We will finish Acts in the next few days, but I would be remiss if I didn’t address the war in Ukraine where Ukrainian forces, undermanned and underequipped, are putting up quite a fight against Russian aggression. If you haven’t seen it, you will be encouraged by this story of Ukrainians resisting the takeover of the airport near Kyiv. Here’s a snippet:
Russia’s bid to seize the airport embodied its military planners’ ambitious assumptions that Ukrainian defense would collapse under overwhelming firepower. Russian officials and propagandists have for years boasted that Moscow’s forces could overrun its smaller neighbor in days. But the resistance by Ukraine’s army and soldiers such as Lt. Kharchenko, backed by volunteer fighters, has slowed the Russian advance, halting it entirely in the area around Hostomel Airport after a day of back-and-forth fighting. – Putin Thought Ukraine Would Fall Quickly. An Airport Battle Proved Him Wrong, Wall Street Journal, March 3, 2022.
With respect to resistance, I especially like what Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said when turning down an offer of evacuation from the United States:
I need ammunition, not a ride.
If you’re wondering why Russian President Putin is invading a peaceful neighbor, the answer isn’t difficult according to Mike Metzger, head of Clapham Institute. His article Reflections on the War in Ukraine starts this way:
Christians don’t have to be foreign policy experts, but they should at least understand what gave rise to the war in Ukraine.
With the invasion of Ukraine, I’ve found myself reflecting on the sons of Issachar. They understood the times. Do we understand what gave rise to the war in Ukraine? I don’t get that impression reading four Opinion writers for the New York Times. It’s astonishing how often they say they’re astonished at Putin’s actions.
We shouldn’t be. Nor should Christians who ought to do better than this. We don’t have to be foreign policy experts, but we can at least be familiar with Hedrick Smith’s The Russians. I read it before visiting the USSR in 1989, a year before the Berlin Wall fell.
Smith writes how the Rus, the Russian people, feel a deep sense of inferiority toward the West. I witnessed this when our tour guide kept discouraging us from buying Russian-made goods. “They’re crap,” she said. “Buy goods made by Poles.” This feeling of inferiority drives Russian leaders to seek secure borders against the West. We see inferiority and insecurity in George Kennan’s Long Telegram, written in 1946. – Mike Metzger, February 28, 2022 (I recommend you read the article in its entirety.)
What to do? Here is a letter from Jaroslaw Lukasik from Ukraine. Jaroslaw is a European Leadership Forum Steering Committee member and leader of the Eastern European Leadership Forum., a leader in the European Leadership Forum:
| Dear Forum family, If you want to help our brothers and sisters in Ukraine – the things you can do now are: 1. Pray We write this not because it must be written, but because we believe that only God can help Ukraine and the rest of the world in this turmoil. We recognise that these events might signal the start of World War III. 2. Influence your governments and societies Only an uncompromising and united position by the whole free world on sanctions against Putin (Russia) can force him to abandon his plans. Tell your fellow citizens about the situation in Ukraine and demand uncompromising sanctions against Russia from your governments. 3. Help with funds We have created a Christians for Ukraine Network which engages people in Ukraine (chaplains, pastors, volunteers who take people away from danger zones, etc.). We have people in Poland who will buy things necessary for Ukraine, such as: – Communication equipment – Medicine and medical supplies (bandages, anti-burn dressings and wound healing) – Aid for refugees such as food, clothes, and sleeping bags Others are committed to transport these resources to Western Ukraine. Ukrainian Christian leaders will distribute them to different places. If you want to send funds to help, you can give securely online through the Faith and Learning International to the Eastern European Reformation Foundation. Please pray! Jaroslaw Lukasik Steering Committee Member, European Leadership Forum Leader, Eastern European Leadership Forum |
I have contributed to that organization – I trust them.
In the meantime, let’s continue to pray. As someone pointed out, it’s not always the largest military force that wins the battle.
So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just set the watch. And they blew the trumpets and smashed the jars that were in their hands. Then the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the jars. They held in their left hands the torches, and in their right hands the trumpets to blow. And they cried out, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” Every man stood in his place around the camp, and all the army ran. They cried out and fled. When they blew the 300 trumpets, the LORD set every man’s sword against his comrade and against all the army. And the army fled… Judges 7.19 – 22, ESV)
It may be that the LORD will work for us, for nothing can hinder the LORD from saving by many or by few. (1 Samuel 14.6, ESV)
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places…praying always… (Ephesians 6.12, 18, ESV)