BBD 06.06.14 Confronting Evil (New)
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The Burning
Bush Devotional
06.06.14
Confronting Evil
Then Esther told them to reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather all the Jews
who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three
days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the
king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” - Esther 4:15-16
NKJV.
The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the
provinces of King Ahasuerus to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no
one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people. - Esther
9:2 NKJV.
Thus the Jews defeated all their enemies with the stroke of the
sword, with slaughter and destruction, and did what they pleased with those who
hated them. - Esther 9:5 NKJV.
Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass
some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize
Peter also. - Acts 12:1-3 NKJV.
Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered
to God for him by the church - Acts 12:5 NKJV.
Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in
the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, “Arise
quickly!” And his chains fell off his hands. - Acts 12:7 NKJV.
Today, June 6th, is the 70th Anniversary of
the D-Day invasion with some 150,000 allied troops taking part in the attack at
Normandy, France. Allied casualties were 12,000 with 4,414 confirmed dead.
German casualties have been reported at around 1,000. D-Day was a horrific part
of World War II, but the horror was far greater than a single day. We can begin
to understand a little of the horror of World War II by considering the total
deaths during that war. Battle deaths are listed at 15 million. Battle wounded
25 million. Civilian deaths 45 million although in China alone civilian deaths
are thought possibly to have been as high as 50 million people. These numbers
are from http://www.nationalww2museum.org There are 41 countries reported as having
suffered people being killed during the war; although, every country was
affected to some degree. There was a very high horrific cost in confronting the
evil Hitler had planned for this world. However, it is clear that the cost of
not confronting that evil would have been far higher.
Evil did not disappear after World War II ended. There have been
countless wars and conflicts across our world since then. There are still wars
and conflicts today. The enemy has morphed into new faces and has new tactics
of operation. Terror is the new face of evil which we have seen up close and
personal in the many horrific bombings and other types of attacks like 9/11.
However, evil is insidious, evil is sneaky, evil is evil and is lurking
everywhere just below the surface. We have seen evil surface with the school
shootings in the United States and other countries too, but in China they have
had knife attacks. We have had the Tylenol poisonings, the Unabomber, and the
rise of the cults. Just this week we learned of Slenderman and of the two
12-year-old girls stabbing another 12-year-old girl in an attempt to please
this imaginary character that someone made up. Evil it appears is alive and
well on planet Earth.
How do we confront evil? Sometimes evil must be physically
confronted as with home invasions, carjackings, kidnappings, robberies, terror
attacks, and in war. But I would submit to you that there was a supernatural
war raging at the same time the physical war was raging during World War II. At
the beginning of the war the Germans had better planes, batter tanks, better
machine guns, they had rockets and were working on “heavy water.” They had
better everything than the Allies had. In the Pacific, the war began with a
devastating attack on Pearl Harbor. The Japanese had the advantage with better
planes and a much large fleet of ships. While the physical fight was being
fought with guns, bullets, and blood the supernatural fight was being fought by
millions of people on their knees in prayer.
Just because we do not see a physical manifestation of evil does
not mean that evil does not exist and that it is not a threat to us personally
and all that we love. We must engage in the battle against evil every day. We
must pray, and pray hard every day for God to protect us from the evil that is
lurking in the background waiting for an opportunity to pounce. Evil may not be
as visible as it was during World War II, but it is perhaps an even more
dangerous threat to us today. New weapons, new diseases, new avenues of
temptation and new tactics are being used by a supernatural enemy. We must
respond with the ageless weapon of prayer. Does prayer make a difference? Yes!
Prayer has always been and still is a difference maker. Let us pray, and pray
hard for all that we love and is good upon this Earth.
Copyright © 2014. Ed Wrather. The
Burning Bush website has been online since January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998
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