To Him Who is Deserving of Hell

"But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." 

You don't get this next part from normal translations, but I think it's The Message that puts it best:

"... then Jesus dropped the mic and walked off." 

Living in the Middle East I get a lot of questions about ISIS and the situation going on in the countries surrounding mine. 

Apparently the general public believes that proximity lends itself to greater knowledge. However, my sophomore year Chemistry class has disproven this theory. Thanks for nothing Daniel Kim. 

Right now I'd love to write a post about the Church, persecution, and what Jesus says about it all. But I'll save that for later. Right now I want to write about something I heard. 

I was talking in a group of Believers when this subject got brought up. 
"[ISIS], every one of those men... if you can call them that... deserves to all burn in hell." 
This person said this amongst a group of Christians and got a resounding response of complete agreement. 

 And although technically there is nothing untrue about what they said, I feel like they missed something. See the thing is that I deserve to burn in hell too. I don't deserve God's grace. I don't deserve the spot of authority He's given me. I don't deserve to be called a child of God. On my best days, I'm really just like them. The best that I can do on my own... I deserve exactly the same as them. 

I don't think Jesus would have looked at them and said, "You should burn in hell!" I just can't picture Him saying that. I see Him reacting instead in radical love. I see Him still choosing to lay down His life for them, just as much as He would for me. Without any hesitation. 

See that's the thing about this radical love. It doesn't hesitate. It doesn't wait for a response, and it doesn't ask the question, "are you worthy of this love?" It doesn't care about the response at all, it simply loves. 

When St. Francis of Assisi was alive, the Catholic church was set on wiping out the Muslims. The crusaders went forth "in the name of God" to kill them Muslims. On the other hand, Francis crossed into those enemy territories and asked to speak with the Sultan. He spent weeks with him, sharing the love of Jesus and simply and truthfully loving him. The Sultan was so moved by this man's radical love for his enemies that he asked him to settle and stay with him forever. Francis said he could only stay if the Sultan would choose Jesus. To this the  Sultan responded that his spiritual leaders would never allow it. And this is the part that gets me. Francis simply says, "Then build a fire, I will walk into the center with all of them by my side... Whoever comes out, that is the God we will serve." 

This man loved his enemies so deeply he was willing to lay down his life for them. 

In the face of pure hatred, torture, the almost certain possibility of death, Francis choose love. This man knew the Lord's heart for the lost. 

A couple weeks ago I led a prayer night and the subject was ISIS. 

Very few times have I felt the Lord's heart so clearly and tangibly.  At one point we had Abu-Bakr's picture on the screen and we all stood in the gap and prayed for this man's salvation. By the end of our time almost every single person in the room was in tears. The Lord was moving powerfully and revealing a much needed truth to us all.  

The Lord loves this man. The Lord deeply loves Abu-Bakr. 
He is not too far gone. The Lord doesn't want to see this man burn, the Lord longs for this man's salvation. 

Us condemning our enemies and saying what they deserve does absolutely no good. It only fuels hate and the mentality that it's "Us vs Them" 

"...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." 
"...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." 
"...love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." 

So this is my request: 

Would you pray for ISIS with me? Would you stand with me and contend for the salvation of Abu-Bakr? Would you choose love instead of hate and fear?