The Battles Within

The Battles Within
===================

I was reading the summaries of the New York Times 10 Best Books
of The Year. One of the books, "The Republic of Suffering" was
about the American Civil War. I had not realized the extent of
the deaths of the war. Here is an excerpt from the book:

"In the middle of the nineteenth century, the United States
embarked on a new relationship with death, entering into a
civil war that proved bloodier than any other conflict in
American history, a war that would presage the slaughter of
World War I's Western Front and the global carnage of the
twentieth century.

The number of soldiers who died between 1861 and 1865, an
estimated 620,000, is approximately equal to the total American
fatalities in the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War,
the Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, and the
Korean War combined. The Civil War's rate of death, its
incidence in comparison with the size of the American
population, was six times that of World War II. A similar rate,
about 2 percent, in the United States today would mean six
million fatalities."

Approximately 50,000 U.S. soldiers were killed in Vietnam and
almost 5,000 in the war in Iraq. The civil war took over ten
times MORE lives than those two U.S. conflicts.

So what's the big deal ?

It is home.

Conflict at home causes more damage than conflict among strangers
and those outside of our homes, that's why.

It's true in war. It's true in our personal lives. We've lost
more people and peace fighting among ourselves than we've lost
fighting others who are neither close in blood or heart.

So it was then.
So it is now.
So it shall be.

The devil is saying this to us,
"Fools are worrying about nations not getting along
and I have them not getting along with the people in their office
I've got them at war with the people they see everyday
I have them at war with the people under the same roof
I even have them at war with the person in the same bed."

So why am I writing this to Christian ? I seen and heard poeple attacking their Pastor, Church brother and sisters , their mothers , their chhildren their wives , and all menbers of their family . So before we can make a diferent in the world , we must make a different in our churches ,and our families . If I won the world and lost my soul I would have gain nothing .
Jan Bagwell
God Bless