{"id":11104,"date":"2019-10-05T04:59:13","date_gmt":"2019-10-05T09:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=11104"},"modified":"2019-10-05T04:59:27","modified_gmt":"2019-10-05T09:59:27","slug":"kill-em-all-or-lord-forgive-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=11104","title":{"rendered":"\u201cKill \u2018Em All\u201d or \u201cLord, Forgive Them”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A little more than three weeks ago, my grandson\u2019s car was stolen from a Dallas downtown parking garage. It wasn\u2019t the car being stolen that hurt near as much as it was what was in the trunk of his car that hurt him and his mama the most. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This side of our family are the fishing lovers which was initiated years ago by Papa, my husband, who loved any kind of fishing and passed it on to our daughter, Staci, and onto Payton. When Papa left for heaven, I knew I would pass along Papa\u2019s fishing gear, tackle, fishing vests, fly rod, and fishing necklaces that held all the tools for making leaders for lines, getting the fish off the hooks, etc. All of that was in Payton\u2019s car trunk, plus Papa\u2019s briefcase which held many other treasures from Papa. We prayed and hoped beyond hope that the thieves would leave all of that in the trunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The police found the car. Payton and Staci went to see the stripped-beyond-recognition remains yesterday. Nothing was left in the trunk \u2013 even the liner was gone. Staci sent me the photos, and my first words were: \u201cGod, kill \u2018em!\u201d Immediately, I thought: \u201cLord, have mercy, did I really say that?\u201d Staci quickly retorted: \u201cI think it\u2019s better to pray \u201cLord, bring them to repentance and to You.\u201d Lord, have mercy! Yes, that\u2019s what I meant! ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I know the scripture: \u201cWhat the heart is full of, the mouth speaks\u201d (Luke 6:45) and I had to ask that God purify my heart so it\u2019s not so quick to speak words I don\u2019t think I really meant. I was prompted to write this post after I saw the video of Brandt, the younger brother of Botham Jean speak to former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger from the witness stand after she was sentenced for killing 26-year-old Botham Jean in his apartment. At the sentencing phase, Jean\u2019s younger brother told her: \u201cI think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want for you.\u201d He added: \u201cI love you as a person, and I don\u2019t wish anything bad on you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He then asked the court for permission to hug her. The image of the two embracing made national headlines. The prosecutor said that in 37-years of practicing law, \u201cI never saw anything like that.\u201d Brandt was right about his older brother\u2019s character and faith. Botham Jean was born in Saint Lucia, an island in the eastern Caribbean. He became a Christian at an early age and began preaching as a teenager. He sang in his church choir, in college, and at Dallas West Church of Christ, where he led worship the Sunday before he was killed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN reported that after Brandt Jean\u2019s remarkable act of grace, District Judge Tammy Kemp gave Guyger a Bible and also hugged her. \u201cYou can have mine. I have three or four more at home,\u201d the judge said. \u201cThis is the one I use every day. This is your job for the next month. It says right here. John 3:16. And this is where you start. \u2018For God so loved the world . . .’\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that isn\u2019t love \u2013 the ocean is dry; if that isn\u2019t love \u2013 there\u2019s no stars in the sky; if that isn\u2019t love \u2013 the little sparrows can\u2019t fly; if that isn\u2019t love \u2013 then heaven\u2019s a myth; there\u2019s no feeling like this. If that isn\u2019t love. And that is the love of Jesus \u2013 Who could say \u201cForgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do.\u201d That is the love I pray for \u2013 to be able to love like that. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little more than three weeks ago, my grandson\u2019s car was stolen from a Dallas downtown parking garage. It wasn\u2019t the car being stolen that hurt near as much as it was what was in the trunk of his car that hurt him and his mama the most. This side of our family are the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15015,15016,15019,15017,15018],"tags":[15009,1210,15010,15014,7864,15013,5744,3677,7242,593,110,132,3573,1558,2357,636,15011,15012],"class_list":["post-11104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amber-guyger","category-botham-jean","category-judge","category-love-not-hate","category-sentencing","tag-amber-guyger","tag-blog","tag-botham-jean","tag-briefcase","tag-dallas","tag-fish-lovers","tag-fishing","tag-forgive","tag-forgive-them","tag-john-316","tag-lord-have-mercy","tag-love","tag-luke-645","tag-police","tag-pray","tag-sentence","tag-st-lucia","tag-stolen-car"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11108,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11104\/revisions\/11108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}