It was 1978, and Victor Pavlov lived in the Soviet Union. He was a young man who had finished high school with very high grades, as he was a very smart student. He had gone to the University to finish his mechanical engineering degree and had passed all the exams and finals. Now he was ready to graduate once again with very high grades.
Victor knew the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and it was not easy to live in the Soviet Union under the Communist party. His government did not love God or the Lord Jesus, which made it very hard for Christians to live in their country. He and his siblings were often made fun of through their school years by the other children they went to school with. The teachers too were not always very nice. So now Victor was ready to receive his diploma in mechanical engineering from the University.
Right before graduation, the head of the engineering department, Mrs. Koval, asked Victor to come into her office. She knew he was a Christian, and she had a very hard question to ask him.
“Victor, I have here on my desk an application that I am asking you to sign that would make you join the Communist party. If you refuse to sign it, then I will refuse to give you your engineering degree that you have worked so hard to get.”
What a decision to have to make, and on such short notice! But it didn’t take long, and Victor knew his answer.
“Mrs. Koval, I cannot sign that application. Even if you won’t give me my degree, I will not sign it.”
“Very well, Victor,” she said. “You have made your decision. Goodbye!”
It was with a heavy heart Victor walked home and told his family this sad and unfair news. But they committed it all to God, their heavenly Father who loves His own and promises to provide for His children.
{vi 23316-23317}Matthew 6:33-34 says, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.”
The Lord took care of Victor. He worked for the railroad, and later he had a good welding job. After a time, he was given five or six ovens that were going to be discarded. He was able to refurbish them, and then he started a bakery. Today that bakery is still going—a thriving business with 50 employees and 30 stores!
One winter day a few years after starting his bakery business, Victor was in his delivery truck making his rounds to deliver his bread. The morning was dark gray, and the roads were not nice. It had snowed and then rained, making it very slippery for the pedestrians to walk on. As Victor neared a crosswalk, his heart went out to an older lady who was slipping and sliding on the ice as she hung onto her grocery bags while crossing the street. In that day, cars would hardly stop, and they would just honk and make it harder for the walkers. Victor stopped his truck right in the middle of the road and went over to the older lady, took her arm and walked her over to the passenger side of his van and helped the lady climb in.
As the lady looked up into Victor’s face to thank him for the ride, she said, “I feel I have seen you before.”
“Yes, I believe you have,” Victor said as he helped the lady climb in. “Aren’t you Mrs. Koval?”
“Yes, I am,” she said.
“I am Victor Pavlov. I believe you were my instructor at the University.”
“Oh, Victor! Here you are being so kind to me after what I did to you! Now I know there is truly a living God in heaven! Communism is a fake. I am very lonely, cold and hungry. I have very little money, and I may get my apartment taken away from me any day.”
Victor drove her the five blocks to her apartment, and then he handed her a few loaves of fresh bread. She hugged him and thanked him once again for his kindness he had shown to her, even after her unkindness to him.
Yes, children, the Bible teaches us in {vi 28266-28267}Romans 12:20-21, “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.”
Isn’t that nice? That’s how the Lord Jesus wants you to treat kids at school or in your neighborhood who are not always nice to you. Do something nice for them. That will make the Lord Jesus happy, and it will make you happy too.
MEMORY VERSE: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Messages of God’s Love 7/5/2020