|
Fresh Bread # 141
A LITTLE DIFFERENT VIEW
PSALMS 83
Morning Dear Ones,
I have received several emails in response to my request that we pray the
83rd Psalm for our military people. There is much history and prophesy in this chapter that most of us are not familiar with…including
me.
In all due respect, I am sending you one of the emails because my dear friend
has asked me to. She and I both agree that we do not see eye to eye on everything. But we love each other. You
will recognize how highly intelligent she is and oh, I wish you could meet her in person. She is one of the sweetest ladies
I have ever known, beautiful inside and out, and guided greatly by her gift of compassion.
It is my desire to leave this discussion here. I have other things
to do and my job was simply to deliver the message I felt our Lord wanted me to deliver. It is up to each person to
decide for themselves. And I pray that this will be done by searching God’s Word and hearing from Him in prayer.
I have no intentions of trying to defend myself. But, please read
my answer at the end. I had one purpose in sending forth this message. Actually two: the first was obedience.
EMAIL FROM LOIS
And what God has revealed to me, Gwen, is that God is the creator of all humankind
and loves all that creation. Jesus told us to love our enemies and to pray for those who despitefully
use us. The Muslims are not my enemies. I pray for all young men and women who are being “despitefully
used” by those above them, who manipulate them, lie to them, and tell them what they are doing is
in the name of God and “freedom”—both buzz words and appeals to God on each side. And
yet, we attribute to God our own prejudices, our own hates and create God in our own image. The
God I worship has very little in common with the one the war mongers and oil grabbers and liars about weapons
of mass destruction appeal to in the name of patriotism. The preemptive strike our country made
in Iraq has not made me safer, nor any of us for that matter. It has made us less safe and turned
much of the Arab world, who had previously been sympathetic toward us, against us in our “fight for
freedom.” And our friends in Europe are appalled at the mess we have gotten us all into and
only inflamed the terrorists more and created allies for them. There were no terrorists in Iraq before
we invaded but now it is a haven for them, and we have also succeeded in turning Iraqi against Iraqi, destroyed
their infrastructure, lost over 2600 of our young men and women in the process, witnessed the deaths of
thousands of Iraqi civilians, men, women, and children. I remember during the War in Vietnam
teaching junior English and reading to the students “Ours not to question why; Ours but to do and
die. Into the valley of death rode the ten thousand.” And still we expect blind
obedience from these “freedom fighters”—the poor, the minorities, the young, the uneducated
who had no idea what they were getting into when they joined. Did you see the Bush twins signing
up to go? Or Cheney’s lesbian daughter? Of course not!
Yes, I pray for our troops and their safe return soon! I also pray that when they do come home,
the wounded, the maimed, those with traumatic stress syndrome, with psychic wounds even more serious than the physical ones, that
we will not neglect them, abandon them. Right now, as the administration is praising our fighting forces and urging them
on in the fight for “freedom”—(translated oil), this same administration is cutting back on benefits, health
care, rehabilitation services for our veterans including those who will be coming home.
Let those who have eyes to see, see. Let those who have ears to hear, hear. And let those of
us who claim to be daughters and sons of the Living God know that we are brothers and sisters of all whom God created—and
that includes our “enemies” as well as our troops. May we pray for God’s peace, God’s Shalom, for
all!
Gwen, please send this on to your e-mail list—all whom you implored to pray for our troops, and ask
them also to pray for our “enemies” whom we are commanded to love.
With different “takes” on many things but always loving you,
Lois
MY RESPONSE
FOR THE SAKE OF MY READERS
My
Precious Lois, oh how very much I love you and agree with many things you have said. Most of them. Not
that I actually disagree on any of them but look at some from a different perspective. I am only a simple woman
and my request was meant to be simple. I had one motive and one only…that was to
let our young people know that we are fighting WITH them against whatever comes against
them. I simply want them to know…that whatever mess we have gotten ourselves into…that they are
physically on the front line…for whatever reason…but they are still our children and we care
what happens to them. So, while we are praying the 91st Psalm over them, we are also praying the
83rd.
Since I had asked our Lord to give me a stronger prayer to pray at this
time, I believe this is the message He wanted me to share. They (military) will understand when they read it.
The last verse of 83 says: “That men may know that Thou, whose
name alone is Jehovah, art the Most High over all the earth.”
God does not wish that any perish. And what greater love could we
have for our enemies than that they come to know Jehovah?
I don’t pretend to know all the strategies of natural military warfare. I
would hate to be the person who has to call the shots. I pray for them as well. God has blessed me with some knowledge
of Spiritual Warfare and I let Him call those shots. I just try to hear and obey.
Thanks for giving me food for thought as this may help other readers.
I pray it does.
Love you always,
Gwen
|
