Day 363: Terrorism

By t.pep.me | December 29, 2014 |

Proverbs 29:25 (Amplified)

The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever leans on, trusts in, and puts his confidence in the Lord is safe and set on high.

Principle

It’s a cowardly generation that will not fight the foe who will one day enslave their children.

A terrorist’s weapon is fear. Their cause is destruction and death. They broker on mutilating the innocent, causing others to capitulate to irrational demands. Terrorism is the art of war for the ignorant and the coward. The radical leaders recruit the disfranchised from society, strap a bomb on their bodies, promise them a reward in heaven and use them for their advantage.

The culture is driven by the propaganda of spineless talking heads who are naively becoming the mouthpiece for the terrorist—spewing their stupidity and delusional religion.

How do we respond?

Let me give you a short story to illustrate.

During a transitional time, my family lived in a cul-de-sac neighborhood. My next-door neighbor had a reputation for being a bully. He felt that he was the master and everyone who lived there was subject to his rantings. For some reason, the others put up with his foolishness.

I was away on a trip when he bullied my young son. When my wife came out of the house to see what was going on, he turned his drunken mouth spewing his cuss words and inappropriate language toward her.

When I returned and found out about the situation, I spoke kind and comforting words to my wife and strengthened my son’s confidence. Then I walked out of the house.

It wasn’t long until my neighbor walked out to turn his wrath toward me. I turned toward him and began to speak directly toward him, approaching him at a calm and confident pace. When I reached a point when he could hear my soft commands, I said, “Dennis, you will calm down and shut your mouth. You will never speak to my family again. If you ever do, I will deal with you man-to-man. Do you understand me?”

He snuffed his alcoholic breath to say, “And you call yourself a Christian?”

“Yes, I do. And my theology will allow me to defend my family and beat you to a pulp!” I replied.

He quickly turned and scrambled back to his house to sober up.

It was interesting to see the residual effect of that encounter. The neighbors were suddenly coming out of their homes more often, waving at each other, smiling, and being friendly. For weeks, Dennis would scurry into his home whenever he would see me.

If we allow men to cause us to fear, we will become paralyzed into inaction. They will get what they want by intimidation. However, if we stand up to their tactics, they will crawl back into their caves.

Don’t be a coward.