📣 Peter Mitskevich, the UECB President, returned from an international trip in March and answered a big question:
❕What is your impression of life abroad?
➡️My impression is that the whole world is in turmoil, in confusion. But our Baptist position has always stood on the principles of peace and prayer. First of all, we need to worship God and pray for peace: for peace in people’s hearts and for peace between nations.
➡️The Lord teaches his disciples, as it is written in the Gospel of Luke chapter 18: “You must always pray and not lose heart.” And now, there are not only rumors in the world now, but real wars. Unfortunately, there is a lot of despondency. I make an appeal to the brotherhood, to the churches, to the people: calm down, as Isaiah writes, “beat your swords into plowshares” and move on to God’s work of building up, not for destruction!
➡️The cause of all human problems is sin, and the only way to get rid of these problems is repentance. In this regard, I am concerned that there is now a hope in society for “kings” to make political changes. But our hope, first of all, is in the Lord, who touches people with the Holy Spirit!
➡️I remind you, the Holy Scripture calls on the church, calls on believers to pray for all living, for rulers, kings, to pray for opportunities to share Jesus with others, leading to repentance, to spiritual responsibility, to the fear of God. God will judge everyone. May the Lord have mercy! And the main battle is going on in a person himself: in his heart and his mind, it’s a battle for his soul.
As the great Dostoevsky wrote, “Here the devil is fighting with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people” – so, who will own a person: God or the devil?
➡️It is clearly stated in the Scriptures that a person without God, without faith in Him, will perish, so we, as Evangelical Baptists, are called to speak about the triune God, about joy, about salvation, about grace, about eternal life. But not about revenge and death. First of all, we will focus our attention on the Lord. As the Apostle Paul writes in the 6th chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians: “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this age, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens” (Eph. 6:12).
➡️Therefore, the main task of a Christian is to reflect, to evangelize and, of course, to pray. To pray, firstly, for our families, and secondly, for our earthly homeland. Remember, where we started the conversation? – Our brotherhood has always stood on the positions of peace and prayer, we will continue this tradition. Jesus is the Lord of Lords, reconciling us sinners with God, and gives us spiritual life!
