A Pastor Struggles with ISIS

Even as I type this, I painfully recall the video of those 21 men being led down the beach. I wonder where their minds were...

        "Should I try to dash away?"

                                          "Will my children understand my sacrifice?"

                       "Is my faith strong enough for this moment?"

Even now I get angry at ISIS. I picture those cowards hiding behind veils, and I want to pray the fire of God to wipe them from the face of the earth. 

And then the words of Jesus ring in my ears from my recent sermon

"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." 

Matthew 5:44

And so I admit my struggle: how to pray for both the destruction AND salvation of an enemy. 
And this week, I appreciated a thought from Russell Moore's recent blog on this exact issue. Moore states: 

"The main problem is that we sometimes forget that we are called to be a people of both justice and justification, and that these two are not contradictory." 

So now I replay that video in my mind's eye again and I wonder about the faces under those executioner's veils. Are they all stone? Are they all fully resolved? Are there one, two, three, who see the faith and peace in these Christian men and think, "I wish I had that"?

The situation remains unchanged, but my perspective is. I will pray for the the God of justice to execute His judgement against those who violently oppose believers and innocents. And at the same time, I will pray for witnesses to come out of ISIS who echo Paul's words of thanks to Jesus that,

"though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent... I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief." (1 Timothy 1:13)

So I will now pray for the destruction of the entity of ISIS.
So I will now pray for the salvation of the souls of ISIS.