War

A tension is growing between the Philippines and China, first about Spratlys and now the Scarborough Shoal.

source

It's not "trending" right now but I know that wars are real and it can happen anytime. 


So more than reading news about this island or shoal tug-of-war, I am reading a lot of stuff and topical posts about what the Bible has to say about wars.  


I would rather be unprepared practically for an attack and find myself scrambling for shelter amidst the bombs than be unprepared spiritually and find myself scattered inwardly and feel that the passion for the Gospel is eons away. 


I am not yet done reading and praying for it but I am going to post here snippets of what struck me from John Piper's post, "If Christ Predicted War, May Christians Pray for Peace?"




1. "We should pray that God's will be done on earth the way it's done in heaven by the perfectly holy angels (Matthew 6:10), not the way it's done on earth through the agency of sinful men."




2. "In fact, Paul teaches us to pray for peace among nations for the sake of the gospel. (1 Tim 2:1-4)"




3. "It is not our business to decide the sovereign purpose of God in ordaining that some wars happen."




4. "Our business is to pray that justice, peace, and the proclamation of the gospel prevail."




5. "Our business is to pray that the Christian church not be complicit in national affairs as if nation and church were one. Ours is to pray that the church be seen as aliens in the cause of Christ-exalting love and justice with no supreme allegiances to any nation."




6. "In such cases our prayers would be for the minimizing of misery and the speedy triumph of justice and the restraint of animosities and cruelties." 


(Notice the words MINIMIZING, SPEEDY and RESTRAINT. It's like we are not asking God to not make any wars happen..but we pray for mercy that it will be minimized, restrained and justice to be speedy.)


7. "So let us pray for the love and wisdom and courage and power and fruitfulness of the church of Jesus Christ around the world."


8. "Let us plead that she (the Church) would be distinct from all the nations and all the national and ethnic manifestations of pride. Let us plead that she would be a peace-making presence of salt and light everywhere. And that she would be unafraid to call every nation into question for the sake of justice and humility."




9. "And that Jesus Christ would be magnified as no national deity, but as Lord of lords and King of kings. And let us pray that all lords and all kings see this and humble themselves and make way for the Lord of glory."






Disclaimer: The whole point of this post may be altered here since these are just all excerpts. You can read the entire post here.