For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers, as you still do.Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. (Hebrews 6:10-11)
Read: Ezekiel 10:1-11:25, Hebrews 6:1-20, Psalm 105:16-36, Proverbs 27:1-2
Relate: While I was sleeping, around midnight my time, Turkey became a dictatorship. OK, so that statement might be a little bit of an exaggeration. Maybe. A little. If you swing over to twitter right now and searched “Turkey dictatorship” you would see that there are plenty of people who would completely disagree. Technically, I can’t go to twitter right now, though. It is shut down. So is facebook and instagram and whatsapp and youtube and… you get the picture. Even typing this right now I am on a VPN so I don’t know if WordPress is still standing or if it has also been shut down. Right now I don’t risk doing anything on the internet without TOR and a VPN. Let me back up a bit.
As I started saying, right around midnight here Turkish police illegally arrested eleven MPs (senators) from the third largest political party, the HDP. Almost immediately a storm of protesting went viral so within an hour of this action Turkey shut down all the major social media platforms. This might have slowed down the virtual protests a little but it did nothing to stop gatherings of Kurds pretty much everywhere. Inside Turkey such gatherings have been met with water cannons and even in some cases live fire.
About two hours ago those protests took a much more deadly turn. A car bomb targeting police went off in Diyarbakir killing eight and injuring over a hundred. You can read about that on global news outlets. What you most likely won’t read is that many of those injured weren’t injured by the blast itself. The crowd that gathered immediately after the explosion were chanting “Erdogan, murderer” and and were physically attacked by the police. That is where many of those injuries occurred. Needless to say the situation is a bit tense here in Southeast Turkey.
React: As A Christian living where I do I have a fine line to walk. I want to stand up for justice but in a city where more than half the population is Turkish, they see nothing unjust in what their leader is doing. Will speaking on a temporal political issue negatively impact my witness on eternal matters? (Honestly, I wish most of my Christian friends back home would take this into consideration with their own political issues looming) On the flip side, would remaining silent impact my ability to speak relevantly to the large minority of Syrians and Kurds also living here? Does saying anything jeopardize my ability to remain here to begin with? It is for these questions sake that today’s verse jumped out at me. Even if I am deported, even if I am detained, even if I am to die, until that time comes I will continue to love. I will continue to work hard, and to do good. God is not unjust. He will not forget the work I have done and how I have shown my love to Him by caring for others. (6:10) because of this I will keep loving others as long as life lasts. For now, it is all that I can do. It is enough.
Respond:
Dear God
Your love is relentless. Even when the world seems to be caving in around me, Your love does not cease. Even when things are not falling out the way I would have hoped, even when it seems the world is presenting its worst possible face, Your love does not cease. Help me to be a carrier of that love. Help me to infect everyone I come into contact with, no matter what they might think or believe, with Your love. No matter what happens in this world, let me never stop working hard, doing good, and showing Your love to all.
Amen.
THE RIVER WALK 
Justice. Allow me a thought experiment.
Married man sees another married woman. Rapes her. Gets said raped married woman pregnant. 1st married man has the husband mursered then quickly ‘marries’ the ‘widow’ to cover up and throw off suspicion that child isn’t the husbands.
Wiki leaks finds out, and the solution is to kill the new born child, married man not only doesn’t go to prison, but he gets a job promotion.
Would it be justice to kill the child or punish the rapist murderer?
Thank you for this article. I have found it to be timely for me right now. I was praying about something when the verse you shared, Hebrews 6: 10-11, stood out for me to be similar to Nehemiah 5:19 that I read this morning. “Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.” God bless you!
Amen! Thank you for the reminder about loving God and not always focusing on politics, especially in the us right now. we have a higher calling and a higher purpose then what is going on around us. I’ll pray for peace and stability in Turkey. Stay safe and be well.
Prayer for you and your country.
Regarding our political mess here in USA I had very similar thoughts and concerns. I have liberal and conservative friends and when I make my Christianity a political issue I just join one side of the polarization, and create a blindness towards God’s true kingdom. Much of American Christianity is focused upon a political agenda. It often looks like a fleshly power struggle that is pretty ugly. So I posted on Facebook, “Either way Satan will be our next president. We should pray and do our best to in other ways to make the country better.” Really what I am proposing is abstaining and enrolling in God’s spiritual kingdom.
This seems pretty good and spiritual but I need to make a concession: what if slavery were the issue? Would it be spiritual to withdraw and say nothing? Obviously not. And in fact this was likely the problem 2 centuries ago.
So my current resolve is this: When Christianity becomes a power struggle to control or monopolize a government then it is going against principles of meekness; it is seeking a flesh kingdom. But speaking on issues is different. Isaiah 58 tells us we do need to seek justice.
Hard post.. remain strong in the battle…here’s a verse for you: Jeremiah 15:20…be His fruit along His wall..God be with you.
Dear Beejai, you can’t go wrong on the path you have chosen. You are in my prayers every night, for guidance, protection and God’s continued grace. Blessings.
Praying for God’s wisdom and protection.
Great testimony and witness.
Given what is happening here, I love reading updates on what is going on there and your perspective. I wish more people would keep up with what is happening in other countries, especially in locations where is dangerous to even be a Christian. Be safe, keep loving, and may God continue to be with you through this time.
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Praying for you sir….
I love you and your courage in standing up for what you believe, even in the tenuous position you now face. You show that even if you are challenged, you will stand in absolute faith. I will pray for circumstances to find you in safety and out of harms way. I know God is with you every moment of every day and night.
Amen, hear God’s voice, and use wisdom. Be safe!
We are in a dark time in the world. It seems to get darker every day. We must do what we can to bring the light of Christ into the world and to love even our enemies having counted the cost. God bless each of your days and may he set a hedge of protection around you as you go about your tasks.
Thank you, Beejai. You are an inspiration
Dear Sir,
Another excellent post. Thank you for sharing it.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace even exactly where you are.
Keep your eyes on Jesus! We serve a great God.
Remember the promise in James 1:5.
Someday these struggles will be but a memory, a small drop in the bucket of reasons to praise God throughout eternity for HIs miraculous provision and deliverance.
Praying for you and your family for safety, love, joy, and peace.
Best Regards,
“Gwennon”
P.S. This was a post I really needed to read today. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for “a right now Word” that ministered to me in a profound way. Your blog post with laser precision penetrated and touched me, reaching the depths of my soul.
Prayers for you
Reblogged this on ChristianBlessings and commented:
I have no choice but pass on the love of Christ to others for that is His command.
May the hands of Gods protection lay over you and protect you from all the senseless hate and killing in the region your in all of this makes my stomach turn.
I just don’t understand how total destruction of the place your in wins anything . Maybe I am not understanding . If all the different religions in the area just don’t agree to disagree and have peace then they will have nothing to win. My head hurts thinking about it like it does when I think of the election in the USA.
Praying for you.