I probably won't be the blogger you see every week, maybe not even every month, but I will try to post some text quite often. I guess I will mainly be focusing on God and what He is revealing to me in my life, what I am reading in the Bible, what I am learning, what Josiah or Amanda is doing, or what this post is about, my thoughts on today's current events in relation to the Bible.
I also hope to improve my literary skills here or there, haha! They need a lot of practice. English 300 is an online course I'm taking this fall, along with Greek I and Dead Sea Scrolls (for my Religious Studies major), and Fiscal Practices in Recreation and Program Planning in Recreation (for my other major, Recreation Administration).
Now, let's cut to the chase: Satan is evil. Does that statement sound too weak, overused, or diluted? If it does, that's probably because He has tricked you into believing so. He is really evil, and I honestly and truly believe He has got a new kind of hold on the world in today's times. Some of the stories I have seen on the news have really hit me in a different manner than before. All the bloodshed and violence has been going on since the beginning of time, literally. Here within the past few months, I have seen an increase in my sorrow for what has gone on. What I mean is, I have been more emotional about things that are good, and things that are bad as well. We had someone get baptized at our church a few weeks ago, a little girl. Everyone was clapping as her head came back above the water. I was in tears. Here is a little girl who can now go to Heaven because she confessed Jesus as her Lord and Savior (and a lot of other things too), and will hopefully live a fruit-bearing life because of that. Everyone was clapping, but I was crying with tears of joy at the thought of another Christian going to Heaven. I can't just sit back and clap hands knowing God WILL GET more glory than what He had before because of that. That is the reason I was crying.
A few hymns have built up the waterworks as well, today in Church we sang "Morning Has Broken". What a powerful song.
However, let me turn to the more sorrowful things that have happened. Somalia's worst drought in 60 years. Families having to walk 17 DAYS just for water, and here I sit at this computer with a water fountain within 10 steps of me, coffee cup in my hand, gatorade in the fridge, the list goes on.
The largest refugee camp in the world is in Kenya I believe, able to care for tens of thousands of people, but they are seeing numbers in the millions come there for food, water, and medical attention. It makes me want to get a medical degree so I can help them, but I know my personal study of the Scriptures will help them infinitely more when I get over there. In case you forgot, Amanda and I still have our calling to be missionaries in Africa, though we are not sure where yet. This is why all of this is really hitting home for us both (see my Tweet @_lrhughes). What if God calls my family and I to Somalia? Then we would obey. "He has everything in His hands.", quoted from a Somalia refugee. That same man said that if he and his family would have stayed in Somalia, they would have died.
There are so many children too; CNN showed a 2 year old with the weight of a newborn. They also showed a newborn with feeding tubes because he was so weak he couldn't eat. It's things like this that we can't ignore. Reading that over makes me want to cry, but I have to pray for them. In my position here now, that is the best thing I can do to help those people out. I have done so ever since I heard about the drought and refugees.
In case you don't know, Somalia is mainly controlled by a militant group linked to the Taliban, they call themselves "El Shabaab". They have banned any sources from contributing aid to the people suffering from the drought, which is why the U.S. won't help out, because they don't deal with terrorists. You can bribe the terrorists to allow you to bring aid in, but they won't do that. I can't blame them, I wouldn't give money to an evil person either.
Here's the thing, the U.S. doesn't deal with terrorists, but Christians do every day. Anyone who is not of God is against him, and in a form or fashion, that would make them a terrorist. We are constantly fighting to pry the fingers of Satan off of the people He has control over.
Satan has control over the militants who hung an 8-year-old boy because his father, a police officer, wouldn't give the militants a police vehicle. Satan has control over the man behind the bombing and shooting in Norway. Satan has control over everything that is not of God in this world. I am telling you, his grip either gets more firm, or more loose every single day. Our duty as Christians is to fight for the Kingdom. Yes, we have already won the battle against Satan, but others have not. Others have not had the Gospel preached to them, others are still in Satan's grasp. We must pray for them, and we must pray that God's Will is done.
My heart breaks for those who are still in Satan's hands. Just flipping through the Bible just now I came across Lamentations 1:16- "For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to receive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed." ESV. We are called to hate sin, and I do hate it, but there are those who sin and are on a path to Hell and there are those that sin and are on a path to Heaven. Do you see the difference? Better yet, do you weep over the difference? Do you pray for the difference?
I promise you, I can feel that Satan has a different grip on the world today than what he had before. There is a new kind of evil He is portraying. Please, read Isaiah 59 and see how evil Satan is. Understand the destruction he can cause. You can't fight against something you don't understand.
I will say this, Satan has hit me a lot closer to home in the last month and a half, than He has in the past two years probably. There is so much He has done that I can't even begin to name it all off. There is so much sin in the world, yet there are so many blessings too! "Count your many blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings see what God hath done."
God willing, I hope to share more thoughts sooner rather than later. Please pray for the people of Somalia and Kenya. Pray for the father of the 8-year-old boy. Pray that Satan's grip would be released from the people of this world. But above all, pray that God would be glorified more every single day.
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