Pray for Peace

“Christ Jesus is our peace. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we all have access to the Father by one Spirit.” ~Ephesians 2:14-18

We experienced just a wee bit more excitement today than we had anticipated — today’s clashes at the Temple Mount and Hamas attack at a Jerusalem light rail station were not on the itinerary. But everybody in our little Central group is OK and feeling very safe tonight. We have the best tour guide and bus driver in the entire Middle East and we trust them implicitly. We’re not sure what our schedule will be like for our final full day tomorrow; we don’t know what will be opened or closed or how our plans will be interrupted. But everybody in our group is fine. We spent a full hour after dinner together tonight processing the events of the day and it’s all actually been very, very powerfully good for us. Talk about bonding… man!

It’s 10:00 pm Wednesday night in Jerusalem. Time to say those evening prayers. I would ask you to pray for this holy city.

Our Lord is a King of Peace. He came to this earth in order to bring peace, to reveal to us our God of peace, to tear down the hostilities and break down the walls that come between humans and God and humans and one another. And, two thousand years later, his people still don’t know how to live it. It’s tragic, really. It’s terrible. This city of peace is anything but. This is a city of pride and envy, power and control, greed and selfishness, hatred and violence, revenge and death. It must sadden our King. And so it must also sadden us.

It must.

We must share our Lord’s sorrow. “O Jerusalem,” he lamented, “O Jerusalem, how I long to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. But you are not willing.” “O Amarillo, how I long… but you are not willing.” “O Dallas, how I long… but you are not willing” “O Atlanta…” “O Brasilia…” O Kharkov…” “O St. Louis…” “O Bogota…” O fill in the blank of any city in the world…

Lord, come quickly.

Shalom,

Allan

1 Comment

  1. Jason Reeves

    Come Lord Jesus.

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