It’s a powerful love

Several friends posted a poignant picture of Ukrainian Christians, kneeling in the snow to pray together. I reposted the picture with the phrase, “I hope this picture is worth a thousand prayers, each time you see it.” All of us can help, especially if our help begins by joining them in prayer.

The picture of the Ukrainian Christians is a simple yet profound sermon. Our world needs the love of God in order to have the life God wants for us to live. As I looked at that picture, I realized I will know each of those people one day, in heaven. 

I looked at their faces and wanted to pray for them even more than I had before. 

The picture wasn’t new

The photo of the Ukrainians kneeling in the snow isn’t new. This group has been kneeling in prayer every day, regardless of weather, for many years. They began this habit in 2014, when tanks and soldiers rolled into their country. 

The article I read that contained this picture was written in 2019 by a missionary named Nicole Leigh. Her article explains why this small country is standing against Russia. Nicole’s words from 2019 could have been written today: “This wasn’t a political battle, it was and is a spiritual battle of epic proportion as their freedom to worship, meet together as churches, pray publicly, and share their faith with others was all under threat.”  

She described the people kneeling in prayer this way: “This is the generation of the children whose fathers were killed for their faith, whose fathers spent most of their time in prison for their faith. We knew the real face of Communism, and it was trying to come back.”  

Why should we join the Ukrainian people in prayer?

Nicole Leigh wanted us to pray for the Ukrainians in 2019, when she wrote the article. She was a missionary with the International Mission Board in the region. She knew the Lord was using that country of persecuted Christians to bring faith to people who had grown up without an opportunity to know God. 

She wrote: “After years of praying and paying dearly for their faith, God brought religious freedom to the country. Since that time Ukraine has become the Bible Belt of Eastern Europe. It is the hub of evangelical life throughout the former Soviet Union, leading the way in planting churches and sending missionaries.” 

None of us should be surprised that they continue to struggle and fight for their independence. All of us, who call them our brothers and sisters in Christ, should pray for them like they are family. 

They are family. 

Pray with powerful love

I spent the month of February focusing my blog posts on the love of God. His love is our strength, our hope, our help. But, I wanted to close the month out by speaking of the incredible power that our love for God can release into the world. 

If you have watched the news, you don’t need convincing. There is an increasing darkness we need to pray about with the same kind of devotion we see from Christians in Ukraine. God doesn’t just want us to be aware of people around us; he wants us to help. 

If the Christians in Ukraine can get up each day to publicly kneel in the snow to pray, we can kneel in prayer with them. We will, if we truly recognize what is behind the darkness we sense. 

1 Corinthians 13

The city of Corinth was like all of our cities today. Most of the people were lost, confused, and looking for something to make their lives better. Paul and others brought the gospel message to them. Most of the time, when you hear verses from 1 Corinthians 13, you are at a wedding. Paul was defining Christian love but, while those verses can apply to marriage, they are actually to be applied to every relationship in life.  

Paul began the chapter saying, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:1–3). 

On the other hand, if we live with God’s powerful love behind our words, our strength, our wisdom, and our motivation, what do we gain? 

Paul ends chapter 13 saying, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13). There is no greater power or purpose in life than to understand God’s love as our highest calling. 

Love is a powerful commandment

Jesus didn’t encourage us to love others; it was a command. Jesus told his disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34). Jesus was intentionally blunt when he spoke those words. 

I like the quote attributed to Mark Twain that says, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” We won’t have any excuse or explanation for missing the lesson Jesus taught his disciples. We are to love others as Jesus loves them. 

When we pray for the Ukrainian people, we should pray for them as the beloved children of God, our brothers and sisters. 

When we interact with people in our lives, they should sense that Jesus is behind our words, our strength, and our motives. 

Before we close the lids of our computers or sweep to the next email on our phones, let’s pray for our brothers and sisters in Ukraine like Jesus would pray for them—like Jesus is praying for them.  

His is a powerful love that changes the world. 

Let’s receive it from Jesus, then give it away.

Let the world be our teacher too

There is an Amazon ad this Christmas that touches my heart. 

Actually, the Lord used the ad to convict my heart and inspire this blog post.

I hope you will take the time to watch it now before you keep reading.

Kindness, the greatest gift

Amazon has a wonderful message for our Christmas season. The title and message of their ad is “Kindness, the greatest gift.”  

The marketing aspect is not lost on me, but I don’t think marketing was their only goal. They know the pandemic has made them a great deal of money. They also know there has been a human cost behind their profits. 

The reason I wanted to write this blog during our Christmas season is that the message of the ad should be our message as well. I was struck by the idea that maybe we have believed Satan’s lies about the world more often than we should. 

God created human beings in “his own image” (Genesis 1:27). First John 4:8 tells us that “God is love.” Those two verses can assure us that every human being on this planet has been created with a capacity for love and a need to give and receive love. That’s why our most important commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:27). God created us in his image, and God is kind. Jesus told us the most important thing we can do with our earthly lives is to act like our heavenly Dad. 

Imagine your life if you had never been “adopted”

This is a lengthy passage, but take the time to read and soak in every word. This passage is a gift from Scripture for your day: 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3–6). 

If you are a Christian, God is your heavenly Dad. You were created by him but lost to him. When you made Jesus your Lord and Savior, God adopted you forever. Your life and your character were gifted again with his. That is who the Holy Spirit is and wants to be in your life. 

I’ve often said, “We shouldn’t be surprised when lost people act like they are lost.” Who would you be if someone had not led you to faith in Christ? Think about the last thing you did that you know God didn’t approve of. Think about what it would be like to live without that conviction. Wouldn’t your life develop into some wrong patterns too? I know mine would. 

If we sin this much while saved, imagine how much we would blow it if we didn’t have Jesus!

The lost are closer to God than they realize

No one wants to be lost. No one wants to feel lost. No one enjoys admitting they aren’t good enough. But, deep down under the pride, is the knowledge that all of us were lost, or we still are. 

In the Amazon Christmas ad, an older woman cares about, and for, a younger woman who needs her encouragement. That is the “gift” that comes out of the Amazon box. Amazon’s marketing company was wise to know that kindness is what people most need right now. 

The point of this blog post is: Amazon has worked to understand what people want and need. Christians understand that everyone’s greatest need is to be filled with the source of kindness. Human kindness is a great gift, but it is a temporary gift. Jesus is the gift of Christmas who is the source of eternal love and kindness. 

When I watched the Amazon ad, tears came to my eyes. People know what they need most. How do we tell them how to find it? How do we explain they are so close to finding an answer to their greatest needs? The Amazon ad was a good reminder. All of us who know Jesus simply need to care enough to do something in his name and for his kingdom purpose.

The end of the ad held the answer

When the ad came to a close, the older woman was sitting on a bench with the younger woman. They were both enjoying their time together. Isn’t that a picture of what it means to “love your neighbor as you love yourself”? 

Whom is God calling you to invest in? And, let me say in advance, that investment isn’t just for the Christmas season.  

Jesus told his followers to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). Discipling a person is rarely a one-time conversation. Jesus wanted us to invest our lives into the spiritual growth of others. Whom has Jesus called you to disciple? That question is answered by specific names. Can you list those names? 

If Amazon knows what the world needs, how much more should we? We know the greatest gift of Christmas and every other season of life. He has a name too. The angel told Mary, “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31). 

Evangelism isn’t just for some. Jesus called all of us to make disciples and teach them. We know what to say and we know what to do. But, that isn’t the first step. The first step is to care. 

When we see the ad run on our television sets this Christmas season, let it call each of us to this simple prayer: Father God, help me to care like that. 

Who will you be sitting next to if you do?

  

Will Christians Conserve Kindness?

The word conserve means to protect from harm or destruction. What should Christians be doing to conserve kindness in our American culture? We watched the recent judicial battles over Judge Kavanaugh and saw very little kindness extended toward anyone during his Supreme Court confirmation. It will be incredibly important, especially this week, that the Christian community is prepared to respond to our critics with kindness instead of responding “in kind.” In fact, the Christian culture in America is becoming more like the first century each day.

First-century Christians were treated with disdain by almost every other group. The Jewish population viewed them as heretics and perverters of God’s word. Roman politicians came to see the Christians as subversive dissidents to the government. Many of the philosophers of that day saw them as uneducated in their thinking. It has been interesting to listen to the rhetoric about the “far right.” But, to be fair, Christians today are often more interested in voting and voicing our “right” opinions than we are in living and acting as people who want to be right in God’s eyes. Many Christians are slandering and shouting too. We will blow it if we step away from God’s ability to bless our actions.

Are we to treat others like we are being treated, or like we wish we were being treated? I know if you are reading this blog, you know Jesus’ answer to that last question! We need to be careful not to act “in kind” and choose instead to be kind. Have your words, attitudes, and actions honored Jesus these past few weeks? If we don’t act with considerable kindness right now, the only real winner in this whole situation will be Satan.

Satan wins even when we take the right side—as long as we choose to sin in the way we take it. Has Satan been winning a few victories among God’s people these past few days? I could do a little confessing right now, but let’s just say I’ve been consistently avoiding network news for the past few weeks because Satan was winning a victory or two with every broadcast!

I have wanted to shout as loudly and openly as the people in the seats, streets, elevators, restaurants, and news broadcasts. I wanted to make my opinions known too. But, I had to shout at my walls, my friends, family, and anyone else I felt comfortable imposing my bad attitudes upon. I’ve probably had a few self-righteous eye rolls in public as well. After all, it doesn’t seem as large a sin if I don’t voice actual words.

I did have this one, rather amazing thought. One day, when we all get to heaven, we will never have to work at being kind. We won’t have to try hard not to slander. We won’t ever roll our eyes in disgust over anything or anyone. We won’t ever feel the need or desire to act unkindly toward someone, and no one will act unkindly toward us. Can you even imagine what that will be like?

But, if you are reading these words, you aren’t there yet. Until then, and especially now, we need to make a conscious decision to respond to people with kindness that may never be reciprocated. I think one of the reasons Christians blow up and lose control with others is that it seems easier to be treated unkindly when we think we have done something to deserve it. It’s hard to be misunderstood, disliked, or belittled when we haven’t treated others that way. But let’s face it: we have treated others that way, even if it was just in our hearts.

So, how do we conserve kindness in our culture? Huffington Post ran an article on kindness that made this point: “Happiness researcher Sean Achor demonstrated through his extensive research that if you perform random acts of kindness for two minutes a day for twenty-one days, you can actually retrain your brain to be more positive. Studies such as his show that when your brain is more positive you are more likely to be creative, intelligent and productive.” It is an interesting idea.

What if Christians everywhere made it a point to respond and reply with godly kindness each time we have that opportunity for the next twenty-one days. Would we find ourselves thinking with a more positive attitude toward our culture? Would they think with a more positive attitude toward us? Would our Christian witness be more creative, intelligent, and productive? Most importantly, would Jesus and the Kingdom of God be gaining the important victories?

God planned for you to be alive for “such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). The Lord would want us to remember his direction this week. Jesus taught, “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35).

God has high standards for all that we say and do. And He already gave us the highest reward possible. He made us his children and gave us his word and his Holy Spirit so we could live by his “Most High” standards. All of us will have plenty of opportunities to conserve kindness in our culture. I wonder if, twenty-one days from now, we will all feel a LOT better about things if we do.