A Friend Who Stays

Being from Germany, I have always had a keen interest in seeing East and West Germany becoming one Germany - not for the sake of greatness or anything like that, but that the East Germans might be freed from the yoke of communism. 

Well it was one of those days that will never be forgotten, when in the early 1990s the Soviet Union began to break up, and the Berlin Wall - that symbol of oppression and denial of freedom - came crashing down.

Of course other States joined the privilege of becoming “free” also. Among them were Estonia and Latvia, which also had been under Soviet domination for years, with Christians often being marginalised, persecuted, and even imprisoned and beaten.

Western Christians immediately took the opportunity to go into these countries, not only to encourage their brothers and sisters in the Lord, who were now able to come “above-ground” (previously they could only worship “under-ground” in secret places), but also to help the Christians in the land, to bring the message of love, joy, forgiveness and peace to a whole generation (and more) of people, who had not had the opportunity to hear the Good News of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Some of these Christian missionaries were short term workers, that is, they would give up their holidays and spend four weeks in these countries. Now one such group had been privileged to be one of the first Christian teams to be able to freely present Christ in Estonia and Latvia. 

They held some unforgettable meetings with believers in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and they heard many stories of the price some of those dear saints had paid for their loyalty to Jesus Christ. They had been through so much, with many having lost loved ones, who had been killed because of their faith. 

The four weeks concluded far too rapidly, and the team members farewelled their new friends with great sadness at a Church which had been closed for years, but now re-opened. Then they headed for the train station, where they eventually boarded the midnight train. But as they boarded, the railway platform was suddenly alive with the faces and the voices of the Latvian Christians they were leaving behind. 

They showed up en masse for one last goodbye and a special sendoff. As the team members settled into their train seats, they  could hear the voices of those people joining together in a melody that echoed through the station. While they were not able to discern the words - they were in Latvian, of course - they still recognized the hymn. 

As the train slowly began to pull out of the station, these people who had endured so much, were singing that great hymn - "What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear." The people sang from experience - they knew how Jesus had been a wonderful Friend through all those times of suffering.

Throughout those years of injustice, and uncertainty, and hardship, they learned that Jesus is the friend who stays with you through it all. People can fire you, abuse you, criticize you, divorce you, disappoint you, abandon you - but millions of Christians have found what those Latvian followers of Christ found. Jesus is life's one and only "through it all" person - and that faith and trust in our Saviour, are born from difficulty. When the Apostle Paul said his passionate life goal was to "know Christ", he went on to say that this involved knowing "the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). 

You never really know Jesus until you really need Jesus. And when you really, really need Him, He's really, really there, caring for you - if not carrying you - through those difficult and painful experiences (remember the story of Footprints?).

The Son of God, the King of all kings, spoke about this amazing relationship, when He was talking to His disciples just before His long dark night of the cross and the long dark stretch that would follow for His disciples. 

In John 15:15 Jesus says: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants...I have called you friends." If you have that love relationship which comes from believing that Jesus gave His life for you on the Cross, then there is nothing the two of you can't handle, because as the Bible says, "if God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31).

And if you don't have that love relationship with Him, it could start today if you will give your life to the One who loves you so deeply, that He paid for your sins with His life. Our sins are very serious business, and they carry a death penalty which Jesus paid for you. I don't know if you've had a lot of relationships or have sought experiences (perhaps even in other religions) in the hope that you would find peace and joy, and relief from guilt and pain. But they didn’t. Jesus is the only One who can give you what you desire deep down - forgiveness, love, joy, eternal security.

Again I say, if you have that saving, loving relationship with the Lord, then there is nothing the two of you can't handle. Yes “What a friend we have in Jesus” - it’s  more than a song, it is a reality in the life of Christians. Grace and peace...

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