In the short time I’ve been allotted in this life so far, I’ve witnessed unconscionable evils perpetrated by satan against man, by sin against man, and by man against man. I wasn’t around for the first set of California riots that surrounded the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but I watched Cali revisit a similar response for a relevant, yet less significant (it seemed back then) social ill in the recorded beating of Rodney King by the LAPD.
It shocked the world at a time when the world wasn’t ready for the invasion and exposure of private matters that this particular incident would foreshadow. Fast forward twenty-plus years later, and not only is EVERYTHING recorded, seemingly in real time thanks for tech-savvy purveyors, but the astonishing aspect that we’ve continued to overlook is the rampant, ratcheted-up manifestation of sin, through demonic forces, that causes individuals compassion and even self-preservation to be willingly tossed aside because of their overwhelming case of the “can’t-help-it’s”.
Within not even a calendar year’s time, we’ve dealt with multiple issues of violence by police against citizens that have ended fatally, each making national news, but none seeming to stay the other. Michael Brown, Erik Gardner, and most recently Freddie Gray. Actually, the list of documented deaths over the last few years at the hands of the police is reaching a laundry proportion. Now, don’t get me wrong, the Bible told us these things would come to bear (1 Tim.4:1); but we’re not talking about the fact that the Bible told us ahead of time. Perhaps a source that could prophecy that these things would occur, not could, could also provide us the proper was to respond. We’re attacking this wrong…
Burning Places As we watch cars set on fire, neighborhoods were people have built homes and livings for themselves and their families demoshlised in fits of rage, it’s easy to mock the fruit of what we’re seeing, but there’s no solution in that. Can we expose the root? Can we talk about the disconnect between the church and the community? Can we talk about disregard for the church by the community? Can we talk about the generations that are no longer attempting to “train up” their children in the ways of the LORD, but have become content to allow the “village” to do it (look at the village, and the villagers, now)? Can’t we surmise, since nothing else has been able to quench the insatiable desire to make chaos an intelligible response, that this is something bigger than anything flesh and blood can conquer? Aren’t we witnessing our own frailty on display?? As a nation, we cheat on GOD then divorce HIM, the ONE that not only founded the United States (sorry, Columbus), but created the earth, but then bemoan the unrivaled hurt that our adultery has produced??? “Us against the world” backfires when we fail to realize that the “world” is not where you live, but a system in which you live. The world can be burned out of our hearts, and in order for change to occur, it must be.
Burn things. Slavery is a place in the mind that takes up residence in the heart when not abated and deviated from. This mentality of kill or be killed comes from a slave mentality that says this is the only way out or up. It’s neither.
Burn places. Ignorance is a thing. Think it isn’t? How much of What’s going on today has been prompted by information people DON’T have? Ignorance says, “Here’s your chance!” without telling you “chance to do what…” or warn you of the consequences.
Burn things. Poverty is a place. It has to be, otherwise people could never leave it. And I know, you might argue that it’s more of a mindset than anything, but you can’t tell that to someone who grew up there or may still live there. Burn places. Sin is a thing, and as long as “it” is, these types of behaviors will persist. And while the entire world won’t be (not that it can’t be) rescued from sin, entire PEOPLE can be (2 Cor.5:17, 2 Chron.7:14). Sin drives men to forget they’re on camera. Sin drives people to destroy the very places they call home. Sin drives a nation to forget the GOD that birthed and at one time covered it. Sin is a thing.
Burn things. The unrest is unsettling, but it should in no way be surprising. Sin, along with everything else anti-GOD and anti-CHRIST have gone unchecked for too long. Speeches are great and can be galvanizing, but the KINGdom of GOD is to be demonstrated in power. Injustice? Sin. Death? Sin. Corruption? Sin. The line for the things we hate in this life, the chord that connects the things that try so hard to being us under subjection and control, are easily traced back to the one thing that separates you and I from the GOD that created us. Sin.
Burning up, burning out, can actually be quite effective responses to things that we hate. It is, though, a matter of burning the RIGHTplaces and the RIGHT things. Out GOD is a consuming fire; let’s pray HIS will be done.
PS: Places and things carry spirits along with them (Eph.6:12); another reason as to why they must be burned out, and off, of us…#Maranatha
Please share your thoughts below on how we can effectively combat both the ignorance and injustice…let your voice be heard. I love y’all…
KD