When Pressure meets Presence

 

Two years ago this week, after the UK went into lockdown, we had our first cases of Covid 19 here in the islands. Within a few short days we were also confined to our homes and the nightmare had begun. Now Europe is at war again for the first time since 1945, at least from the invasion of a sovreign country by a neighbour. And the cost of everything is soaring, so that the dreaded word 'inflation' - the plague of 1970's Britain - is back with a vengeance. Tough times are here, and nowhere more so than in the residential areas of Ukraine.

Part of the learning experiences of the last two years has been the understanding that we can't go on behaving in the way we used to. Hand hygiene and mask-wearing in enclosed spaces have become common-place, driven by the fear of infection. Adversity forces change. It makes us think again about our safety and comfort. It changes our priorities. Think about the people huddled in a Kyev basement, hiding from Russian bombs. They have fled their homes with only what they could carry, pets and all. Now, all that matters is life and freedom. Their ordeal has totally realigned their priorities.

But we should not be surprised that suffering produces change. The Bible teaches that it at least can produce patience and perseverance, and those are good, but we would far rather dispense with the adversity in the first place and go straight to the 'lesson learnt' stage without the pain. Yet nobody gets a testimony without a test. Perhaps it is only in retrospect that we can see glimmers of light in the black overlay of struggle and pain that life can be for so many.

So, two years on in this global pandemic, with war raging in Europe and the cost of living soaring, are there any signs of hope? God may not have given the deliverance we longed for, but he has given us his living presence. Once when Moses was facing a great challenge he famously prayed, 'if your presence does not go with us, Lord, please don't take us there!'. But he did, and he was, - with them in their battle to claim a promised land.

The name 'Emanuel' means 'God with us' and it was given to Jesus. Born in a borrowed stable, fleeing with his parents as refugees into another country, rejected by his own people and then crucified by a cruel foreign invading army - he truly is with us! And the best news is that the grave could not hold him - he rose again. Thank God for Jesus!

A Bad Case of Truth Decay

 

‘The first casualty of any war is truth’. This statement, maybe by an ancient Greek dramatist called Aeschylus around 550BC, or else a US Senator from just after World War 1, is proving to be so accurate in describing the current war in Ukraine. For weeks US and British intelligence agencies were warning of impending invasion whilst all the time being mocked by Russian leaders claiming this was a figment of their febrile imaginations! ‘Russia has no plans at all to invade Ukraine’ was reported around the world.

Once the invasion began, pictures of Russian aggression were being shown on their TV station but claiming that NATO and Ukrainian ‘Nazis’ were bombing their own cities. The Russian forces were on a ‘peacekeeping mission’ to protect Ukrainian civilians. If this were not so sad it would be ludicrous, but of course, claim and counter claim will be used by both sides in this conflict to try and gain popular support, and even being used as weapons.

But truth decay has also affected our society incrementally. It is not only the bomb and the bullet that can impact human lives. When Royal celebrities are asked to reveal ‘your truth’ by TV interviewers, as if truth were a commodity to be owned and shaped by individuals to suit their lifestyle, behaviour, preferences or even sense of gender, then truth is indeed ‘fallen in the street’. In fact, ‘justice is beaten back, righteousness is banished to the side-lines, truth staggers down the street, honesty is nowhere to be found, good is missing in action’ (Isaiah 59:14 The Message).

It was a great Russian, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn who said, ‘One word of truth outweighs the world’ and that philosophy undergirded his resistance to the Soviet system and his belief that ultimately, the truth will out. And he was right. Joseph Goebel’s elaborate propaganda organisation, for instance, died along with the Nazi regime in the burning rubble of 1945 Berlin. Truth has power. It can, eventually, overthrow systems and states built on deception and lies.

Jesus distinguished himself from these corrupt leaders when he declared, ‘I am the truth’ (John 14:6) and that his Spirit was and is ‘the Spirit of Truth’ (John 16:13). He also said that his followers ‘will know the truth, and the truth will set you free’ (John 8:31). Only the truth will liberate, morally and spiritually and culturally. 

For now, though, the liars have the floor. Satan, the father of all lies may be delighted. But his rejoicing will be short-lived. For the Truth is returning, and possibly very soon! When he comes, every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord! Till then, let’s pray that the Spirit of truth will open blind eyes and hearts all over the globe so that the tinsel deception of truth decay will be replaced with radical love and the return of peace, especially to the dear folk of Ukraine. And may God intervene to expose lies and deliver the innocent by miracles of protection too!