A Christian Overview Of The Present Conflict With Iran pt 2

 

A Christian Overview Of The Present Conflict With Iran By Frank Mceleny, Part 2 Many speak as though the exercise of power were itself the great evil, yet history teaches that the absence of ordered power often produces something darker still. Idealistic visions detached from reality offer little comfort to those who must live under tyranny. The world will not be governed by dreams but by forces strong enough to impose their will. The Christian perspective is neither naïve nor despairing. Believers understand that they are in the world but not of it. They are called to see clearly and to judge soberly. Scripture does not promise that the present age will culminate in peace among nations. Rather, it teaches that the world will continue in conflict until the final kingdom of God is revealed. Consider one final example. George S. Patton was by many accounts a flawed man; proud, ambitious, and often harsh. Yet when his Third Army broke through German lines during the Battle of the Bulge and relieved the surrounded soldiers at Bastogne, the men who had endured the siege did not pause to examine his character or analyze his motives. They cared that relief had come. So it is in the affairs of nations. Men act from mixed motives, ambition, necessity, calculation, and sometimes principle. The purposes behind intervention in places such as Iran may be complex and imperfect. Yet if the day comes when ordinary people find themselves delivered from the rule of harsh clerical tyranny, it is unlikely that they will trouble themselves greatly with the philosophical purity of those who brought about that change. Christians therefore must learn to think with steady minds. This world will never be redeemed by political power, yet neither will it be preserved from evil by wishful thinking. We are called to live as strangers and pilgrims, seeing clearly the broken order around us while fixing our hope on a kingdom not made by human hands. Used with permission of Frank Mceleny on Facebook CLICK HERE

 

A Christian Overview Of The Present Conflict With Iran

 

A Christian Overview Of The Present Conflict With Iran By Frank Mceleny, Part 1 War is not an interruption of history but one of its permanent features. Scripture teaches that we live in a fallen world, and history confirms the testimony. Nations rise and nations fall. Borders shift. Peoples displace peoples. From the ancient empires of the East to the kingdoms of Europe, from Rome’s conquest of Britain to the Angles and Saxons, the Viking invasions, and the Norman conquest, the same pattern appears again and again. History is written in the language of struggle. The American continent bears the same mark. The Cheyenne yielded the Black Hills to the Lakota through conflict, and the Lakota in turn lost that same territory to the expanding United States. This is not an exception but an illustration. War and power have always been instruments by which the political order of the world is formed. The world, as it exists, is not a garden but a wilderness, and it has been so since the fall of man. Christians must begin here if they are to think clearly. This present order is not our home in any moral sense. We belong to another kingdom. Yet we are required to live in this one, and we are commanded to see it as it truly is. Sentimentality is no substitute for truth. When tyrannies collapse and iron curtains fall, there is reason to rejoice for those who are freed from oppression. Such rejoicing does not sanctify the instruments by which that freedom comes, nor does it purify the motives of those who wield power. It simply acknowledges that relief has come to those who suffered under despotism. Imperfect instruments may still bring real deliverance. Christians are called neither to blind nationalism nor to naïve idealism. The Scriptures command us to seek peace, yet they also acknowledge that rulers exist to restrain evil in a violent world. Power vacuums do not remain empty. If one nation withdraws, another will advance. The question is never whether power will shape the world, but whose power it will be. Would the world be safer under the dominance of Russia? Or China? Or India? Or North Korea? Perhaps even Iran? Power will rule in this fallen world; the only question is which power, and to what end. CONTINUES WITH PART 2 ON TUESDAY! Used with permission of Frank Mceleny on Facebook CLICK HERE

 

REMIND ME OF YOUR GIFTS

 

REMIND ME OF YOUR GIFTS By Joni Eareckson Tada Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Ephesians 1:3 When a particular trouble intrudes into our life, it has a way of taking over. It dominates thoughts, controls our emotions, saps our will, and drains our energy. Eventually, it crowds and bullies every good thing out of our day. As God’s children, we can’t let that happen. Today’s Scripture tells us that God has blessed us in the heavenly realms. He’s given us peace of heart and mind, something the world craves but can’t find. He’s given us faith to pass through deep waters. He’s given us the grace to give and to let go. He’s given us the sweet knowledge that we have an eternal home in heaven, waiting for us just around the bend. He’s given us His own Spirit as Counselor and Comforter. He’s washed away our sins and forgotten our evil deeds. We have more going for us than His own angels, who have never tasted such grace. God, there are times when I give in to my pain or surrender to my anxiety, allowing these troubles to fill my heart with dread or fear. In such times, I ask You to remind me of all the gifts You have given me. Help me to wash away the dark thoughts with fresh gratitude and heartfelt praise. Read Joni's Daily Devotional online: CLICK HERE Used with permission. Taken from A Spectacle of Glory, by Joni Eareckson Tada; Copyright © 2016, Zondervan Scripture quotations: New International Version.

 

THE SIXTH TRUMPET

 

THE SIXTH TRUMPET Study of Revelation Continues. REVELATION 9.13 The sixth angel sounded. I heard a voice from the horns of the golden altar which is before God, 9.14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Free the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates!” 9.15 The four angels were freed who had been prepared for that hour and day and month and year, so that they might kill one third of mankind. 9.16 The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million. I heard the number of them. 9.17 Thus I saw the horses in the vision, and those who sat on them, having breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow; and the horses’ heads resembled lions’ heads. Out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke, and sulfur. 9.18 By these three plagues were one third of mankind killed: by the fire, the smoke, and the sulfur, which proceeded out of their mouths. 9.19 For the power of the horses is in their mouths, and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents, and have heads, and with them they harm. 9.20 The rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, didn’t repent of the works of their hands, that they wouldn’t worship demons, and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood; which can’t see, hear, or walk. 9.21 They didn’t repent of their murders, their sorceries, drunkenness, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. -WEB Bible. IMAGE CREDITS: The ancient manuscript illustration (above) is from the Welles Apocalypse, by English artist Peter of Peckham, circa 1320 A.D.  Below that, the image of battle tanks is from a WWII poster. The ancient book of Enoch describes how some of the fallen angels were bound and locked up until the last days of earth. Well, that time has come. The four angels are not good characters; they are fallen angels and they are powerful. These reprobate angels waste no time putting together a massive army, such as no one has ever seen before. St. John's vision of the fire-breathing horses is about ground warfare. Ancient artists did their best to illustrate what John described, but they didn't see his vision, and the things they are trying to draw are many hundreds of years ahead of them in time: so of course, they have absolutely no experience to go by. It wasn't until modern times that we could picture it. The image of battle tanks is from a World War II poster. By the time Armageddon actually happens, the fire-breathing vehicles will likely be very different from WWII tanks, but this image gives us an idea of it. Notice that the four fallen angels were kept ready for this precise time. We think that earth rambles along in its own haphazard fashion, but God has not left anything to chance. There is a plan. Eventually God will put an end to evil. No lie will stand unchallenged and no corruption will go unpunished. Even the fallen angels cannot escape it. For all those people who have wondered, "Why does God allow evil?", the book of Revelation tells us that God is furious about the evil that has corrupted earth, and he's going to put an end to all of it, permanently. The 6th Trumpet is the second Woe predicted by the Eagle. This study of Revelation continues on Thursdays.

 

THE I DON'T KNOW PRAYER

 

THE I DON'T KNOW PRAYER Did you know there's a prayer called the "I don't know" prayer? It's very spiritual. You just go off somewhere quiet and hidden and you walk right up to the heart of God and you say, "I don't know." I don't know where to go from here. I don't know what is happening. I don't know how to process this. I don't know what to do with these emotions. I don't know how to handle this situation. It covers a lot of I don't knows! And then with whatever dusty little sand grain of faith you have, you say, "But You know." And you leave it there. God most certainly hears that prayer. Social Media, Author Unknown.