I had the opportunity to travel to Europe years ago. We rented a car and traveled for three weeks. One day we
stopped at an out of the way set of buildings in Belgium called Fort Breendonk. It had been a military fort that
had been taken over by the Nazis when they overran that country. They turned it into a prison camp and many
of the inmates were Jewish. The thing that made this prison unique was that when it was liberated by the allies,
nothing was changed or destroyed. They kept it as they found it. Places of torture and tools for killing were
still there. I remember that with all the people there visiting, it was quiet. One of the four of us was my friend
Neil. He walked with us as we went through all the places that hate had made the worst nightmares possible
come true and he never spoke a word. We finished and got back in the car and Neil didn’t speak a word until
the next day. And then he told us. Neil and his family are Jewish. And he told us that two of his uncles had
died in Nazi concentration camps. Their only crime was to be Jewish. How does that hatred begin and spread?
The Apostle Paul, who himself was a Jew, wrote in a letter to a church in Rome that when people turn their
backs on the God of the Bible, something happens to them and then the society as a whole. He said that when
they reject God, he gives them what they want and lets them live their lives without his influence. And as a
result their thinking becomes so twisted that sin, greed, hate, murder and deception become a way of life and are
considered the norm. What can save us from this hate that destroys societies and cultures? The Apostle Paul
talked about the solution using himself as an example. “But there is another power within me that is at war with
my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am!
Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ
our Lord.” (Romans 7:23-25 NLT) To stop the hate…Jesus is the answer. And he is the only answer.
Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Romans 1:28-29 NLT Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. (29) Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
Remember I'm praying for you...
Pastor Joe
Here’s our Bible verse for today…
Romans 1:28-29 NLT Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. (29) Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
Remember I'm praying for you...
Pastor Joe