Terrible Violence: Question and Answer

Extracted from BBC News: Thailand's shadowy southern insurgency

Someone is killed on average every day in the provinces on the Thailand's southern border with Malaysia, where a shadowy group of Islamist extremists are stirring up a deepening sectarian divide.

"So many of my relatives have been shot and killed I feel bitter inside. I want to know how to shoot, so I can help people in the village."said Monthira Peng-Iad, a 40-year-old farmer.

In a community in which Muslims and Buddhists used to live side-by-side in peace, her rhetoric shows how divisive the insurgency has been. In just five years 3,800 people have been killed and more than 6,000 injured. But what they want is not totally clear and no group has ever publically admitted they carried out an attack.

"My house was burned down, my husband was shot dead, my daughter was shot and my son disappeared," said Kuang Narumon, a 52-year-old Buddhist.

I do not have time to talk about the atrocities and violent deaths in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other parts of the world.

What could possibly drove a man to carry out acts of senseless violence? How can cruel violent acts such as the Holocaust, Khmer Rouge massacre and Rwanda genocide be possible?

Remember the days of old? "Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways" - Genesis 6:11-12

Ever since the fall of Mankind, sin has spread, deepened and got worse.(Gen 3-6) The only possible answer to horrendous acts like the bombings and killings is sin. There is no satisfactory explanation to why a thinking person would kill himself so that he could kill others - whether those killed are babies, innocent children or bystanders. There is no satisfactory explanation to why a thinking person would smash dead a baby, chop up a child with a machete or shoot an innocent man at pointblank range; except for the fact that it is the wickedness of sin at work.

I know of no other way to deal with this problem the world is facing than to point to that one way. "Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord," Acts 3:19-20, and to "love one another as I have love you," John 15:12.

But who will go?

Participating in God's Global Mission - Yes, YOU!

Traditionally, Christians think that the only way to get involved in missions is to be a full-fledged missionary and travel to some dangerous cannibalistic tribe infested jungle. (Okay, I am over-stereotyping) But I have found many Christians not participating in God's mission work because they do not know how to besides becoming a missionary, or they are simply apathetic. Another reason could be the lack of knowledge - who to pray for? who to give to? where to go and support? what can I help if I can't travel?

So if you're stuck in your own country, or you know you're not going to be a missionary(which IS definitely alright), one of the best ways you can help and participate in God's global mission is to give and support a missionary.

Have you heard of people groups called Gond, Halba, Bhatra, Thakur, Raut and Mahara? You haven't? So do I. But a native missionary I am supporting in India is reaching out to them. I don't have to(and probably can't) be there to tell them that Jesus loves them. A number of these groups are unreached people groups who desperately need the gospel (See: The Joshua Project)

So am I telling you that you can pat yourself and feel good about reaching out to people living overseas without having to lift a finger? NO! I am telling you that you have an OBLIGATION to engage yourself in God's global mission in reaching and discipling people of all nations. And one simple way is to help support a missionary who is in the field doing the outreach work while you serve God by your giving. So why spend money on things that will fleet away? Give some of your money to things that are of eternal value. Support a missionary today(Go to: www.gfa.org)

(P.S. It's only USD30 a month! And it'll go a long way for them!)

The Great Commission and You

"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?" -- David Livingstone, missionary to Africa

"The command has been to 'go,' but we have stayed -- in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth ... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland." -- Robert Savage, Latin American Mission

"'Not called!' did you say?
'Not heard the call,' I think you should say.
Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear Him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters and servants and masters not to come there. Then look Christ in the face -- whose mercy you have professed to obey -- and tell Him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish His mercy to the world. -- William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army

"The Christian is not obedient unless he is doing all in his power to send the Gospel to the heathen world." -- A.B. Simpson, founder of The Christian and Missionary Alliance

"I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ." -- Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, leader of the early protestant world mission movement

"As the Father has sent me, I also send you" -- John 20:21

Are you ready to go?