And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12)
Unbelievably, the Russians are still pummeling Ukraine and have not successfully overcome the country, the cities, the government or the fighting spirit of the people. Much of the world has condemned Putin’s actions and have decried this as an unlawful war. It was unprovoked and unlike the propaganda that Putin and Pravda have perpetuated, the Russian troops are not there to liberate but to annex.
Biden and many others have publicly accused Putin of war crimes. I think the evidence for that is plentiful and obvious. Yet, we are still doing nothing but sanctions and talk. We are not countering the threats of Putin, just saying what we will “not do”. Putin is going to drag us into the war…no matter how careful we are about it. However, it is not very cut and dry. We (the United States, NATO, and/or other civilized countries) need to force Putin to stop. Period. Will it have consequences? Sure. Will not doing anything have consequences? Absolutely. We must be prayerful and seek what the Lord would have us do…and I am not seeing any of that or hearing about that from any of our representatives.
Russian media is lying about US Service members being killed in Ukraine, and like I mentioned in an earlier post, it will not take much to suck this country into a shooting war with Russia. Lies, war crimes, targeting civilians, raping and killing…all are very serious forms of lawlessness. The word iniquity in the verse above also means lawlessness in the Greek of the New Testament. It is certainly abounding. What really bothers me is the second part of that verse…”the love of many will wax cold.” Perhaps that is the case today.
The war, as are most wars, have been polarized along political lines. The party in power (obviously the Democrat Party) is supportive of Ukraine and condemning Russia…as they should. But we are seeing a lot of unnecessary pushback from the right regarding that we should not be so worried about the Russian invasion because we are being invaded along our own southern border, primarily because of poor policy decisions of the, you guessed it, party in power.
Both of these are issues. Ukrainian invasion and US illegal immigration. However they are not simply opposite ends of the spectrum. Tucker Carlson, who normally is fair and balanced, cannot stop harping about the two as being mutually exclusive. They are separate issues and both important issues…people issues. However, folks like Tucker are railing the Republicans who are supporting Ukrainian aid packages. I am fine with calling out Republicans who fail to try to solve the border crisis, but I find it distracting and unfair to use those criticisms to put down support for a country that was invaded without provocation. Certainly more needs to be done about immigration, but where is our love for our fellow humans…not the Ukrainian government necessarily, but for the Ukrainian people?
I assert that if Russia would have invaded Iran, a vocal enemy of the US, Israel and all western countries, we are morally obligated to support Iran against the aggressor. Ukraine had significant corruption in its government and that is a major reason why it was not brought into the EU or NATO. To say this does not automatically mean that one supports Putin and the Russian invasion. What Russia has done is wrong and everyone is getting bogged down in political posturing. Again I say…where is our love for others?
The US is not currently opening the door to the refugees from Ukraine to come into the country, but if they do, we want to help. Even if the refugees stay in Europe, we want to do what we can to give aid to them and to especially give them hope in a very hopeless situation. They need to hear the Gospel of Jesus and the church needs to witness to them all! We are supporting those international organizations who are doing just that, including but not limited to Samaritan’s Purse. We are also taking pledges and donations to help the refugees. You can let us know your pledges at help-Ukraine@csc-hq.org or contact us directly for other assistance. Please see our March Newsletter for more information.
Don’t let your love for humanity wax cold. Crime is up all across the US, lawlessness is rampant throughout the world, and war crimes are being committed in eastern Europe. Pray and help where the Lord calls you to help.