Friends,
Even if we do not watch the news, there is no escaping the horrors that are coming out of the Middle East. Reports are everywhere of the persecution by ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) of Christians for their faith.
21 Coptic Christians Beheaded for their Faith
As I have pondered this, and prayed for the families of those men; as I have beseeched the Lord to stop these terrorists, verses from Genesis 6 keep coming to my mind. It is the story of Noah, and these verses in particular are striking to me:
The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Genesis 6:5 (NIV)
In the past, it was hard to imagine a people whose every inclination of the thoughts of their heart were only evil all the time. No longer is it hard to imagine. We are seeing it lived in front of our eyes. This is not the first time the world has seen such evil, according to Genesis. It is Satan’s MO.
What are we to do?
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Genesis 6:8-9 (NIV)
We are to walk righteously, blamelessly before God. We are to pray as if our lives depended on it….and they might. We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and our hands to the plow, always ready to share about the Hope that lives in our hearts. We are to give our lives for the sake of the gospel, just as the Egyptian Christians did. The Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is the cure for this sin-sick world.
Please join me in praying that God would intervene in the Middle East, and that millions of Muslims, Jews, and Gentiles would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. HE IS OUR ONLY HOPE IN THIS WORLD!
