This world is not whole. This reality was poignantly paraded in front of me in my broken childhood home — and maybe yours too.

Parents burden little children’s shoulders with responsibilities far beyond their capacity to bear healthily. We are celebrated for being “wise beyond our years,” but we know the secret: it’s because we never really got to be kids.

Some young boys are taught by older men that women are objects to be used for pleasure; some young girls are taught by older women that men are scum to be spat upon. Family members abuse and manipulate children physically, verbally, or emotionally. The very persons supposed to protect us instead ignore and harm us. Trust is fundamentally fractured and we scramble to cope. Alone.

Parents fight violently. Fathers and mothers abandon one another. Parents die. Children are blamed for circumstances that are never their fault. We become a sponge for shame and disgust, absorbing every last insult and punch.

There exists no mode but survival.

Nothing Is Hidden from God

Heartbreaking realities exist for the daughters that remain. But God is intimately familiar with each moment of our pasts — both our own sins and the way others have sinned against us. Nothing is hidden from his sight — not our restless longings or our terrors in the dead of night.

Because of our background, we often feel like “damaged goods.” We don’t act according to the standard script. We didn’t have “the right” upbringing or didn’t attend “the right” youth group or didn’t have a chance to develop “the correct” skill set or manners.

Bible verses that are meant to strengthen us leave us feeling insecure: “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones” (Proverbs 12:4). What if you don’t have two (or any) parents? Satan whispers that excellence means the right family, the right status, the right background.

Remember Ruth

Sister, when Satan lies in your ears, remind him of Ruth.

If a woman’s identity and worth were based on her family and background, Boaz would have never considered a woman from a pagan culture, especially a completely destitute one at that. And he would have missed a jewel. Instead, he looked at her faithfulness, her servant-heartedness toward her mother-in-law (whom she technically had no obligation to), and her persistent work ethic. She was excellent in godliness.

In an act that is steeped in the foreshadowing flavors of Jesus, Boaz saw a poor girl who had likely worshiped many idols during her youth in a pagan country and who could offer him little as his bride but her devotion to the Lord.

Instead of disgust, we see grace and pursuit. We see him clothing her and redeeming her in honor as he takes her to be his bride. We see Christ do the same thing with a church who could not find or build or work or good-deed her way to him, so he came after her and clothed her.

My sister, do not deny your trauma. It’s okay to admit hurt. But it’s not okay to wallow in our wounds when we have been healed by our Savior’s.

Do not deny the tears you shed quietly at night so that no one else will hear. Do not deny your frustration that you don’t remember what it’s like to be safe or to be assured of love and protection. But deny the belief that the burdens you bear overpower your Savior’s words, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

You Are Not Less

God’s love is not like human love, sister (Romans 8:38–39). He sees our wounds more clearly than we do. And he wants to draw the poison of distrust and shame and fear out of our wounds, which often hurts — sometimes a lot.

The only thing we have to fear is the Lord who can destroy both the body and the soul (Matthew 10:28), not the perceptions of people (even fellow believers) or of our own hearts. If “the fear of the Lord” truly is the beginning of our wisdom and beauty (Proverbs 9:10; 31:30), and if God is faithful, then those of us emerging from broken homes that fear, love, and seek the Lord will be carried by his Spirit wherever our parents fell short.

Christian households don’t make good Christians; our good God makes dead people alive. No one, broken home or not, is born again without him.

Sister, don’t for a minute think you are less in Christ because of your background. We are all new creations, no matter our past (2 Corinthians 5:17). You are seen. You are loved. You are prized. One day, all the things that have caused your tears will seem as light and momentary afflictions (2 Corinthians 4:17). One day, you will be whole — like him and with him.

Calley Sivils is a college graduate (B.S. Linguistics) growing in love and service to others in a small Missouri town. She writes on her blog, Washedwanderer, and you can reach her on Facebook.

Copyright © 2018, Originally published by DesringGod.com where the featured image was sourced-All rights reserved.

Mum and dad or the state? If you had to make a choice, to whom would you entrust a child’s future? Few sane and rational people, regardless of political persuasion, are likely to plump for the institutions of government over the family. Generally, parents know best, not least when it comes to education.

This ‘truth’ has been challenged most often under totalitarian regimes. From ancient Sparta to modern North Korea, from fascist Italy and Germany to communist USSR and Maoist China, the state acted or acts as a surrogate parent. The maxim attributed to the Jesuits is well understood by such governments – ‘Give me the child for seven years and I will give you the man.’

The extent of human wickedness that can be unleashed when state administrations replace parents was recognised in the wake of World War Two. Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) enshrines the right of parents to educate their children:

Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

For the avoidance of any ambiguity or doubt, in 1966 the UN General Assembly adopted the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It states:

The widest possible protection and assistance should be accorded to the family, which is the natural and fundamental group unit of society, particularly for its establishment and while it is responsible for the care and education of dependent children.

Most countries around the globe have signed up to both the Declaration and the Covenant. Section 7 of the 1996 Education Act in this country reaffirms it.

What a surprise, then, to read in the Sunday Times (February 18, 2018) that a Facebook group of more than 7,000 have felt the need to protest against a parliamentary Bill which they perceive as a threat to the parental right to ‘home school’. Sponsored by Labour peer Lord Soley, the Bill, if enacted, will set up a compulsory register of all school-aged children. The register would enable children to be tracked at least once a year.

Baroness Cavendish, a former Times and Sunday Times journalist and ex-head of David Cameron’s No 10 Policy Unit, has told the Lords it is ‘an outrage’ that the government does not know the precise number of home-educated youngsters. Stories of some children being radicalised, abused, trafficked or, as the Sunday Times put it, ‘simply growing up ignorant’, have triggered the alarm bell.

Strangely, and presumably because they are registered, there seems much less awareness or concern about the same issues impacting on pupils within the mainstream system. ‘Simply growing up ignorant’ is a far greater issue for state school pupils than it is for those being home-educated. According to employers, around 20 per cent of school leavers are unemployable.

Similarly, the requirement for school to teach and promote ‘value-relativism’ under the British Values programme provides fertile territory for radicalising young people. It has led to two recent and well-publicised cases. One involved a class of 12-year-olds being required to write a letter explaining to their family the reasons why they had converted to Islam.

Another was the ‘model lesson’ published by the TES asking young secondary school pupils to imagine they were members of ISIS and to write about the good things that membership brings, such as white slave girls. A link to the ISIS in-house magazine was provided.

Even more remarkable was Ofsted having to downgrade the status of one Church of England school from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ because it was judged to be promoting radical Islam!

We should not turn a blind eye when the right to home schooling is misused. A register may be necessary but not if becomes a vehicle for forcing children into the mainstream. Home schooling is a fundamental human right. A few countries – including Cuba, Belarus, Sweden and Germany but not Russia and China – use legal sophistry to outlaw it.

It is a right that provides a necessary safeguard against, amongst other things, poor teaching, brainwashing in political correctness, force-feeding of so-called sex and relationships education, bullying and Trojan Horse-style radicalisation.

The freedom to home-school is occasionally abused. In promoting this new Bill, however, their lordships should reflect on the adage that hard cases make bad law. The more likely casualties of our education system are not those educated at home but those educated in a mainstream school.

Copyright © 2018, Published by Chris McGovern, The Conservative Woman where the featured image was sourced-All rights reserved.

Controversy swirls around last week’s tragic shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. As is to be expected, the information being revealed about the shootings is sketchy and often contradictory. Arriving at the truth about these events is usually a tortured process. The final story is seldom what it appears at first to be.

Two things are clear to me, though. The first is that certain factions appear to have been poised and ready to strike a blow at the Second Amendment at the first opportunity. As Rahm Emmanuel said — and Hillary Clinton confirmed — one should never let a good crisis go to waste!

The second is that, contrary to what the four students we are seeing across the mainstream media may think, guns alone are not the problem. It is simplistic to think that and will be disastrous to continue to believe it.

Our problems run much, much deeper than guns. America is in a moral freefall. We are at a cultural crossroads and if we choose the simplistic path, we will be doomed to collapse. Sooner, perhaps, rather than later.

In 1962, there were few laws governing the ownership and use of guns. In 1962, there were no school shootings.

In fact, in the entire 20th century, there were 227 school shootings. In the first 18 years of the 21st century, there have been 207! And that alarming number despite the fact that we have an ever-increasing number of ever-increasingly restrictive gun laws.

Now, I’m no rocket scientist, but it seems to me that if school shootings have gone through the roof AFTER we started tightening our gun laws and even creating “gun-free zones” (schools and entire cities), then there is either no relation between the two or the restrictive laws are contributing to the increase in violence.

Why is it that in the “old days,” young men carried rifles to school in the gun racks of their pickups, and some schools even taught shooting classes and competed against each other in shooting competitions, yet we would go entire years with no school shooting incidents?

Simply because guns don’t cause violence. Humans do. And until we realize that we humans are the culprits, we are going to see more incidents as tragic as Parkland, or more so.

The Apostle Paul warned that in the last days, people would be “without self-control, brutal, haters of good….” (2 Timothy 3:3 NASB)

Is that not a perfect description of what we saw last week in Parkland? Or Las Vegas? Or Sutherland Springs? Or San Bernardino? Or Orlando? Or South Carolina? Or Aurora? Or Newtown? Or Columbine? Or… and the list goes on. Unimaginable brutality.

Experts who are much smarter and better informed than I have warned for years that we are raising a generation of “avid videogame players who turned their sick fantasy into our tragic reality.” And, “From a military and law enforcement perspective, violent videogames are ‘murder simulators’ that train kids to kill.” (Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, US Army, Ret.)

Obviously, videogames alone have not bred this climate of violent brutality. Movies, television, the music industry, academia, social media, the breakdown of the family, and more have all contributed to the moral depravity that has engendered such self-centeredness, lack of self-control, and brutality.

But I believe the most critical contributor to this onslaught of violence, brutalness, and terror that now grips our schools and our lives is the fact that America has turned its back on God. When our nation made the decision to begin systematically erasing God and His influence from our national psyche, beginning with our schools, we started down a road that has grown ever darker and more treacherous with each passing day.

It’s like a man who stops eating nutritious foods and taking vitamins, then wonders why he is getting weaker and experiencing greater health problems. What did we think would happen when we decided to cut ourselves off from the very lifestream that has brought America so much blessing, so much abundance, and so much freedom and safety?

In 1962, the US Supreme Court decided that it was no longer constitutionally acceptable to have institutional prayer in our public schools. Of course, that didn’t necessarily stop everyone from praying at school. Ronald Reagan observed at the time that “as long as there are final exams, there will be prayers in school.” But when we proclaimed as a matter of national policy that God and our acknowledgment of Him and His positive influence in our lives was no longer important or acceptable, we did something dangerous. We closed the door to God and opened the door to Satan.

It’s not that America chose Satan over God, we didn’t. But we told God that we didn’t need Him, that we could handle our lives and our futures by ourselves. We didn’t need His influence in our lives, but, most importantly, in the lives of our children. We — through our teachers and professors — were quite capable of raising good kids without Him.

Now, just two generations later, America is on the brink of becoming a third-world nation filled with violence, tribal conflict, poverty, and exploding danger. And I believe it’s largely because we have raised 57 years of children who think God and His principles are not at all important. And why do they think that? Because we taught them exactly that when we kicked God and His influence out of public education — the very place He is most needed!

The prophet Hosea could have easily been describing modern America when he wrote: “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind; it hath no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7 KJV)

We have walked away from God and chosen to trust our own intelligence and abilities. The anemic seed we have sown is now yielding crops we never anticipated or desired: anger, despair, selfishness, hatred, lasciviousness, violence, sheer brutality, and so much more. Doesn’t that sound eerily like the description Paul gave for these times? “…men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:2-4, 7 NASB)

This week, Michael, my son in the Lord, sent me a photograph of a t-shirt. It was emblazoned with a powerful truth. It read: “Dear God, why do you allow so much violence in our schools? Signed, a concerned student.”

Below that was written the reply: “Dear concerned student, I’m not allowed in schools. Signed, God.”

Folks, I’m not saying that one disastrous Supreme Court decision in 1962 caused all of the mayhem that has followed, but it is indicative of the path America chose. It shows that, as a nation, we determined that God was unimportant to us. And when you walk away from God, you must walk toward something, or someone, else. As Bob Dylan once sang, “You gotta serve somebody….”

Also on this week’s program, I will discuss the recent Department of Justice indictment of several Russian nationals and organizations for alleged interference in the 2016 general elections. I will also give you an update on the crisis Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing in Israel.

Finally, I will share with you my thoughts on God’s “chosen people,” the Jews. Many people don’t realize that God chose the Hebrews for some very specific “missions” in this world. Some they fulfilled brilliantly — and all of us who followed have been blessed immeasurably. In others, they failed miserably — and bore the consequences.

But God’s promise remains true to this day: those who bless them will be blessed and those who curse them will be cursed.

On a personal note, I am, at once, saddened and joyful at the passing of our brother, Billy Graham. I believe he was the greatest influence for the Kingdom of God of our time. Truly, only eternity will reveal the impact he had on our world. His influence will always be felt, but his presence will be missed.

I smile when I read what Billy once said. Echoing D.L Moody, one of his heroes, Billy said, “Someday you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God.”

What encouragement for those of us who remain here. We, too, will soon change addresses. What a great day that will be.

So long, Billy. See you soon.

Copyright © 2018 The Hal Lindsey Report–All rights reserved

Abortion, Infidelity and Finding Jesus: The ‘Duck Dynasty’ Redemption Story You’ve Never Heard

Listen to “Duck Dynasty” star Missy Robertson speak with her sister-in-law, Lisa Robertson, about her intensely personal history — and her incredible story of overcoming the odds:

The Robertsons of “Duck Dynasty” fame are surely one of America’s most revered families.

Beloved for their traditional values and faithful demeanor, scores of adoring followers enjoy the family’s perspective on life, parenting and a slew of other contemporary issues.

But the Robertsons have long been clear that they, like everyone else, aren’t perfect, using their past experiences — both good and bad — to help encourage people who might be facing hardship or difficult life circumstances.

Missy Robertson recently sat down with her sister-in-law Lisa Robertson for the latest episode of “The Overcomers” podcast to have a raw and honest discussion about Lisa’s harrowing life story, personal failings and tough-to-navigate fractures within their family.

Up until now, Missy Robertson’s “Overcomers” podcast has focused on the stories of women who have overcome difficult life circumstances such as drug abuse and trafficking, but in the final two episodes of season one, her interviews turn to her own family members, with Robertson opening by explaining why she invited Lisa on her show.

“When I think of an overcomer, I think of my sister-in-law, Lisa,” she said.

And once Lisa started to explain the abuse she experienced as a child and the rocky road that followed, it became evident why Missy included her. Lisa explained that she started going down the wrong path in life after a series of disappointments in her teen years, including initial road bumps in her dating relationship with now-husband Al Robertson; as teens, the two lost contact.

“I started trying to find the love that I had lost from him through other guys, through sex, through drugs, alcohol — it didn’t matter,” she said. “I was hurting and I couldn’t find anything to numb the pain. I would wake up in places and didn’t really know how I got there.”

Then, at age 16, Lisa became pregnant — and had an abortion.

“[The father] wanted to have the baby but I had nobody to talk to,” she said, noting that her parents told her that the only option she had is “to have an abortion.” Looking back, she believes that they, like so many others, had been deceived about what abortion truly entails.

“I think they believed the lie, the lie that it’s not a baby, it’s a blob of tissue and until that baby is born it’s not really a life,” Lisa said. “Because I just don’t believe that my mom and dad would have wanted to snuff out a grandchild.”

She, too, was sold a number of lies about abortion and eventually went through with it, with doctors telling her that it would be akin to taking out something that she didn’t really need, and that she wasn’t really killing anything, because there was — according to them — no life in her womb.

Decades later, though, the pain persists.

“I know that I’m forgiven. God has healed my heart, but you never get rid of that regret,” she said. “It’s a choice that you made.”

After Lisa made that decision, her life spiraled out of control, as she explained that she would leave her house and wouldn’t come home for two or three days. Eventually, though, the partying subsided when she reconnected with Al Robertson and they married.

Despite their love for one another, their marriage eventually hit some roadblocks, which included an emotional affair that Lisa found herself in. The couple resolved the issue, but Alan made it clear that he would divorce his wife if anything like it ever happened again.

Sadly, just five years later, Lisa had a much more serious affair, one that rocked the Robertson family and threatened to end her marriage entirely.

“I had an affair, a full-blown affair and it lasted for 14 months,” she said, noting that living a double life was “hell.” “The guilt was so overwhelming.”

Missy, too, noted that it was a difficult time and that she and other family members could sense that something wasn’t quite right. She explained, “We were close as a family. We were like, ‘Lisa’s acting different.’”

Still, she never expected that it might be an affair. And, once the family learned what had happened, Missy said that it impacted her relationship with Jase.

“It affected mine and Jase’s relationship in a way that I didn’t expect, because when Lisa did that, then all women were bad, all women couldn’t be trusted,” she said. “I had to live through a lot of jealousy and questions with Jase.”

She continued, “It was almost devastating to the family … it hurt all of us so bad, because we felt duped.”

The Robertsons felt that Alan had every legal and biblical right to leave Lisa, but the couple decided to power through and seek healing. Lisa recalled hitting a breaking point where she pleaded with God, “If you’re really there I need you to help me, I need you to rescue me.

… I need to make the Lord of my life Jesus Christ.”

With time, healing did, indeed, unfold, Lisa changed and the family came back together in a beautiful story of restoration.

“Lisa, you’re a new person, I can honestly say that,” she said. “And I love you so much.”

Copyright © 2018 Faith Wire-All rights reserved.

Will strong persecution come to North America in our lifetime?  Seasoned preacher and Christian author David Ravenhill believes it will. He states that in his lifetime, we could see the “underground Church” start in North America because of persecution.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exSfv7h7iA]

Currently around the world, persecution against believers in Jesus Christ is on the rise. Many churches’ theology leaves out the possibility of persecution, because in their lifetimes, they did not have any

However, the Gospels are clear that coming worldwide persecution will happen before Jesus comes a second time:

You will be arrested, punished, and even killed. Because of me, you will be hated by people of all nations. Many will give up and will betray and hate each other. Many false prophets will come and fool a lot of people. Evil will spread and cause many people to stop loving others. But if you keep on being faithful right to the end, you will be saved. When the good news about the kingdom has been preached all over the world and told to all nations, the end will come (Matt. 24:9-14).

You can read below a transcription of David Ravenhill sharing a stern warning of what could happen and the need for revival in the church:

How many of you know that we need revival? Unless we have revival in this nation, we won’t have a nation. My father [Leonard Ravenhill] said, way back in the 80s, that “if America does not concentrate in prayer, it will pray in concentration camps.” And I used to laugh not outwardly, because I respected my father, but inwardly I would think, This is America! The land of the free, the home of the brave. We have a Constitution. We have a Bill of Rights, and so on and so forth.

But I have learned that those things are fast disappearing. And the church is being turned against. We are the ones who are the problem, if you like. We are the ones who speak out against homosexuality and all the other things we know are wrong morally. Yet we are the ones [who] are mocked and laughed at and so on. We will be, I believe in a number of years, driven underground. It would not surprise me that in my lifetime we will have an underground church in North America because of the persecution. And the only answer is revival. The Spirit of God coming and sweeping through this land.

Copyright © 2017 Charisma News Magazine-All rights reserved.

Thousands of Christians are being butchered in Nigeria and whole villages being destroyed. Why are we so unconcerned? Why don’t we care? I believe the biggest reason is that we simply don’t know about what’s happening there. Well, now you know. Here are the facts.

For the last several months, one of my good friends, a Christian missionary serving the poorest of the poor in Nigeria, has been sending me emails with terrifying news. Fulani tribesmen raping and killing villagers. Children being used as Islamic suicide bombers, resulting in scores of casualties. One horrible report after another.

Yet with each email I received, as I scoured the major news agencies in the West, I found nothing reported. Not a word.

At the same time, Nigerian news sources were ablaze with reports of the latest atrocities.

Today, I saw this shocking headline on Jihad Watch: “Nigeria: Muslims wipe out 15 villages in mass slaughter of Christians, government does nothing.”

The article began with this quote, “Despite several calls to the governor and his deputy, and other security apparatus, the government remained silent as the atrocities continued. The Fulani were able to carry out their deadly attack. They stayed for hours in the vicinity, moving at will, unchallenged.”

How could this be? According to Robert Spencer at Jihad Watch, it’s because “Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari clearly has no sympathy for the victims. He shares the world view of the jihadi attackers.”

When I emailed my friend in Nigeria to ask if this were true, she wrote back immediately:

This article doesn’t state which villages, so I am not sure. It is happening every day. The worst this year was the New Year’s Day massacre, followed by a mass burial of 73 victims. There have been many attacks since then. Villages razed, girls and women raped, men butchered. Cutlasses have been replaced by AK-47s. The military has, at times, seemed complicit.

The president only gets upset when there are reprisal killings of Fulani. He himself is a Fulani man and a cattle-rearer. The stated reason is grazing rights. If you object to cows eating your crops, you, your village and maybe surrounding ones will be attacked. It is in every paper, every day. The nation is smoldering. Only Jesus. (Her closing sentence meant, “Jesus is our nation’s only hope.”)

She also sent me this YouTube link, viewed over 180,000 times at present, in which a Nigerian social commentator who lives in the States blasts the president’s alleged inaction (and, worse still, alleged wrong actions).

The video begins with a clip from a pastor, boldly denouncing wickedness in the government and stating plainly that, “The killing, the killing that is going on in Nigeria shows the irresponsibility of the president called Buhari.”

And the pastor urged every Nigerian to fight back, not with weapons but by getting their voter’s cards, urging the people not to let wicked men in government to decide their fate. Yes, he bellowed, “Enough is enough!”

As a result of his sermon, we are informed that a warrant was issued for his arrest.

Outrageous? Absolutely. But Nigeria is a nation divided, with a Muslim majority in the north and a Christian majority in the south, with terrorist groups like Boko Haram still on the prowl, and with systemic governmental corruption.

And as Christianity continues to spread across the nation at an exponential pace, so also persecution is spreading. As reported by Christian Today in 2016, “Muslims are converting to Christianity in northern Nigeria amid rapidly rising levels of Christian persecution, which has seen more than 10,000  Christians killed in five years, according to a new report released today.

“While much media attention has been focused on Islamic State and the plight of persecuted minorities in the Middle East, 11,500 Christians in northern Nigeria were killed in five years between 2006-2014, and 13,000 churches were destroyed, forcing 1.3 million Christians to flee to safer areas of the country.”

As devastating as these statistics are, they are more likely under-reported than over-reported, which again begs the question: Why don’t we care? Why aren’t we raising our voices? Why aren’t we standing with our fellow believers in prayer?

Again, I believe it is largely because of our ignorance.

But if you’ve read this article, you can’t claim ignorance any more. And the first thing you can do to help combat these atrocities is share this article with your friends. Let’s get educated, let’s get praying, and let’s get the word out to the rest of the world until the Nigerian government does what is right – or is replaced by leaders who will.

Copyright © 2018 Dr. Micheal Brown All rights reserved

Justice is giving people what they deserve, but mercy is giving them what they don’t deserve. A man was having his portrait painted and said to the artist, ‘I hope this will do me justice.’ The artist said, ‘It is not justice you need, it is mercy!’ All of us are recipients of God’s mercy. If God did not extend His mercy and grace to us, withholding His judgment, many of us would have perished a long time ago.

Paul said it was the riches of God’s goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering that leads us to repentance (see Romans 2: 4). And the apostle Peter reminds us,

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3: 9).

The Psalmist David knew what it was to blatantly dishonour God, yet it was he that wrote,

Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is he who has forgiveness of his iniquity or transgression continually exercised upon him, whose sin is covered (Psalm 32:1).

That blessed man or woman is anyone who will accept the sacrifice of Jesus and allow Him to be their lawyer before the throne of God. We will all stand there one day. When we do, the Accuser of the brethren will have his say. His evidence is overwhelming. When he screams into our face, “Guilty or innocent?” we will all be guilty.

But before we have a chance to reply, our Lawyer will raise a holy objection. He will step forward and say, “Oh Judge of the Universe, there is a special provision in Your law, and I believe My client can enter a third plea.”

“You have been accused,” the voice thunders from the throne.”Guilty or innocent? How do you plead?”

“Oh Lord, Maker of heaven and earth, I humbly plead the blood of Jesus.” And the party in heaven will begin.

God’s Forgiveness makes it possible to delight in the loving mercy of God so that we are not trapped in the past. John Bunyan beautifully captured God’s merciful forgiveness as he described in Pilgrim’s Progress the burden of sin and guilt that Christian had carried falling off his back and rolling down a hill until it was out of sight. God had forgiven all! That truth from head to heart is the first potion of love.

Reign of Terror, Reign of Love

Now let us contrast this love with another long story of God’s love and forgiveness. This again is from the title of Ugandan pastor, Kefa Sempangi’s autobiography, Reign of Terror, Reign of Love, which yields a remarkable and instructive example of God’s mercy, love and grace.

Sempagi obtained a PhD in art history in the UK and returned to lecture in Uganda at independence, excited at the prospects of his new state. But the dream soon turned sour because of Amin’s reign of terror.

Against this background, Sempangi became the pastor of a large church and was faced with the question of how to respond to this oppression. Although they debated it, church members rejected the use of violence to defend themselves. Instead, the church preached the gospel and served the poor, becoming a shining light in the darkness around it.

We Are Going to Kill You

Sempangi was able to piece together what happened in those fateful days:

Following a service on Easter Sunday 1973, Sempangi was exhausted from hours of praying and preaching. He was also emotionally drained by the memory of a terrible cold-blooded murder in broad daylight that he had witnessed earlier in the week.

Going into his church office alone, he was confronted by five of Amin’s Nubian assassins, who had been sent to kill him. ‘We are going to kill you. If you have anything to say, say it before you die,’ announced the leader of the gang, his mouth twisted with hatred.

What would we do in his place? Sempangi wrote that “for a long moment no one said anything. I could only stare at him.” Sempangi felt so sickened inside and his mouth felt heavy and his limbs began to shake at the thought of death and never seeing his family again. Everything left his control and he thought he was going to drop dead with fear that they would not need to kill him.  But listen to what happened next, as recorded in his own words:

From far away I heard a voice, and I was astonished to realize that it was my own. ‘I do not need to plead my own cause,’ I heard myself saying. ‘I am a dead man already. My life is dead and hidden in Christ. It is your lives that are in danger; you are dead in your sins. I will pray to God that after you have killed me, he spared from eternal destruction.

The leader was amazed. He lowered his gun, told the others to do the same, and asked Sempangi to pray for them. He was so dumbfounded and stunned at this, that the assassin had to repeat the request. Sempangi told them to close their eyes – but he kept his open, as he thought that it might be a strange trick. Any minute, he thought his life would end. He did not want to die with his eyes closed. He then prayed:

Father in Heaven, You who have forgiven men in the past, forgive these men also. Do not let them perish in their sins but bring them to yourself.

He testified that their faces changed – they were not the same men who left the vestry as those who entered it. As he left, the leader observed, ‘I saw widows and orphans in your congregation. I saw them singing and giving praise. Why are they happy when death is so near?’ he asked. Sempangi replied, ‘Because they are loved by God, who has given them life.

The days that followed my Easter brush with death were days for sober thinking. I had felt over the sudden change in their intentions was replaced almost overnight by a deep suspicion. Perhaps the men would now fake conversions to infiltrate the church. After all this was common practice in Communist countries and it was well known that Amin was receiving strategy lessons from the Russians.

The Temptation To Quit Ministry

With all these thoughts heavy on our minds, my wife Penina and I spent long hours together discussing the possibility of my resigning from active participation in the church ministry…Conditions in Uganda seemed to be worsening daily.

Amin was now publicly chanting praises to Adolf Hitler, claiming that Hitler had not gone far enough in burning only 6 million Jews. It became even dangerous for ordinary citizens to drive their cars at night. Most frightening of all, an increasing number of Ugandans were turning against their fellow villagers and townsmen.

Personal grudges which in times past had been forgotten or settled privately were now often occasions for bloodshed. It was easy to bribe army officers to arrest or kill one’s enemies, and there was never any danger for the offended party. Even in the church there was no safety.

I had learned in the past month that one of our most active members, a man on the committee of elders, was informing on our congregation for the government. He was a quite shrewd man, tall and well-built, and extremely skilled in working with his hands. Wherever there was a church project requiring manual skills, he was always the first to volunteer. I had never known him well but when I heard of his spying activities in our congregation I was deeply hurt.

In these conditions, where survival was difficult for everyone, it seemed foolish for me to add to my own danger and the danger to my family by remaining as the head of the Redeemed church. I had no formal or financial connection with the church and many of the elders were equally well-qualified for preaching responsibilities….

“I Hear Their Screams and I Cannot be Forgiven”

Penina and I had all but decided that I should leave the ministry when the tall Nubian I had encountered on Easter morning paid his second visit to the church vestry.

I had just finished counselling a young woman whose husband had been murdered by mercenaries when the man walked through the door. I recognised him immediately, and the same fear I had felt while looking down the barrel of his gun gripped me again. I thought I was going to be killed.

The Nubian nodded a greeting and spoke with the same abruptness as before. ‘Now that I am a balokole, a born again one,’ he asked, ‘what do I do next?’ You need to find a Bible,’ I said ‘I cannot tell you what to do, only Jesus Christ can. You need to read his message and see for yourself.’ I told him, as I told all the new converts, to begin by reading the Gospel account according to John.

The Nubian nodded his assent, and left. Four days later, he was back again. As soon as he walked through the door I could see that he was deeply disturbed. His muscles twitched and he clenched and unclenched his hands as if he could barely keep himself from springing on someone.

‘Read this,’ he said, without any greeting at all. He shoved a Swahili Bible into my hands and pointed to John 8:44. I read aloud:

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

The Nubian looked at me expectantly but I waited for him to speak. ‘Don’t you see,’ he said, his voice trembling. ‘Jesus is talking about me. I have killed over 200 people. I murdered them with my own hands. Nothing stopped me. I never showed mercy. And all the time I thought I was working for Amin but I have been working for Satan. It is he who is my father!’

I remained silent and the man sat down on a nearby chair, weeping. After several moments he became quite and then in a broken voice he told me his story.

All my life,’ he said, ‘I have been dominated by hatred. My stepfather never cared for me, I was always beaten. He beat my mother too and when I saw her lying crushed on the floor I was sick to my stomach. But she never loved me. She hated me and treated me as a burden.

By the time I was a man, I had so much hatred. I never knew love. I started killing people and at first it was hard. But once you kill one person you can go on forever. There is so much guilt; you cannot admit that you hate yourself, and that you have done this terrible thing.

The Nubian spoke so intensely that sweat began dripping his face. ‘I am looking at a man who has come to his end,’ I thought to myself. ‘He has no more mental or emotional strength.’

The Nubian continued with his story.

When we came to kill you on Easter morning,’ he said, ‘we were going to kill you in front of everyone. We were going to show you our power. But we kept sitting in the service. I didn’t hear anything you said. I could only see the widows and orphans who were sitting around me. Some of them I knew. I had killed their men with my own hands, and I expected them to be weeping and mourning. But they were clapping; they were singing songs and were very happy. Their joy made me so afraid. I thought to myself. If for one moment I could understand it, I would give up everything.

‘When we came to this room and you prayed for us, I did understand. I felt something in my life I had never felt before. But now I have read of this man Jesus. And I cannot believe. I cannot be forgiven. My father is Satan. Every night I go to bed and see the faces of the people I have killed. I hear their screams and the screams of their women and children. I never heard them before, but now I hear nothing else. They never leave my heart and I cannot be forgiven.

As I listened to him pour his torment, my fear for own life completely disappeared. I wanted to comfort him, to convince him of God’s forgiveness but could find no words to speak. For a moment I myself even doubted that God would want to forgive such a man. How much human misery he had brought to our lives! How many people had he destroyed? With a great effort I pushed these thoughts aside and picked up my Bible…

I read with the Nubian testimony after testimony of God’s love and forgiveness. When we had finished, the words of Isaiah had become a new and living reality for both of us:

I have swept away your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.

The Nubian prayed that God would continue to reveal to him the truth of His word and together we asked God to empower us by his Holy Spirit that we might believe in the forgiveness of sins.

“I Have Found the Love of Jesus Christ”

On the following Sunday I saw the Nubian again. He and other four men who had invaded the church vestry were now attending our church services and afterwards he came alone to meet me in the vestry. His face was covered with a broad smile and he moved as if he were about to dance.

I have found the love of Jesus Christ,” he said. “I am a new man. I can feel it; my sins have been taken away. A few days ago I was ordered on a raiding mission by my commander. When we came to the house we were supposed to plunder, I pointed my gun in the face of the owner and he was trembling. Then I told him, “You are a dead man. But I have met Jesus Christ and my sins have been forgiven. I am a free man and I will free you. Then I let him go.

I was so happy to see the transformation in the Nubian’s life that I hardly noticed his strange method of evangelism. Later, when it came to mind, I did not know whether to laugh or to sigh. Testifying from behind a loaded gun!

The Blood of Jesus Christ Covers a Multitude of Sins

From this man I learned that the blood of Jesus Christ covers a multitude of sins. The Nubian was a man whose life had been shaped by the absence of God’s love. From the beginning he had been a rejected personality, a man who hated his own image. He had tried to recapture his human dignity by destroying other human beings, but he had only fallen deeper into self-hatred and insecurity.

It was vicious circle: the more he hated himself the more cruelly he acted, and the more cruelly he acted the more he hated himself. But now, by the love of Jesus Christ, he had been released from this bondage. He had found a new and secure identity as a child of God.

Idi Amin rejected God’s Love

I thought of Idi Amin. His father had left him at birth and his mother had toured army barracks as a camp prostitute. His tribe, the Sudanese Nubians, had become notorious for their sadistic brutality and vengeful spirits. Perhaps Amin too was a man who had never known God’s love. Perhaps he too found his self-worth only in hating.

If so, his insecurity could only become paranoia. Hundreds of thousands of people had died at his hand and at the hands of his Nubian mercenaries. In a society of extended families, where death means two hundred enemies, such crimes were unforgivable.

Amin’s enemies were innumerable, and the more he tried to eliminate them, the more new enemies he made. He too was caught in a vicious circle. He would never be able to stop killing. He would never be able to make himself secure.

Unless the love of God had clasped close to the heart of Amin, he would never be confident of who God created him to be.

Final Thoughts

He who is forgiven much loves much. Was it not this same daring courage on the part of the prostitute who walked into the Pharisee’s home Simon and lavished her ointment and tears upon our Lord, just to express her forgiveness?  Jesus said,

Therefore I tell you, her sins, many as they are, are forgiven her-because she has loved much. But he who forgiven little loves little (Luke 7:47).

Love’s first step is to believe and receive fully God’s mercy. I once read somewhere that “only God is able to humble us without humiliating us and to exalt us without flattering us.” That is what His love, grace and forgiveness accomplishes.

One of my favorite movies of all time is the 1981 Chariots of Fire. It’s the only reason many people are familiar with Eric Liddell, the “Flying Scotsman” who shocked the world by refusing to run the one hundred meters in the 1924 Paris Olympics, a race he was favored to win. He withdrew because the qualifying heat was on a Sunday, and he believed God didn’t want him to run on the Lord’s Day.

Liddell then went on to win a gold medal—and break a world record—in the four hundred meters, not his strongest event. (In the black and white photo, that’s the real Eric Liddell in his gold medal winning 400m final at the Olympics.)

My favorite lines from the movie are when Eric’s character, played by actor Ian Charleson, says, “God…made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.” Though those lines were actually penned by screenwriter Colin Welland, I think the real Eric would have agreed with the sentiment. Those who knew him testified that his personal and moral convictions weren’t born of a cold, rigid religious piety, but of a warm, happy devotion to his Lord and Savior. Here’s that clip from the movie, with Eric talking to his sister Jenny.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ile5PD34SS0]

I still remember sitting with Nanci in a large Portland theatre in 1981, smiling and crying through various parts of that unforgettable movie. Chariots of Fire ends with these brief words about Eric’s life after the Olympics: “Eric Liddell, missionary, died in occupied China at the end of World War II. All of Scotland mourned.”

A Tragic Ending?

After the Olympics and his graduation, Eric returned as a missionary to China, where he had been born to missionary parents in 1902. When the Japanese occupation made life dangerous, he sent his pregnant wife, Florence, and their two daughters to Canada.

Japanese invaders placed him in a squalid prison camp, without running water or working bathrooms. There, separated from his family, Eric lived several years before dying at age forty-three. (In 1944, a year before Eric died, Winston Churchill approved a prisoner exchange. As a famous athlete, Eric was granted freedom to return home. Instead, he gave his spot to a pregnant woman.)

Upon learning of Eric’s death, it wasn’t just Scotland that mourned. All over the world people who had been inspired by him in the Olympics and in the Christian life joined the mourning.

On the surface, it all seems so tragic. Why did God withhold from this great man of faith a long life, years of fruitful service, the companionship of his wife, and the joy of raising those beloved children? It makes no sense.

And yet…

There is another way to look at the Eric Liddell story. Nanci and I discovered this firsthand when we spent an unforgettable day in England with Phil and Margaret Holder, in May of 1988. We knew almost nothing about the Holders except that Phil was a pastor. Some missionary friends we were visiting in England took us to their home in Reading.

Margaret was born in China to missionary parents with China Inland Mission. In 1939, when Japan took control of eastern China, thirteen-year-old Margaret was imprisoned by the Japanese in Weihsien Internment Camp, where many foreigners in Beijing were sent to. There she remained, separated from her parents, for six years.

Margaret told us stories about a godly man she called “Uncle Eric.” She said he tutored her and was deeply loved by all the children in the camp. She looked at us and asked, “Do you know who I’m talking about? Uncle Eric’s name was Eric Liddell.” I recall like it was yesterday how stunned we were because Chariots of Fire was such a favorite movie, and we’d watched it several times in the seven years since it was released. Here we were learning inside information about one of our heroes!

Uncle Eric’s Influence

Margaret shared with us a story that illustrated this man’s Christlike character. In the camp, the children played basketball, rounders, and hockey, and Eric Liddell was their ref­eree. Not surprisingly, he refused to referee on Sundays. But in his absence, the children fought. Liddell struggled over this. He believed he shouldn’t stop the children from play­ing because they needed the diversion.

Finally, Liddell decided to referee on Sundays. This made a deep impression on Margaret—she saw that the athlete world famous for sacrificing success for principle was not a legalist. When it came to his own glory, Liddell would surrender it all rather than run on Sunday. But when it came to the good of children in a prison camp, he would referee on Sunday.

Liddell would sacrifice a gold medal for himself (though he ultimately won the gold in a different race) in the name of truth, but would bend over backward for others in the name of grace.

A Godly Example

Mary Taylor Previte, imprisoned at Weihsein as a child, described Eric as “Jesus in running shoes.” Dr. David J. Mitchell, who was also one of the children at the camp, wrote how besides sports, Eric Liddell taught the children his favorite hymn:

By still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain
Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Dr. Mitchell also wrote:

Eric Liddell often spoke to us on I Corinthians 13 and Matthew 5. These passages from the New Testament clearly portray the secret of his selfless and humble life. Only on rare occasions when requested would he speak of his refusal to run on the Sunday and his Olympic record.

…Not only did Eric Liddell organise sports and recreation, through his time in internment camp he helped many people through teaching and tutoring. He gave special care to the older people, the weak, and the ill, to whom the conditions in camp were very trying. He was always involved in the Christian meetings which were a part of camp life. Despite the squalor of the open cesspools, rats, flies and disease in the crowded camp, life took on a very normal routine, though without the faithful and cheerful support of Eric Liddell, many people would never have been able to manage.

…None of us will ever forget this man who was totally committed to putting God first, a man whose humble life combined muscular Christianity with radiant godliness.

What was his secret? He unreservedly committed his life to Jesus Christ as his Saviour and Lord. That friendship meant everything to him. By the flickering light of a peanut-oil lamp early each morning he and a roommate in the men’s cramped dormitory studied the Bible and talked with God for an hour every day.

Marcy Ditmanson, a Lutheran missionary imprisoned with Eric, shared his recollections:

Eric spoke with a charming Scottish brogue, and more than anyone I had ever known, typified the joyful Christian life. He had a marvelous sense of humor, was full of laughter and practical jokes, but always in good taste. His voice was nothing special, but how he loved to sing, particularly the grand old hymns of the faith. Two of his favorites were “God Who Touches Earth with Beauty” and “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.” He was no great orator by any means but he had a way of riveting his listeners with those marvelous, clear blue eyes of his. Yes, that’s what I remember most about him as he spoke―those wonderful eyes and how they would twinkle.

Full Surrender

Though he had become an “uncle” and father figure to numerous children, Eric Liddell never saw his own wife and daughters in this world again. After writing a letter to Florence from his bed in the infirmary, he said to his friend and colleague “It’s full surrender” and slipped into a coma. Suffering with a brain tumor, he died in 1945. And while all Scotland mourned, all in Heaven who had cheered Eric on as a servant of Jesus gave him a rich welcome.

Through fresh tears that unforgettable day in their living room, Margaret Holder told us, “It was a cold February day when Uncle Eric died.” No one in the world mourned like those in that camp. When five months later the children were rescued by American paratroopers and reunited with their families, many of their stories were about Uncle Eric. Liddell’s imprisonment broke the hearts of his family. But for years—nearly to the war’s end—God used him as a lifeline to hundreds of children, including Margaret Holder.

Viewed from that perspective, the apparent tragedy of Liddell’s presence in that camp makes more sense, doesn’t it? I’m convinced Liddell and his family would tell us—and one day will tell us—that the sufferings of that time are not worthy to be compared with the glory they now know…and will forever know. A glory far greater than the suffering which achieved it.

In an interview with Liddell’s youngest daughter, Maureen, who he never met, she shared this after visiting the granite monument in China dedicated to her father’s memory: “I felt so close to him and, more than ever, I realized what his life had been for. It all made sense. What happened allowed him to touch so many lives as a consequence.”

Her sister Patricia agreed:

The number of people he’s influenced … well, things seem to add up, don’t they? You only appreciate it when you look at each stage of his life and make the connections between them. …I used to ask myself: How would things have turned out if the three of us and our mother had been in the camp with him? Then I understood my father would have spent less time with the other youngsters, which would have deprived them of so much. That didn’t seem fair to them. He was needed there. The stories we heard after his death prove that.

If we can look at Eric and his family’s tragedy, and others’ tragedies, and see some divine purpose in them, it can help us believe that there is purpose in our own tragedies too. It can help us believe the blood-bought promise of God: “all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, CSB).

A Joyful End

Though years ago I had been deeply touched by Liddell’s story watching Chariots of Fire, it was what Margaret Holder told us that day that really made me look forward to meeting in Heaven this man whose Olympic gold medal was nothing compared to his humble service for Christ.

Dr. Norman Cliff, who was imprisoned with Eric, recalled this:

Eric Liddell would say, “When you speak of me, give the glory to my master, Jesus Christ.” He would not want us to think solely of him. He would want us to see the Christ whom he served.

I’m counting on Eric, in his resurrection body on the New Earth, being able to move slowly enough for me, in my resurrection body, to run alongside him. Together, we’ll worship our Lord and Savior, the One to whom all glory and praise is due.

You might enjoy this last clip of Eric racing in Chariots of Fire. He was known for looking face up to breathe deeply, and sometimes flailing his arms. His reckless abandon and face skyward beautifully symbolize how he set his eyes on the risen Christ in Heaven.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPB7r0UpNIE]

If you wish to know more, here’s an article on Eric’s life, and here’s another I read and loved, about his life after the Olympics. Also, if you’d like to read more about Margaret’s story, in my book The Grace and Truth Paradox I tell about her and the other prisoners’ rescue from the camp by Americans.

Copyright © 2018 Randy Alcorn Eternal Perspective Ministries-All rights reserved.