Village Schools of the Bible

Bombings in Iraq (UN HQ) and Israel

It just seems that news continues unabated, and I feel inclined to once again address, from a Christian perspective, several of the important events that occurred this past week. Troubling, at least from a political aspect, was the bombing of the UN headquarters building in Baghdad and the suicide bombing of a crowded bus in Jerusalem and the resultant retaliation by Israel. Although both events were perpetrated by different people, both bombings are connected.

There is a radical extremist group within the religion of Islam that has no intentions of ever seeking to live in harmony with its neighbors, mainly the Christians from the West and the Jews in Israel. Their imans continue to preach worldwide conquest by Islam and proclaim that Christians and Jews are the infidels. And the persistent proclaiming to young Islamic men (and lately, women) that by destroying not only yourself but others with your death, you will receive and instant guaranteed entrance into heaven where 70 virgins await your arrival to meet your every need. Most of these suicide bombers have no future here...why? Because they have been enslaved by a religion of oppression and fear.

The consequence of the actions of these extremists is that the majority of people in both Iraq and Palestine and Israel are shackled with fears and oppression. The attitudes and action of the few brings heartache to the many. Yet, the Bible encourages us to pursue the pathways of peace, and the only peace that has any lasting benefit is to bring people the peace that only Jesus can bring. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that the feet of those who brought the gospel of peace were beautiful. Pray that God would send forth many more beautiful feet...yours might be one of them.

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