Return!

        This will be a touchy subject, especially for people who don’t normally acknowledge this from a biblical perspective, but I have to write about it. I have to expose the darkness in my life in order to give you, O reader, an understanding of why I walk with God as I do. Abuse is not an easy subject to talk about, but my heart is filled with this topic. Please read this blog until the end because there are a lot of gems in it to dig up. There are a lot of different kinds of abuse, but I will only name a few of them: physical and emotional. It’s very easy to see bruises, cuts, and wounds on your skin, but it’s very difficult to see bruises, cuts, and wounds on your heart.

        Man can see the wounds on your skin—no matter if you or someone else inflicted them. A person you love—a parent, a lover, a sibling, or a friend—threatens you, punches you, cuts you, and even threatens murder on you. How do you deal with that? Is there that much hatred that murder is even considered an option? It is true what Jesus said: “Because lawlessness abounds, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12). There are black eyes, bruised rips, lashings on the back, knife wounds, gunshot wounds, and the list goes on and on. Why? It…just breaks my heart to even comprehend this, but it’s the reality of the times. The reality of a culture pushing God out by not keeping the Law of God as He spiritually intended: with love. John wrote: “God is love” (I John 4:8) “, and in Him there is no sin” (I John 3:4). John also said: “Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” (I John 3:4).

        In other words, we need to keep the 10 commandments given to Moses (Exodus 20) as God, through Jesus Christ, spiritually intended (John 1:17 & Matthew 5:17 & John 14:15). If we don’t keep them, we commit lawlessness, and as Jesus said, a cold heart is an effect of abounding lawlessness. Love for God and others is pushed aside to Narcissism or, worse yet, hate for self and others. Abuse happens because of a cold heart doing lawless deeds on another or self. This happened at Columbine, Virginia Tech, and most recently, Denver Movie Theater Shooting. A cold-hearted mad man with intent to murder—intentionally breaking the 6^th commandment—goes to a movie theater at midnight and shoots random people in a Russian roulette. The man didn’t care who it was that he was murdering—didn’t matter if it were military, women, or little children. The man’s heart was cold as ice because he chose to walk in the way of Cain: Genesis 4:4-16 and I John 3:12. Is this what you really want to happen, O America? Are you going to seek God and choose to keep His commandments backed with love?

Now, O Man, you can see the effects of the wounds on your heart, the heartache, the sorrow, the inner pain, the depression, the despair, etc, but man cannot see the actual wound, and what caused them. God can see all the actual wounds, and knows how to heal them. Remember all the healings, the rebuking of evil spirits, and the forgiving of sins? Remember all the things Jesus Christ did during His Ministry? Here’s the start of it:

“So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,^[j]
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”^[k]

Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” So all bore witness to Him, and marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” (Luke 4:16-20).

            Return to Him, O America! Return to your first Love, O Bride of Christ! We are reliving the days of Hezekiah, and repentance is the only way to save us from judgment. Seek the Will of God, and forsake your own way. Love and not hate, build up instead of break down, heal instead of bruise, bind up instead of cutting, be a shield for the helpless instead of a shooter of them: Keep all of God’s commandments!