Osama bin Laden

I haven't wrote anything in nearly a month and what a way to start back.

For the record, Brooke and I have both been insanely preoccupied with a junk load of stuff.  Mainly we're involved ministry, but other than that - finishing up credentials in the Assemblies of God, spending time with both of our families, and for Brooke, it's finals week this week.  Needless to say, I hope I can get back to writing and speaking out and what not.

There's a lot to say about a man who tortured and killed thousands, if not millions.  At least, a lot of my Facebook friends have shown that..

Since this is my blog, I shall giveth my thoughts.

Osama bin Laden was the leader of a feared terrorist group who utterly destroyed and obliterated American society in a matter of minutes.  He orchestrated one of the most gruesome mass murders in history.  He took an incredible amount of lives; some, 10 years later, even still unaccounted for.  It's scary to think that people like him exist.  He was a murderer, a thief, a complete tyrant to the public.

Today, I've heard more than one Christian say that they were glad bin Laden was dead.  And I wonder to myself, how Biblical is that?

I'm going to be honest.  When I first saw it on the news last night, I was apathetic and my first thought was, "This is going to look good on Barack Obama's resume".  Simply meaning, if he wants to be re-elected, he will be.  Nothing bad.  Nothing I wanted to argue about.  Nothing political.  I tend to try to stay out of the political game, though I still vote.  Regardless..

I was thinking about it today and I just realized how glad I am that a terrorist is out of the picture.  The militaries involved did a great job in completing their missions.  I'm pleased that justice was served because God is a just God.  He's faithful to His word and I'm glad.  But because God is faithful to His word, I immediately think of 2 Peter 3:9.  God is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is patient to us-ward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  Then I think of Ezekiel 18:23.  'Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?' says the Lord God, 'and not   that he should turn from his ways and live?'.  How can I say what I need to say without offending?

I suppose I can't.

Even though a terrorist is gone, another will rise up.  I'm so glad that the one who killed so many is gone.  At the same time, I'm moved.  O, if he had repented!  If he had turned away from his ungodliess and his unrighteousness, if he had turned from his wickedness and his idolatry, would could have happened?  Would the world have forgotten all that he had done?  Of course not.  And I would never expect them to.  Again, God is a just God and the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping is in affect whether you're saved or unsaved.  Yet, how do we answer the questions of salvation?

Are we pleased that a soul split hell wide open?  Are we pleased that a soul is burning uncontrollably in the fires of torment?  Are we pleased that One who loved unconditionally was rejected?  Osama bin Laden was no different than any other unsaved person.  Yet, if everyone got what they deserved, even the Christians would be in trouble.

So, in my inconsistency of words, I say that this ramble is just a wake up call.  There are people within our grasp who are falling further and further away from the Truth of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  Every single day, people within our grasp are falling more and more in love with world and the Blinder of their eyes.  Every single day, we are becoming more and more complacent in our day-to-day living.  Every single day, we are becoming more and more silent in our day-to-day living.

A great man named Dane Hall once said to me, "Silence is consent".  If I am silent, I consent to their behavior.  If I am silent, I consent to Satan stealing them away.  If I am silent, I consent to being a fruitless Christian because the whole point of Christianity is to have a ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5).

I cannot allow the devil to take away the promised land of this earth from me.  Promised land?  Jesus said in John 4, My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.  What is His will?  Go back 2 Peter 3.  God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.  Our promised land is the same food of Jesus.  To do and be the will of God to this world!


Everywhere the sole of my foot shall tread, the Lord my God has given me, Joshua 1 says.  Ephesians 6 tells me that my feet are shod with preparation of the gospel of peace.  What does that mean?  Everywhere I go, I am prepared to share the peace I know.  Peace?  Yes!  In the Greek, the word literally means an absence of war.  What war?  The war between God and Satan.  Good and evil.  Light and darkness.  Hope and hopelessness.  Life and death.  Freedom and bondage.  We have the ability to be missionally militant even where we are!  Everywhere the sole of our feet tread, we are prepared to shall the gospel of peace.  We have got to win this world back to the One who gave up His life for us!  If we don't, we're selfish and don't deserve to be called Christ-like!  Jesus is the Savior of the world and if we don't tell them, their blood is on our hands!  Romans 10 says, how will they hear unless there's a preacher? 

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. - 2 Corinthians 4:3-4

But other save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh. - Jude 1:23

If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.  If they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees.  Let no on go there unwarned and unprayed for. - C.H. Spurgeon