The English language can be a strange creature that breeds confusion in the field of communication. The different meanings of the word bow is a good example:
• to bend forward at the waist in respect as in “bow down”
• the front of the ship (e.g. “bow and stern”)
• a ribbon tied to a package
• a bowtie
• to bend outward at the sides like a “bow-legged” cowboy
• a bow and arrow
Then there are words like:
• March (a month) and march as in a parade
• Divine (God) and divine as in discovering something by intuition
• Liberal (political view) and liberal as in abundance or plenty
• Agape (an open mouth) and agape (love of God)
• Dove (a bird) and dove (as in scuba diving)

You may wonder about the wandering of my mind, and what this has to do with ISIS. I have a two word answer: President Obama. Over the last couple of weeks, the President has chosen to use the acronym ISIL instead of the more common ISIS. The latter refers to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and ISIL means Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The difference between ISIS and ISIL is more than word-play. There is an alarming difference between the two. The “Levant” of ISIL incorporates the island of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, and part of southern Turkey. ISIL has its eyes on more than just Syria and Iraq. The ravenous hunger of these misfit Muslims will not be satisfied until they devour the other countries of this region and feast on Israel as well.

Do situations like this make you mad or are they made for prayer? Do they rob you of your peace or do you robe yourself in prayer? We need to pray for the minority groups in this region because they have a slim chance of survival when the slime of hatred flows out of control.

The world is looking to us to help strip ISIL of its power, but I’m afraid all they are seeing is the yellow stripe of cowardice.

Like many of you, I’m war-weary and the last thing I want to see is our American troops engaged in combat again, but ISIL must be stopped. Will we fight them there or here on American soil?

I encourage you to pray that God will stop ISIL’s preying on the innocent.