Saturday, August 24, 2013

Silent Jihad

Not once but twice do we look into the faces of men, women and children poisoned by nerve gas. They lay dying in their homes, the streets, the make shift hospitals. They vomited and they go into seizures as they drift in and out of consciousness. Their pain is unimaginable as they are doused with water in futile attempts to wash the poison from their skin. Most will die. The remnant that does survive is faced with the grief of being the sole survivor of their family, their group of friends, their neighbors and even their whole village.



Even as these images of mass graves, predominantly of children, are televised across the world by independent film makers, the lies begin and proliferate throughout the mainstream media. These latest images are simply the punctuation mark of the greater than 100,000 loss of souls that have happened in Syria. That is an estimate as the words of a local Christian religious figure tells of being a witness to nine beheadings. Were these ever recorded?

 They tell their story because the stories being told in the media are not what are being witnessed. Christians in the towns of Aleppo and Homs are being murdered, raped, burned, beaten and essentially being exterminated. Muslims are dying too, neighbors that have lived together for thousands of years in some of the most ancient Christian settlements recorded. The odd thing was, the "murderous gangs" that were responsible were not known to the Christian community or the Muslim community. They were strangers, heavily armed, taking full advantage of an unspeakable blood bath. Despite these atrocities there is silence.

In Egypt Christians were crucified outside the palace of Mursi. Again the ancient foundation of the Coptic Christian was being exterminated by murderous gangs of men that live by the creed of a formidable fraternity. While chaos ensued in the latest coup, yes I called it what it is a coup, opportunist again moved in and burned, raped, beat and killed hundreds of Coptic Christians. These atrocities were also met with silence.



So many tragedies took place as of late to Christians on various pilgrimages; the train in Spain derailing and destroying the pilgrimage to St James festival, a bus crashes suddenly in Avellino, Italy killing all but 9 of the passengers as they were returning home from a pilgrimage to Padre' Pio's home, and closer to home a bus' brakes fail and overturns in Indianapolis as a youth group returns home from a Christian retreat in Michigan. The media, which are experts at drawing lines of conclusion together in other stories, totally misses the obvious common thread in these stories; Christians are being killed in horrific accidents. Again these facts are usually buried under an unspoken wall of silence.

Let's talk about the situations where the name of Jesus is to be given credit for averting tragedy. How about when the father who has been pronounced dead after 45 minutes of no heart beat returns to life after his son declares, "You are not going to die today dad". What they failed to report was that he declared this in the name of Jesus.  Or how Antoinette Tuff is hailed as a hero as she was able to talk down the troubled young man, Brandon Hill,  who was armed with an AK 47 and 500 rounds of ammo. What they failed to tell you was that Ms. Tuff, who offered herself as a human shield, was a faithful Christian who was armed with the name of Jesus and covered by the blood of the lamb, was also professing her love and faith to Brandon who was mentally ill and had not been taking his medication.  Two gaping holes of silence in these heart warming stories of determination and courage.

As the world is lulled into an apathetic state, the assault of silence continues; placing an x instead of Christ in the word Christmas, replacing Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays, replacing prayer in school with gender bender days, legislating that counselors can no longer be therapeutic at the risk of politically incorrect when a client seeks assistance in gender identity, and families that have friends over for prayer or Bible study now need legislative bound permits as the families down the street have double the attendance at their alcohol laden gatherings, without any legislative interference.

This is not a new thing. In Acts five the apostles were beaten and admonished NOT TO SPEAK THE NAME OF JESUS.  There is power in that spoken name.
40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

So let us return to the faces of the latest victims that are guilty only of professing the Name of Jesus, the dead men, women and children of Syria. While Washington, D.C., Britain, Russia and the rest of the world try to figure out what side to take and what cover story to tell, the silent Jihad marches on slaughtering our brothers and sisters in, Nigeria, about 12,000 Christians killed at the hands of the Boko Haram. Stealing our youngest sisters right out of their homes in Pakistan  to be wed to men as a recompense for someone else's sins, burning our churches in Orissa, India.

If we peer deeper we find even more disturbing evidence of these ruthless armies being manned by impoverished and orphaned little boys that have been abducted in such countries as Afghanistan, India, and multiple African nations. Who financially backs these armies? Who financially arms these armies? Are these the same armies of strangers that the Syrian Christian and Muslims claim are infiltrating their country as "murderous gangs"?  Again these questions are answered with seemingly silence. What these enemies do not realize is that the rivers of blood of the martyrs is rushing throughout nations and throughout the world with the echoes of the saints saying; .

.....How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Rev 6:10