Followers of Jesus and ISIS and ISIL

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Early this morning, 11.16.14,  it was announced that a man had been beheaded.  It made me very sad for his family.  They had begged for his life to be spared since he converted to the Muslim religion.  ISIS/ISIL didn't care what his religion was if it was not their own brand of the Muslim religion.

Jesus came into this kind of world.
I was reading Luke 3 this morning.

This verse jumped out.
19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.

Later John was beheaded because of His commitment to God's ways.  Jesus was on the cross experiencing a cruel death and said, "Father forgive them."  "It is finished."  The heart of Jesus is for all humans to come to know God's grace.

Grace transforms us into givers to meet the needs of the poor.  Someone with two coats can give one to the poor.
Grace transforms us to be peacemakers instead of conversion by the sword.
Grace transforms us to stop thinking of how to slander others and instead how to bless them.
Grace transforms us to be content with what we have instead of killing to get the things of others.

Luke 3 says that Jesus was the Messiah who would change the world through the Holy Spirit.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit of God does not mean our lives will always be comfortable.  The early followers were thrown into prison.  Once in Acts  16 a couple of them were beaten and abused and their response was to sing hymns of praise to God.  It caused an earthquake.  It lead to the jailer who had beaten them to almost commit suicide, but he was saved physically and spiritually through the gospel delivered by those whom he had beaten.

So the good news of Jesus as the King has started in a manger in Bethlehem and spread out to where about 2 billion people claim to follow Jesus.

Jesus is Lord.  Not violence.  Not ISIS.  Not ISIL.  Jesus is Lord.

Larry Wishard

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