The news out of Cleveland has been horrific. Who can imagine this happening?
According to the news reports, three young women were kidnapped ten years ago by three brothers and kept against their will all this time. At the time of the kidnapping, the girls were 18, 16, and as young as 14. All three girls came from the same general vicinity and were held within a few miles of their homes. One or more of the victims may have known their abductors.
Apparently, one of the women has a six year old child. Authorities are searching the house to see if their were other children or possibly other women.
At this point, neither the local police nor the FBI have a clear picture of what went on. Unfortunately, we all fear we know all to well the abuse that occurred in that house.
I have a hard time imagining what the families must have experienced through the years. Amanda Berry, the woman who escaped and called 911, lost her mother within three years of her disappearance. All of the mother’s relatives testify that she died of a broken heart. How difficult her Mother’s Day must have been each year.
How do we deal with this terrible crime?
First, we can pray and care for the victims and their families. While we want information, these families need love and privacy. Let us remember these women are victims of cruel and sinful people.
Second, we need to recognize the depravity of human beings. How can you explain such behavior other than a sinful and self-centered nature?
Third, we can remember why we do what we do. All the people around us need a Savior and the transforming power of the Gospel.
Fourth, our society needs to know the truth of the Gospel message, that it changes lives and changes attitudes.
The Gospel makes us look at people–especially women and children–differently.
At the same time we have learned about this house of horrors, a trial in Philadelphia has shown us a terrible abortion clinic with its own horrors–horrors condoned and encouraged by the highest authorities in the land.
Finally, let us cry out for God’s mercy. Let us pray that revival and the truth of the Scripture would fall on our land. Let us pray for a great awakening in our country.
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3 Responses
Lots of horror out there. The Gosnell Clinic. This situation in Cleveland. Church Colson quoted Alexander Solzhenitsyn in a message I heard him deliver a number of years ago. The great Russian writer was speaking to the commencement of Harvard University and it was on that day he lost all credibility with the so-called elites of that time. Here’s what he said: “If I can summarize the situation in America at this time I can think of nothing more pithy, more accurate, than this: America has forgotten God.” That was in the 1970s. What would he say today?
Exactly. Thanks for the comment
Just getting in.
How exciting to hear from the neighbor who, while he has his own personal problems, has given us something to think about. Exactly how well do we know our neighbor, our fellow congregant? Certainly when a people/society abandons their basics there are problems. Romans 12:5 is there for a reason. The message is one of those that is the most repeated in Scripture. Yet, we look to do what is expedient; and create houses of horrors.
Press on, as the song goes, “though none go with me, I still will follow…”
Blessings