To ISIS

To Islamic State: You are considered the worst threat this world has. With good reason.

You are feared and hated. With good reason.

You are synonymous with

Beheadings,

Bloodshed,

Terrorism,

Death.

This past weekend, there was an attack in Paris, France, that has made international headlines. We are told that up to 131 people have been killed in this attack, 352 people injured and many of them seriously injured. Many lives are forever changed; they will never be the same. This attack is being attributed to you.

Now, because of you, refugees are being denied admission in some countries in Europe and in some states in the U.S. and understandably so. Because of you, fear and hatred has struck the hearts of many. You are believed to be infiltrating, if only in small numbers, these many refugees.

Most declared that you are not human, but are monsters and sociopaths with no conscience, no heart and no emotions. I know, however, that all your members were once impressionable, vulnerable children. All of us may wonder: Where has your thirst for killing of the innocent, and bloodshed have come from? Where has your love for cruelty and brutality, and your heartlessness come from? According to research, it comes from something called radicalization that often takes place when you are most vulnerable, as children and in times in life when you feel alienated, without purpose, and cut off. This is no excuse for your horrific acts, of cource. It's only an explanation.

I know that you are responsible for the deaths of many people of faith, especially Christians. I cannot forget the video of the beheading of 21 Egyptian Christians, for example. Certainly I cannot forget the photos of children, from Christian families, whom you have beheaded. I know that you are using social media, not for good, but as a tool for terror. I understand that you are exceptionally skilled and savvy with social media. I do not know if any of your members will see this post. I do not expect it to change you even if any of your members did read this

I pray for you, just as I have been told to do by a God Who alone has the power to transform people. For all of us, including me, possess the same sinful nature that you do. It is just that in the case of most of us, we have not grown up in envirinments where we have been indoctrinated with the notion that the West is the Enemy that is to be destroyed at all costs including your own lives. If more of us had been radicalized, I'm sure we would have been like you.

I pray that God will change your hearts and minds. God sent His Son, Jesus, into this world, to live the perfect life that none of us could live and then die in our place. Our sins, all of them,in thought, word and deed, are against God and bring on His wrath. Jesus, in dying on a cross, took our place and God's wrath at our sin. So we can be saved from sin and its penalty, death and hell.

So, of any ISIS members are reading this, I ask you: Repent of your sin (change your mind and agree with God that you have sinned against Him) and trust Jesus and embrace Him as Your Savior from sin and its power. He can take your zeal for killing and bloodshed, and re-channel it to zeal to make Jesus known to people and to save lives instead of destroying them.

Will you respond to God's call even to you?