Draw Near – 365 Guides to Greater Intimacy with GodSample

INNOCENT VICTIMS

The horror of Hitler often overshadows that of Mussolini. However, we must never forget how evil this little dictator was. He marched without mercy on Ethiopia and machine-gunned peaceful people who still hunted with bows and arrows. He stayed in power for twenty-one years by murder, intrigue, and exile. When German forces collapsed in 1945, the escaping Mussolini was caught and, along with his mistress, shot. Their bodies were taken to Milan and hung by the heels in front of a garage. It was an ugly end to an ugly and totally immoral man.

There are evil men in the world and some even in the church. Paul warns the Philippians of some false teachers whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame--who set their mind on earthly things (Philippians 3:19). Their end, like Mussolini's, will be disgrace and damnation.

Pitted against the evil ones of this world are those who, like Paul, can say that their citizenship is in heaven. These are men who live for eternity rather than the few years between birth and the grave. They refuse to live by the law of the jungle--"survival of the fittest"--but seek to fulfill their responsibilities to God and man. May our citizenship be rooted in eternity rather than in the gutters of this earth.