Happy Monday to you!
We live in a world filled with natural wonders. Throughout the nations are amazing landscapes and breathtaking bodies of water. Indeed, it is a blessing to behold Earth’s beauty. Yet, the Earth is also full of atrocities. People slaughter each other mercilessly. Sorrow is normalized and apathy is rampant. This is not the will of God no matter what any person says. Violence and destruction grieve the heart of the Creator. He hears every cry and takes all injustice personally. In this post, I do not offer all of the available solutions to end violence or bring forth world peace. Rather, I lend my voice with others as a reminder.
We must teach our communities the value of each individual. We must endorse a yearning for peace and a devotion to love-based action. Simultaneously, we must abhor violence and denounce the destruction of human life. Certainly, love-based action requires rigorous and consistent training. As individuals, we must learn how to love God and how to love ourselves. Then, we must learn to love each other as ourselves. It’s a life-long effort. However, devoting ourselves(completely) to this effort leaves no room for devotion to hatred or violence.
For every person reading this post, this is a wake up call. Your thoughts, your words, your behavior should oppose violence. Understand your influence, your power, and your authority. For the glory of God and for the good of generations to come, respond to the call. Choose love.
Love,
CompassionateLee
Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.” Genesis 9:8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”