Ok I’ll just talk about it, the white elephants in the room. Don’t pretend they are not there. The one you squirm and ignore for keeping-the-peace-sake to get out of conversation with to find a more comfortable one, an easier person like me to relate to? Yes, who don’t you like? What group of people scares you? Europeans? Africans? English? Asians? Middle Easterners? Americans? Gang leaders? Terrorists? Teenagers? Politicians? IRS? Your X’s? We all have them ; I speak to myself as well. Who do I avoid?
Who is the enemy of your world? Do you think really they could be equal to your value? Could they possibly be completely loved of God? I’m not sure or not even a possibility! There is the chosen and UN chosen. I’m not talking about some in the group possibly known for their behavior but them in themselves? How could they be equally loved if they wronged your loved ones or even killed many in your nation? They are all like that right? Have you been able to even consider forgiving them? Or do you care at all to give them time of day?
Was Jesus blood given for them too? Even the people you are aloof to or don’t think about? Is His blood pursuing them, or enough to cover them? How will you cross that barrier of love for your enemies?
“He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, “Acts 17:26
Is Jesus worth the reward of His suffering for us to bring His love to the most hated of our despised? Or the forgotten and those our culture doesn’t care about? Can His love reach as far as brainwashed young terrorists? Can it pursue those we consider unreachable? Perhaps other religions are too far from our own? People too far from redemption? Can His hand really save that far? Maybe you pondered if others are just a bit favored more than us? Jews, or Arabs maybe? Or are there people we’ve written off cause we saw them as unreachable, unchangable or too far gone? Who is yours? Should we be telling them to truth those nations who never heard, those refugees from a land we don’t know who are now our neighbors?
The tanks rolled in at 1 am, the helicopters and bullets flying all night long. I did not sleep a wink that fateful night. Anxiety of war kept me awake. Would my friends live who have houses down the road in the refugee camp? They already suffered tank fire into their homes from fighting the past year. They were the ones in the most danger. Insomnia beckoned with each trill of machine gun fire. I prayed. I dozed a bit but jumped up with each loud bang of tankfire that echoed over the hills and the stone walls of our apartment. All we could do is pray. But we knew He heard. Deep called to deep with the people’s cries. Which cries? Jewish or Arab cries? Does God hold each tear in His bottle? The man on the loud speaker in the distant mosque told peoole to resist the occupation in Arabic. Helicopter hum above you made you insane as you knew missiles came from those machines, and all you could hear was shooting, reving of tank engines, and the nervous angry voice over the muzzeine. It was Palestine Bethlehem early September 2001. This was my home. These were my people who’ve I’m come to love a lot. But I had people I loved on both ” sides”. We lived close the the Israeli camp near Rachael’s tomb and a suicide bomber just a young teenager had come from a nearby refugee camp so Israelis deployed their full force. And there I was, feeling in the Middle but helpless, almost numb as violence was common in these years but not the tanks. Never did we experience the terror of tanks barreling through the streets, where Jesus the Prince of Peace was born. The shooting started as it did every third night for two hours. That was our normal back then during the second intifada( the uprising). Such is life living through war. Caught one end on the Jewish side of the checkpoint praying to avoid by miracle suicide bombs in Jerusalem time after time exploding near the New City and on the other side of the conflict the West Bank Bethlehem avoiding shooting. But it was another level now. Tanks rolling in and missiles flying past from helicopters. So little sleep and another prayer, I was to make a run for it laying low hunkering down and sprint to avoid the possible bullets from Israeli or Palestinian fire and break curfew to escape to Jerusalem the next day. We could leave with our permits and I was not staying had a conference in Egypt with our organization. I ducked down and ran to a friend’s house and made it unharmed and she brought me safely out the back way to the checkpoint. There was curfew but we needed to go. But my Palestinian friends could not leave and were caught in the crossfire.
Does Gods love travel across the Israeli- Palestinian divide? Does he favor one at the Denise of the other? Is His love enough to hold all people in His heart? All I know is that in that war many more could of died on both sides but God did not allow it. Un-detonated bombs were found before they exploded sometimes 10 a day on the Israeli side. And of all the tanks and bullets fired in Bethlehem the actual casualties were lower. But people were still dying, innocent on both side, many more on one side then the other, many women and children. God desires no one leave this earth without knowing Him? Do we have a burden for all, every one on every corner of the earth? Will we give our life because God loves even our enemies to die for them? He deserves the reward of giving His precious life! How will we live? How will we pray? Did He really mean every one? “
And [He designed] to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end.”Ephesians 2:16 AMPChttp://bible.com/8/eph.2.16.ampc
Could this mean the feud has ended and the heart of our precious God is to reconcile the two by the power and love of the beautiful cross given for the Jew and the Palestinian?
It was Sept 11, 2001 the afternoon in Egypt. We just escaped the tanks 5 days previous in Bethlehem to fly to our conference in Egypt out of Tel Aviv. Our conference was on the last day before I was to go back to the second home I knew, Israel/ Palestine. My friend knocked on our hotel door. His face white. He spoke in shock, ” New York is under attack and the Pentegon is on fire.” We all knew where we were on that fateful day, what we were doing. My first Beloved America and my family in the Northeast were also in danger, not alone the West Bank. At first, a few Palestinians claimed responsibility but I knew it could not be their work. Besides they couldn’t even leave the West Bank due to restrictions from the Intifada. So my first home as an America was under attack and Bethlehem was in ruins? What is happening to our crazy world? And where is God? Who does He love? Who does He favor? Jews? Americans? Arabs? Palestinians? Black? White? The underdog? The oppressed? The oppressor? The terrorized? The marginalized? The terrorist even? What is our role in reaching, loving, praying for even our cultural enemies to come to know Him?
It says in Revelation 7, “After this I looked and a vast host appeared which no one could count, [gathered out] of every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. These stood before the throne and before the Lamb; they were attired in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. In loud voice they cried, saying, [Our] salvation is due to our God, Who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb [to Them we owe our deliverance]!”Revelation 7:9-10 AMPC
“For the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will be their Shepherd, and He will guide them to the springs of the waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. [Ps. 23:2; Isa. 25:8; Ezek. 34:23.]” Revelation 7:17 AMPC
Who will worship Him around the throne? Some chosen nations? Certain civilized people? What is our attitude towards particular people or nations? Who may you be surprised standing there., the once completely veiled woman with only her eyes looking at you now sees her Savior Jesus, because she the faceless had a dream about Jesus and responded secretly in her heart last week. She worshiped him secretly until a bomb went off in Damascus and she met Him face to face. She did not find a chance to step out and tell others yet for her faith? Paul from Saul used to murder Christians. What about a young brainwashed ISIS 20 year old that also had a dream about Jesus and turned from the murder he was doing? He wanted something worthwhile to live and die for and now found the Lover of His soul. This is truth and happening as ISIS members are turning to Jesus; I heard 18 committed their lives to the Lover of lives. I do not minimize the evil of what is happening in persecution of Christians through ISIS but did Jesus die just for the righteous or the sinner, the murderer, for all not just one? Every, all encompassing, all, sinner and proposed saint? Even Our absolute despised enemies? Let’s walk closer to the Giver of life, the one who changes them, and calls us to radical love even to those we hate. Because while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.
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