Where is Our Heart towards the Immigrant?

First prayer,

today, let us pray for the immigrants, migrants, both here at home and everywhere. Not just the Christian immigrant, but all immigrants/migrants.

But before I post on the status of immigrants [in a series] I will first, ask,

that we pray, this day, for our Hearts.

Where is our Heart towards the Immigrant? I believe this question, poses many questions in regards to a LOT of our heart's status, I know it does mine. I have often shifted back and forth, being double minded,

knowing what Christ says and yes knowing the realities, both politically and socially, and what I mean by that is,

the real problems posed by an influx of immigration and what I mean by that is, when those immigrants one day, become a state within a state. That is strictly politically speaking, of course,

but there is a spiritual aspect to this as well, and the best example I can give of this, is the situation in the UK, where the UK opened their doors to a mass exodus of immigrants, mostly from the Middle East-Islamic nations,

and now, those same immigrants, are demanding Sharia Law, and in part have succeeded. The government continues to give in to their demands, which obviously, is leading up to soon, the UK becoming an Islamic Nation.

So, that poses a problem doesn't it? What do we do? Do we react, do we peg all immigrants as hostile?

And do we shut the doors of compassion to protect our interests, our safety? Do we begin to 'profile' and if so, how do we justify that,

how can we be sure, that we do not allow one in that is hostile and forbidding another who isn't, in other words, it puts us in a position to play God, to play judge.

But it doesn't simply stop at the nation state, we need to ask ourselves, how do we react in our hearts towards immigrants in our own neighborhoods, do we love them as Christ demanded,

or do we, immediately, distrust?

There seems to be two extremes of opinion on this issue, politically speaking that is, one is that we shut all borders [and most nations do this and even worse] and close our hearts and compassion

or

we have those who want completely open borders with no restraints, not only allowing wide access but also, giving into cultural demands, including those that are hostile to human rights.

And what IS so invisible from many eyes in both these options, is in that in both, immigrants are hurt. The first choice is that if we have a world where we allow no immigration or asylum, we have shut the access to the cities of refuge, we have closed the door to hope, to reconciliation, to a chance, of something better. Not just for the immigrant, but for us,

we close our own lives and hearts to the blessings they could and often do, give us.

The second choice also hurts immigrants in that if we allow total open borders, we also bring in, the conflicts they may be fleeing from, we allow the same systems that they have fled from, e.g., families, women who fled to UK to escape the horrid treatment under Sharia Law only to now find themselves, in a supposedly Free country, to be right back in the snare of misogynist tyranny. OR, those immigrants who flee to America escaping not only poverty but corruption, sexual violence, only to find, those same corrupted forces, have followed them in,

many who are human right violators and the cities of refuge are no longer refuge,

they are then turned into their hell away from hell.

Both extreme options, hurt immigrants. They work however, to aid those who are hostile,

so, is the true source of justice here even the issue of immigrants or how we handle immigration?

Does the Bible give any answers? Yes, it does, numerous times,

while God laid down strict rules in His covenant in regards to not allowing idols, not allowing the turning towards the practices of those who for their other gods, practiced violence, child sacrifices, excessive sexual and other indulgences that lead to disregard for Consent and lead to rape, etc., while God did lay down strict laws on these,

He also, laid strict laws on how to treat the immigrant, concubines [in those days there was concubinage**], the slave [from wars **], foreigners, etc.

They were not to be oppressed, exploited, raped, etc.

I will come back to this and give scripture because there are numerous ones, but my point is,

even under the Old Covenant, Old Testament that was extremely strict, there were still provisions and mercies for the immigrants. Now, for those of you who may not know the Bible or Biblical history, I want to quickly add,

in our day and age, we look back on those times and immediately think, how cruel, how barbaric, etc etc etc.,

it really is necessary to understand however, how the world operated back then because slavery, wars, concubines, etc., were common among the entire world, and even under societies that were followers of female goddesses with male gods [there is no such thing as matriarchal states, small tribes yes and they didn't last long, but states, no], anyway, even though they may have had reverence for the earth or fertility,

they all, sacrificed children, usually children of slaves to their gods, they all had slaves, they were usually far more brutal, rape was not an exception it was common, concubines were the norm, etc etc etc....so, when looking at the Old Testament,

its really important I think, to look at other nations in that day, to get a better understanding of how life was lived back then, as harsh as it seems to us, and it was, it was extremely harsh and Especially for women and slaves and immigrants,

but one thing we need to remember, it wasn't like, today. For example **, lets take concubines for example, and I hate the idea of concubines and yes its misogynist and NO it was NOT God's original plan even after the Fall,

but I was thinking on this the other day, in my prayer-seeking if God is a Misogynist, this journey I am on, seeking God for answers, anyway, if you look at even the first five books of the Old Testament,

these people of the world then were constantly in wars, kingdom against kingdom and the Isrealites didn't always win, so, you have lets say, 100,000 men who are slaughtered on the battlefield, that leaves,

lets say, 90,000 widows. OK, wasn't like back then, a woman could go bury her husband, move back home because in those days usually the woman left her tribe and joined her husbands, so what was she to do? Go apply at JC Pennies?

You get the picture, you see we have a tendency to Judge the days of old, the standards and laws then, with the modernization of today, and its no wonder we think, God sure is cruel and patriarchal, etc. Well yes, if you look at Then with Today's standards of living,

then yes,

but IF you look at Then with the standards of Then, you get a better understanding.

So, even while the laws and the ways of life were much harder then, God still had provisions, He demanded mercy,

towards the alien [that's the term in Old Testament], we'll use immigrant.

However, just as today, the problem then too was that, in mix marrying [outside of tribes] and in compromising the laws of the tribes which then would be God's covenant, today it would be democracy and our forms of government, the problem then is no different than today,

they would eventually allow the idol worship [which required child sacrifice, violent rituals, etc] and they would eventually change, into what they were not,

and it wasn't change for the better.

So God laid out two provisions, first one was complete obedience to His Laws in the Covenant and within those laws, Mercy, towards the foreigner, immigrant, etc., yet always staying FIRM and not compromising, on God's laws.

Justice With Mercy

Not simply Justice

Not simply Mercy

but Both.

I will leave us to think on this, to pray for our hearts where we stand and while praying,

I want to leave you with this story from a woman because she brings in another aspect to this,

us, being foreigners to God, and let us not forget, its ONLY by His Grace,

that we are allowed into His Kingdom.

Let us NOT forget this, Let us NOT forget, that even while we may be Christians, our right standing with God is not on our forcing our way in,

through the law, or our so called self-rightness because none of us are right, none of us,

we are All foreigners, we are All immigrants, spiritually speaking,

we sinners seek refuge, did Jesus say,

first do this, this, this, assimilate, become perfect THEN I'll forgive you, let you in, etc., OR did He say,

come to me, all who are weary, repent, be humble, confess your sins, just come to me as you are?

Not only did He say come to me as you are, HE paid the price, for us, all of us, HE paid the price,

He paid our ransom.

Then if He did this for us, then how can we, treat the immigrant, with any less love than Jesus treated us? How can we, and then say, we know Christ?

We can't,

but does that mean, we are simply to be tolerant of sin, of customs and mores that are wrong in the eyes of God, even wrong in the eyes of our laws, human rights, etc?

Did Jesus say, after He accepted us, that hey, its alright for you to go on and just continue to live as a slave to sin? AS one who belongs to Satan?

No, of course NOT!

But His conditions are not cruel nor are they harsh, His yoke is easy and light, all He asks,

is that we are merciful, just as He is merciful, that we Love, just as He loves us, that we are just in our actions, just as He is just.

The world's systems can never get it right because they always try to render justice according to man's ideas, thoughts, and while they may be good, they are flawed,

the blind leading the blind.

As we pray, for our hearts, let us pray according to this:

Luke 14:15-24 The Parable of the Great Banquet

15 When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, "Blessed are those who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God."

16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests. 17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.'

18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, 'I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.'

19 "Another said, 'I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.'

20 "Still another said, 'I just got married, so I can't come.'

21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.'

22 " 'Sir,' the servant said, 'what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.'

23 "Then the master told his servant, 'Go out to the roads and country lanes and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full. 24 I tell you, not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.' " http://www.ibsstl.org/bible/verse

~~~~~

I will come back to this with more scripture [I need to get back to work, I apologize for starting late this morning]

but I wanted to leave this scripture because also,

we LIVE in a free country, well, for the most part [same with Europe] and we often take our blessings for granted. We have forgotten God in this nation and in Europe,

which is one of the reasons we do NOT hold firm to standards because we as a nation, WE DON'T EVEN FOLLOW THOSE STANDARDS,

there are other issues too we must look at, how our policies contribute to the violence and poverty that do cause so much unrest and misery, forcing thousands with no choice but to flee,

in other words, the issue of immigration, is much more than just the issue of borders.

So much more,

and it starts, first, in our hearts.

So that is why I am lifting this up for prayer First, before I begin prayer for the immigrants, here and worldwide, for refugees, for justice and the end to the reasons for why people flee, etc.

But too, I am also going to be lifting up prayer, for a change in US, us as in US in the USA and US in the entire world,

especially Christians, because we are supposed to be the Salt of the world. IF WE lose our saltiness,

where with will we be salted and what happens then?

here is the article, I will continue on this later this week. Peace


The Great Divide

November 24, 2007 by globalgirlnetwork

by Stefanie C.


A large part of my identity is in the fact that I am an immigrant. I immigrated to Canada from the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) over six years ago and only recently have I been able to sort out some of the pieces of the puzzle that is my life. READ THE REST HERE: http://globalgirlnetwork.com/2007/11/24/the-great-divide/