By Jonathan Ho

Conflict.

According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, there are four major wars ongoing in the world (major wars defined as 10,000 or more deaths in current or past year). During war families split apart, people die, and chaos reigns.

Sometimes war takes place with bombs, rockets, and bullets. Sometimes wars take place because of fear, misunderstandings, and anger. Some wars take place in other countries while others take place within our homes.

Conflict started with Adam and Eve and in only one generation it led to one brother killing another.

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Conflict often starts with a desire of our heart which is blocked or attacked by something or someone. You want something but you can’t have it.

James, a follower of Jesus, once asked, “What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?”

James continues, “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel…” (James 4:1-2a)

These quarrels may start innocently and even with good intentions, but left alone, they can cause deep wounds.

Fleshly conflict, conflict based out of our own selfish desires, leads to quarrels, fighting, even murder.

If you’ve been in any group of people you’ve seen the roots of complaining about someone, of wanting to prove yourself right, of being misunderstood.

If you’ve been in any church group you’ve likely encountered conflicts which have led to church splits. I’ve seen a church split and have seen Christians so angry they will not even look at one another.

The body of Christ, the Church, sadly often acts as if it has cancer, where some of its cells divide uncontrollably and destroy its own body tissue.

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To allow conflict to reign is to act as an enemy of God. To allow conflict to lead to hate will prevent you from loving God.

Jesus once said, “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Jesus also said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

John, a follower of Jesus, once wrote, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20).

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We need to repent – to admit our wrong and turn 180 degrees around. Instead of moving away, we need to move towards our sister and our brother. This will cost us our pride and will feel unnatural, but remember Jesus’ words:

“For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it” (Luke 9:24).

Paul, famous follower of Jesus, also wrote, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” (see Ephesians 6:10-20), prefacing those words with an exhortation to put on the full armor of God. Why do we need the armor of God? So we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The problem is not the other person but the desires within us and the other person. The problem is that we are fallen, in a fallen world, and we have an enemy who seeks to have us devour one another before devouring what’s left of us.

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In this edition, I want you to see the effects of conflict and what God calls us to. Invite the Holy Spirit to move in your heart and reveal whatever it is that the Holy Spirit needs to reveal in you.

Jesus once said, “If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand” (Mark 3:25). If we want to see God move, we must do it as a body, and one that is not divided against itself. We cannot expect to work to our maximum ability while allowing cancer to reign in our body. This may mean breaking from our cultural background.

If you are from a Chinese background, you may have thought peace was found by dropping an issue, by not causing someone else to “lose face”. If you’re like me, you sometimes have a hard time correcting someone publicly. You might not want to stop someone from speaking poorly of someone else because it will shame the speaker. However, this is not always the way Jesus calls us. This may be the Chinese thing to do, but it is not always the Kingdom thing to do.

While there is wisdom at times to keep quiet, we must remember that as Kingdom citizens, we are not peacekeepers. We are peacemakers. Daughters and sons of God make peace.

Peace requires seeking and hearing God, taking action, and sacrificing the self.

In this edition, we have articles from people who have been wounded by conflict within the body of Christ. They have been pushed out of church groups, maligned, and misunderstood. My hope is not that you would grow indignant at their situations, but that you would grow indignant at Satan’s attempts to destroy the church and that you would take action in your own church group.

Paul once wrote, “But one whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:10-11).

We are not unaware of his schemes and we must not keep the peace but make peace. We must not say as the false prophets and priests said in Israel, “peace, peace” when there is no peace, but we must deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow Jesus to make peace, even if it costs us our pride, even our very lives.

Jonathan Ho

As always, please submit any feedback you have to krc.english@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

The Other Side

We’ve been asked by some of our readers about whatʼs been going on in the Chinese side of the magazine. Please see below a list of articles which will be on the other side. If youʼre ever interested in any of these topics then please let us know at krc.english@gmail.com and we can look into translating them over either in upcoming magazine issues or on our soon to be released English website.

Talent Section
1. Part 2 of the World Refugee Crisis and the Effects on the Global Economy - discussion on ways to stop the refugee crisis and how Christians can get involved to help the refugees
2. Discipline and Self-Control - Lessons we learn from characters in the Bible
3. Brief Discussion on Board of Directors of the non-profit organization

Outreach Section
1. New outlook on mission fields - Business as an open door to share the gospel in the Silk Road countries

Culture Section
1. The Fire of Notre Dame - Beauty in Art vs Faith
2. Blog/ Social media writing - a new platform for writing ministry
3. Social Justice

Relationship Section
1. Life Journey detour - sickness and healing, a new outlook on life
2. The story of our youth - discussion on anorexia

Community Section
1. Interview and reports on the Herald Children village in China