Standing Against the Horror

My brothers and sisters in Christ in Iraq are enduring the worst kind of evil.

 

To stand for their faith means their children are being slaughtered before their eyes.

 

 

In my comfortable little house in the woods I am ashamed to find myself complaining about deadlines and business pressures when they are being tortured for their faith.

 

Oh please pray for the Christians in Iraq.

 

My heart bleeds for those who are forced to make the hardest of choice - If you stand for the Lord - you lose everything dear on this earth.

 

All it takes is a very quick Google search to make you so sick on your stomach over what is happening that you have to run to the bathroom. 

 

It is sick beyond words.

 

Please pray my friends.  Please lift up your voices.  We can't sit back and just ignore what is happening. 

 

We owe our brothers and sisters over there our time. Our prayers.  Our voices.  They cannot endure this without the church rising up and standing against the horror with them.  No, we can't go over and face their foes in mortal combat.  But we can show them and the rest of the world that the faith we hold dear is WORTH DYING OVER.  What I believe - what I know about Jesus Christ is worth giving up everything.  If all my faith means is a Sunday morning trip to the nearest church for my spiritual coffee to get me through the rest of the week then I cheapen what they are giving their very lives to proclaim.

 

Christ gave His life as a ransom for us. 

 

He made a way out of the pit of sin and darkness we are trapped in on this earth.  Some of us don't feel that sin and darkness much.  Not in our nice homes with our nice cars and with our nice jobs and mowed yards.  But trust me.  We live in a pit of sin and darkness.  Just ask the Iraqi Christians.  They will tell you about sin and darkness.

 

And they are afraid.  And they are beaten down. And they are despairing.

 

But they are not without hope. 

 

We are not without hope.

 

"In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

 

What Christ did for us... is WORTH dying over. 

 

And our dear brothers and sister, young and old, who are across the ocean far removed from our comfortable way of life, are dying for their faith.

 

I'm not facing their foes but I'm standing with them in their faith.  Declaring that what I believe is worth risking everything. 

 

I am a Christian.

 

They are my people.

 

May God be with them in their hour of greatest need!