For those that know me, you know that I am a former US Army soldier. I'm very proud of this fact, and it's one of the reasons that I support both the military personnel in Iraq, as well as the war in Iraq. Ask any soldier though, and he/she will tell you that he/she is reluctant to go to war. After all, it is his/her life on the line. No one hates war more than the soldier. However, it is this boldness as a soldier that has led me to be bold for Christ. Although I struggle with it, I can honestly say that I hate no one. There are some pretty dangerous insititutions out there: liberalism, islam, communism, etc. However, I don't hate those who choose this. I pray for them. They are misled by Satan, and if you really take the time to look past these institutions, to the people involved with them, you'll see a lot of misery. At the bottom of all this is a lot of self hatred. It takes a lot of self hatred, and a lot of hate, to murder an unborn child, to murder 1000s on 9/11, to murder millions of Christians in Sudan. As Christians, we need to stand for social justice. We need to stand against this prejudice and hate. Jesus has taught me that the more I love myself, truly love myself as outlined in 1 Corinthians 13, the more I can love Him, and the more that I can love others. It is this kind of love that changes the world. For years I never understood what the sacrifice of Christ meant. When I watched the movie, "The Passion of the Christ", then I truly understood what Christ had done for us. How He suffered so that we could be restored to our relationship with God. We as Christians have something no other faith, no other religion has: our God made Himself a man, came to earth, and He loved us so much that He died for us. We don't have to die for Him to get into Paradise. He made sure that when He died the penalty of our sin was paid forever. He has allowed to stand in history His brutal and humiliating death so that we can live forever with Him. This is the ultimate example of love and the ultimate example of sacrifice. As Christians, we have nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. For those who truly love Christ, we aren't here to impose our will on others; we are here to make the world a better place. Like the military in Iraq, go boldly forth. Take up your armor as outlined in Ephesians 6. Stand against this evil that threatens to engulf us. The victory is already ours. We've already won. Evil can never stand in the face of love, and evil will never defeat love. May the peace and love of Jesus Christ fill your life today. |
