We're living in scary times. On the homepage of foxnews here are a few of the headlines:
74 children executed by ISIS for 'crimes' that include refusal to fast
ISIS kills 64 in Egypt in wake of president's crackdown
ISIS may have upwards of 42M supporters
That's just a few of the headlines and not even the most gruesome stories of current killings of murders of those done by this terrorist group. What they are doing is horrible and they should be stopped.
And though the group's members think they are in control, they aren't. They are pawns in the enemy's hands. The enemy doesn't care who suffers or who dies. He would be just as happy if all of them lose their lives before they can get right with Christ. They are deceived by their own wickedness.
"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:12
The devil hates what God loves. And God loves people. So if the devil can get us looking at others as the enemy so we destroy each other he's got his way. The media is a playground for him -- not only in the above situation but also in all the political events in our country. He is never for people. But if he can get us angry and inflamed by fanning those hateful opinions toward others (or fear or whatever is inside us that isn't God's love) he will get us so off track and use us to destroy each other.
The book pictured above is incredible. I've read it twice already. It is about all sorts of things but the biggest thing is that the people have to constantly be on guard against the forest that devours people and towns and seeps in where people don't notice and turns things and people against each other. I don't know what the author had in mind but it is a perfect example of spiritual warfare and what the enemy does to people so well. Often we are just pawns because we aren't mindful of our choices. We just go with the crowd. Yet when we stop and think and pray We can choose to do right or wrong. We can choose to listen to our hearts or listen to anger and hate in the world.
We humans are going to devour each other and destroy ourselves if we don't look up and grab hold of Jesus and seek His wisdom on how to combat this evil. I don't have any other answers. I am not a world strategist and I am definitely not trying to simplify these very complicated and deadly matters. But focusing on people, focusing on destroying people only brings more hate and destruction to this world.
God save us.
God help us.