel. Finally, in December 1989, they decided to send him into exile. But when police arrived to hustle Pastor Tokes away, they were stopped cold. Around the entrance of the church stood a wall of humanity. Members of other churches - Baptist, Adventist, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic - had joined together to protest. Though police tried to disperse the crowd, the people held their post all day and into the night. Then, just after midnight, a 19-year old Baptist student named Daniel Gavra pulled out a packet of candles. He lit one and passed it to his neighbour. When Tokes peered out of the window, he was struck by the warm glow reflecting off hundreds of faces. That moment, he said later, was the "turning point in my life." His religious prejudices evaporated. Here were members of the body of Christ, completely disregarding denominational divisions, joining hands in his defence. It was a moving testimony to Christian unity.
The crowd stayed all through the night - and the next night. Finally police broke through. They bashed in the church door, bloodied Pastor Tokes' face, then paraded him and his wife through the crowd and out into the night.
But that was not the end. No, the religious protest led - as it always does - to political protest. The people streamed to the city square and began a full-scale demonstration against the Communist government. Again Daniel passed out his candles.
First they had burned for Christian unity; now they burned for freedom.
This was more than the government could tolerate. They brought in troops and ordered them to open fire on the crowd. Hundreds were shot. Young Daniel felt a searing pain as his leg was blown off. But the people of Timisoara stood bravely against the barrage of bullets. And by their example they inspired the entire population of Romania. Within days the nation had risen up and the bloody dictator Ceausescu was gone.
For the first time in half a century, Romanians celebrated Christmas in freedom. Daniel celebrated in the hospital, where he was learning to walk with crutches. His pastor came to offer sympathy, but Daniel wasn't looking for sympathy.
"Pastor, I don't mind so much the loss of a leg," he said. "After all, it was I who lit the first candle."
The candle that lit up the entire country.
There are people who are like that, they are like that candle, they change history, they burn bright in the minds of others, they make a difference.
There are other people too, they don't change history perhaps, but they change lives, they still make a difference, a big difference. There are people who when they walk into a room, it suddenly seems lit up, they make you smile, the sun seems to have come out. What they say means something to you.
When we fall in love, we feel that about the other person, they light up our lives, they become the centre of existence almost.
Some people are candles in the darkness without uttering a word, the child who makes us smile just by looking at them when we are feeling low, the old couple strolling in the park hand in hand when we have just fallen out with our boyfriend / girlfriend. Look out for the candles!
Jesus lit up the entire world in all of these ways, he changed history, he affected lives, he lit people who had never spoken to Him, He continues to this.
Some lives were not changed in the same way, though they still saw the light, but they had lived in darkness for so long, they were afraid of the light.............They recognised it and tried to put it out.
The disciples were bathed in His light they walked in it day after day, they were so close to it, they touched it, though it didn't burn them, instead they were filled with it's warmth, it's ability to see through, to discern.
When Jesus died on the cross, it seemed like the light had been extinguished. It must have seemed like the lights all over the world had gone out! The disciples were momentarily blinded, they couldn't see or understand anything.
The darkness thought it had won, it descended onto the world. All seemed lost. But Jesus came back for a short time, why? He came to light the disciples candles, He shielded them with the Holy Spirit their candles could not be blown out - they were now to be the light of the world, He sent them out with a great commission, to light other candles, and they did, they lit thousands of others and so on down the ages until someone lit our candles....
Our job is to light even more lives, on and on until the whole world is the light, When Jesus comes again, He will banish the dark, the most amazing light will fill the whole earth and heaven.
No More darkness!
Only Light!!!!!!