A Militant Response

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS!

Like many of you, last night I watched the news about the horrible tragedy in Manchester England. News this morning is that the British authorities think they know who perpetrated the act of terror. Whether they actually did it or not, ISIS has shown its character, by claiming responsibility for the murders of nineteen and the injury to nearly sixty more, many of them children. I feel in my heart the urge for revenge. I'm sure that this desire to balance the scales is far stronger in England. Their nation, their people, and their children were attacked. Again, the national peace and security of a great nation has been compromised. We shouldn't ask, for whom the alarm sounds. It summons us all. What, though, should our response be? My comments are not intended as an agenda for our security agencies or armed forces, but as a mental/spiritual agenda for the rest of us. A song we used to sing in my youth says it well.   Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war, With the cross of Jesus going on before! Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe; Forward into battle, see his banner go! While the song has been used in military settings, it was not written for thatpurpose. Tim Challies shares the words of the author, Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould,    Whitmonday is a great day for school festivals in Yorkshire, and one Whitmonday it was arranged that our school should join its forces with that of a neighboring village. I wanted the children to sing when marching from one village to the other, but couldn’t think of anything quite suitable, so I sat up at night resolved to write something myself. “Onward, Christian Soldiers” was the result. (here)   Soon after the Salvation Army adopted the song as their favored anthem. It is a great reminder to all we followers of Christ during these times of global threat. Jim Denison reminds us that    We must pray for spiritual victory against our spiritual enemy. Radical Islamist groups seek nothing less than global conquest for their religious ideology. As followers of Jesus, we are on the front lines of this spiritual conflict. We must pray daily for spiritual awakening in the Muslim world and especially among jihadists. This battle will be won on our knees.  (emphasis added) Denison is a good watcher of and commentator on the world scene. I encourage you to read the rest of his post, "Terrorist attack in England: 3 facts". It is clear that "we wrestle not against flesh and blood" (Ephesians 6:12). While governmental and military action is appropriate, we dare not allow ourselves to believe that this is the final answer. It is not. On the day Jesus was crucified, the greatest injustice and moral atrocity ever perpetrated was taking place, yet our Lord's response was to pray that His Father would forgive them. A few years later a young Rabbi, doing all within his power to finish the job his wicked predecessors had begun, was knocked flat on the ground where he had a radical encounter with Jesus Christ. I recently met a young man from an almost exclusively Muslim land. He is a new Christian. We discussed how he might be a witness to his people. Pray for him, pray for others like him, some of whom are risking their lives to be light in the darkness. Pray for those who are involved in seeing that the Gospel is made known in lands where ISIS is recruiting new terrorists. Pray that God in his unlimited ability to confound our predictions of doom will bring a turning to Christ in these lands where people are taught to hate Christians. "Onward Christian Soldiers . . ." Onward and upward . . . on our knees. It's STTA (Something To Think About).  Here is a different presentation of the Good News in Christ. You can find several ways to explore the Message of Grace here.

9/11

Something To Think About 9/11

Those who were born on 9/11--The 9/11-- are thirteen years old today.  When the planes hit the Pentagon, the Twin Towers, and another airliner, because of the heroism of the passengers, crashed in a field in Pennsylvania,  my grandson was just starting his school career.   Now, he is a young man who is on his own.  President Bush had just begun his first term as president.  On this anniversary, Barack Obama is in the middle of second term.  It's been a while, yet the news is still current. Thirteen years after the attack America has again been insulted, if not assaulted. The Islamic extremists  who have recently beheaded two of our countrymen go by a different name, but their ideology is the same. Not just in a patriotic way, or in the sense of military preparedness, it is important that we remember.  Lessons learned from 9/11 need to be a permanent part of our thinking.   Not all religions are the same.  Christianity rests on the foundation of Jesus Christ, Who gave His life so that others might truly live.  Millions of Christians have followed in their Lord's path, willingly giving their lives so that others could hear the life-giving message.  The brand of Islam represented by ISIS considers themselves bound to take life--even of children--in the pursuit of earning their salvation.  It is clear.  Somebody is wrong. This world is not a safe place.  While God is sovereign, He has made this world in such a way that the decisions of people, even horrible decisions like those that led to 9/11, have real consequences, sometimes deadly consequences. If we put our hope in this world, even in the parts of this world that seem indestructible, our hope is terribly misplaced.  Everything in this world will be reduced to fine ash.  Unless we have a hope and purpose that goes beyond this mortal life and the crumbling world where we live our lives, we really have no hope and purpose. All of us desperately need a soul-satisfying, time-defying, totally real hope.  We need something in our heart that will keep us from doing horrible things in a vain attempt to find peace, and that will secure us against the attacks of those who carry depravity to its logical conclusion.  People need the Lord. It's Something to Think About.

Thoughts on 9/11:

It was Tuesday. I was in my office working. Kathy called and told me there was an explosion or something in New York. What I did next says a lot about me, and the condition of our world. I just confirmed my recollection by looking at a list of terrorist incidents that took place in the time just before 9/11. (also here) Bombs--suicide, car, and otherwise--attacks on trains, buildings and historic monuments, and man-made tragedies of all sorts had become common place. Less than a year before the USS Cole had a massive hole blown in its side. Distance and repetition had removed the terror from terrorism for me. The flow of blood in the newspaper and on the news, combined with troubles closer to home had made me more numb than I wish I were. I just kept working.


As I remember, Kathy called me again a few minutes later. Like many of you, she had been watching the horror unfolding. I heard an emotion in her voice that I had only heard at times of family deaths or other major troubles. I knew that this was beyond the wickedness that, for me had become the new normal. I came home and struggled to take in the magnitude of what had just happened.

It is a balancing act with which we all need to struggle. Somewhere, right now there is likely some atrocity that is being planned, carried out, or just inflicted on innocent people, yet this morning I need to take a helium tank back to a vendor, return some borrowed equipment we used at a church event last night, and do this STTA. My wife is going to the dentist. While I type she and I are discussing what we need to do this evening. Life goes on. I can't just quit. On the other hand the numbness to the pain of so many that too easily hardens my heart is troublesome.

I want to be more like my Lord, who when "He saw the multitudes . . . was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd." (Matthew 9:36) I know my capacity for meaningful empathy is infinitely less than Christ's, but I pray . . .

Lord, help me to see and be impacted by the needs of others, and show me what I can do to make a difference. Amen



It's STTA.