General
Unity Wins. So Whose Will Prevail?
The longest recorded prayer of the Savior, Jesus Christ, focused like a laser on the importance of unity.
If you haven’t read it recently, it can be found in John chapter 17 in the New Testament.
These intercessory words are the capstone of Jesus’ final hours with His disciples before His death and resurrection. In an upper room dinner setting, he shared intimate thoughts with His followers about love (chapter thirteen), the Holy Spirit (chapters 14 & 16), and the need for dependence on Him like branches to a vine (chapter 15).
But his most poignant words took the form of a prayer to His Heavenly Father. In it He highlighted the need, power, and importance of His followers to be “one”–i.e. strongly united–for world evangelism to take place (John 17:23).
Unity wins.
So whose unity will prevail in our time?
Devil Take the Youngest and Our Crisis of Meaning
The apparent gassing of 45 innocent men, women and children recently in Syria stunned the world–again. Chemical agents remain a hideous way to die, and every word of disgust leveled at the Assad regime (and its proxies, Russia and Iran) for committing this barbaric crime are well deserved.
U.N. Ambassador Nicki Haley’s blistering words stand out as the most poignant and clear response on the subject.
All innocent deaths are tragic. But when they involve children or youth, something inside of us revolts at the insanity and injustice.
Yet, the truth about juvenile deaths is much bigger than Syrian chlorine attacks. The devil remains committed to taking out the youngest–on both ends of the spectrum.
Unusual Messengers
I’ve always been fascinated with the word “holy,” which is used to describe the utter uniqueness or other-worldliness of God. Holiness means that God is “different,” “pure,” and completely “outside the box” of our finite human imagination.
This view of God reminds me of C.S. Lewis’ description of Aslan, the Jesus figure, in the Chronicles of Narnia where Mr. Beaver reminds Susan:
” Of course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the king, I tell you.”
To put it another way, God is very unusual and often does unusual things.
He even uses unusual messengers.