Koinonia House

by Dr. Chuck Missler

Deliver Us From Evil

Evil is something we understand by nature. We see Sauron or Darth Vader, and we recognize that they are evil. We understand without being told that the bad guys are those who slaughter innocent people. They are the utterly selfish — those whose greed overwhelms them. They prize power and revenge over forgiveness and mercy. We understand this instinctively, even as small children. Nobody thinks that orcs are the good guys — not even the orcs.

Of course, evil is not relegated to stories. Real life evil is trickier and hides in better clothes. It might be perpetrated by anybody. People who look pretty, who have good jobs, might be just as likely to do some horrible thing as those with ugly faces and broken cars. We understand that sociopaths are naturally dangerous. But even people who desire to do good, to be kind and loving and generous — even the best of people can do evil things on occasion. We are all capable of cruelty and selfishness, impatience and destruction.

We can scar our consciences so that evil no longer shakes us. We can call evil “good” because it’s what we want to do. Still, deep inside us, we recognize the difference between right and wrong, good and bad. If we stop to be honest about it, we know.

Why? Why is there evil in this beautiful world? We watch the sunset over the mountains and we wonder about this. How can there be evil in a world where daisies grow wild in meadows? It doesn’t fit.

by Joel Richardson

While on a return visit to northern Iraq earlier this year during “Nowroz,” the Persian and Kurdish new year, I was once again overcome by the absolutely stunning beauty of Kurdistan. Each year, after a few very damp and bone chilling winter months, the rugged Kurdish mountains burst to life, covered by a sea of vibrant green. For about a week, families and entire villages begin flocking to the countryside to celebrate spring, enjoy picnics, to dance and to be with family and friends. Almost immediately on the heels of Nowroz, much of the near neon green grasses begin to intermingle with the equally vibrant reds of the poppies. Few people realize how strikingly beautiful northern Iraq can be. The majesty of the countryside however, is surpassed only by the beauty of the peoples who live there. Whether the Yezidis, the Muslim Kurds, or the Assyrian Christians, its hard to visit this place and not fall in love with the various peoples who live there. This makes it all the more painful to me when I consider the endless atrocities that have shattered countless towns, villages, churches, families, and lives throughout region over the past three years.

The first time I visited northern Iraq was in January of 2015, roughly six months after ISIS had swept across the nation. Knowing that the light of Christ shines brightest in the darkest places, we took a team to visit with a ministry that was building micro refugee camps. Each camp would house a dozen or more families. The ministry we visited would build the camps and minister to many of the displaced peoples who were then scattered throughout Kurdistan. One day, we visited with a group of Yezidi families who had escaped from Mount Sinjar during the early days of the ISIS blitzkrieg. These were excruciating days for them. In the chaos of their escape from the assault on their ancient homeland, everyone had lost family members, neighbors, and friends. Despite fears of the worst, many held out hope that perhaps some had survived, perhaps having escaped to another part of the country. Sad to say, if they had fully known all that we know now, they would have been even more distraught. Since Sinjar mountain has been liberated, the mass graves have begun to tell the full story of what happened to tens of thousands of innocent Yezidis.