This message re-encouraged me to study God’s Word with a desire to know and teach sound doctrine.
A little tidbit from our friend Dave Coffield, “The grace of God is magnificent. God lines me up for a 100 meter sprint, the gun sounds, He picks me up, hustles down the track with me, wins, and gives me the gold medal. I was involved but the credit, glory, and honor go to Him.”
Exodus 19:3–6 (NASB95)
3 Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel:
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.
5 ‘Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;
6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.”
Our friend Patrick in Malawi has been diagnosed with testicular cancer. In response to our asking how Patrick was doing today, Jan 4th, his wife Mervis wrote:
“What God cannot do does not exist. He specializes in wonders and miracles. He will provide the necessary resources to help him [Patrick] through this in Jesus name.”
Please pray for Patrick and his family as you are led and also if led please provide a gift to help pay his medical bills.
After clicking this link choose Malawi as a sub-fund and type “Patrick Surgery” in the note area so we know where to direct your kind and generous donation.
Shared at Church of His Presence November 6th, 2022
I had a similar experience of God’s peace and confidence I would be fine last April during my heart attack and heart surgery.
I apologize that I couldn’t get the link to work better in this post.
Olive Branch Ukraine Update
My dear friends, my prayer partners, I thank you for the fact that sometimes through such letters I can turn to you to maintain this friendly and prayerful connection of ours.
I thank you for that and I thank our God. I am writing to you this is my personal news update, an update on the news of “Olive Branch” in Ukraine and “The Way of Truth” church, and I wish you a great day!
Today is the 306th day of the war on the land of Ukraine. It seems that time has stopped here in Ukraine. The Russian enemy continues to try to destroy critical infrastructure facilities of Ukraine with cruise missiles and Iranian drones. Our people continue to heroically eliminate the consequences of destruction, and our anti-aircraft forces try to shoot down as many of these flying enemy objects as possible. Our troops continue to repulse the influx of mobilized Russians near Donetsk and Luhansk, our other troops are pushing the enemy out of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions.
I continue to believe that by the grace of God and with your support, we will together defeat this Russian demonic enemy. The chaplains we train and support have a huge and important part to play and serve in this process.
Now is not a very convenient time to plan any “Olive Branch” events in Ukraine. But our team is trying to plan with prayer to the Father and I have hope that these plans will come true by the grace of God.
Thus, I, as the director of the Pastoral – Chaplain Leadership program, planned the following educational programs at the KТS:
According to the KTS curriculum, there are the following date options:
20-24.03.23 – CL102 Chaplain service in hospitals and clinics, instructor Mykola.
06-10.03.23 – CL105 Chaplaincy in Penitentiary Institutions.
03-07.04.23 – CL109 Expository sermon in chaplain service, instructor Igor.
01-05.05.23 – CL110 Chaplain Biblical Counseling, instructor David, translator Gena.
15-19.05.23 – CL107 Civil Security Program, instructor Jeff, translator Gena.
Thank God, now in Ukraine most Protestant churches have switched to the Gregorian calendar and we celebrate the same as you do in the USA. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Greek Catholic Church created a commission to reform the Julian calendar and switch to church holidays according to the Gregorian calendar. Many local churches of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine continue to come under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Yesterday, our church “The Way of Truth” celebrated Christmas. I congratulate you on the Christmas of Christ from myself and Marina, from the “Olive Branch” in Ukraine and from the “Way of Truth” church.
My dear friends and partners, thanks to you, your prayer and your help, I, our church and “Olive branch” in Ukraine have the opportunity to continue working in wartime. Thank you very much to God.
Mykola, the senior hospital chaplain in the city of Cherkasy, together with the chaplain team, serves all those who need it in the hospital. There are also wounded soldiers in the hospital. The hospital has given the chaplains another, larger, separate space for their office, which they will need to renovate.
Women’s ministry leader Zhanna also does a lot of work to support homeless people. She visits the wounded with her husband and continues to coordinate women’s clubs in different regions of Ukraine that serve women independently. Zhanna and Sergiy visited the children of territorial defense, who also lost their homes (30 children). Without light, with lanterns, but it was fun. 200 people (wounded and medical personnel) were visited in the Kyiv hospital (for physical strengthening – fruits, nuts, sweets, for warmth – socks). And to pray for their healing and the victory of Ukraine, they gave a spiritual gift “Prayers of a Ukrainian”.
Marina and I were able to take 51 children’s gifts to the military town of Semipolka in the car you helped me buy. Every year, our church learns to donate gifts for children from military families. Our 40 church members each brought one gift and added another from Olive Branch donations. The women and children of the military town thought that this year they would not have a holiday or presents. There were no men there, because they are all in the war zone. Thanks to us coming to them, they had a good Christmas and thanked us. I thank you also, for this is your part of the donation.
The second week in the evening, I teach for two hours to civilian church groups about chaplaincy, because people from the churches ask how they can be useful to the military.
Thanks to the financial assistance provided through the Olive Branch, the “Way of Truth” church was able to pay the rent, because due to the war, the financial donation was not enough to fully cover the rent. Thank you. May God bless the generous hand.
Thank you very much to you and all the employees of the Olive branch for your great support of Ukrainians during the military trials. God sees what you sincerely do, God sees your sacrificial heart, therefore it is written that our Creator will accordingly do good for you, that is, for those who helped others in difficult times. May the Lord return everything abundantly to you and give thanks as only He can.I wish that we have in the soul a peace from God.
Valentin.
Valentyn Korenevych,
Colonel (retired)
President of the Public organization “Olive Branch” Ukrainewww.olivebranch.org.ua
Program director of “Pastors-Chaplains Leadership” of the Kiev Theological Seminary
www.ktsonline.org
+38 097 9638406
This letter was translated by an electronic translator, so I apologize in advance for any errors that you may have noticed.
Please listen to this presentation by Attorney Kelly Shackelford, from First Liberty, to the ProFamily Legislators Conference last month about cases won in Federal and Supreme Courts concerning free speech, the right to assemble, the right to pray in public, the overturning of the Lemon case from 1971 and many more.
His presentation is broken into two parts on the Wallbuilders webpage:
https://wallbuilderslive.com/religious-liberty-precedent-with-kelly-shackelford-part-1/
I am very encouraged by what Kelly shares and hope you will also!!
Part of a recent letter from our friend Dave Coffield.
It is difficult when so many of us have grown up in a Christian culture of either church and/or parachurch where ministry and works are stressed. We have a chaplain who tells us pretty much every time he is standing up front, that our job is to fill the empty fews. So, you feel a little guilty and overwhelmed.
I love the words of Jesus on His way with the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane to engage in serious prayer prior to His arrest. He stops by a vineyard and grabs a grape plant and tells them that He is the True Vine and they are branches. Their job is to abide in Him. Their job is to abide in Him.
You know John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” The branch is not concerned about bearing fruit, it is concerned about abiding, about partaking of the rich life of the vine. It will bear fruit if it abides. It cannot not bear fruit.
There has been discussion about what “fruit” is. I like to suggest that fruit is anything that the Holy Spirit wants to produce through a person’s life as they abide in Jesus. And it is seasonal. My friend, Bill Mason, suggests from Psalm 1 that the tree bears fruit “in its season.”
My attention, my focus should be on abiding.
Anytime I am engaging with a believer I want to know how they are abiding. I don’t have concerns about bearing fruit if they are abiding. It is impossible to bear good fruit if you are not abiding. You can produce stuff. Check out the Lord’s comments in Matthew 7 when He says, “Many will say to Me on that day…” They prophesy in His name, they cast out demons in His name, and they perform miracles. Pretty cool. Except…they don’t know Him. They are not abiding in Him.
Do I dare to believe that my value to my Father resides in my relationship with Him?
Nov. 23, 2022
In the summer of 2001, Harriet Bograd decided to visit her daughter Margie, who had taken a summer job in a remote village in Ghana.
When Ms. Bograd and her husband, Ken Klein, arrived in the village, Sefwi Wiawso, they learned about its community of two dozen families who considered themselves Jewish, even if religious authorities in Israel and elsewhere did not.
In the week she was there, Ms. Bograd, whose husband called her “one of life’s great enthusiasts,” turned her enchantment with the villagers into a practical project that has become a major source of income for the community. She guided artisans in fashioning the colorful kente cloth sold in the local market into covers for the braided challahs that observant Jews bless and eat during Sabbath and holiday meals. A trained lawyer, she set the community up as an incorporated business that sold the challah covers across the United States for $36 apiece. Thousands have been purchased.
In the years after that trip, Ms. Bograd worked with the nonprofit organization Kulanu, which supports “isolated, emerging or returning” Jewish communities in places where even most American Jews don’t realize there are Jews: Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon, Madagascar, Indonesia, Pakistan, Guatemala, the Philippines and more — 33 countries in total. These are people who for generations have kept some fundamental Jewish laws, like resting on the Sabbath and abstaining from certain foods, but that may have had only opaque ideas of their community’s Jewish origins.
They trace their Jewish roots to a variety of sources: the 10 lost tribes that were dispersed by the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C.E.; the Spanish and Portuguese inquisitions, which, starting in the late 15th century, scattered thousands of Jews in far-off lands, where many practiced their religion in secret; century-old conversions by communal leaders more attracted to the Old Testament than the teachings of Christian missionaries.
“It gave her such joy that these Jewish people felt they were connected to the greater Jewish world and felt they belonged,” Mollie Levine, the deputy director of Kulanu, said in an interview.
Ms. Bograd died on Sept. 17 in a Manhattan hospital. She was 79. Her daughter Rabbi Margie Klein Ronkin said the cause was complications of heart surgery.
So exhilarated was Ms. Bograd by her experience in Ghana that she promptly joined the board of Kulanu. By her death, she had served as its president for 14 years. The organization’s headquarters were in the study of her Upper West Side apartment.
Under her command, the organization, whose Hebrew name means “all of us,” raised funds to build synagogues in Uganda and Zimbabwe; a Jewish-themed primary school in Uganda that is open to Christians and Muslims; and a mikvah — a ritual bath — in Tanzania. With a budget of around $500,000, Kulanu has also provided rabbinical training and advanced classes in Judaism at American seminaries for community leaders and distributed prayer books, Torah scrolls, prayer shawls and other ritual items.
Kulanu’s work has not been without controversy. While Jews in Ethiopia have been recognized by the Orthodox authorities in Israel as authentically Jewish, those in other parts of Africa have not been. Efforts by Conservative rabbis to formally convert some Africans to Judaism have encountered challenges because the Orthodox establishment in Israel does not recognize the legitimacy of Conservative rabbis. Bonita Nathan Sussman, Kulanu’s new president, said that many Africans also reject conversion, arguing, “Who are you to tell me I’m not Jewish?”
On the other hand, Ms. Levine said, Ms. Bograd “met them at the level where they are.”
She was active in Jewish causes in New York as well. In the early 1980s, she and other parents partnered with educators to found the Heschel School, a Jewish day school in Manhattan that now enrolls about a thousand students. And at the West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist congregation, she was known for the warm way she greeted newcomers, an act congregants affectionately called “Bograding.”
Harriet Mary Bograd was born on April 6, 1943, in Paterson, N.J., into a Conservative Jewish home. Her father, Samuel Bograd, owned an upscale furniture emporium with an uncle. Her mother, Pauline (Klemes) Bograd, sometimes helped him with his business and was a leader in a local chapter of Planned Parenthood.
Harriet attended a special high school operated by Montclair State Teachers College (now Montclair State University) and graduated from Bryn Mawr in 1963 with a degree in political science. The summer she graduated, she arranged for a group of nine white Bryn Mawr students to teach at Livingstone College, a historically Black college in Salisbury, N.C., so they could absorb the impact of the growing civil rights movement.
One of 11 women in her class at Yale Law School, she graduated in 1966. Rather then joining a law firm, she went to work for an organization in New Haven, Conn., that represented indigent clients in matters like access to medical care and trained local residents to be advocates for themselves and their neighbors. She helped start a day care center in New Haven, joined with other parents and teachers in a drive to improve local public schools and campaigned for the government to approach drug addiction as a crisis of health and poverty rather than a crime.
She married Mr. Klein, a tax lawyer, in 1977. In addition to her daughter Rabbi Klein Ronkin, he survives her, as do another daughter, Sarah Klein; a sister, Naomi Robbins; and two grandchildren.
When Ms. Bograd received a diagnosis of Stage 4 breast cancer in 1997, with a bleak prognosis, it only made her more determined to use her remaining time for the Hebrew concept of tikkun olam — “repairing the world” — and for her work with Kulanu.
Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University, said that Ms. Bograd also saw Kulanu as a vehicle to expand the mainstream Jewish sense of what Jews are supposed to look like.
“She felt it enhanced American Judaism,” he said, “to recognize that all Jews are not white and European.”
Joseph Berger was a reporter and editor at The New York Times for 30 years. He is the author of a biography of Elie Wiesel, which is scheduled for publication in February. @joeberg
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 25, 2022, Section A, Page 23 of the New York edition with the headline: Harriet Bograd, 79, Guide and Mentor To Jewish Communities Around World
My dear friends, my prayer partners, I thank you for the fact that sometimes through such letters I can turn to you to maintain this friendly and prayerful connection of ours.
Thank you for this and thank you to our God. I am writing to you this update of my news, news of the church and “Olive Branch” in Ukraine, and I wish you a great day!
Today is the 260th day of the war on the land of Ukraine. The Russian enemy is trying to destroy critical infrastructure facilities of Ukraine by launching its missiles and Iranian drones. Our people are heroically eliminating the consequences of destruction, and our anti-aircraft forces are trying to shoot down as many of these flying enemy objects as possible. Other troops of ours repel the influx of mobilized Russians near Donetsk and Luhansk, other troops of our troops push the enemy out of the Kharkiv and Kherson regions. I believe that by the grace of God and with your support, we will overcome this Russian demonic enemy together. The chaplains we train and support have a huge and important part to play and serve the military in this process.
Yesterday I went to the seminary. I arrived at nine o’clock in the morning, and five minutes after that the electricity went out until 1 p.m. I didn’t know what to do next, because all my work was concentrated on the computer. I have to check students’ homework, give grades and report to the seminary. But how to do it without electricity? It was cold in the seminary, but there were offline classes for students in two classes. Lighting for them was provided by a small generator, which also helped in preparing dinner. There are almost no generators in Ukraine now. KTS ordered a large generator in Europe, but they said that it can be in Kyiv only after December. I went around the offices saying hello and I talked a little with those who were in the seminary. The offline classes were conducted by two of our teachers Richard Perhai and Mark McDonell. I met Mark’s wife named Donna and had a nice chat with her. I also spoke with the rector of the seminary about the fact that the state of Ukraine does not recognize diplomas of religious educational institutions with some rare exceptions. Therefore, our Protestant chaplain graduates in the Ukrainian army are now mainly appointed to the positions of assistant chaplains, and the Orthodox are appointed to the positions of chaplains, because the Orthodox and Catholics have three licensed educational religious institutions, and the Protestants have only one, but it is in the Russian-occupied Kherson.
There are currently 43 church members in the Way of Truth Church, but some have gone away from the war and have not yet returned, and some of them have already fallen away from the church and possibly from God as well. I think they will not return to Ukraine. It is very sad as a pastor that when the trials came because of the suffering of the war, people fall away from the faith. But we as a church are trying to support the members of the church and for this we conduct offline service, we do several different small groups, and today at 07.30 we opened the preacher’s weekly morning school. Now there are seven preachers in it. Thank God.
I am preparing the eleventh couple for marriage in the church.
I have a dream to make an Olive Branch Ukraine camp for teenagers from military families this summer, even in wartime conditions. You will pray for God’s will and His support in this.
By the grace of God and with your support, “Olive Branch” in Ukraine continues to support the “Pastoral Chaplaincy Leadership” program at the KТS, and for the fall of 2022 we had the following course plan and it has been completed:
1) On September 9, an offline School of Chaplains was held in the city of Cherkasy. The graduation of the school with the presentation of certificates for 19 students took place on October 29, 2022;
2) On September 19-23, online teaching of the “Administration of Chaplain Service” course took place, the teacher was Chaplain US Army David Williams. About 40 students, free listeners and volunteer chaplains were present. I have received positive feedback from students about David’s teaching;
3) October 3-7 online teaching of the course “Preparation and conduct of spiritual training programs”, teacher Stacey Conard, was attended by about 30 students, free listeners and volunteer chaplains. Stacey’s teaching was very positively received by the audience;
4) On October 17-21, I had to teach an offline course “Introduction to Chaplaincy” for the first year of study for 5 students. We were preparing a holiday at the seminary for first-year students on Monday, but the enemy hit Ukraine with 55 missiles and 30 drones, so the seminary decided to teach all students online again. So I taught online again. Thanking God, I had 22 students and free listeners attend the course. That’s more than five!
I hold meetings like this every Tuesday for Olive Branch leaders and members.
Every second Tuesday of the week I have online training from Jeff and Nancy Jernigan on the Civilian Security Program.
I was invited 10/12/2022 as a teacher to a regional conference in the city of Odesa for pastors of this region, because many local churches have a disagreement with their members who are military chaplains.
“Post” or “Present and not finished time”
Today, after 260 days of war, I can say that I have real personal experience of living in a country at war.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a popular topic of training, conferences and seminars in Ukraine today. But now the use of this concept in Ukraine differs from the generally accepted one. The difference is that the word “Post” is not appropriate to use now, because the action of the suffering of war or stress in our country is not yet finished, this action continues. I catch myself because I have traumatic stress, my wife has stress, the believers in the church have a lot of stress. I can’t imagine what feelings people who have no hope in God feel, I can’t imagine what Ukrainian soldiers feel when 75 to 100 of their friends die on the front every day. I know for sure that I have a lot of stress that affects me like a wave. After every alarm signal, turning off the lights and water, bad news from the combat zone, after the shelling of the city where I live, this wave of stress rises uphill, and my motivation and desire to do something goes down rapidly. My human relations in the family, in the church, in society also suffer from these waves. It becomes difficult to communicate, to refrain from irritation and resentment, every little thing can be like a pebble that starts a rockfall, that is, a conflict. I have today, now, not an easy test of God through suffering, this is not the past time, it is the present time. Who will teach me and other people how to live in such stress that lasts a month, a year, or more?
After the rapist leaves, Ukrainians will recover for some time and then decide to forgive the Russian aggressor, but not now. And the topic of love for enemies according to the Bible does not belong here at all, because this topic concerns persecution for faith in Christ, and not a state of hostilities. The enemy must be destroyed, but we have not to enjoy the killing and not to incite rage, as Clive Lewis wrote in the book “Just Christianity”.
Therefore, conversations and sermons about the fact that it is necessary to forgive right now in the conditions of war are not true and even harmful and offensive for Ukrainians, because I emphasize once again that the phase of war or violence in Ukraine is not over, it continues its effect in time.
How, when and who should be forgiven?
In the message to the Ephesian church it is written: 4:32 forgive one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. In the Gospel of Luke 6:37: forgive and you will be forgiven.
Very often I began to hear this phrase during brutal hostilities and violence against the civilian population. As someone insists in his teaching that I or we Ukrainians must forgive the Russians, here is an example for you to understand. If you heard the screams of a child or a woman being raped by a sadist, what would your actions be? Are you going to stand by and say: if you are a Christian, then forgive him?
First, I think the first thing you should do is stop the rapist and tie him up.
Secondly, to calm down the victim and ensure her safety and peace.
And thirdly, tell the girl or woman exactly what Christ said, about forgiveness.
So, people who say that Ukrainians should forgive Russians right now are like a cynical preacher who repeats the words of Jesus without considering the tragedy and pain of the victim. Such a person does not truly love, he does not think that the first thing that should happen is that the act of violence or the war should end first and the victim needs time to gain a sense of security.
Those of you who understand this do not talk about forgiveness, but pray and help Ukraine in every possible way. Thank you very much. There is a time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
I liked Jeff Jernigan’s words in his letter to me. Here’s what he wrote to me about forgiveness: “Forgiveness is not something people are contemplating very much at the moment. Ecclesiastes 3.1-8 declares there is a right time for many things including a time to embrace or refrain from embracing, a time to tear and a time to sew, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. Forgiveness is a process, not simply an event. Many of the scriptures about forgiveness assume this reality. In time, there will come opportunities to forgive. Over time, if we do not forgive, the result will be bitterness that eats at our very soul. One pastor said it is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. We cannot be demanding about forgiveness, but let the Holy Spirit lead us each to place of wholeness in this matter. The theological section on forgiveness is quite long. Perhaps you can shorten it by acknowledging the challenge and providing some guidance.
Psalm 27 provides considerable comfort for those suffering under the tyranny of disaster and violence”.
The Lord is my light and my salvation;Whom shall I fear?The Lord is the cdefense of my life;Whom shall I dread?2 When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.3 Though a host encamp against me,My heart will not fear;Though war arise against me,In spite of this I shall be confident.
4 One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,To behold the beauty of the LordAnd to dmeditate in His temple.5 For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle;In the secret place of His tent He will hide me;He will lift me up on a rock.6 And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy;I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice,And be gracious to me and answer me.8 When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,“Your face, O Lord, I shall seek.”9 Do not hide Your face from me,Do not turn Your servant away in anger;You have been my help;Do not abandon me nor forsake me,O God of my salvation!10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,But the Lord will take me up.
11 Teach me Your way, O Lord,And lead me in a level pathBecause of my foes.12 Do not deliver me over to the adesire of my adversaries,For false witnesses have risen against me,And such as breathe out violence.13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LordIn the land of the living.14 Wait for the Lord;Be strong and let your heart take courage;Yes, wait for the Lord.
New American Standard Bible, 1995 Edition: Paragraph Version (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Ps 27:1–14.
I also hear the following statements: we must love everyone, because it is written in the Bible.
This is indeed in the Bible. But for us to correctly interpret these words, we need to learn to distinguish God’s command to an individual person or God’s command to society, or to the church, as a gathering of people.
So, according to the Bible, we can love other people with brotherly love (Greek phileo), but we cannot and should not love everyone with the highest form of God’s love (Greek agape).
If we love God (Greek agape), then we are able to love (Greek phileo): our wife, children, truth, neighbor, goodness, people of our local church, as well as all those who love God.
Therefore, only those people who believe in Him and are obedient to Him can truly love God.
Psalm 30:24: Love the Lord, all you righteous ones
Deuteronomy 10:19: loves the stranger
Prophet Zechariah 8:19: Love truth and peace
Colossians 3:19: Husbands, love your wives
1 Peter 1:22: Always love one another
1 Peter 2:2: Love the pure milk of the word,
Gospel of John 13:34, 15:17: Love one another (the listeners – Judaic stood around Jesus).
Therefore, all other people who do not believe in God and are not obedient to Him, we should not so much love them as much as we should respect them, but the evil that is present in these people, we should hate, like our Father.
1 Peter’s letter to the church 2:17: Respect everyone, love the brotherhood, fear God, respect the king.
Prophet Amos 5:15: Hate evil and love good.
Therefore, God can only be loved by people who believe in Him and are obedient to Him. First of all, we are obliged to love people who believe in God. And we should respect people who do not believe in God, but hate evil in them. Love has different degrees: agape, phileo, eros. Because of our sinful nature, we cannot and should not love everyone equally.
One must love one’s enemies
In Matthew 5:44, Jesus said: Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you.
To understand these words, and any others in the Bible, one must understand to whom and under what circumstances they were spoken, that is, the historical and cultural context. Then your theology will be Christ’s. These words apply to me or you personally, the words of Jesus are 100% true. But if the sphere of application of these words is different, for example, the sphere of my family, city or country, then these words cannot be applied in the same way here.
Remember Jesus’ command to the disciples to sell their clothes and buy themselves weapons for self-defense. Remember the words of Jesus? Luke 22:36: … sell your clothes and buy a sword;
I will remind you that I am not talking about my personal enemy and not about those enemies who want to destroy my church for faith.
I’m talking about a different case, that is, about an enemy who climbs into my house. I can kill such an enemy legally (the book Exodus).
I am talking about such an enemy who destroys my home, my family, my country, who wants to destroy my nation. Such an enemy must be destroyed, and then talk about forgiveness.
I forgive such an enemy in two cases.
1. When he is defeated and I see his surrender.
2. When he will apologize to me and the country, or will no longer be able to threaten others, as happened with the empires, which today are no longer on the world map.
If they hit you on one cheek, turn the other
Whoever slaps you on the cheek, give him a friend too, and whoever wants to take your cloak, don’t forbid your shirt either. (Luke 6:29)
Who often repeats these words today?
I think that a person who has no experience of waging war in the city of his residence and does not understand the fear of artillery shelling, aerial and rocket bombardment. It is difficult for many people outside of Ukraine to understand the effects of fear. They are afraid that they may be killed, maimed, raped right in their own homes. And our Russians do it en masse.
Almost all of the churches of Ukraine and ours switched to the Gregorian calendar, so we do not plan to celebrate two Christmases and two Easters. On November 20, we have Thanksgiving, December 25 is Christmas. Every year, our church collects from 30 to 50 gifts for children with its own funds and sends them to children who live near the war zone.
Thank you all again for your support and prayers. Thank you to all of you who receive my update letters and remember us and pray. This means that you also help Ukraine and serve the needy people of the country in Ukraine, who have endured Russian aggression for 260 days, many of them do not have housing, food, water, medical care, work, security.
A short addendum to my letter from Jeanа Szegedа.
The women’s service consisted primarily of establishing a connection with the sisters who, due to military actions, were displaced by the war throughout Ukraine and abroad. Then we managed to organize weekly women’s meetings in ZOOM – every Monday for prayer and support. Caroline Grub and Linda were invited to the meeting. The American sisters suggested holding thematic international meetings every first Monday of the month. So we held meetings on the topic of “Compassion”, “Hope”, “Loyalty” and others. Such meetings were attended by women from Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Bulgaria, as well as from areas where hostilities are taking place. They went out without lights, explosions could be heard, our prayers were a great support for all of us. Help was provided to a sister in Kropyvnytskyi (medicines were sent for the military unit, where Sister Valya Syzenko is serving). A women’s service was held in Irpen for women who lost their homes as a result of Russian shelling, involving children from large families of believers. The victims were presented with bedding and a set of household chemicals sewn by Halyna Danyuk’s sister. A visit was also held for the purpose of spiritual communication with the transfer of a set of farm products, a set of fruits, books “Prayer Book of the Ukrainian”, dry food for the animals they saved from their farm – dogs and cats.
The service of the women’s Christian club “Anna” in Ivano-Frankivsk is actively developing – a Christmas service for military families is being prepared. Women’s Christian club “Esther” (Alexandria, Kirovohrad region) held a service for elderly single women. Ukrainian women of the “Olive Branch” raised funds for the intelligence group, where Cheremisyna’s nephew Tetyana, a resident of Kherson, is fighting. In Dnipro, the online prayer group is led by Anna Yermalayeva, who is in Poland as a refugee. We ask for prayers for our sisters in the diaspora and in Ukraine. Thank you for the prayers and support of the American sisters! May God bless you all, brothers and sisters!
Information from senior hospital chaplain Mykola Dudko from CherkasyOur soldiers Aare very brave and courageous. These are heroes. They are being treated in our hospital. And after recovery, they rush to their brothers again, to protect our earth … We, as chaplains, constantly support them, for Wwhich. Soldiers do not want to be photographed (for security reasons).
Knowing that members of the olive brand have worked in the hospital for a long time as medical chaplains and have a lot of expertise, he was invited to participate. It is needed for the introduction of medical chaplaincy in health Care Institutions.
I add to the letter a file with advertising for the introduction of hospital chaplaincy in Ukraine with the Participation of Olive BranchThank you for letting me know you on this earth and for being with God.May God bless you abundantly.
I wish that we have in the soul a peace from God.
Valentin.
Valentyn Korenevych,
Colonel (retired)
President of the Public organization “Olive Branch” Ukrainewww.olivebranch.org.ua
Program director of “Pastors-Chaplains Leadership” of the Kiev Theological Seminary
www.ktsonline.org
+38 097 9638406
This letter was translated by an electronic translator, so I apologize in advance for any errors that you may have noticed.
Quotes from recent letter from Dave Coffield
“The only true basis for personal security and significance was [is] grace. As long as either my security or my significance is tied to performance, what others think about me, my internal sense of good or bad, how I am feeling – I will feel insecure and insignificant.”
“I don’t work to gain the favor of God; I work because I have His favor.”
“May our days be filled with gratitude for His incredible gift of grace!”
Well said David
Dear friends, I wish you the God’s Day.
My wife and I haven’t seen you for a long time, so we would like to physically be with you face to face over a cup of tea. But now there is a war and you cannot come to us in Ukraine, and we cannot come to you.
I am glad that I have many friends and acquaintances. It’s good for me, but I can’t physically write to everyone in person – it’s bad for me, I’m sorry.
My personal news, my personal feelings and observations.
Today is the 147th Day of the war: Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The fifth month of the war will soon end. It feels like “eternity”.
I was interested in analyzing myself, what did I feel at the beginning of the war and what do I feel now?
I remember the first days of the war, from February 24 to March 31, when Russian troops quickly approached Kyiv and tried to surround and capture it. At that time, I felt confused, scared and stressed by the rocket attacks and shelling of our city by the enemy. Now in the news, this time is called the first stage of the war. Many people then prophesied for Ukraine, as a state, that it had 3-5 days left to live, and then it would have to capitulate to Moscow. But by the grace of God, this did not happen, the Ukrainians withstood this sudden, strong and insidious blow of the aggressor. God loves us.
The next period of the war, this is the time from about April 1 to June 30. This is the time when the Ukrainian troops forced the Russians to start retreating from the cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy, that is, the enemy retreated through Belarus from the north of Ukraine to the east. At that time, I felt joy for our Armed Forces, I felt hope for our quick victory and the end of the war, but at the same time I felt the pain of our losses, because the Ukrainian army at that time had about 100 soldiers killed every day, who died in battles to deter the enemy from seizing the east and south of Ukraine. A large number of Ukrainian civilians died from shelling and shooting. The International and Ukrainian Olive Branch and the “Path of Truth” church prayed together and then my feeling of pain decreased. Thank you all for your many prayers through messenger. Thank you, Olive Branch! God loves us.
Now say that now is the third stage of the war. This is from about July 1 until today. Russian troops are concentrated in the east of Ukraine and are trying to attack all this time. Our Ukrainian troops stopped them in all directions. Positional and artillery battles are now underway. Ukrainian troops with the help of American weapons are trying to seize the initiative and destroy their rear. I still feel in me the old stress from the shelling and the new stress from the uncertainty, because every time it seems that the end of the war is near, it is pushed back further. It is difficult psychologically. But God loves us.
Today in our church was Chaplain, who graduate a 2015 year of the program “Pastoral Chaplain Leadership” at the KTS, Major of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy us his testimony, he thanked us for our prayers, and he repeated many times that prayers work and they are real act even when we do not see it with our own eyes. Major Yuriy cited many cases when he felt our prayer, when he himself prayed, when soldiers started coming to him one by one, and when the shelling started, then 20 people came to his room.He said that God, through our prayers, brought their unit out of the enemy’s encirclement, God saved their broken car at night, God saved the building where their military unit lived from terrible shelling for two months. All the windows there were broken and covered with plywood, but the glass in Yura’s window was intact. It is a miracle of God that where there are trained military chaplains, there are almost no wounded and none killed.
Our church has a list of alumni chaplains and has been prayerfully and financially supporting them since the beginning of the war.
God used to prepare Ukraine for the battle against Mordor through the Olive Branch, and now God continues to do so.
God is doing this through all of you, dear friends and employees of the Olive Branch, this is God’s miracle in Ukraine!
What I do at Olive Branch in Ukraine
During the time that has passed since my last message, I conducted two three-day online seminars:
for the Evangelical Reformed Seminary of Ukraine (in June there were 18 students) and for KTS in July.
So, on July 4-6, 2022, by the grace of God, I conducted the second three-day training course on the topic: “How to prepare a military chaplain for the local church to care for the defenders of the country.”
35 students were registered for this course during the war.
All three days of the course, 28 students were present online (according to screenshots). Another seven did not listen during the entire study time. The senior chaplain, pastor Vasyl, helped me in teaching.
Among the 35 listeners were:
Pastors – 7;
Deacons – 6;
Chaplains and volunteers – 10;
Other types of service – 12.
After reading the given literature, the students will be sent the Certificate of the program “Pastor and Chaplain Leadership” of the KTS.
The leadership of one of the independent Baptist churches of southern Ukraine was present at the seminar: a pastor and three deacons, one of whom was a military chaplain. They had a conflict in the middle because of the chaplaincy of one of their deacons. The church did not understand who a military chaplain is, how to equip and support him, and the chaplain did not understand accountability to his church and adherence to his creed. Therefore, I explained it to them in the course of teaching. They understood this and reconciled.
I think that during our studies we were able to learn to love God and each other more.
In the Church “The Way of Truth”
On July 25-30, in the premises of our church, we plan to hold a six-day camp on robotics and English for 20 teenagers from military and other families.
We are preparing four people for baptism.
Hospital chaplains work in Cherkasy
Senior hospital chaplain, reserve lieutenant colonel wrote: “We, the Cherkasy hospital chaplains, are very grateful to OBI for the support you provide us. It inspires us to defeat the enemy. Soldiers who need both medical and spiritual support enter our medical facility. We are always on the spot and work together with the medical personnel (due to martial law, I do not provide most of the photos with the soldiers). Glory to God and Glory to Ukraine.”
In Irpin, under the leadership of Zhanna, the Ruth club works:
1) On July 17, 2022, the leader of the women’s ministry, Zhanna, Marina and the club “Ruth” at the “Path of Truth” church held a women’s event on the topic “Spiritual gift set” for women from the Irpin of branch of “Olive Branch”. These are women, who survived the occupation, internally displaced persons and refugees who recently returned home. Spiritual truths were remembered more because each of them was associated with one of 10 symbolic gifts: a neckerchief, soap, perfume, salt, a candle holder, a chocolate bar, a towel, lip balm, tea and a rose, as a symbol of originality and uniqueness every woman Each truth is related to one of the biblical images (women) that made them interested in reading about these women. A total of 26 women attended this event, including 8 for the first time. Faithful women from the club decided to prepare for Mother’s Day to invite other women to such an activity. And each will tell one biblical truth and give one gift.We also plan to prepare a presentation and excerpts of other Christian films!
2) We make plans for what we will do after the war is over. This is also a way to overcome the stress that women are under. We thank Linda and Caroline for their training during the online classes at the “Ruth” club, which were held on June 7 and July 11.
3) By July 31, we are preparing Galina teenage group for an evangelistic trip to the place of compact residence of people who lost their homes due to bombs and mines in Irpen. We also prepare a gift set for them – towels, bedding, hygiene products.
4) I visit these people once a week, I bring food to those who especially need it, then I learn about their needs and we pray. We sincerely thank our American brothers and sisters for their support, for the fact that we can help people in difficult circumstances. Together with the Word of God, we bring what is necessary. We also distribute volunteer aid.
5) We received bandages, towels and sleeping bags from volunteers from the city of Brody. The dressing material was transferred to the hospital of Kyiv and Kropyvnytskyi. Towels and sleeping bags – for people who have lost their homes.
Another 21 subdivisions of Olive Branch operate in different cities of Ukraine.
Our regional presbyter Mykola Romaniuk suggested that I prepare online training for pastors of the Baptist Brotherhood with the participation of his familiar American chaplain on the topic: “How to prepare yourself and the church for the meeting of military personnel from the war.” I am starting to work on this issue.
My mother continues to live in the village. I was in her apartment in Chernihiv. I installed a new door there. The inner walls of the apartment collapsed from the air strike, so we threw them down through the window from the fifth floor. We need to restore the walls, order and buy new windows, electrical wiring, pipes for water and heating …
Remember this letter in your prayers.
This is the latest news I have. Tomorrow I plan to go to sell my garage, and then I will go to my mother in the village for two nights. My son Mark has not cut his hair for 147 days …
Thank you for your prayers and other help.
Valentyn Korenevych,
Colonel (retired)
President of the Public organization “Olive Branch” Ukrainewww.olivebranch.org.ua
Program director of “Pastors-Chaplains Leadership” of the Kiev Theological Seminary
www.ktsonline.org
The above is from an email dated July 23rd, 2022.
Healthy Heart Healthy Brain
C.S. Lewis: How Are We to Live in an Atomic Age?
(“Or any age.” Michael Weiss)
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.
— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays
I copied the above C.S. Lewis article from https://americandigest.org/c-s-lewis-how-are-we-to-live-in-an-atomic-age/, July 25th, 2022.
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