Wednesday, July 8, 2015

#Neveragainisnow

The Clarion Project
#neveragainisnow That is the title of this article. It refers to a movement started by Glenn Beck to draw attention to the plight of the Christians in  Iraq and Syria. It has grown to also include all those who daily suffer persecution at the hands of ISIS.

It is a reference to the mantra I have heard since I was a child that we should never again allow a holocaust to happen such as the one that was perpetrated against the Jews and others by the Nazis.

Unfortunately in our day we are witnessing a modern day genocide. However this time it is a genocide against Christians as well as anyone else ISIS happens to hate or disagree with at the moment, and yet the world does nothing.

In America we have come all unglued over the Supreme Court decision legalizing same sex marriage. Great crowds of people are fuming over the plight of Christian Bakers in Oregon and- I include myself in both these groups-yet we are silent about the mass killing of Christian men and the systematic rape and selling into slavery of Christian women and children. How can this be?

I suppose to some extent it has to do with the crisis being a half a world away. We feel as though there is nothing we can do to effect what is happening on the ground, and so ,we do nothing at all. I have to admit I haven't done much myself. I have spoke about it in my church group. Mentioned it for prayer several times. Heck I even pray for those suffering almost daily. We feel powerless.

However we -I-all of us- may be underestimating the power of prayer. Jesus taught "ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find knock, and it shall be opened to you. Prayer is probably the most powerful,and yet, most underutilized weapon in a Christians arsenal. Look at what happened leading up to the day of Pentecost for the early disciples. The Bible tells us that a handful of believers were together, focused in prayer, and the place where they were praying was shaken!

The Holy spirit came down filled ,and, empowered the Apostles and disciples and more than 5000 people came to faith in Jesus Christ! A world religion was born and the world gradually transformed by the power of prayer.

To be sure there is much we can do aside from prayer. There are several ministries that are focusing on bringing relief to the victims of ISIS. On of those is Mercury One and there #neveragainisnow campaign. Another is Baptist Global Response. These and other ministries are worthy of our prayers and our support,but, perhaps the most powerful thing we all can do is pray for the people who are being daily thrown from their homes, killed ,raped, and tortured.

Pray that God will give them boldness to stand firm for Christ. Pray that God will meet their need for daily necessities, shelter and safety. Pray also for those who are caught up in the evil which is ISIS. Pray that God will convict them of their sin and bring them to a saving conviction of Jesus Christ as Lord.

We also should pray that the Lord would open the eyes of our leaders, and ,the world to see the plight of these people and that we would take our pledge to never again allow a holocaust happen again seriously and take whatever action is needed to bring an end to ISIS and set these people free from tho horrors this bunch of thugs is perpetrating.

Well that's all I have for tonight. You will notice the picture at the top of the page. It is from an article titled "The Price of Flesh:Selling Women in The Islamic State Caliphate" it tells just a small part of the story of this atrocity in our time . My prayer is you will take time to get informed and speak out against this evil in our time.

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