As we watch from a distance, we pray with fervently for the people of Ukraine, for God’s peace to reside in their hearts and that evil would be driven back and peace would return. As we struggle with our emotions, worries, concerns, I share two devotional thoughts for your day that are helping me…both from the Word of God from posts made on Facebook:
From Pastor Don Patterson in Austin, TX: A video devotion: https://fb.watch/bo4RbfNPzV/
From Pastor Jon Brohn in New Mexico
As Russia invades Ukraine and international relations begin to creak and groan under the stress, the Bride of Christ (in Ukraine, in Russia, around the world) will do well to remember the words of the Lord in Psalm 2,
‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?…As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’
Jesus Christ *is* the King. The King of all kings, the Lord of all lords, enthroned in the absolute monarchy of Sovereign Love on Zion, upon the holy hill of Calvary. It is there, on the cross, that the Messianic Lion of Judah conquers the world and all of its powers *precisely in being* the Paschal Lamb of God (Rev.5:5-6).
The Altar-Throne of Calvary reveals the character of the Kingdom and the heart of the King—the King who holds Russia and Ukraine and China and Iran and the United Kingdom and every other nation and people in the palm of His grace-torn hand….Not one bullet, not one rocket, not one command descends from a tyrant that does not pass through *this* hand and is not finally turned to achieve the purposes of *this* heart.
So, may the Bride look to the resurrection-illumined throne of Calvary, and there see the heart that beats at the roots of reality, there know the identity of the King who rules *right this second* over all things; may she hold fast to Him in hope; may she obey Him in faith; may her witness of anastasiform love finally trample down the snakes and scorpions of militaristic might and the flesh-flaunting strength of this world; and may she wait in unshaken hope for the day when every eye will see and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that the Crucified Jesus who is Risen in glory IS the Lord and God and Master of the cosmos, to the glory of God the Father.
(Note: this picture was originally created for Hosea 11:10-11)
