We had originally intended to open this blog with something fun and enlightening. However, this is being written on October 10, 2023. A few days ago there was a horrific attack and massacre of Israeli civilians by a terrorist group living next to them.
The mission of this website and blog is to bring “Hope and Help to a Hurting World”. I’m not sure we’ve seen too many times in recent history when our world needed help and hope because it is SO CLEARLY a very hurting world. Maybe this is why God has chosen this time for us to launch this mission.
Though this is a smaller scale than humanity has witnessed over the millennia. Many brutally inhuman massacres human on human. We’ve seen such things in recent decades such as the Jewish Holocaust of the nineteen forties and the Khmer Rouge killing fields of Cambodia to name a couple. In this paragraph I mention the facts are “inhuman”. Unfortunately, it seems that such acts, though extreme, are really human.
To think through the mass and volume of human suffering that humans have put on others it is beyond our mental comprehension. But that does not erase the fact that it does happen. In fact, I will offer that it happens on a daily basis. It’s just a matter of scale which might lead it on the national / international news or not. We see meaningless killings on a daily basis here in the US. More around the world we just never hear about.
Returning the specific situation in Israel, we don’t see this primarily as a conflict between races and religions. It is something much bigger. It is a spiritual conflict. Christians know that we are in a war between good and evil, God and Satan. Of course, there are things military and police need to do to protect populations under their charge. But there is also a way to take part in the battle with prayer. We also take part in the battle by how we live our daily lives. We act as soldiers for God by showing God’s love that we find rest and calm in His love. By living out the teachings of Jesus, we do our part in bringing something positive to the chaotic situation. This is a way we can participate at a personal level.
In closing, especially in light of what is happening in Israel, remember that we are told pray for the of Jerusalem.
Psalm 122:6-9 (NASU)
6 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
“May they prosper who love you.
7 May peace be within your walls,
And prosperity within your palaces.”
8 For the sake of my brothers and my friends,
I will now say, “May peace be within you.”
9 For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
I will seek your good. Looking forward to your comments. Let me know where you would like the conversation to go the upcoming days and weeks.
Praying for all of us
