ISIS and US

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On Thursday, February 5th the world heard our President say this, “Humanity has been grappling with these questions throughout human history.  And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ.  In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.

That following Monday, February 9th Ravi Zacharias responded with, “For those who did not hear the talk, it is sufficient to say that it was the most ill-advised and poorly chosen reprimand ever given at a National Prayer Breakfast. I have been to several and have never, ever heard such absence of wisdom in a setting such as this. ‎I wasn’t at this one but have heard the speech often enough to marvel at the motivation for such thoughts. President Obama basically lectured Christians not to get on a moral high horse in their castigation of the ISIS atrocities by reminding them that the Crusades and slavery were also justified in the name of Christ. Citing the Crusades, he used the single most inflammatory word he could have with which to feed the insatiable rage of the extremists. That is exactly what they want to hear to feed their lunacy.  ‎In the Middle East, history never dies and words carry the weight of revenge.

There is so much I would love to say in response but shall refrain. The President obviously does not understand the primary sources of either faith for him to make such a tendentious parallel.

Then on Sunday, February 15th ISIS released a video of the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian men. Fox News reports that in the video one of the militants stated, “All crusaders: safety for you will be only wishes, especially if you are fighting us all together. Therefore we will fight you all together,” he said. “The sea you have hidden Sheikh Usama Bin Laden’s body in, we swear to Allah we will mix it with your blood.

Today, the breaking news is that 45 others have been burned alive by ISIS in Iraq… this taking place within miles of an US airbase.

I don’t AT ALL find this to be a coincidence. With as much respect as I can muster for the office of President of our great nation I repeat what I once said when President Obama began his first term. He is a puppet on a string. He stands on nothing. I have yet in this man’s entire presidency heard him stand on any personal conviction. I have yet to hear him say this is what I believe.

Therefore, those who never before, in the history of the United States of America, would even have considered to speak out so boldly against us or dare to kidnap one of our own now do so with brazen confidence.

When our nations political leaders are more known for their tweets than their feats. When they are more concerned for controlling the dietary choices of our lunch ladies than contributing to the defense of our citizens traveling abroad. When they are noted more for hanging out with “celebrities” rather than national dignitaries. Then… Houston we have a problem!

I have long noticed the double standard of this current leadership over our nation. I have watched them over and over again use Scripture to try to justify their political stance then turn around and with the next breathe mock the Christian faith. President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast this 2015 was no different.

This past Sunday our Pastor shared a message from the book of Jonah. He shared how in the midst of the storm orchestrated and allowed by God, Jonah was sound asleep in the bottom of the boat. He shared that the word sleep there was the same word used for sleep when God removed Adam’s rib in order to form Eve. In other words Jonah was dead to the world.

Beloved believer are we like Jonah? Are we so sound asleep to the call of the Spirit that we are dead to the world? Are we numb to the world around us? Are we oblivious to the storm?

Have we convinced ourselves that what is happening in Egypt could never happen here in the good ole USA? Here where those who profess to be Christians fight and debate over our right to wear yoga pants, view and read porn, and engage in and promote homosexuality without condemnation…

I just have to wonder if we can’t say no to something like 50 Shades… what on earth makes us think we would be able to say no to ISIS? Do we even care if we could say no?

These 21 men were not just marched out on a beach and beheaded…

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Sami Yacoub, the regional director for Focus on the Family’s Middle East outreach, based in Egypt, shared this:

* These young Christians were in their early to mid-20s. They went to Libya in search of work to help feed their families living under the poverty line in Egypt.

* In the days and weeks leading up to their deaths, their ISIS captors tortured them and attempted to persuade them to deny Jesus in return for living.

* They all refused to deny Christ.

* They all died on that beach singing songs to Jesus.

What is it going to take for God to awaken the American church from her slumber?

As we walk out of our services complaining because the music just didn’t move us that morning.

As we claim that our sacrifice to the LORD is just the torture of choosing to go to church when we could have slept in later on our only day off. 

As we have bookshelves upon bookshelves of “Bible studies” that are only called that because they may quote a verse of Scripture a chapter as the author pulls it out of context to prove their own personal “encouraging” point… because we busy, busy, busy privileged American believers simply don’t have time for “homework”.

And God forbid that we have to suffer by serving in the church nursery or preschool department!

We seem to have gotten used to the question of, if you died tonight… or if Jesus came tonight, would you be ready?

When what we need to be asking is… If Jesus doesn’t come tonight, if I don’t die tonight and instead I am tortured, beaten, threaten, or even worse… forced to watch someone torture, beat, threaten, and THEN behead my children… AM I READY?

The leaders of our nation think that the answer to ISIS is job security… they just need employment opportunities…

when this is what is being reported from Iraq:

…on Wednesday, a top Iraqi diplomat told world leaders that ISIS is harvesting the organs of its victims to fund it murderous operations, the latest charge of barbarity in a list that already includes mass beheadings, burning people alive, crucifying children and throwing people off of buildings.

The shocking new claim was presented by the Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations, who said bodies have turned up in mass graves bearing surgical incisions and missing organs such as kidneys. Ambassador Mohamed Alhakim leveled the charge as he asked the Security Council to investigate whether harvesting and selling the organs of those it executes. The claim followed an unconfirmed report late Tuesday that as many as 45 people captured by the Islamic State in the Anbar Province town of al-Baghdadi had been rounded up and burned alive.

“We have bodies,” Alhakim told his international counterparts. “Come and examine them. It is clear they are missing certain parts.”

Alhakim, who said a dozen doctors have been executed in Mosul for refusing to participate in organ harvesting, briefed the council on the overall situation in Iraq and accused the Islamic State group of “crimes of genocide” in targeting certain ethnic groups. The outgoing U.N. envoy to Iraq, Nikolay Mladenov, told the council that 790 people were killed in January alone by terrorism and armed conflict.”

Fox News

 

Crucifying children… did you catch that?

Yet, they just need jobs.

I have often felt the weight of the guilt of being an American believer. The fact that I will stand before Jesus shoulder to shoulder with those 21…

I. Am. Not. Worthy.

 

 

 

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