PRAYING FOR ISIS

Ok.  I can't take it anymore.  In between loads of laundry in my toy-filled but comfortable family room I see a news article pop up in my feed… 220 Syrian Christians captured by ISIS.   Not even 2 weeks ago it was 21.

Today I hear 220.

These are PEOPLE.  Men, women, and children fleeing for their LIVES, people.  What are YOU doing on this Saturday?

I'm pretty sure it doesn't look anything like this.

What are you grieving today?  Why aren't we as believers, as a nation, GRIEVING the evil that's happening?

What if this was your daughter or son?  Can we stop for a MOMENT to consider that?

Can you put your child's face here?  Stroking her dusty hair, comforting her cries of hunger, thirst and exhaustion.

It makes me think… HOW do we stop this evil.  

It sounds so cliche.  

It sounds so impossible.  

Then you hear someone say, "All we can do is pray."  And I think, "all?"  That's all?? 

Wait a minute, we're missing it.  Jesus didn't live a perfect life, die a sinner's death and raise from the DEAD as our permanent High Priest for us to have this last resort mentality about prayer.  

Shall we pray for those fleeing their homes?  YES.  Shall we pray for those persecuted?  YES.  Shall we pray for those kidnapped, awaiting their death… YES.

But can I be as bold to say, let us go deeper than that.  Let us look at this through a biblical lens; what Jesus said in regards to persecution…

"love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Matthew 5:44

"bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." Luke 6:28

I know what you're thinking.  You've GOT to be kidding me.  Pray for THEM?  Pray for ISIS?  

Trust me, when the thought first came to my mind (just after the 21 Egyptians were beheaded) I thought the same thing.  Because the years of watching the evil of this group just compounded outrage on top of sorrow on top of heartache on top of hopelessness.  

I understand this is a high hurdle for any Christian.  But then I hear a statement from Beshir Kamel, the brother of TWO of the 21 Coptic Christians murdered by ISIS:  

“This only makes us stronger in our faith because the Bible told us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us."

Those are a mourning brother's words.  

Those are a Christian's words.  

Christian = FOLLOWER of CHRIST.

Do you call yourself a follower?  If so, may I challenge you?  May I challenge you to PRAY.  To be on your knees for ISIS.  What would that DO?  What COULD it do?  ISIS gets to see the anguish and mourning and suffering of Christians and all other faiths around the world… how pleasing that sound is to them.  What if…. ok think about this… what IF... they saw us praying for them.  What if they saw pictures on Facebook and Twitter and videos on Youtube of people on their KNEES for them.  

Because let me ask you this: do you believe God is big enough to move in that?  Do you believe God is powerful enough to even change ONE heart?  To stir in any one of them… possibly saving one of their captives?  If so, then how is it NOT worth it??!  How is it not worth FALLING FACEDOWN and praying in BOLDNESS, abandoning every one of the world's reasons to show nothing but contempt and CLINGING to a God who is MIGHTY TO SAVE?!

I challenge you.  I challenge you to SHARE this.  To repost, forward, etc.  Hashtag #prayingforISIS.

We hashtag "thedress" and "whiteandgold" or "blueandblack" hundreds of thousands of times in a matter of MINUTES.  What would it look like… what COULD it look like, if we did the same for THIS.

How should we pray for them you ask?  How about….

PRAY the enemy's grip is loosened.

PRAY for a glimmer of light to shine in their darkness.

PRAY their visions be altered.

PRAY for truth to infiltrate their depravity.

PRAY they are moved by the faithful ones.

PRAY they see, even in small ways, the power of prayer to the One True God.

PRAY for hope to be revived in these heightened areas of battle.

PRAY for God's sovereign will to be recognized by the thwarting of their plans.

PRAY their hatred be waned.

PRAY their fight be dwindled.

PRAY their drive be diminished.

PRAY the veil be removed, giving them eyes to see.

Just do it.  Even once.  Hashtag, post, share…. and see what happens.

#prayingforISIS

Free The... what?

WARNING: this post is not exactly G-rated.  It's not even PG.    

So, I'm just gonna be real here…  after reading something this morning about a "gender equality movement" and film that was just released regarding it, my first thought is:

this world is spiraling out of control… I'm ready for Jesus to come BACK.

This movement, known as "free the nipple" is a movement meant to empower women and free them from oppression and censorship by legalizing female toplessness in all states.  True story.

As I read the article on this, I see so much.  

I see impure motives disguised with words such as "freedom" and "empower." 

I see the desire for change but the lack of knowing what to change TO.

I see a confused idea of equality.

A distorted sense of balance.

I see, the Enemy.

Don't agree with me?  Or maybe you do?  Or maybe you're on the fence because how could such moral sounding phrases be so wrong… right??

Ok so, this group of women that began this mission…. they want to FREE women.  Free women from what?  "Oppression and censorship."  Ok, so let's look at that.  Lina Esco, the founder of this movement, claims its goal is "simply to change public perception of women's bodies and to highlight the blatant gender inequality."  Change the public perception.  Supporters claim this would "help men to "see women as persons, not sex objects" and "give men a greater respect for women," in turn, "make women in our society much safer."  Wow.  That's a mouthful.  So let me get this straight: you want men to see women more as the individual person and not as sex objects… so you encourage women to make public one of the things (actually, two of the things) that men view to be sexual and become sexually aroused while looking at??   I saw something so interesting:  a young man post his support of this movement, claiming it all sounds good to him, oh- except for his sister.  Hmm, that's so strange!  (enter sarcasm)  If this helps you view this female as a PERSON and not sexually then why in the world would you NOT want to see your sister topless??  Or your mom?  Your aunt?  What about you parents with daughters?   Don't you, as a mother or as a father, desire other young men to see your daughters more as an individual?  Next time your daughter brings a boy home for a BBQ maybe she should enjoy the meal topless… I'm sure that would help give this boy some perspective and greater respect for your daughter.  

Why is this movement disguised with pretty words and moral ideology when, with a little common sense, we can see that's NOT the goal to be obtained?   

You know what I think?  I think because deep down, that's what we desire.  We desire morals and values to be upheld.  We desire truth and justice and all things good.  There's an innate drive in us for what's RIGHT.  Why else would we point our fingers at children dying of starvation and proclaim "that's not right?"  Why do we have laws established for punishment suiting any given crime?   Because it's inherent in human nature, this battle of right/ wrong.  It starts somewhere.  There's some plumb line we are measuring against to distinguish right from wrong.  Where does that plumb line come from?  If there is no ultimate TRUTH there would be no right and no wrong.  But, there is a right.  There is a wrong, isn't there?  So that's what sells this - the pursuit of what's "right."  But the sad thing is, those that desire the change here don't know what to change to.  So in desiring to fix what they see wrong, the pursuit gives birth to something arbitrary - like going topless.  Because hey, nudity isn't as bad as violence right?  Yes, that's the movement's claim.  On Free the Nipple's website: "What is more obscene: Violence or a Nipple?"   As if to say yielding to and promoting public nudity will somehow change the mass of violence in our society?  Or is the goal here not to change the glorification of violence but instead to choose the lesser evil and see where that takes us?  They asked what is MORE obscene?  So by their own admission, public nudity is obscene.  So much of our culture's violence is wrapped up in sexual violence.  Sex trafficking being a perfect example- the fastest growing criminal enterprise.  So what would we actually be accomplishing by laying it all out on the table?  Almost as if to say to quench the lion's desire to hunt and kill, simply place him in a position where the prey are more obvious, available and plentiful, then this will desensitize his hunger for it because it will become his new norm.  Does anyone believe this?  It is the lion's instinctive nature to hunt and kill just as it is the human's fleshly nature to sin in this way.  To lust.  

[Tangent: Yes, Let's just be honest.  Lusting is a sin.  I know, I know, who am I to judge right?   I'm no one.  And I'm also not the one calling it sin.  GOD IS.  Did I say sex is a sin?  Nope.  Enjoying sex is a sin?  No way. God knows sex is awesome - duh, He created it.  He created it to be for man and his wife.  THAT is how it is to be enjoyed.  And it cannot be enjoyed as intended unless within God's safe boundaries.  And don't you think the creator of something understands how the creation best works?  Keep in mind I said safe boundaries.  God doesn't place boundaries on things just to be mean.  Or is that your view of God?  A Creator with a bunch of rules.  I hope that's not how my girls view me.  I want them to know the love behind my parenting.  I want them to know the reason behind why they aren't allowed to run out into a parking lot.  Why they aren't allowed to sleep over at a friends house when I don't know the parents.  And why they don't get an iPhone at age 9.  I have reasons, and my reasons are driven by LOVE.  Though my 3 yr-old might not fully grasp why she must hold my hand as we walk through a busy parking lot,  that doesn't change my conviction.  I will grip her hand until we are to the other side, and some day… she'll understand.  I don't think God's ways are much different… other than He loves infinitely more than I am capable of, leaving me that much more confident in the circle of His safe boundaries.  Tangent Over]

If we aren't seeking TRUTH, then any change we are attempting is of impure motive.  I'll say that again: If we aren't seeking TRUTH, then any change we are attempting is of impure motive.  And as a result, we have confused ideas.  Like this one here of gender equality.  I can't help but laugh slightly.  I mean, we ARE different genders.  Let's at least acknowledge that.  And boy am I thankful for it.  We simply ARE designed differently.  Should we be treated any less as women?  No, that's not what I'm saying.  What I am saying is this: the confused idea is that the inappropriateness of women going topless equates to gender inequality.  Let's go back to how we're designed… differently.  

Generally speaking: 

women aren't as hairy

men aren't as emotional

men have better spacial awareness

women have better color identification

men are more competitive

women worry more

men talk less

women cry more

men have larger brains

women use theirs more

Just some basics.  Now here's a basic that's not G-rated (nor surprising):  in relation to sex a man's brain focuses on the visual sense while a woman's brain focuses on multiple sources.  So how does this relate?  It relates because for every topless woman there's a man who's brain connections are now firing wildly activated by that visual sense.  Does that mean this man shouldn't exercise self-control?  By no means.  However, in what way is this making us equal?  How is this putting us on an even playing field when our brains clearly function so differently?   Not to mention the unwanted attention the topless woman would no doubtedly receive.  You want to proclaim freedom from sexualism by subjecting yourself to the sexual appetites of men?  How successful does that sound?

Bottom line: we live in a fallen world.  Sin entered the world in Genesis 3 and it's been around ever since.  Because of sin, this world has a distorted sense of balance.  

Free the Nipple wants to restore "balance" to our censorship system and instead they are balancing the scales in the enemy's favor.  Satan loves to twist, warp, mangle, and pervert anything good.  He's done it with truth.  He's done it with marriage.  He's done it with sex.  And he won't stop.  We as believers have a responsibility to stand for TRUTH.  Because it's not our words, it's GOD'S word. 

I began this post with the thought that this world is spiraling out of control.  

It's not.  It's completely IN control. 

 In the sovereign hand of the God of the universe.   

So what will we do with that knowledge?

We need to be a generation of conviction.

A generation that seeks TRUTH.

Freeing, not nipples folks, but SOULS.

Breaking the chains we've placed around our very own necks.

 And only in the great Name of Jesus.

AMEN.