Want some free advice?
Don't check out the news right before you go to bed!
So I read, got disturbed by what I read, and then tried to go to sleep, still thinking about what I had read. Remind me not to do that again, please. After 3 hours of laying there unable to fall asleep, I got up and wrote this post.
Let me share with you what disturbed me so much.
Both President Obama and Ban Ki-Moon addressed the U.N. general assembly today (I guess that would be yesterday now).
In President Obama's speech, he claimed the current murderous rampage (my choice of wording, not his) going on in the Middle East has nothing to do with religion.
Ban Ki-Moon, the U.N. secretary-general, saw it differently.
Ban decried the "new depths of barbarity" and called for decisive action to stop "atrocity crimes." But he also said "we must not let the smoke from today's fires blind us to longer-term challenges and opportunities" and address "the danger posed by religiously motivated fanatics." Source: foxnews.com
I also have to disagree with President Obama's claims. It has everything to do with religion. A religion is based on human reasoning. True faith is based on God's reasoning. See the difference?
The president also "urged the leaders to address the failure to confront forcefully enough 'the intolerance, sectarianism, and hopelessness that feeds violent extremism in too many parts of the globe.'" Source: foxnews.com
Obama was right about one thing. The world is indeed in a hopeless state. As I read his comments, I was reminded of Ephesians 2:12-13.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The majority of people in this world are alienated from God's promises and therefore, have no hope. This hopeless spiritual condition is made much worse in the Middle East.
The cross, the symbol of hope, promise and salvation is hated, feared and distrusted in that part of the world. Why?
Another murderous religious conquest which took place across much of the Middle East back in the middle ages was carried out under the banner of the cross. Just as is happening now, the perpetrators of atrocity followed human reasoning. They did not have true faith in the One, True God.
The holocaust was also carried out under the banner of another cross and many of those guilty of atrocity in that time and during the middle ages attended churches filled with all shapes and sizes of crosses and other religious memorabilia.
But, explaining the difference to those who remember is difficult. They see the crosses in our churches and the very real feelings of hate, fear and distrust dictate their response to us as believers and to the message of hope in Christ we share.
Honestly, I don't have the answers to the problems of the world today but I do know the underlying cause. It is because people simply have no hope.
But, praise God, He has the answer. He provided hope in the form of His Son. He went to the cross to bear the sin, and the hopelessness of the world.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.(1 Corinthians 1:18)
God "is not willing that any should perish" (2 Peter 3:9). The cross still holds as much power today as it did the day my Savior cried, "It is finished" and the curtain in the temple was torn in two, granting access to the Father's throne of grace for all who will believe.
The cross is still, more than 2,000 years later, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to others.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:23-24)
The answer for a world filled with hopelessness is not found in coalitions of nations. The answer is not found in political correctness, or in dividing lands or in embracing the enemy in our midst.
The only answer for a world filled with hopelessness is the power of the cross.
Romans 10:13 gives the world an awesome and eternal promise.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
But...
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14)
I'm certainly not suggesting we should pack up and go somewhere dangerous.
But, is the power of the cross evident in your life?
Your neighbor, your friend and your co-worker all need to hear of the hope found in the power of the cross.
That hope needs to be shared with a world filled with hopelessness.
Want to know more about the difference between true faith and religion?
Check out peacewithgod.net
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