Body of Lies is about a CIA agent (DiCaprio) who teams with an agent in Jordan to find and stop an Islamic terrorist who has been bombing civilians. Basically. It's a pretty intense movie and obviously people died. Throughout the movie I found myself feeling so sad for the people. And I'm not just talking about the innocent civilians, although that was definitely heartbreaking. What really got me was thinking about the millions of Muslims in the world that live their lives with a horribly false hope! I know it's just a movie, but depressingly these things actually happen. You know about it because you saw men kill themselves for the purpose of crashing into the Twin Towers just to kill others. There are people in this world that live just so they can die for the god they call Allah - "jihad" is what we have heard it called.
Isn't it insane that there are Muslims out there that are so dedicated to their religion and to their god that they are willing to literally blow themselves up for it? They are so completely deceived and it breaks my heart to think about it.
And, yet, we believe in and serve a loving, kind, merciful, and gracious God who gives us salvation as a gift. All we have to do is believe! But so many times we go throughout our day without even acknowledging Him. We live how we want, we do what we want, and then we pray when things are going the way we want. We take Him for granted over and over again. Thank the Lord for grace!
So all of this made me think... about how lucky I am and about how I am living each day. Am I living in such a way that says I'm thankful for the freedom I have in Christ?
Well, I can't quite seem to be able to piece together in words what I really want to get out, but here are two of my resulting thoughts:
- I feel greatly challenged to be even more dedicated to my God, the one true God, who offers a real hope and a real future (Jer. 29:11) and to do more than just believe for the sake of Christ. He's done do much for me so what can I do in response?
- I am motivated to pray for Muslims. All of them. Even the ones I hate with a passion, because I do. I hate what they do with a passion. Why pray for them? Because I believe there is great power in prayer. And I believe we are called to hope for salvation for all people, because Christ does (1 Tim. 2:3-4). (so don't be a bitter Jonah! If you know what I mean).
One last thing... just a little story. Yes, a story! It's partially being told secondhand and I'm not much of a storyteller, but here goes:
While I was in Israel this Spring (end of April to May) with some of my Kanakuk Institute family, we had the opportunity to spend time in Jerusalem where we roamed through the streets and alleys of what they call the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and Armenian Quarters. There are thousands of things to bargain for from the plethora of stores that are jam-packed together. Very touristy! I can't remember where his shop was or what his name was, but there is a guy that we were told we had to go talk to to hear his testimony. When I went he wasn't there, but some of friends were a able to catch him at a later time and got to hear his story firsthand. This guy, we'll call him Zach, is part of an underground church within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). If you know anything about the PLO, then you know they are mostly known as a terrorist group out to destroy Israel. What I never knew was that within the PLO there are "hawks" and there are "doves." In basic terms the hawks are the ones that encourage war as the means of doing things and the doves desire to do things in a more peaceful manner. Zach's story made short is that he was once a Muslim PLO hawk and is now a Christian PLO dove. He is still in the PLO, which sounds crazy, but he has the opportunity of telling others about Christ in a way that none of us would ever have the opportunity to do. He risks his life to run a church within the PLO that if found out could get him killed! As he told my friends about his life he stopped to ask them, "Do you worship in your church?" They replied with the obvious answer, "Well, yeah, we do." His response, "worship louder." Woah. What an impacting statement. He continued to tell them of his church and how they feel so lucky to be able to even go to church, but how they also cannot worship like we can. See, when they go to church their worship is silent. Whatever they do they can never be heard worshipping the Lord. They can only dream of worshipping the way we get to worship. So, worship louder.
"For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:13
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