Please keep praying for Pastor Pitts Evans as he fully accesses this window of ministry to Sierra Leone. 2 Thess. 3:1-4.
Tonight—Jon & Jolene at the Gate DC! Prophetic swirl continues. 7:30 pm Whole Word Fellowship, Oakton VA. Key teaching on the Court of Heaven!
Last night was revelatory. Thanks to all who joined us, and all who prayed from home. God certainly fanned the flame!
Speaking of flames… President Obama generated a genuine fire-storm Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast. So much so that I waited an extra day until things cooled down.
Pundits blared their accusations over his alleged comparisons between ISIS and Christianity as he referenced the Crusades. You probably all saw the headlines, featuring Obama’s quote on “Terrible deeds in the name of Christ.” He essentially warned against the potential of history repeating itself as we move forward today.
Dear friends, in my opinion, President Obama made a very valid point. And as he encouraged, we all need to embrace humility. Do I fully trust his motives? Nope. Nor do I fully trust most motives of most Washington DC leaders.
Crusades, Inquisition, Holocaust
But in a recent posting I advocated for voices of the Holocaust to be showcased during the Prayer Breakfast. And in a very real way the Lord answered those prayers through President Obama’s statements. Because the Crusades and the Inquisition actually became the seedbed of the Holocaust.
In 1095, Europe saw the launch of the first official Crusade. And in 1096, Europe saw its first major, homegrown Pogrom. In Rhineland, now Germany.
Some 800 years after these events, Adolf Hitler dug into the soil of this horrific garden and watered a few seeds that remained. And the horror of the Holocaust was unleashed.
Take a moment to fathom this. We may be centuries removed from Crusades and Pogroms, but we are only 70 years removed from the Holocaust. And the threat of another remains today.
Ceaseless Repentance
I am grateful for the ceaseless efforts of Christian leaders and intercessors over the past 70 years to take responsibility for generations of sin, to repent and make restitution where possible, to forge a new way forward. In humility, to recapture the roots of true Christian faith and disengage from the embedded anti-Semitism that had polluted it over centuries.
Together our faith has literally been transformed. To the extent that now, authentically, Christians on a global basis have become the strongest supporters of Israel and God’s chosen people. Rediscovering in process the ancient truth that we have actually been grafted into their precious covenantal heritage with God, and their covenantal destiny.
Really the mercy of God is extraordinary! And what the enemy meant for evil, He always turns for good.
But the relentless identificational repentance was not directed towards the Jewish people alone. Because our historic prejudice and atrocities during the Crusades were not towards Jewish people alone, but towards Muslims as well. We have wept together in repentance, pursued reconciliation, and have tasted just a little of God’s dream for their great destiny.
Ishmael means, “God hears my cry.” And amidst the crises that have devastated families, cities and even entire nations, the sons and daughters of Ishmael must know that our cries are being joined with theirs for freedom. And our arms, in Christ, must as well be extended.
Warning! We Must Resolve
Mr. President, in humility I offer a Spirit-empowered suggestion—one your own speech referenced. Through the centuries warnings of impending religious persecution have too-often been drowned out by the dual sins of bigotry and appeasement. The dismissal of these warnings has unleashed tragedy time and time again.
Yet warning sirens are resounding unmistakably again today. My greatest hope is that diplomacy will authentically win out. But I will put an even greater weight on the words of warning coming from so many at this time—including Israeli PM Netanyahu.
Because as you noted, the dark legacies of Pogroms and Holocausts and Crusades and Jihads are speaking so clearly to us today. And as with Europe before WWII, if our diplomacy is too fragile to withstand the warnings of outside voices, then it will inevitably be too fragile to overcome the forces within these voices are warning about in this hour.
Mr. President, as you made clear, the potential for history to repeat itself today is honestly all too real. We must resolve that these travesties of justice, including and especially the targeting of the Jewish faith and race for destruction, NEVER BE ALLOWED AGAIN.
Jihad is specifically required by Islam. Crusades were an abberation. While they grow in the same field called “Christianity”, tares are never wheat, and wheat are never tares.
Good word, Jon.
Thanks Jon. I also thought our President had a valid point.
I’m sorry Jon, but I am shocked that you would consider any of the president’s remarks to have any validity. He calls evil good and good evil. This one man has the nerve to lecture us from his agnostic high horse. I think you have given him far more credit than he deserves under the scriptural mandate to pray for our leaders. He is as close to a dictator as this nation has ever seen and short of praying that he be broken from his Antichrist position, you are waisting precious prayers thinking this man is anything but the result of us failing to repent as a nation. I think he has become consumed by his narcissistic power and we should be praying for impeachment and his removal. Logan