Ukraine Trip Day 3

Today was a busy one. We had a good breakfast of omelettes at 0745 and then some of the group headed off to assist in the ‘sandwich making factory’! Feeding 112 people twice is quite a task. It was all done very well and to a high standard. 

The conference meetings started at 1030 with two Bible Teaching slots. I read and spoke on Psalm 37 about the seeming unfairness of life when bad people prosper and good people get it tough. Steve Buckeridge followed by speaking about the present work of the Lord Jesus on the believer’s behalf in heaven. It is so encouraging to know that we have a Saviour who is looking after us from heaven. He watches over us, acts on our behalf if and when we sin and draws along side us in the difficulties of life.

Ukraine Visit Day 1

Back in Ukraine. It’s been four years since my last visit which was for a wedding of a couple we have come to know very well. I first visited Ukraine in 2007 and looking back things have changed considerably since then. I dare say that the villages across the countryside may have not changed much but the towns and cities have developed. Shopping malls, industrial and business complexes are popping up everywhere. Wi-fi is available in every petrol station, mall or commercial centre. Cafes and Coffee Shops are quite sophisticated, in fact more so than many equivalent venues in the UK. 

Life moves on but in this country the majority do not benefit from these developments, only the wealthy and the upwardly mobile.

God is described in the Bible as unchanging and constant but He is also always up to date. Hebrews 13:8 states that Jesus Christ is ‘the same yesterday, and today, and forever’. God says, about Himself in Malachi 3:6 ‘For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed’.

You see, we constantly change things hoping to improve them. That is because we are all marked by sin as Romans chapter 3 verse 23 states, ‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God’.

God never changes as He cannot improve Himself; He is perfect and complete and in no need of improvement. 

This is the reason why God sent His Son into the world as John chapter three states: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

John 3:15-21

My prayer is that you will be saved and changed into a person who glorifies God. 

Ukraine Visit Day 2

The main reason that I am in Ukraine is to preach at Easter meetings. The first meeting for adults was on Friday evening. This was preceded by two events run for children under the banner of Ukraine Children’s Care. The children were learning about salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Thomas (the children’s speaker) started by emphasising that humans were not created bad. When God made Adam he was innocent of any sin. Eve (Adam’s wife) disobeyed God’s instruction not to eat if the tree of good and evil and Adam followed her lead and did the same. Later in the Bible the situation is summarised in these words ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,’ Romans 5:12. 

Britain to punish Putin’s cronies - right or wrong?

Britain to punish Putin’s cronies - Right or Wrong?

'MINISTERS are plotting new sanctions against Vladimir Putin and Kremlin-linked oligarchs after the Russian government expelled 23 British diplomats and launched an assault on its cultural ties with Britain'1. 

It seems ok to punish the perpetrator of a crime, i.e. if it's Putin and his regime then take action, but my question is, is it fair to punish someone else for crimes that they have not done?

As always, I am not getting into politics in this blog so this piece is not about passing judgment on Putin and Russia and their culpability or not for the recent chemical attack in Salisbury. But I am asking if, in principle, it is fair to punish one party for another’s crimes?