A Devotional Verse From Nehemiah

So we laboured in the work: and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared.     Nehemiah 4:21

Seeking to peacefully rebuild the walls of their capital city, Jerusalem, and the Temple of the LORD within it, the ancient Israelis who had been allowed by Cyrus and then Artaxerxes, kings of Persia, to return home for this purpose, found themselves the targets of threats of violence from enemies in the land who desired to strip them of their rights and make them subservient. Though they sought peace and freedom they would not be terrorized, they raised the terrorist threat to the highest level on the terrorist advisory scale, and then continued their work together to rebuild the walls. As they worked half of them stood at the ready, weapons in hand, to repulse any terror attacks that might come from their dangerous and wicked neighbors. The attacks were thwarted.

Yesterday’s massacre at the Charlie Hebdo satirical newspaper office in Paris is an example of the monstrosity of those who would strip modern-day people, Frenchmen or others, of the right to free speech, a free press, freedom of religion, and make them subservient to radical Islamic fringe groups.

These murders show the ugliness of the ideology of the assassins who would blame their butchery on their god. Numerous Muslim leaders in various parts of the world have disassociated themselves from such terror, and declare the perpetrators are not really Muslims in spirit. Yet, militant attacks of this nature repeatedly happen throughout the world, and define militant Islamists as terrorist murderers rather than peaceful followers of peaceful religion. The nations of the world who truly seek peace cannot ignore the actions of these warmongers. They must not let terrorism disrupt daily life, and, in unity, condemn and defeat them.

The governmental leaders of the nations of the world must follow the example of Nehemiah and his wall building construction crew: continue to work as usual, make progress, but be on guard and fight if they must. Therefore the nations of the world must set their threat levels at the highest mark, take every precaution possible, give increased scrutiny to people who leave and then attempt to return to their nations, pull passports or visas of those who have traveled to be foreign fighters with terrorists, investigate any person from nations that are burdened with terrorist activity, and be ready for hard-hitting reaction and a commitment to battle. The citizen of lands engaging in such defensive actions should take a positive perspective realizing that protection from, and the stopping of, terrorism is worth the inconvenience of vigilance or conflict. We must all of every nation, every religion, every race, every society stand together against radical Islamist terrorists.

Pray that terrorist will have a truly mind altering religious experience that will change their hearts of hate into hearts of peace.

Follow the dictum “If you see something say something.”

Encourage your national leaders to act decisively to destroy terrorism.