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| Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko in July 2004, left, and three months later giving a press conference in Kiev in October 2004 after poisoning by his political opponents. |
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A revolution took place in Nov of 2004 in the Ukraine. It seems that a very popular Democratic candidate, named Yushchenko, was facing the communist incumbent, Viktor Yanukovych. You may remember this man who was poisoned, and the effects of that failed attempt on his life showed in the blisters all over his face. However, I had never heard the rest of the story until I heard Philip Yancey share about it in a speech a couple nights ago.
On election night, the television announcer reported the results of the election. He told the country that the incumbent, Yanukovych, had won a decisive reelection. However, on Ukrainian TV there is always an announcer in the bottom right corner of the screen who signs the news to the deaf community. But, on this night, Dmitruk, the young woman who signs, had had enough of the communist lies, so she departed from her normal straight translation to say the following in sign language:
 I address all deaf viewers. Challenger Viktor Yushchenko is our President. Do not believe the Electoral Commission. They are lying. If you want to protest, go to the Independence Square in Kiev dressed in Orange.
A revolution was born in a little window on the bottom of the TV screen. The initial protest crowd was 100,000, and it quickly swelled by various estimates to over a million. After two months of unrelenting popular protest, new elections were held, and Viktor Yushchenko became the democratically elected President.
In many ways, this amazing event in the Ukraine is a picture of our world and the mission field. On the big screen of our lives, the world constantly announces that beauty, wealth and fame are what matters. You are insignificant unless you live south of Montauk Highway or north of Route 25a. So we pour ourselves into the building of a life that is modeled on the big screen -- leaving us little time to focus on anything else. And then there is that small screen in the bottom right hand corner of a Christian’s life. It is Jesus speaking through His Word, and in the still, small voice of His Spirit. Do we stop and shift our glance to focus long enough to listen to what He is saying:
The world is lying to you. You are valuable not because of the stuff you collect around yourself, but simply because I made you and you are my child. I have prepared an estate for you very north of Route 25a in my eternal Kingdom. You do not need wealth or fame or the right name to get there. You're with me. Just focus on following me, and I will take you there. Meet me in my Word every morning. Follow me to my | | |
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house on Sunday for preparation, and I will send you out filled with my joy to pierce the darkness of untruth and despair that is permeating this Island. You are the salt of the earth. Yes, you are a missionary to the town I have placed you in. I am not filling you with my spirit in order to pour yourself out in pursuit of lies, but to permeate society and keep it from going bad. That is what real salt does. Religion that is pure and undefiled before me is to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
But I am not calling you to fill his belly.
I am asking you to go to this boy to fill
his heart which is broken, and in despair.
Do you know that there is a little boy who lives just three blocks from your Church who wants a Christian mentor? He is not in my arms, but on a waiting list, and has been for a long time. How can this be? His Dad left the family a year ago. They are poor. But I am not calling you to fill his belly. When you see him, you will know it if full enough. I am asking you to go to this boy and allow me to flow through you, to fill his heart which is broken, and in despair. I want your time - the time that I gave you, every second of your life a gift from me to you. Go and share with that little boy, my little boy, what I have given to you - time. Go and spend two hours a week.
 His Mom told him that I am the Father of the fatherless, and Tommy told her that God, wherever He is, is not here to throw a ball to him. I am sending you to throw the ball. You are my arms, my legs, your eyes will reflect my love. Your consistency will display my consistency. You are My voice that I will use in My time, to proclaim My truth. Go love this child in My name. Feed My Sheep. Take care of my Lamb.
I have never seen a time in my twenty years on the Long Island mission field where money and mentors were so difficult. Pastors are overwhelmed everywhere I go. The need within the church is growing as the number of fractured families skyrocket within and outside the church. The number of workers who are willing to step out on the Long Island mission field is shrinking. We are so busy following the marching order of the big screen that we do not take orders from the one we call Lord, who still asks us. "Why do you call me Lord and do not do what I say?" Retired people are saying, "I did that, I am not doing that any more." So churches struggle to get enough Sunday school teachers. Younger people are wound tight, franticly chasing the lifestyle demanded by the big screen. They work and commute day and night, taking no time to even sit with God in the morning or to hear His voice calling them to feed His Sheep.
What are the true core beliefs of our lives? We can say that we believe anything, but, at the end of the day, what we do is what we believe. That is the compelling message of the Epistle of James who calls us to face what we believe. Do you believe that your value is determined by what you have and where you live and how you are dressed? Or do you believe that you are a Child of God who is called to things of eternal value for His Glory. Look at your own life. What you do, is what you really believe. Scary isn't it? |
