Only Grace Can Defeat an Enemy

"We don't just want these adherents of a false faith to die; we want them to die to self and rise with Christ. This has to be our heart, our priority. We must make this our goal, our prayer, our focus..."

                                                                                               ~ Dave Miller


The above statement, in truth, should be the heart of every Christian.
But deep down, when thinking of Islam and what is taking place across the globe in our generation, if we are honest, we know that 'our goal, our prayer' is not their conversion.

Execution of Iraqi Christians

No, we are more concerned of our survival than their conversion.

Now, there are reasons for this; valid reasons. 
Reasons that involve things other than fear of losing life, including the protection and continuation of a way of life and the continuation of a civilization.
Yet, these reasons, as valid as they might be, are only the latest attempt from the world to encourage Christians to act like heathens.
And I, more than most, have struggled with this challenge of being a Christian and mounting a defense against terror and radical Islam in a way that honors God.

As I began to reflect on my life concerning this issue of Islamic Fascists seeking to destroy life as we know it, I soon realized this isn't the first time in my life the church has been at a loss as to how to respond in grace, mercy and strength to horrid problems in the world.

For example, when I was a child, the most popular daytime television show (with the exception of soap operas) was 'Donahue.'
Phil Donahue's talk show, to a child, was nothing more than an interruption of the then-exciting,

colorful game shows which flooded the broadcast networks.

Yet, Phil Donahue had a knack for terrifying the American public with modern social issues, which most of middle-America didn't even realize existed because nobody talked about it.

'Donahue' took the most challenging social issues and asked the viewer at home, 'What are we going to do about it?'
Truthfully, the viewer at home had never even considered the issues at hand, much less the answers to the problems.

Even today, the answers are elusive to many problems our society faces.
Do we sterilize people who continue to have premature babies addicted to heroin?
Do we take away the food stamps of the woman living in the projects who continues to have children by multiple fathers, as society supports her immorality?
Should we invest more money in the education of those in poverty-stricken areas, hoping that the more educated they are, the greater chance they have to succeed on their own?

None of these are actual solutions; but they are ideas spoken of very often.
But if education is the solution, then why do drugs invade the educated, upper-middle class in the same manner as it does the uneducated, lower classes?
Sterilization is a violation of civil rights and taking food stamps away seems to be more hurtful to the children than helpful; the children didn't do anything wrong, it was the mother.

There are no quick fixes to anything that ails our society.

The fight against the Islamic Terrorists, who seem to be within our borders due to lack of leadership and false political agendas, will not be won overnight.
But the fight will be won.

A few years ago, drunk driving was an issue from coast to coast in the United States.
It spurned the M.A.D.D. (Mother's Against Drunk Driving) organization as well as several offshoots.

The issue will never be solved, but drunk driving and the related deaths have tremendously curved in a positive direction in the last 30 years.
But it wasn't the mother's who were the most effective; it was a group called Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which was utilized by millions after public attitude, laws and society's opinion changed on the issue.

What many people do not realize is that AA is more theological than it is educational.
You see, the church body would stand back and tell people not to drink, call alcohol the 'devil's brew,' we would shake our finger and say, 'I told you so...' when a man lost his family or job because of the effects of booze.

AA also placed the blame on the individual as being morally responsible; but they demonstrated mercy and compassion; a compassion which insists on the perpetrator being morally accountable for their actions.
In turn, AA offers support from other alcoholics to help the new member; this fosters community and individual dignity within a solid body.

This is what the Body of Christ is supposed to do; yet, many times we have lost sight of our mission and have to admit that AA has done our mission better than we have as the Church.

Our mission is PEOPLE; and those people are sinners engaged in a multitude of sins that many times, we cannot even fathom.
Our mission is to disciple those who come to Christ in mercy and grace.

In our world, as in yesteryear, Christianity still makes sense.
The problem is with the Christian as we attempt to communicate Christ in a way that makes sense to those who don't know Him and may be adamantly opposed to Him.

There are those in society who, quite naively, believe that if we can keep the economy going, defeat terrorism through diplomacy (which will never happen) and educated everyone → a Golden Age will once again dawn in America.

But the problems we face today aren't new problems; in fact, they are actually as old as Eden.

Today, heroin addicted babies, ever-expanding welfare roles, or a shaky economy is the main issue we face as a civilization; it is Islamic Terrorism.
The Christian knows the simple facts; we have adherents to a religion who wish to eradicate anyone who does not align with their views of morality, government, law and especially faith, which drives every other facet of their lives.

Aiding these people to come out of poverty and become more wealthy is not the solution; for two reasons.
First, poverty is not the root of evil; a corrupt heart is.
Secondly, these people are coming from some of the wealthiest nations on earth.

Educating them isn't the solution either.
ISIS and Al-Quaida both have IT people carrying forward with cyber attacks, engineers helping build better bombs, military strategists, aircraft pilots, and a host of other educated terrorists seeking to do Christians harm on behalf of their organization.
In short, they've become educated (many times in American Universities) only to use that education to destroy humanity instead of helping it.

Political diplomacy is ineffective as well, and always will be unless the Western World clearly has shown strength and the upper hand militarily.
I mean, seriously, how long is it going to be before those in political leadership stop thinking the public is ignorant and man-up to the fact that there must be a military answer to the problem of ISIS.

These issues seem so far removed from my childhood and Donahue, but they're really not; they are the same issues, with liberals offering the same solutions - and their solutions have never worked.

Follow me on this path once again.

You see, what has been done in our society is to overlook bad behavior from our own people and marginalize the rules to excuse wrong actions.
Many times, this was done out of the desire to gain more votes and uphold a political agenda rather than attempting to uphold an honest way of American life.

In pushing their agenda, the answers we received sounded something like the following:
- Riots happen in certain areas because the people are under-privileged and they just can't help themselves; it's only their built-up frustration coming out.
- Teens get pregnant because they are just simply over-powered by their desires.
- Abortions take place because the woman has no real choices; she wasn't prepared for the pregnancy.

These are excuses, that's all, just excuses.
The real truth is that human beings are moral creatures with a free will; we decide every day, every hour and every minute what and how we will act.
And every person must live with the consequences of those actions and decisions; but excusing or marginalizing wrong acts does not help the individual and it weakens society.

These are nothing more than excuses for wrong behavior, but even with that statement, it requires one to believe in an absolute right and wrong. Many do not.
Some will argue that culture, environment, and religion has all influenced a person; therefore, we should not impose our values and mores on another person because their beliefs are just as valid as our own.

Really?
Do you really believe that?

Let's work through this thought.

Can you imagine anyone in the 1960's telling Martin Luther King, Jr. or any other person in the Civil Rights Movement: 'Leave the South alone. They were raised differently, they have a different culture. If they want segregation, we should let them have it because their values and beliefs are just as valid as yours...."


I've never heard a liberal say anything even close to that, but that is what they insist Christians should do when we look at the moral decay and Islamic Threat of today.

This is not normal behavior for a human being.

Yet, the problem remains, as to how we are to be Christ-like while still defending ourselves from the onslaught of Islamic Terrorism.
- The problem won't be solved financially; money will only make it worse.
- The problem can't be solved through education; they will use it against us.
- The problem will not be solved any conventional means.

The only true way to defeat the Islamic Threat is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Now, I can not and would not begin to tell you how you should respond to the Islamist whom you may come into contact with; but I will say that you should do as much to protect yourself as your conscience will allow.
I can also say that not one emperor or empire, tribe or religion who has ever attempted to stomp out the  Christian faith has been able to do so; and in the end that empire or tribe or religion has fallen by the wayside as Christ's people marches forward.

Personally, I don't know when some of our political leaders will understand what's truly going on in the world; which is nothing less than a group of people seeking to eradicate Christians and the American way of life.
I don't know how many more cities will be attacked in this country or within the borders of our allies.
I don't even know how long this struggle will go on.

But I do know, those who are standing with Christ, we are the people who will win in the end.
So, as the electorate begins to wise up and search for a new Commander-in-Chief, the mission of the Christian has not changed.

If you want peace on earth, then protect your family within the boundaries of your conscience and help us fulfill our mission:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
                                                                                               ~ Mt. 28:19-20

Until next time, win one for the good guys.