prayer

For the last year and a half, Ukrainians have witnessed suffering first-hand, perhaps like no other Western country in modern times. They have seen explosions, heard gunfire, escaped as buildings collapsed around them, lost their jobs and livelihoods, and watched as their friends and family have given their lives for their country.

As a Ukrainian and the area director of Young Life Western Ukraine, an organization devoted to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with adolescents, I have witnessed both suffering and celebration, peace and turmoil, and heartbreak and courage in the teenagers my team and I minister to each week.

Dr. King’s “somebodiness” doctrine stands on the fact that every human is created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). He “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on the face of the earth” (Acts 17:26); accordingly, “God shows no partiality” (Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11).

Nor must we: “If you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors” (James 2:9). Stated bluntly, racism is sin.

Here’s the problem: sinners cannot solve the problem of sin, which is why it persists. In the context of Dr. King’s speech, prejudice—an innate sense of superiority over another person or race—is an endemic result of the Fall and our “will to power” (Genesis 3:5).

We can and should legislate against it. We can and should take every practical means to minimize its existence and horrific effects. But we cannot eradicate it without the help of the God who made us.

Two teen boys were sentenced to two years in prison in Austria for conspiring to kill as many Christians as possible at a middle school in the Styria city of Bruck an der Mur.

Hard-line Muslims at an open-air evangelistic event in eastern Uganda on Aug. 11 assaulted a preacher and more than 20 other Christians for his teaching about Christ’s divinity, sources said.

If you’re like me, there’s a tiny voice in your mind assuring you that you’re somehow different. Airline crashes are extremely rare and happen to other people; the Maui wildfires and Ukrainian conflict are likely thousands of miles away.

At least 850 people are still missing almost two weeks after wildfires desecrated Maui, Hawaii, killing 115 people.

Perhaps you’ve heard the news. Fires torching hundreds of properties. Entire households burned to the ground. Every personal belonging lost. Thousands of lives destroyed. The devastation has been unprecedented, and it will take years to rebuild that which can be rebuilt. But the personal tragedies and lives lost may never heal.

If you’re in the West, you may have heard about the tremendous loss in Maui, Hawaii. Wildfires have left a trail of death and destruction. As horrible as that is, that’s not what I am writing about today.

While Maui was burning in what was an act of God, Christian communities in Pakistan have been burning, torched to the ground, not as an act of God but as an act of evil.

Kenya has closed five churches that the government says are linked to dangerous cult-like activities following the arrest of a leader who is being held responsible for the deaths of 400-plus people.

Tim Keller, an influential author and pastor known for his dedication to urban ministry, died on May 19, 2023, after a years-long battle with pancreatic cancer. A memorial service was held at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City in his honor on Tuesday, August 15.

During the service, Keller, the long-time pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, was remembered as a humble servant and a dedicated student of God’s Word.

In an article written by the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center Director Francis Collins for Christianity Today, Collins recalled asking Keller one Saturday in April near the end of his chemotherapy treatment stint at the NIH hospital if he’d like to hold an impromptu service in the hospital’s atrium. Keller said yes. Collins then asked Keller if he had any favorite hymns to suggest. Again, Keller said yes.

“Let’s sing six hymns in a particular order, because they tell the whole story of Christian faith and God’s care for us,” Collins recalled Keller saying.

Those same hymns were sung at Keller’s memorial service earlier this month.

Here are the six hymns sung at late pastor Tim Keller’s memorial service:

Photo courtesy: ©Wikimedia Commons/Frank Licorice Flickr/Creative Commons, image cropped and resized.

Emergency workers rescued several people over the weekend after Tropical Storm Hilary poured over Southern California and into the desert city of Palm Springs.