War

The Lesson of the ‘Kamikaze’ Mama Robin!

/ rpstiver / Leave a comment

As I walked out the front door there came a loud screeching as something airborne hit the top of my head, knocking my cap to the ground! Small bird sounds accompanied the airborne attack. What bird would actively engage against a human-height invader of her nest and babies?

It turns out it was a female robin defending her tiny home against all comers – and you can’t help but admire her put-your-life-on-the-line moxie!  Over and over, she screeched and dived at any-and-all comers, particularly us, as we entered and exited through the front door. The only time she sat quietly in their nest of twigs atop the joint of a downspout was when her mate took over the defense of their babies.

However, Mrs. Robin had well and truly earned her nickname: “Kamikaze Mama.”

The actual Kamikaze

The original kamikaze were Japanese fighter pilots in World War Two. After the tide had turned and America and her allies had fought the Japanese armed forces in many countries and islands, the allies were ready to attack the Japanese mainland to finish the war.

In their effort to thwart the inevitable invasion of their island nation the Japanese air forces trained a host of young pilots to sacrifice themselves and their aircraft as flying bombs. This last-ditch force was called “Kamikaze” which means “divine wind.” They flew into battle not to possibly die, but to specifically die—and kill as many of their enemies as possible by crashing their planes into the Allied naval ships beneath them.

One can’t help but admire the tragic bravery and determination to preserve their national “nest” on the Japanese islands—as well as note their fearlessness in the face of the Allied counterparts they would meet in battle. War is a sad contradiction; sometimes the highest human ideals are employed for the worst possible outcomes, the destruction of one’s enemy.

Time perfects all weapons

Since then, many generations of nuclear-based and other advanced weaponry have been built and “perfected” for this awful purpose. If we were to figure the cost of World War Two fought today with our modern “death to all” weaponry – the toll would be even more appalling and staggering!

But all aspects of human warfare are profoundly sad. And this chapter was especially so. The Pacific land, sea, and air battles of World War Two ended by the deployment of atomic bombs on Japan.

Jeremiah, another of God’s spiritual battle-hardened prophets was inspired to precisely summarize humanity’s core failure:  “O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

In the near future, Jesus Christ at his second coming will intervene to block mankind’s self-destruction. He will initiate a new government called the Kingdom of God. He is inviting us to help oversee the making of new and wonderful history in the world tomorrow!  

What lesson for us today?

What can our little, self-sacrificing Robin family teach us in relationship with the calamity of war?

God called us out of this present, evil world with its wars and tragedies, and into the knowledge of His great, soon-coming Kingdom and true way of life. We “signed up” through repentance and baptism into the true faith and service of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We fight against the evil of war by faithfully following God’s Law and becoming a living example of God’s way that is the precise opposite of war, destruction, and hate.

Even as our faithful birdy friends, Mr. and Mrs. Robin, are dedicated to giving their avian lives to the future of their babies… so, too, have we committed our lives to our Savior—who is also now our Lord and Master, high priest in heaven and soon-coming King—and to our eternal, spiritual Father in heaven! Treat that calling with the same intensity and protective self-sacrifice exemplified by this small aspect of God’s creation!

–Randy Stiver-

*If you wish to reprint this commentary or learn more about how to do so, please contact me in the comments below. I reserve my rights to this content, it is not in the public domain for use or reprint without my permission.

**All images are property of Amanda Stiver, unless otherwise noted. Please do not re-use without permission.

2024 – THE WORLD, MORE LIKE IT IS NOW THAN EVER BEFORE!

/ rpstiver / Leave a comment

Of course, the world is more like it is now than it’s ever been before! Wars and rumors of wars. But the question is why the world is in the miserable condition it’s in now?

Sunrise, sunset… a day, a week, a month, a year has always led to another ever since creation. Even the events of those weeks, months, years, decades, and centuries bear similarity – and that’s due in great part to the worldwide continuity of selfish human nature. History repeats itself!

The corrupting influence

God inspired the apostle Paul to pen this passage of Scripture: “…the carnal [that is, physical] mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7).

Add to that the passage in Genesis 3 where evil thinking was taught to the first human family – Adam and Eve – through the slick enticement Satan’s lying lectures. Never underestimate the overweening, destructive influence of that evil, fallen angel and his demonic cohorts!

From the time God specially created that first human family humanity has lived an up-and-down, often chaotic, mostly selfishly motivated history. We see this today in the war in Europe, the horrific attacks on Israel this past October, and now the war in the Middle East. These aren’t the first, or even yet the worst wars, the world has ever seen, but they remind us that humanity hasn’t overcome anything that was instigated from that first deception.

Sin’s tragedy compounded

At the evil instigation of the serpent (Satan the Devil in masquerade) our first parents, Adam and Eve, ignored God’s loving command to eat specifically from the Tree of Life.

Instead, they chose to listen to the Devil’s evil prompting and ate fruit from the specifically forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That wrong choice bore continuous, negative fruit, in effect initiating what has become “this present, evil age” (see Galatians 1:4).

Every generation from Adam to now has essentially perpetuated the sins of disobeying the loving commands of our Creator. And our society continues to reject the 10 Commandments right into our day now. Perhaps saddest of all, is that most of the Christianity of our age, and several centuries past, has systematically rejected God’s law as well (particularly the Sabbath command), proclaiming it “done away with”. If “Christianity” cannot respect God’s way, how can the rest of the world have any hope to do so?

But what about you?

Do you have to perpetuate the sinful mistakes of Adam and Eve?

The answer is a resounding NO!

Forget the old, physical world and its evil ways! Systematically seek a closer relationship with God our Father and His Son – our Savior, Jesus Christ. Request a daily progress report of yourself: Am I keeping God’s law and upholding His way of life? As the Passover approaches in a few months, it’s a good time to start examining ourselves in light of our baptism covenant with God.

As every other human who has or will ever live, we owe everything, including life itself to Jesus Christ our Savior and to God our Father! Live your life dedicated to that dynamic destiny offered by our Savior in the soon-coming Kingdom of God!

*If you wish to reprint this commentary or learn more about how to do so, please contact me in the comments below. I reserve my rights to this content, it is not in the public domain for use or reprint without my permission.

NEEDED: A NEW WORLD ORDER GIVEN BY JESUS CHRIST

/ rpstiver / Leave a comment

As if our so-called “world order” wasn’t dysfunctional enough—look at it now!

Wars and/or threats of war in the far east (Russia v. Ukraine, North Korea v. South Korea, China vs. nearly everyone they can think of (or so it seems) … and Japan rearming because of all the above. Europe, particularly Germany, remembering that it once had a massive army. America is presently trying to regain her footing in the scramble for position in an updated world order.

So far, with some exceptions, these primarily verbal threats dominate most of the tension points, but remember this…

Historically, words ultimately precede actions!

Jesus Christ said it: “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45). Note the underlined statement especially.

The threats are starting to turn into real theaters of armed conflict.

The land of Israel at war

The current crisis began when Hamas (the Palestinian militant terrorist organization) attacked Jewish communities near Gaza during the night—just at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles. Others have already commented on the venomous nature of the attack that maimed, tortured and murdered hundreds of Israelis. It was as if the demonic spirit of Nazism reappeared in all its hate-filled venom, against particularly, the Israelite tribes of Judah and of Levi.

Shades of the 1920’s to the 1940s’…

Those few decades marked the rise and reign of Nazism. In the aftermath of World War Two that mindset was largely repudiated, but somehow not eliminated. Thus, it’s seemingly haunting reappearance.

However, Nazism was not a singularity. There were violent schools of thought – and action throughout human history. Many were Devil-inspired, but some were manmade philosophies that poisoned various cultures over time.

Please know and understand this, that poisonous thinking actually began with Adam and Eve eating from the forbidden Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Part of God’s particular punishment for Eve, the mother-of-all-mankind, was: “To the woman He said: ‘I will multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children…’” (Genesis 3:16).

That punishment began when Eve’s firstborn son Cain murdered his younger brother, Abel. Thus was the start of human-to-human violence. Eve’s motherly pain has been repeatedly experienced no doubt billions of times since.

Every wrongful death of every mother’s son or daughter since cries out still for justice! All humanity has fostered a culture of Cain to one degree or other.

Time for a new world order

The time has come, the Bible says, for truth and mercy and peace. The time is also arriving for the return—the second coming—of Jesus Christ in all His power and glory as the conquering King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Revelation 19:11-16).

Every day we’re drawn closer and closer to the time of Christ’s return!

Yet leading up to that great salvation of humanity there will be “wars and rumors of wars” as prophesied, but Jesus will also bring something else of incredibly vital importance. 

Time for world peace

With Christ’s return He will fully institute genuine, glorious world peace! With Him comes a culture of love for all humankind – the apex of God’s creation. This “present, evil world” will transform into the new and then present world of good!

May the tragedies of our time and the evil times behind us shrivel to insignificance in memory. And may God the Father and Jesus Christ heal the great sadness that humanity has generated over the millennia of human history since the Garden of Eden and turn it to joy and goodness in the Kingdom of God on earth!

– Commentary by Randy Stiver

*If you wish to reprint this commentary or learn more about how to do so, please contact me in the comments below. I reserve my rights to this content, it is not in the public domain for use or reprint without my permission.