Title: War and Peace
It is said that there have been 3,300 wars on Earth in the last 3,000 years. This fact supports the saying that human history is a history of war.
At the height of the nuclear race between the US and the US, stupid things were happening that were hard to imagine. At that time, with their nuclear warheads alone, they were able to destroy the Earth 41 times. Since there is only one Earth, it is not sane to come up with a weapon that will destroy 41 times what would be done with just one destruction.
Even now, 35,000 people on Earth are starving to death every day because of lack of food. It is far more than a tragedy to engage in armed competition while drastically reducing the cost of social work and education. It is an irrational view of the state being managed to win the war.
If you were to speak of the ultimate hope of those who wish to win the war, you would probably agree that peace. Only the Lord, the Prince of Peace, can set fire to arms and put an end to war. He alone can take away the sin, greed, and hatred from the heart of men who wage war.
“He makes war cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks bows and cuts spears, and sets fire to chariots” (Psalm 46:9).
A public service advertisement titled “War and Peace” was published in a newspaper of a denomination. And the scene of the session rooms of the two churches was introduced in the contents.
An elder nicknamed ‘The Law’ and ‘Know the Law well and keep it. But don't claim it.' There are two churches that each have elders who live in that sense, but ironically, the church with the 'law' elders has a lot of evasion of the law, so there was always a war atmosphere, and the church served by the latter was always peaceful. It's a story. It was truly a story of churches that could be prepared for ‘war and peace’. And the advertisement added one word that ‘war and peace’ is the difference between ‘reigning and serving’.
Sadly, we often see churches caught up in conflict. And you can see that the ‘tyranny of dominance’ is usually at the center of it. It is unfortunate that the example of those who came first. The Lord came to serve. Christians are people of service.
“As far as possible, be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18).
Now, few people remember the Korean War on the 25th. They were killed and wounded in the fire of war. I was hungry, so I had to eat ‘Honey Honey Porridge’ from the U.S. military base, and spend my life as a shoe shiner and newspaper seller. Those generations remember the years of evacuation going down to Nambu Women's University, the taste of bran dog rice cakes, and the years when they fell drunk after filling their hunger with alcohol residue.
Back then, we hated the North Korean Communist Party. I thought it was because of them, not because of the anti-communist education that is commonly called, but because of them, the reason that loved ones died from the horrors of war and suffered in poverty. For whatever reason, war is a sin. Because it is a genocide. It is a contradiction that killing one person is executed for murder, and killing many people collectively in a war is a war hero.
War is horrendous. War is cruel. War is wretched War mercilessly kills people and destroys everything. So war is terrible. War is scary. So there should be no war. There should be no war. Moreover, there must be no more war in our country.
We must pray like this.
“Lord, use me as an instrument of peace. Where there is hate, there is love, where there is quarrel, there is forgiveness, where there is division, there is unity, where there is doubt, faith, where there is wrong, there is truth, where there is despair, there is hope, where there is light in darkness, where there is sorrow. May you bring joy to the place.”
We all have the same desire for reconciliation and reunification between the two Koreas now. However, it is worrying that the conflict is intensifying due to differences of opinion on the method. Any claim must fold its wings in front of the love of the Lord who was crucified. We must pluck out the flesh of all claws and pray for peace on this land.
* Prayer: Merciful Lord, open our hearts wide open in our lives in conflict and anxiety so that we can welcome the King of Peace. Now, give up human stubbornness and ideology, and come back to God to establish a world of peace. May the peace of God come. I pray in the name of the Prince of Peace, Jesus. Amen