I wrote this particular post before I started the blog. I realize that may be strange to you, but I had all these things in my head and need to get them out. I woke up this morning and ready of the KY State Trooper who had been killed early this morning, I reviewed the feed of the video of the attack at the Delta State Fair yesterday because the ride operator was moving too slowly and just shook my head. I thought about this post and thought..I should post this, it's still relevant today, just as it was when I was writing it on 9.1.15. But I talked myself out of it, and thought of the other things I've been writing lately, thinking I would post one of those later today. But then the news hit that Delta State is under lockdown with a shooter on campus and a man dead. Just as my thoughts were running on 9.1 and again as I revisted my memories from 9.11 I realized my thoughts remain the same, the battle continues to be waged and I wonder how long do we wait for the enemy to be defeated. If anyone has ever really doubted the truth of Scripture in the realm of spiritual warfare - let me challenge you to think through it once again. The evil that runs rampant among us is not just flesh and blood. The ruler of the darkness of this world is roaming back and forth and looking for who he may devour. Once again I seek God's justice to right the wrongs and to once and for all vanquish our enemy. Here's the post I wrote almost 2 weeks ago. I have not edited, or adjusted my writing...it's just whats coming out of my head...again not perfect, not polished..just me.
Tired..weary..drained..
Yesterday I was ready to fight. Fight the Spiritual battles that war around us, fight those who long to break marriage and families apart and encourage others to fight the good fight as well.
Today I’m overwhelmed with the desire for God’s action. For Him to not delay any longer in exacting His righteous justice upon the lawlessness of this earth. I am weary of praying the same prayers for those who need Him and waiting for Him to act swiftly. As wonderful as His mercy is towards me, and I crave the knowledge that there is nothing I can do to lose His steadfast love and loving kindness toward me - I am anxious and impatient for Him to move on behalf of those who have no one else to fight for them.
My prayers this morning for the ministries of New Hope Girls Academy and M.E.R.cy Jewelry and the DR Vision ministries this morning turned into an all out emotional cry fest. I begged the Lord to intercede in their lives and ministries today and bring healing to those who have been hurt and destroyed by sin. Little girls, who by no fault of their own, are girls and as such are a commodity on the island. Little girls who should be free to run and jump and play with the friends playing hopscotch, or kickball or whatever they want who instead are locked away in safety on the side of a mountain. Little girls who are not safe to be out at night for fear of someone taking them away. Little girls who still rejoice that they have received love - Jesus’ love in physical form from women who labor tirelessly and many long hours for these precious faces. They are burned in my mind and etched in my heart and I cannot forget or lose sight of the many needs they face. Slip across the island and see the weary women who were these little girls once upon a time and in need of rescue but none came. No one came and helped them or their families, and they were sucked into the mire and muck of the sex trade. People actually travel to this country purely for this particular entertainment. It disgusts me and fills with me anger. The majority of these women had no choices offered to them and took the only route available to them to survive and now they continue to support the children who have been fathered and abandoned to them to raise. Now these women are leading new lives and learning new truths, but who’s struggles run deep and heartaches are real.
How long dear Lord, how long will you delay your justice in their lives. Why do you wait - why don’t you act.
It’s really an unmistakable fact that around the world the girls of the world are the discarded ones. The ones who's only value lies in the small amount of money that can be made when their lives and bodies are sold into bondage. All because they are born girls. They are unwanted in many nations because they can’t carry on a family name, all because they are girls.
How long will You delay? these precious children whom you have known from before time began - how long will you delay before you mete out your perfect justice?
As I prayed this morning and wept and grieved for these girls, and teens and women, my heart turned and I prayed for those men and women who were being attacked simply for the faith in Christ that they profess. You don’t have to look hard to know that there are prisoners in Iran, China, North Korea, and countless other God forsaken lands that have been jailed, tortured and punished for simply having the audacity to believe that Christ is the way to Heaven.
How long Lord will you delay?
Men torn from their families, and beaten without mercy - with one swipe of Your hand, or one breath from Your mouth God, You could remove them and their memory from our earth forever. I continued to pray, and to ask God to move in a mighty way and I thought of the havoc that ISIS is currently having on our world. The sheer barbarity of their methods and outrageous acts of heinous disregard for life of any kind but their own is stunning and overwhelming to my soul. I can barely breath when I think of these souls who are simply being rounded up and destroyed for no other reason than where they live, or because they refuse to do as they have been told. Or Boko Haram or Syria’s Bashir or any of the other bloody and destructive regimes of man made proportion.
My prayers continued and my heart turned with heaviness toward the things happening here in our own nation. The complete disregard for life in our land is appalling. The depths of depravity to which we have sunk is mind numbing - whether you want to speak of the videos we have seen and news we have heard coming from Planned Parenthood, and the selling of baby parts, did I actually just type that - the selling of pieces of human babies? God forbid! or the attack on police officers lives almost daily reports now in the news from city to city around our nation. My dad was a state trooper, my uncle and cousins and friends have all been or are currently in law enforcement - this hits home for me and hurts. They don’t do it for the money, or because it feels good but because they desire to keep the peace. Enforce the laws, protect the innocent, and keep evil at bay. It feels as if we are coming apart at the seams. I weep for the loss of purity and sanctity and for the lack of moral compass because we have denied God and His goodness for too long. We are so stuck in desire for pleasure and entertainment, we become indifferent to the news as more of it gets piled on.
Why aren’t we grieving? The loss of all lives matters. God is the giver of life and all lives matter. We are each made in God’s image - so we all matter. It doesn’t matter the color of the skin, the creed or religion, or the differences of our belief system. All lives matter. But who is fighting for the ones who can’t fight for themselves. We are told, commanded to fight for the oppressed and the widow and the fatherless. Who is acting on their behalf with any resolve? Why is our nation slow to move to restore dignity and hope to those without any? Why do we not try to rescue our citizens from other nations who refuse to cooperate? What happened to our indignation over the treatment of those who can’t do anything for us? I can’t comprehend it - why are we so complacent.
I submit that we are callous and content. We live on in our comfy houses, and our cozy beds with no thought of what we are going to eat tomorrow. We have plenty. We have more than plenty frankly, we are overwhelmed with the niceties of this life and all it has to offer. We have wi-fi, electricty, cell phones and need of nothing. So we surround ourselves with happy things, and tv shows that make us laugh, wondering what will happen next on the Kardashians, or Big Brother because that stuff is so culturally relevant. We bemoan the sad state of the VMA show on MTV because it isn’t what it used to be and we turn a blind eye to the catastrophic disaster of lives crumbling all around us. We hear it, and comment how awful it is on Facebook, Instagram and send out a tweet with a cool hashtag believing we have taken some action on this. But nothing changes. The next time we hear of another murder, another suicide, another life removed too soon, we weep less, we grieve less and eventually we just turn up the sound of the television because that stuff just becomes the new normal.
How long Lord will you delay your hand of judgment? How long will you wait for us to move on your behalf? How long Lord till you hear the cries of your people for rescue and restoration. Lord let it be today - please, move today! I am weary and tired and wait for you to move. I guess theres no irony in the fact that my Bible study of late is in Psalms. I feel like I understand David - he was constantly praying for God to give to his enemies exactly what they deserved and find myself praying the same way. I want justice and I want the rights to be wronged. Sin wreaks havoc on lives and this is just more havoc and more loss and reproach to us. As a normal human, we should be horrified by the actions of those taken around us in this world today. As American citizens we should be even more appalled that things happen here and abroad to our citizens of our sovereign nation and our leaders do not seek to protect us and help us when we need it. And our greater calling as Christians and those who profess to love the Lord, we sit on our hands and don’t act. We have the greatest weapon in our arsenal, and we have no requirements for it’s use other than that we have a clear line of communication. Prayer is that weapon and its available to those young and old, to those who are physically capable and to those who are not. To those who are mentally stable and emotionally well, and to those who are not. To those who are lovely people and to those who are not. To those who have it all together and to those of us who don’t Black and white, yellow and red the prayer weapon is the MOST valuable resource we can employ but we are too busy to pay the price of sacrifice and spend our time getting on our faces before God pleading with him to take action. We are too comfortable in our beds to get up early in the morning, we are too tired at night to spend time in prayer, and we are too callous to our own sin in our lives, to bother spending time in God’s word and begging Him to create in us a clean heart. Woe to us, for not bothering to do something about it. Woe to us my Christian friend for not caring enough about others, to sacrifice precious time and energy and resources to do something for the kingdom. Because at the very root of all the violence, and the unrest, and the activities of those who mock God is sin and what this world needs more than anything else that we can give is Jesus. Only Jesus can change a man or woman completely from the inside out. We need Jesus and we need to spread the good news of what Jesus has done for us sooner rather than later. What on earth are we waiting for….