The Light in Darkness

Darkness encamps around us.  The earth is moaning full of destruction, disease, and death. 

Hamas and Israel war and Palestinians and Israelis die, ISIS beheads children and buries people alive, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians barely survive in refugee camps, others journey through the desert or hole up on the top of a mountain in pursuit of safety, airplanes are blown out of the sky, Russia is stealing land from Ukraine and more death, more destruction and then Ebola brings Africans to death’s door and the list goes on of the number of people around the world who need to know they are not forgotten, who need a life-line, who need a rescuer.

My heart aches and I watch and I pray.

As I pray, with few words because what does one really say when death and destruction abound, I hear these words over and over again…

The Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1: 5

In the midst of all the evil, the darkness, God’s goodness, His light, is there even when it is difficult to see.  Sometimes His light seems small or comes in unexpected ways or in unexpected places.  You know, Jesus, the light of the world, was just a glimmer when he first arrived in Mary’s womb.

When evil encamps and surrounds we can take heart because Jesus is present. 

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
    

Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.


I will strengthen you and help you.
    

I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

“See, all your angry enemies lie there,
 confused and humiliated.
Anyone who opposes you will die 
and come to nothing.

You will look in vain
 for those who tried to conquer you.
 Those who attack you
will come to nothing.

For I hold you by your right hand— I, the Lord your God.
And I say to you, ‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.

Though you are a lowly worm, O Jacob,
don’t be afraid, people of Israel, for I will help you.


I am the Lord, your Redeemer.

I am the Holy One of Israel. 

Isaiah 41:10-14

When evil seems to be prevailing in this perpetual battle of good versus evil, we can be encouraged because He who is in us and all around us is greater than he who is in the world. This is also when we need to walk by faith.  And faith comes by hearing, hearing the word.  And what I hear from the word of God is He wins.  He has the victory.

In the darkness I see light. 

This summer in the mountains of Ukraine teenagers saw the light at English and music camps.  They found hope in the darkness.  They found their rescuer.  They know they are not forgotten.  And they have a reason to sing.

Fusion New Life Lviv's Follow-Up Culmination JV Upside Down 2014 from KristineLynn Williams on Vimeo.

This video may not go viral on You Tube, but the news of these young people believing in Jesus makes Heavenly Headlines.

May I encourage you that as we pray for the persecuted, displaced, dying and sick, may we pray that all of us will see His light shining through the darkness?


*Friends, Ben and Kristy Williams, are seeing God do a great work in the young people of Ukraine.  You can see more light at www.benandkristy.com

Detained: Loving Migrant Children

Detained.  57,000 unaccompanied children from Central America, specifically Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras have crossed the US border and many have been apprehended since October.   Thousands are currently living in detention centers at our southern border awaiting trails to determine their fate, remain in the United States or return to their home country.  Our government officials seek solutions to the myriad of problems caused by these migrant children. 

I believe we need to have laws governing our borders and people should obey these laws.  Our government officials have a complex and complicated job before them.  I have no idea how to solve this situation, nor do I care to engage in a policy debate.  I do care to discuss how we, as Christians, should care about the people, the children, involved. 

Americans have every right to be vocal about their concerns and suggestions for solving this problem to Congress.  However, I believe we don’t have the right to speak harsh words about the immigrants. 

Jesus gave us the greatest commandment, which we find in Luke 10:27-28, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind. The second part of this commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself.  And neighbor is not exclusive to the person who lives next door to you or the people on your street.  Neighbor reaches beyond fellow Americans.  Neighbor actually means any other person.  If we are to love like Jesus, then we need to love people in spite of their race, religion, or immigrant status. 

Did you know that God gave the Israelites specific instructions for dealing with immigrants?  While he was establishing his people he knew to address the issue of immigration and he did not establish a governmental policy, rather a moral and ethical one.

“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.  Leviticus 19:33-34

God calls his people to not mistreat the foreigners, to not hurl insults at them, to not tell them over and over again to learn to speak English, and to tell them they are not welcome in their city.  Rather, God says to love them.

It can be difficult to love those we don’t understand or with whom we can’t relate.  This may be why God points out in verse 34 that the Israelites were once foreigners in Egypt.  The Israelites can recall the many ways they were mistreated in Egypt for 400 years and how they desperately cried out to God for deliverance. 

I know it can be difficult to have compassion on these immigrants because we may not be aware of their situations and we are comfortable enjoying the pleasures of living in America and desire to protect our country.  Would you take a moment with me and consider what it must be like to walk in their shoes?

What sacrifices do you make to provide the best life for your children?  What sacrifices would you make if your family lived on $2 a day? 

What sacrifices would you make if your daughter could receive only three years of schooling and every day of those years as she walked to school she was in danger of being sexually violated?  What sacrifices would you make if you knew the only future your son held was to join a drug cartel or run the risk of dying by the hands of the drug lords? 

What if the process to immigrate to a new country legally took more than seven years?  Would you wait it out?  What would you do to give your child a life and a future?  Would you send them on a thousand mile journey knowing you would spend a lifetime separated from your baby?

I think about Jesus, the one I am following, the one I want to be like.  Jesus, the immigrant.  Jesus, the refugee.  Perhaps you remember the story?

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Matthew 2: 13-14

Jesus and his family fled to Egypt to avoid Herod’s plan to kill him and every male child two and under.  I wonder what happened at the Egyptian border?  I wonder how Jesus was treated as a foreigner living in Egypt?  I wonder what would have happened had Mary and Joseph waited to file all the necessary paperwork required for legal immigration status?

I think it is safe to assume Jesus and the rest of his family encountered some mistreatment in their new country. I make this assumption because He was mistreated as an immigrant here on earth to the point of severe beatings and death on a cross.  Jesus was not only a refugee living in Egypt but an immigrant traveling from heaven to earth. He left his home country, heaven, to live on earth with us to point us to our real home and our real citizenship. 

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; - Philippians 3:20

The truth is if we are followers of Jesus we are all immigrants.

Again, I know we need a solution to the border problems, as there are many areas of concern with so many children making the long trek to America and living in detention centers. But, I hope we can remember we are citizens of heaven and we need God’s perspective and love for immigrants.

May I encourage you to take some moments and set aside government policies and consider the personal plights of these people?

May I encourage you to ask the Lord to help you love your neighbor, all others, as you love yourself?

May I encourage you to pray for God to give wisdom to our leaders to make good decisions on behalf of our country and the immigrants?

Perhaps you would join me in praying, Lord, your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.            

Building More Than

In a few days, I will be basking in the island life.  Well, not really.  I’ll be sweaty, dirty, and sore from helping to build a church in the Dominican Republic. 

As I prepare to leave I am confronted with this verse, the same verse I studied along side my teammates who traveled with me to Kenya ten years ago to serve the orphans, the disabled, and AIDS patients.

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.  

⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:  Philippians 2:1-5


A decade ago this verse guided me to work well with my American team, to work towards unity, and to consider their interests over mine.  Now, I look again at this verse and see how it leads me to consider a team larger than the ten people with whom I am traveling, but also the Dominican church with which we will carry large cinder blocks to construct a church building.  


Paul of Tarsus (a city in Turkey) wrote a letter to a church in another country, Macedonia, to a people of a different culture and different religious background.  Do you know how he opened the letter to the Philippians?


³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, Philippians 1:3-5


Do you see how Paul views his relationship with the people of the Philippian church?  Partners.  Partners in the Gospel. And he is thankful to be sharing in this mission with them.


As I travel to the DR I need Paul's perspective.  We all do.  We are in partnership with churches all over the world to share the truth about Christ's love for all people.


In a way I am not sure why our team is going.  I know our task is construction.  But really?  The church needs eleven Americans with minimal experience to come and accomplish this task?  It probably would have been easier and more cost effective to just send the money and hire local Dominicans to do the job.


But maybe there is a greater purpose in our going?  Isn't there usually with God?  Perhaps he is uniting his people and building partnerships? 

The church we are partnering with is a healthy, growing body of believers.  They have started five new churches and currently have 250 people crowded in a small building, hence the need for a new one.  What do we have to offer besides financial support?  Our church has not planted new churches and we did not labor in constructing our own building since we hired professionals.  Maybe it is our partnership?  And partners get together.  Partners work side by side.  Partners enjoy meals together, to use a church word, they fellowship.  Sharing life together is awfully hard to do with people you have never met, nor spoken to, or even know they exist.  


So maybe, God's greater purpose isn't about the building but about growing the body, the body he calls the church.  Just as the bricks will be touching one another as the walls are raised, so will Christ's church grow as we touch one another.

  

Isn't this what Jesus prayed for in John 17?

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that ALL of them may be ONE, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Jesus' prayer for all the believers is for unity, partnership, and oneness.  Why?  So the world will know about Jesus and His father's great love for every person.  

This is why Paul tells the church if you know Christ and his love, if you fellowship with him then be like-minded, have the same love, be one in spirit and of one mind.


Are we task-oriented or relationship-oriented?  With mission trips I often think we lean more to the task-oriented side. We have a purpose and a goal that we must accomplish.  We have something to offer the people we are going to help.  But what if the task is the means by which to orient us to relationships.  The "job" enables new relationships to form.  In a way isn't this what the greatest Missionary ever did?  Jesus left his home to live in a new land to accomplish the task set before him.  His mission was to do his father's will, which included death on a cross.  And in so doing, relationships were formed.  Jesus opened the door to an eternal relationship with him for you and for me.  Therefore we are now united with Christ.


Relationships are costly.  Ask any man who pursues a woman or buys that engagement ring.  This trip, this sending of eleven ambassadors, costs.  And perhaps we can be a bit like Judas, who didn't like the how Mary chose to use her expensive perfume when she poured it out on Jesus' feet, and argue that the money used to send all of us could have been used to feed more of the poor.  But what if this is about more than feeding and building, but relationship and unity?  God spared no expense to have relationship with us.  He gave all he had.  He gave his son's life.  


And so may we continue to see Jesus' prayer answered and be brought to complete unity to let the world know that God sent him and He loves all people as much as he loves his son.

Pray for Ukraine

This year my word has been kingdom.  My prayer has been Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done.  As I have been praying this short prayer my eyes and my heart have been more attuned to the difficult situations in our world.  Most recently my heart has been burdened for the nation of Ukraine.  After years of living under a corrupt government, the people rose up and demanded the government officials abide by the nation’s constitution.  This resulted in the former president, Viktor Yanukovych, being ousted and leaving the country.  As the country was beginning to move forward under new leadership, Russia invaded the region of Crimea.  And now the world waits to see what President Putin will do next.

I understand this is a very simple summary of all the events unfolding in Ukraine, but my intent is not to educate us about the intricacies of this international problem or give solutions.  Rather I hope that we can turn our attention, even if briefly, from the Oscars and March Madness to what God may ask us to do regarding this conflict. 

So, first and foremost, I urge God’s people to pray. They should make their requests, petitions, and thanksgivings on behalf of all humanity. 2 Teach them to pray for kings (or anyone in high places for that matter) so that we can lead quiet, peaceful lives—reverent, godly, and holy— 3 all of which is good and acceptable before the eyes of God our Savior 4 who desires for everyone to be saved and know the truth.  1 Timothy 2:1-4 (The Voice)

What we are told in 1 Timothy 2 is to pray for ALL HUMANITY.  That is we pray for many people, whether we view them as enemy or ally.  Paul, the author of 1 Timothy, gives specific instructions to pray for kings and others in authority.  May I suggest that we not only apply this verse to the nation we live in, but also to other nations.  Maybe Ukraine? Maybe Russia?  Maybe Syria?  Maybe Afghanistan?

Praying for authorities and government officials seems to be a necessary component to leading a quiet, peaceful life.  While the events unfolding in Ukraine maybe not be upsetting our “peaceful” life on the home front at the moment, let’s not be naïve.  We live in a global society where the circumstances in one nation affect many other nations.  Our peaceful lives can be impacted by international events, not just domestic ones.

How do I even begin to know how to pray for conflicts I barely understand?  How do I begin to pray for authorities when this is a practice I have neglected?  This may be a simple response to my own questions, but I keep going back to the words of Jesus, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

May I encourage you to join me and pray this short prayer whenever you hear or read a news report about Russia and Ukraine?  Pray for both countries, their people, and their leaders.  May the Lord’s kingdom come and may his will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Psst…here is something you may not know, but the interim president of Ukraine, Oleksandr Turchynov, is a Baptist pastor.  Check out this article from Christianity Today.

My friend, Kristy, who currently lives in Ukraine with her family, shares about the many great things God is doing in this country.  You should check it out here.