"A creditor had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. When they could not pay it back, he kindly forgave them both. So, which of them will love him most?" (Luke 7:41-42)
Almighty God, our Dear Heavenly Father ~ As we face the prospects of this new day, we rejoice over the awareness of the countless blessings that signify your boundless love. Give us wisdom and courage so that we will take full advantage of every opportunity that confronts us to tell about our faith in Christ that brings salvation. Help us not to be negligent in enthusiastically showing our love for Jesus our Savior and King. We bring this prayer in Jesus name, Amen.
Our visit to the University was even better than we anticipated. We had several more teachers than we expected. We normally take a small gift for everyone, and we didn't have enough because last week we didn't have so many of the faculty. We will be prepared next week and maybe we will even have more. My requested topic was on Christian Business Ethics. Since these were college English teachers I played off the phrase 'business ethics', and asked if that was an oxymoron. This got some heads working, and we had a good discussion of how it is possible for a person who is a Christian to conduct a business without wanting to deceive people. Later, we began a study of one of the parables of Jesus, and there was much interest in the Bible. At the end, the assistant to the head of the English department approached me to thank me for the lesson, and especially the Bible lesson. She explained that "most of us were never taught the Bible. Please teach us more next week." I just said a prayer of thanks right then, and Galina and I stopped and thanked God on the street when we left for this amazing opportunity. We just hope that somehow this will be an opportunity for some of these teachers and students to hear believe and obey the blessed Gospel and be saved. As we were leaving our apartment in the morning, we looked back at the statue that graces the little park outside our 4th floor window, and noticed all the beautiful flowers that had been placed there. Galina explained that the person, for whom this little street turned into a park is named, was one of the heroes during World War 2 (Great Patriotic War). He was a local leader of the patriots, a group of brave civilians who fought underground against the Nazis who were then occupying the region. In the evening we had our usual faithful group who assembled for Wednesday night Bible study. It is so heartwarming to hear the sincere questions that come from our searching the scriptures and to watch how the word of God influences these people to grow in their faith. We are humbled when we realize how God is using us at this time and in this particular place. Thank you for the many prayers and kind words that encourage us each day.
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