A Tale of Two Marches

This past Saturday I witnessed two marches. The first was one that I was a part of: the annual West Coast Walk for Life. It was characterized by peaceful and prayerful demonstration. There was no yelling, no shouting, no ugliness. Simply tens of thousands of Christians walking down Market Street holding signs. The loudest we got was when portions of our crowd would chant "pro-life" to drown out the counter protesters that showed up to hurl profanities at us.

The second march was the SF Women's March which was held later that day. I made a point to witness it. It was billed as a peaceful demonstration against hate, misogyny, racism, and other forms of prejudice. I was shocked to see how many signs had messages of hate, anger, and profanities. I was also shocked to see multiple signs calling for the death of Trump and Pence. Where did the call for tolerance go to? Not to mention that the organizers made sure that conservative pro-woman viewpoints were not represented at the march. I was appalled to see how many parents brought their small children to such a march. There were things being said that no child should be exposed to. It was not a march of peace, love, and tolerance.

But I was also made aware of the deep fear that many carry. Behind all of that anger and hate is a fear that our current administration will inflict changes upon the lifestyles of those protesting. I can say that they are in needless fear and their concerns aren't valid- which may be true. But the fact remains- there are deeply held concerns. Trump, in his inaugural address, called for unity. We need a healing to come to our nation and it must start by us laying aside the hate and anger to truly listen to one another. Lincoln took the presidency during a trying time much as this. And there are a lot of parallels between Trump and Lincoln that I won't go into here but the fact remains that we have a deeply divided nation. I don't think our nation has been this divided since Reconstruction. We need to pray that Trump would be used by God to bring healing to this nation. I truly believe that is God's plan for Trump. To make America great again and to bring our nation together from our polarized pieces. But this will only happen if we pay attention to the verse that Pence laid his hands upon as he took the oath of office:

"If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

"Go to Hell!" The power of a curse.

We all have heard that there is life and death in the words that we speak. We are truly a powerful people for the words that we choose have the ability to create. Even the secularists understand this and have written best selling books about this truth. How much more do we have the ability to transform the atmosphere around us? We are kings on this earth as we rule in the place of Christ. All authority on Heaven and Earth has been given to Him and He has chosen to delegate that authority to us. You are an heir of the Kingdom. And we must live accordingly.

Have you been the victim of word curses? Have you been careless with the things that you have said? You can transform someone's circumstances by how you speak. You can transform your own circumstances. Those who dwell in the negative will speak in the negative. Those who speak life will reap life. Why is it that pessimists often have such miserable lives? Because they speak it over themselves. Is it any mystery that they attract so many bad things to themselves?

What is hell? Theologians debate whether it is a physical place or if it is a state of being. The Orthodox teach that hell isn't a place but is an experience of God's Presence by someone who has rejected Him. The person who hates God, and by extension they hate themselves for they bear His image, will experience incredible suffering within the fullness of God's Presence. Hell might not be merely an absence of God. It may be a state of being in which one cannot experience any of God's goodness and will be filled with the utmost misery. Hell in this view is a state experienced by one who has so rejected God that they have rejected all of His Godly attributes. They will only feel His wrath and misery for there will no longer be any measure of grace shielding them from evil.

We place ourselves in hell each day. We place ourselves in hell when we reject God and choose to follow our own ways. We choose hell when we decide to ignore what God has for us. "Hell is a spiritual state of separation from God and inability to experience the love of God, while being conscious of the ultimate deprivation of it as punishment." - Theodore Stylianopoulos I've had measures of that. When I have been unable to experience the love of God because I have placed myself into hell. Sometimes it can be as the result of someone else. When someone curses you with "go to hell" we might think it is just a simple expression of anger that doesn't really mean anything. I think it does. It is a powerful word curse. The enemy will use that as a weapon against us to try to remove us from God's Presence and place us into a state of being in which we cannot experience God's love.

We must live lives in which we speak blessing and life. We are accountable for the words that we speak- even in anger. And there is no such thing as an idle sentence. Our words are powerful for we are powerful creatures. We have the ability to plunge someone into a hellish existence. Why should we do that? Why should we create warfare for those around us? The entire kingdom of darkness exists to do that. Why should we join them? I ask you my brothers and sisters to be a prophetic people. To be a people who speak life and who reject the words of darkness. Let us walk in the light! And let us bring others into that same light.