Friday, September 11, 2015

9.11.15

We would be remiss to not pause at some point in the day to remember this day.  In our sin-filled world, there have been other days.  General Robert E. Lee said during a battle in the bloodiest war our country has fought, "It is good that war is so horrible, or we should grow to like it," yet they continue.  Yet for many of us, this day marked a turning point in our world-view, and maybe that even shaped how we view the world through our faith.  Christ's command to love our enemy (Matthew 5:44) became even more difficult to comprehend for us, and if you are like me, I see that passage and say, "Yes, but I still want to make them pay."

Yet even those issues we faced in our history, like the Civil War, still haunt us today.  We are sinful in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.  It is naïve, in many ways, to assume these actions, battles, and wars will ever cease, but it is wrong to also not have hope.  Paul, himself a terrorist to the Christians at one time, writes this:  "Since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.  And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope.  And hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has ben pour out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us." (Romans 5:1 - 5)

So on today, we pray for those who lost loved ones that day or in the following years as we fight to counter terrorism in hopes of stopping it.  We lift a prayer of thanks for those who put their lives on the line daily for us in far away places as well as close to home.  We ask that God forgive us for our sins, and we ask that God forgive those who sin against us, as we, too, forgive others not so easy to forgive.

"Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins, and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's." Psalm 103:2 - 5

Go in peace, serve the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Hope Men's Ministry

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