Home | Blogs | dan's blog

Who is to blame

We’ve all seen scenes of scorched airplane pieces framing a backdrop for armed men in battle fatigues.

The whole world is looking at the situation in Ukraine and shaking it’s collective head and collectively blaming Russia and her sycophants – the “Ukrainians” who want to be Russian.  For the families and friends of the 298, surely it shouldn’t matter who’s to blame.  But I suspect that for many of them, they feel as if it does matter and would like to assign blame to… President Putin. 

Assuming we have the right information…  The man who pushed the “fire” button thought he was shooting down a military aircraft, no doubt.  His fellow soldiers gave him mistaken information.  Putin himself, never intended for anyone to shoot down a passenger plane.  So for this specific tragedy, there was no evil intent.  And yet… we keep asking the question:  Who is to blame?  As happens every day in hundreds of places around the world, an honest mistake was made that had horrific consequences that resulted in loss of life.  But who is to blame?  Blaming Putin and others who have made immoral choices leading up to this tragedy is easy and in a sense, I’m sure that a percentage of the blame rests with them. 

However simplistic or “trite” it may sound though, I’d like to ultimately put the blame at the devil’s feet.  He is our enemy.  I know that Jesus didn’t blame him when He had the chance in John 9 with His disciples asking who sinned.  I also know that Eve tried to blame the devil and it didn’t carry much weight with God.  But still… he is as far back as I can go to find an original guilty party.  He feels no guilt over his role, but his intervention in our world at it’s inception put into motion the cause and effect principle of sin and destruction.  Our flesh took on sin.  And this is now our world.  We are born into a world of sin.  And we suffer the consequences.  It is only by the grace of God that some of us escape the ETERNAL consequences of sin and only by the grace of God that we have the opportunity to live in a world free of death.  Not a bad gift at all!  Thank you, Father!

I was reminded of this as I attended another funeral for a neighbour on Thursday.  I’d talked with him more than once about eternity and Jesus and the validity of the truth of the Bible, but he always hid behind his communist upbringing.  “Can’t teach an old dog new tricks” was his attitude.  I’d helped him and his wife on a number of occasions for hospital trips and was saddened to hear that he’d passed on to an eternity without hope. 

At the meal after the funeral, I was placed next to the priest they’d brought in from another village.  Nice guy.  He didn’t know why he became a priest, but did know how to tip the shot glass.  (I think he must have put away at least 10 vodkas and was “quite happy” by the end of the meal!)  Despite his principles concerning alcohol consumption, I felt as if he cared for people and was pleasantly surprised to hear him gently deriding the bloke who said that Jesus was a sinner and got drunk.  It was a bit ironic though.  I enjoyed his incredulity as he discovered he’d been conversing with an Australian and I would like to sit down with him one on one and talk.  I’m sure he will also be amazed to learn that I teach the Bible regularly and have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours studying it… and hope to spend hundreds more in the pursuit of wisdom and knowledge of God through His Word!  I’ve decided that I definitely don’t like the funerals of non-Christians though!

Our Nazar has gone to his grandmother in Mariupol, one of the cities in the east that will be attacked first should Russia choose to invade.  The separatists have been dislodged from Mariupol for now and seem to be holding out successfully in two major cities in the east.  Nazar called today and arrived safely. 

Alyosha’s wife was able to send him a bullet-proof-vest last week.  His brother also bought him some special night vision glasses.  Most of the boys from around here who are serving will have bullet-proof-vests soon… if the parcels make it all the way.  Yesterday, I was talking with a local policeman who said that they were told that a battalion of 800 men from around these parts are down to 400 on active duty.  Many have died and many have been wounded.  Tonight we heard that Alyosha is in an area that is seeing “action”.  May God protect him and give him a new appreciation for his status as a child of God!  And may he find the courage to stand up for truth and for the Name of Jesus in the difficult place he finds himself in.

This week is eye op. week.  Hardly invasive.  I’m thankful for modern medicine!!!

Pris is feeling pretty low energy-wise.  She is sure she’s sick, but doesn’t know what with.  We hope to go to the Doctors on Tuesday and have her throat checked out as she’s had a swollen neck for quite a while.

 

This picture I took yesterday as we took off Sergei’s old roof and did the framing for the new one.  Abe, (a friend of Pris’ brother), is here for a month and has been helping all over the place and being a great blessing. 

IMG_3868