A House Divided

The Lough Erne Resort in County Fermanagh Northern Ireland is the beautiful location where the recent G8 meetings were held. The world press and TV carried aerial photographs of the house and the world leaders walking abreast along a road to a photo-shoot place where they lined up to present a picture to the world of political unity. The actual meetings in the house revealed that all was not sweetness and light when they discussed supplying military hardware to the fighting factions in Syria. It was a house divided by political dogma, Putin said Russia would continue to supply arms to the Assad regime, whereas Obama and Cameron were uncertain about selling military firepower to the rebels, consisting of a mish-mash of Arab groups with their own agenda, of who and how Syria should be governed.

Syria itself is a divided house comprised of Shias and Sunnis Muslims, fighting each other, with a total so far, approaching 100,000 fatalities. When order is restored it will take years to rebuild the infrastructure and houses in the towns and villages throughout the land. Sometimes such divisions can never be healed; hatred and distrust lay just under the surface ready to erupt again when provoked.

Yahoo News carried this report by Omar Fahmy on Thursday 13^th.June. CAIRO (Reuters) – “A congress of leading Sunni Muslim clerics issued a call to holy war on Thursday against the Damascus government and its Shi'ite allies, hardening sectarian confrontation across the Middle East over the Syrian conflict. Alarmed by reverses by the mainly Sunni rebels since the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah threw its full weight behind President Bashar al-Assad last month, Sunni religious authorities have stepped up rhetoric that could fuel a wider regional conflict and communal bloodshed in Syria and elsewhere. Concluding a conference in Cairo at which more than 70 Sunni scholarly organizations were represented, a leading Egyptian preacher made a televised statement accusing the rebels' enemies of waging "war on Islam". He urged the faithful to send money and arms to Syria and pursue "all forms of jihad". A house divided!

It is a sad state of affairs when a house is divided, where wife and husband do not love each other and they choose to live selfish lives. Where children are brought up under a roof where bitterness produces a daily diet of arguments, often they are just waiting to leave home and go their own way. Does this ring a bell? If so don’t despair, homes can be healed as well as broken hearts, Jesus Christ is the great healer.

I remember preaching in the prison in St. John’s Antigua, on the text in Galatians ch.1:4, “Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father.” It is the first of five texts in the New Testament where it is stated that Jesus “gave himself”, in this text it was for our sins. There were about sixty men in the upstairs chapel listening to the message. I said to them “You don’t need me as a preacher to come here and tell you that you are sinners, the law of society will tell you that. What you need me as preacher to tell you is how you can be delivered from sin’s power and the pull of this present evil world. Many of you are fathers, how can you return home and stand in front of your family and say – “Follow me”? ” Any form of leadership, whether in a home, a school, a nation, demands moral character. When the service ended a prisoner came to me, told me his name and asked me to pray for him. That was about a decade ago, I remember his name, and I have just prayed for him that the Word of God has changed his life!

Twice in Luke’s gospel the Saviour referred to a divided house, in ch.11:17 He said, “But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.” This verse gives us the principle that a divided kingdom or house cannot stand. A principle is unchanging; if it could change then it would not be a principle. What Christ said then still applies today. That verse in its context relates to Satan’s kingdom, which is a house divided against itself, therefore it cannot stand.

In the next chapter, we read in v.51 to 53, “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.  The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.” These verses relate to the coming of the Lord to the earth when He sets up His Kingdom. The same truth applies to when He comes again to the air to take His Church to Heaven. Family members will be divided, those who believe and are saved will go to meet Him in the air and go to Heaven. Those that are left behind will experience the terrors of the Great Tribulation. Which will it be for you?

Charitie Lees Smith was a Christian lady from County Fermanagh, she wrote in 1863 the hymn ‘Before the throne of God above’, the last verse reads, ‘Behold Him there the risen Lamb, My perfect spotless righteousness, The great unchangeable I AM, The King of glory and of grace, One in Himself I cannot die. My soul is purchased by His blood, My life is hid with Christ on high, With Christ my Saviour and my God!’ I believe her words rather than those of the G8 world leaders. Do you?  God bless.

Written for “Finding the Missing Peace” by a Guest Blogger