Who is ISIS?

Whoever they are, we know our United States President has finally admitted that our government underestimated them…

Today, as I sat in my church service… in my very comfortable chair… beside my sister-in-law while my youngest daughter practiced for the Christmas Program and my middle daughter sat on the other side of the church with the youth and we sang our songs within the confines of the safety of our building… I was reminded of the urgency of the message of the cross.

Jim Wilson came and shared today at our church. During his message he shared an email that he and his wife had very recently received. A friend of theirs, a missionary in Iraq sent word for prayer. His name is Sean Malone and he is with the Crisis Response International.

He sent word for prayer because in the area of Iraq that he is in, the UN sent word that they were leaving because ISIS was moving in. The UN recommended that all missionaries leave the area immediately. Sean and his team would not leave the Iraqi people, knowing they were called there by God and God had not released them to go. So they stayed.

ISIS moved in.

ISIS went through the area and pulled out all the children of the Christians… they lined them up in the street and brought the parents out to watch their children be beat and abused by this band of terrorist. The ISIS after beating these children then shouted at them to denounce Christ or be killed.

These children had been told of Christ. They knew the gospel. They knew the One in whom they believed. Their parents had been faithful to obey Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

These children’s parents had taught them the words of Christ in John 15:18-21

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world,because of this the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.

 These children knew the warning that Jesus gave as encouragement in John 16:2

…but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.

These children knew these things and they believed these things with all their heart and with all their mind and with all their strength… so when ISIS pulled them away from their parents arms and beat them and threatened to kill them if they did not denounce Christ… these kids refused.

These kids refused to denounce Christ. They refused to deny their Savior.

And right there… in the streets… with their parents watching it all… ISIS beheaded these precious ones.

Now I ask you…

Mom… Dad… is your child ready for ISIS?

Are you?

Is your relationship with Christ more than a cross ornament around your neck? Is it more than a Sunday fellowship? Is it more than mere churchianity?

When Jesus asks “do you love Me?”, what can you really say? Because beloved the time to play religion is drawing to a close. We are getting down to the nitty gritty… the rubber is hitting the road… and if your head had to roll… if you had to watch your child’s head roll before your eyes… would you still be able to praise the risen Christ?

As Jim Wilson shared this email with us… I sat with tears flooding my eyes as I thought of what these parents and these children endured. I thought of my own girls and in my mother’s panicked heart I had to ask…

Oh God would I be able to stand there, would my girls be able to stand there in stoic flint faced faith knowing that they were Yours and You would receive them into Your glory? Would they, would I, be able to look in the face of a demonically controlled soul and feel pity for this one while they beat me and took my head simply because I loved You?

This is reality.

These are questions we must search our hearts for… we MUST examine our hearts and see if we truly, beyond the shadow of a doubt, believe that HE IS.