Sunday, December 19, 2010

Lets Be "For" One Another
































Ephesians 6:12 For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

Flipping the channels around from news program to news program could easily drive a person nuts. I strongly dislike being sick in bed. I guess most people do. As a wife and mom I can look around and see the piles of this and the stacks of that all of which need attending to. It is quite frustrating to me. I am really trying to learn how to rest when I need to, but I really don't care for being unproductive or the helplessness that is the result being sick. I had just cared for my two younger children who were ill for a few days and now their cooties had transferred to me. Not my idea of a good time. In an effort to let my body rest I lay in bed channel surfing. I am not into soap operas and Fox News, MS NBC, CBS and CNN and the like are about the only things current on the TV in the middle of the day. There is only so much House on the Prairie, Full House and Seinfeld repeats a human being can handle, so the news it was.

Now there are some news programs and commentators that I strongly agree with most of what they have to say. Then there are some that might be reporting on the happenings on some distant planet but are pretty disconnected with what is happening here, in our country.....yes and on earth. OK, I am not going to go there, I gave up the political writing thing. One thing I have noticed, and that seems to be a common theme in regards to all of them.....they sure don't like each other much. Honestly, after a while, all the bickering and back biting began to increase the painful pressure in my already congested head. Pretty much everything I needed to be informed of was scrolling at the bottom of the screen while the talking heads expressed their disdane for this person or that person. It all was a pretty big turn off to be honest and I found myself getting disgusted, discouraged, tuning out and eventually just turning the TV off altogether. Don't get me wrong, it is a good thing to be informed and understand what is happening in the world, but all the hatred and nastiness, sometimes it is all too much.

The next day I tuned into a program on a Christian channel out of Texas that I watch on the Internet from time to time. They have a lot of excellent teachers that I enjoy that go into the deeper matters of the Torah and the Word in it's entirety. Their guest that day was a man from an African country where Islam is the legal and accepted religion. Christians are hated and persecuted there. He told the story of all he had suffered in defense of his faith. Some of his family were killed and some disappeared and were never heard from again. He also told how some of his believing brothers and sisters were murdered in front of him for not denying our Savior. These were his spiritual babes, just kids that he had led to the Lord. He explained how he was imprisoned and tortured day after day. He told of his escape from the prison and how a Muslim man had helped him and how he had led him to faith in Messiah. Then he shared something that was one of the most discouraging things to him. It really bothered him. You could see it in his eyes. No it wasn't the torture he had endured at the hands of men with most evil intentions. It had nothing to do with the fact that he couldn't bathe for 6 months. It wasn't even the maggots that were living in his flesh while imprisoned that upset him so. It was that when he finally came to America, to share and inform people of what had happened to him and IS happening to these brave believers, so that they might pray and even be of help, that one of the churches he was to visit had split over the color of the carpet. The color of the carpet!

On one hand I witnessed the world and their unwavering dedication to cut one another down and tear at one another verbally. I really wasn't surprised at that behavior, after all these are not individuals necessarily led by anything or Anyone greater than themselves......in their minds. The Bible doesn't even come into consideration as they sling mud about with gleeful abandon. They are of the world, so they behave like the rest of the world. I used to know a pastor that coined a phrase, "ducks quack, why do you expect them to behave any differently?", when referring to the unbelieving world. This phrase, applied perfectly to to the behavior of the media that day. They were not being anything or anyone that they were not. They were behaving exactly as expected, albeit an incredible irritation to me.

The shocking thing about this martyr's story was not all he had suffered. Although quite frankly his story brought me to tears. The most shocking thing to me was how incredibly divided we are and how very "UN-set apart" or "unholy" that truly is. Here in this country we do not have a concept of what it is to truly "suffer" for what we believe. I fear that one day, very soon, we might. Then how angry we might have been over the "color of the carpet" will be a shameful memory. What I wonder is do we have what it takes to go through all this man went through and still be unwavering in our faith when so many, dare I say "stupid" things divide us? If we are going to stand, when the "real" trials come, we had better grow up and behave in a way that differentiates us from the "world". I just don't see that enough in America. In the 18 years of my life as a believer I have seen, and I am really sorry to utter this, more of what looks like the world than looks like the Word. I am not leaving myself out of that equation so please understand that.

There are things we must stand up for. The truth is one of them. There is a way, however, to maintain peace as far as it is up to us and stand up clearly for what we believe. It is primarily through love and respect for our fellow believers and even unbelievers that this is accomplished even some of the time. Why must others agree with us for us to love them? Why do we feel we have that right to have that as a condition? Why do we think we even have the right to be offended? Was the cost of our Savior impaled on a tree too little that we are afforded such an option? My guess is that the martyr on the TV would have the correct answers to such very basic questions.

There are some things on the horizon for America. Believers here are going to have to come together in a way we never have. We need to understand that the battles we fight are primarily not against flesh and blood. We have an adversary that understands that division among us will most certainly defeat us. We had better learn to be "for" one another even if we can't agree on some things. None of us know how to do this perfectly. I mess up daily. Only by consuming His Word and His presence can we accomplish His will and truly understand what it means to love one another. If we don't we will be no different than the talking heads or the "world".

So lets be "for" one another and not against each other. Lets love those who persecute us and pray for those who set themselves against us, without the condition of them agreeing with us or understanding us. Lets seek to be "ministers of reconciliation" first with G-d and then with one another. It is only then that we truly have a chance of winning them to the faith and walking in the example of Yahshua our Messiah.

Have a blessed day and pray for the martyrs!

http://www.persecution.com/

More than a conqueror

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