"Tim LaHaye - Left Behind Kids 02 - Second Chance" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

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CHAPTER FIVE
 More Shocks




LIONELawoke, terribly uncomfortable, about an hour before dawn. Ryan had provided him with a
sleeping bag, but the Daleys' backyard, despite its manicured appearance, was hard and bumpy anyway.
His back was sore, his whole body ached from the long bike ride, and he was still sad.

Lionel tried to pray. When he had been a phony, a kid in a Christian family who pre-tended to be like
everyone else in the clan, it never surprised him that God seemed dis-tant. He couldn't remember when
God had seemed close. He knew that was because he had never become a true Christian, and that was
also why he had been left behind.

But now shouldn't it be different? He knew God was real. He knew the Bible was true. And he knew for
sure that when he had finally prayed to receive Christ--- even though it was too late for him to be "caught
up together in the clouds" with his family to meet Christ, as the Bible put it--- God truly heard him. He felt
forgiven, and he was sure he was saved. But his grief over the loss of his parents--- though they were in
heaven and not dead--- and his horror over what had happened to Uncle andré, plus the sheer
exhaustion of trying to figure out what to do next, had caught up with him.

Whatever warm fuzzy feeling he might have hoped would go with his decision and his salvation had been
covered over by his sense of regret and loss. And so he prayed. Just like before, it seemed his prayers
were bouncing off the ceiling--- or in this case, the canvas roof of the tent.

Lionel rolled onto his side and squinted at Ryan in the darkness. The little guy was sleeping soundly. At
least he was sleeping deeply. Lionel had no idea whether it was really a sound sleep or not. What a
horrible thing Ryan had been through. He didn't know what this was all about, but to him it had to look
like something very spooky. It was one thing to be offered hope, to know you could still come to Christ
and be saved for the future. But Ryan's parents had been killed and certainly didn't seem to have been
Christians.

It was no wonder Ryan seemed angry, even angry with God. If all of what had happened was true, the
way Bruce Barnes explained it--- and Lionel knew it was--- Ryan had to be drowning in confusion.
What must he think of a God who would allow his parents to die and leave him behind while Christians
disap-peared into heaven?

Lionel's prayers to that point had been centered on himself. But now he found him-self praying for other
people. He knew it was hopeless to pray about something that had already happened, but he couldn't
help pleading with God to assure him that maybe, just maybe, andré had come to Christ before he was
murdered or committed suicide. He even prayed the same thing for Ryan's par-ents. Was it possible
someone could have been telling Mr. Daley about Christ just before the pilot of his plane disappeared,
and could he have been saved just before they crashed?