What We Owe Beheaded Children

Posted on August 8, 2014 by Lori Stanley Roeleveld

What unspeakable horror of which we must now speak.

So many headlines have bombarded my vision, my senses, my soul through my fifty plus years but this one, this one grabs my heart and tears it open like a gorilla at a bag of chips.

ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) is reportedly slaughtering Christians and doing it with the intent to horrify others into converting to Islam before they find their own necks touched by a callous blade. They film their barbaric acts, televised terrorism, which includes ravaging women and beheading children.

I won’t go on. But it begs the question – what do we owe beheaded children, crucified men, and tortured women?

We can’t unknow what is being reported. We can’t jump in planes and gather the children, their parents, their broken bodies in our arms. We also cannot allow the darkness to cripple us with fear, sadness, or hatred. These are the weapons of darkness, not light, and if we yield to them, we kneel before the same idol as the terrorists. So, what do we owe those who fall?

First, we owe them to bear witness to the crimes against them. As horrible as it is to know that children are being beheaded, we dishonor them by hiding our faces in the sand. This is part of the pain of the end times, bearing witness to the horror. Still, the suffering of hearing these unpleasant truths pales in comparison to the suffering of those who must live it but this is our pain, the pain of being witnesses who refuse to turn away.

If we turn away and refuse to know, we aid the enemy in their efforts, we tell the victims they die alone, unnoticed, we say to the world we are cowed by evil. Only by the strength available in Christ can our eyes remain open but open they shall remain. We won’t blindfold ourselves.

Second, we owe them to live lives worthy of Jesus Christ. Every five-year-old who falls by the sword should be a reminder to us that God has shown us grace simply by choosing the land in which we were born. That might have been our child. It might have been us. It should magnify our gratitude. It should galvanize our desire to live life to the fullest. In the name of these babies slaughtered, we can refuse to take our own lives in Christ for granted. We can live out the freedom granted us by the eternal lives blazing within us like a thousand suns. We owe these ones who have been robbed of life to not waste a moment of ours.

Third, we can refuse to pick up the weapons of darkness – fear, hatred, bloodshed, rage, and violence – but instead, wield the weapons at our disposal in Jesus Christ. We will learn to battle on our knees, moving the forces of heaven with our prayers. We will force back the darkness by aiming our light in its direction. We will refuse to remain ignorant, blind, and silent. We will not stand idly by but neither will we engage them on the field of their choosing. We will force them to fight where they are destined to lose – in the realm of the kingdom of God. Do you know prayer warriors? Apprentice with them. Ask them to teach you to battle in prayer. Build up your endurance for the long siege to come.

Fourth and finally, we can prepare for the time to come. Those who have fallen in the name of Jesus will wake to see His face. If they could speak to us from beyond, they would say “Be ready. Strengthen your hearts, your minds, your souls in Christ Jesus for the day they paint the mark on your door, for the day they aim the sword at your throat, for the day they come to slay your children.”

Know the One in whose name you pray and for whose name they were cut down. For even as the soil of Iraq and Syria absorbs their shed blood, their spirits are entering the kingdom of Christ where pain and suffering are no more. Those who struck them down have no hope unless they repent and call on the name of Christ to be saved. Those who struck them down are already dead, but we are alive forever. Know God’s word. Rid your life of sin and fear. Listen to God and move forward in faith when He speaks.

I know that some of you, loved ones, are more sensitive and tenderhearted than others. I know this is hard. It’s painful to bear witness and awful to hear of these atrocities. Jesus Christ will make us strong. He will make us able to bear up – those who face the sword and those left to wrestle with the knowledge of their violent deaths. He is with us all.

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.  For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” Hebrews 10:35-39 (ESV)

What do we owe beheaded children? We owe them to live for the One in whose name they died.

This is a time to share our courage and strength. How else can we battle for those who have fallen? What scripture passages shall we pray? What news outlets are most reliable? Let’s share what we know here in the comments so we can act when we can, pray with wisdom, and support those who still live in the path of the blade.

We need to encourage one another, loved ones. Are you in for company along the narrow road? Click on the bar above that says “I’m in” and learn how to be a part of our little band of followers or Click Here to subscribe or contact me. Mercy and grace, Lori

Thank you Lori for not only giving permission to share this but also for encouraging people to share

St George: cappuccino?

Last week, being asked about George, I mentioned that whilst he took up the job of England's Patron Saint in 1348, he's not English (or even British) but came from  Cappadocia (which is in Turkey these days)! 'You're having me on!' came the response, 'Cappuccino?' So here's what I told them (and they still didn't really believe me until they'd read some of the same in the notes in the commemorative menu!

A high ranking Roman soldier on a par with being a Major General and heading to the Senate for sure, George became a Christian (often a good career stopper now and it was then ;-)  ) and so found himself at odds with Diocletian, a bit of a nasty anti-Christian sort; but being a proven fighter, George took on Diocletian (and with him the Empire too) and this was the dragon he fought until on this day in 303 AD (at the age of thirty-three - bit like someone else I know) he was put to death. Not a cross like the other thirty-three year old but beheading brought George's end.

On the way though, and because of the way he lived subsequent to coming to faith and in the way that he died, Diocletian's missus also came to faith and so Diocletian had her killed too (no sense of humour some folk).

George's battle with Rome was depicted as him fighting a dragon and the tales grew out of this allegorical imagery (cf. Revelation where empires and power are depicted in similar vein) and came to our shores thanks to these stories which so inspired the Crusading forces. So much so that they took up his sign and fought in his and England's name (and let's not forget Harry either) and so we have a Saint!

Not a local lad but an inspiration:

A man's man - no namby pamby soft touch - having served and acquitted himself well.

A determined and resolute man - took on Diocletian and won even though he lost his head!

An example to us all (for this is what Saints are - examples as to attitude, belief, lifestyle and sometimes, death too!!

As that well known scribbler of soaps and other TV shows, Bill Shakespeare puts it in his soap: King Henry V:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead. 
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man as modest stillness and humility: 
But when the blast of war blows in our ears, then imitate the action of the tiger; 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage; 
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; 
Let pry through the portage of the head Like the brass cannon; 
let the brow o'erwhelm it as fearfully as doth a galled rock 
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide, 
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit to his full height. 

On, on, you noblest English. 
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof! 
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, 
Have in these parts from morn till even fought 
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument: 
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest 
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you. 
Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 
And teach them how to war. 

And you, good yeoman, 
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear 
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not; 
For there is none of you so mean and base, 
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
Straining upon the start. 

The game's afoot: 
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge 

Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'