Category Archives: seeking understanding

110 Days of Hope in the midst of the storm…

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mhPP7Mds-wirg3IPRwyZHe9bod_p976bZJh5xwix-5Q/edit

More than 114,000 people fed from the Kyiv region all the way around to Odessa. Where meals are delivered on each trip depends on where the need is greatest at the time.

Much of the work that it takes to produce, package, and deliver those meals is now being done by folks who have evacuated from the east and live at the camp. They come from eastern and southern Ukraine as the fighting has shifted there.

There are about 100 persons living longer term at the camp and over 100 others live in the homes of the people of the churches.

Some are now finding semipermanent homes for the duration and finding work in the city or surrounding farms.

The number of folks coming through for short term housing has dwindled significantly as the war has settled into a more concentrated area in the east and south. Our partners are prepared in case the war changes and more flee their homes.

Thanks be to God some people, who are able, have begun to return to their homes is regions where the enemy has been pushed out.

But the need for food to feed those under attack and even feed those who fight back has not decreased. We are so grateful for the ongoing support of our generous donors who, in concert with our ingenious partners in Ukraine, are making a huge difference in so many lives.

As the label on each box of food proclaims:

My morning reading has brought me to Job.

After his great loss, loss of property and wealth, and more, the loss of children, what was his response?

He worshipped.

“And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”
‭‭Job‬ ‭1:21-22‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Let our first reaction to personal tragedy be to worship.

Then we can agree with Paul…

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭5:1-5‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Up in the middle of the night and read this incredible story.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/ukraine-ukr/story/4678979/inside-kyiv-on-the-night-of-ukraines-improbable-world-cup-qualifier-win

Since today is Pentecost Sunday, I thought it may be apt to consider life in the Holy Spirit. But also our engagement with God. Here are helpful words of Paul from Romans. There is both great hope and thoughtful warning:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
‭‭Romans‬ ‭8:1-8‬ ‭ESV‬‬

IF one is IN Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. What incredible hope! Run to Jesus! Trust in Him alone. Daily. “Set your mind”! He will send the Holy Spirit who guides us and moves in us. Wonderful hope.

But Paul gives a contrast at the end of this paragraph…

Don’t set your mind on the flesh.

In this same kind of thought in Col. 3:1-2 he tells the Colossians to “set” their minds on things above.

Lewis said to aim at Heaven and get earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and get neither.

Set your mind each morning and through the day and evening on God.