July 30, 2004

Hostility

I read this and realized this was profound. First on a personal level, weather its Woody driving me crazy, or the vagrants hanging out at my store, I need to get a grip on this and remember that they are made in God's image and I do need to think about how I respond to them.

Conversely, as we see the islamists and their culture of hatred and death one can see the singular lack of God's presence in their lives. No one can ever convince me that we will be able to ever get along. This is a social system that uses fear and abuse to control its adherants to its will. A cult of hatred and death so far removed for the Creator and His express will for us... I imagine that the jihadis that thought that they would get paradise and 72 perpetual virgins (my idea of hell for sure) are pretty shocked as they stand at the throne of the Almighty to be judged, then cast into hellfire for it is written "that not everyone that cries Lord! Lord!, shall enter the kingdom of God" It tragic.

The Root of Hostility to Others

By Elisabeth Elliot Gren
When personal relationships break down, it is a sure sign that there is some rift in one's relationship with God. The deeper the rift, the broader will be the effect on the human level. Rebellion against our Creator and Redeemer--against the One who designed us and gives us the breath of life and loves us every minute of every day--is not only unreasonable but outrageous. The sense of outrage will reveal itself in our treatment of others.
We "get at" God by getting at those He has made, especially those whom his providence has placed close to us. We cannot bear the image of God in them, for we cannot bear the ineradicability of that image in our own being. It is a constant reminder of our own sin, which is the violation of the divine image. Without the consciousness of a legitimate claim on our lives, we could not know sin.
To recognize and submit to that claim is to return to peace and fellowship.
"If we claim to be sharing in his life while we walk in the dark, our words and our lives are a lie; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, then we share together a common life, and we are being cleansed from every sin by the blood of Jesus His Son" (l Jn 1:6,7 NEB).