NOTES ON CONTROLLING THE FIRE WITHIN: CHRISTIAN DUTY IN THE FACE OF ICE BRUTALITY AGAINST THE IMMIGRANT (WITH VIDEO)

1. THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “I said, ‘I will take heed and GUARD MY WAYS, that I may sin not with my tongue; I will muzzle my mouth as with a bridle while the wicked are before me.’ I was dumb with silence, I held my peace without profit and had no comfort away from good, while my distress was renewed.

My heart was hot within me. While I was musing, THE FIRE BURNED; then I spoke with my tongue: ‘Lord, make me to know my end and [to appreciate] the measure of my days—what it is; let me know and realize how frail I am [how transient is my stay here].’” – PSALM 39:1-4, AMPC

KEY WORDS:

• “GUARD.” ‘Shamar’ [שָׁמַר]: “A primitive root; properly, ‘To hedge about (as with thorns);’ also, ‘to protect, to attend to, beware, be circumspect; to watch (as a watchman).’” NOTE: “The verb occurs about 469 times across every major section of the Hebrew Canon—Torah, Prophets, Writings—’Expresses the ideas of guarding, keeping, watching, preserving, observing, attending, or maintaining.’ Context determines whether the subject is a Shepherd keeping sheep, a Priest watching sacred space, a King protecting his realm, an Individual obeying God, or God Himself preserving His people.”

• “FIRE.” ‘Esh’ [אֵ֑שׁ]: “A primitive word; ‘Burning, fiery, flaming, hot;’ also, ‘[The radical sense of “fire” is usually, to rush, to rage, to be violently agitated; this sense of fire thereby coincides with the Latin, “furo.” It may be from “shining” or “consuming.’” NOTE: “אֵשׂ (ʾēš’) designates literal flame, heat, or burning material and is used figuratively for: ‘Passion, Anger, Judgment, Purification, and Divine Presence.’ It occurs about 377 times, making it one of the most vivid motifs in the entire Hebrew Canon.”

QUOTATION. [The Road (2006) by CORMAC MCCARTHY] is a harrowing Post-Apocalyptic novel that follows an unnamed father and his young son as they walk through a burned, ash-covered America. Years after an unspecified Cataclysm destroyed civilization, the duo struggles to survive, clinging to morality and each other while trying to reach the Coast.

“You have to carry the fire.” “I don’t know how to.” “Yes, you do.” “Is the fire real? The fire?” “Yes it is.” “Where is it? I don’t know where it is.” “Yes you do. It’s inside you. It always was there. I can see it.” [Was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction].

COMMENTARY. “‘My heart was HOT within me’ – My mind became more and more excited; my feelings more and more intense.The attempt to suppress my emotions only more and more enkindled them.

‘While I was musing the fire burned’ – Literally, ‘In my meditation the fire burned.’ That is, while I was dwelling on the subject; while I was agitating it in my mind; while I thought about it – ‘The flame was enkindled, and my thoughts found utterance.’ He was unable longer to suppress his feelings, and he gave vent to them in words. Compare  Job 32:18-19; Jeremiah 20:9-10 …

“For I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me. Behold, my belly is as wine which hath no vent; it is ready to burst like new bottles …

Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.’ But His Word was in mine heart as a BURNING FIRE shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay. For I heard the defaming of many, ‘Fear on every side!’ ‘Report,’ say they, ‘and we will report it!’ All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, ‘Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.’”

‘Then spake I with my tongue’ – That is, in the words which are recorded in this Psalm. He gave vent to his pent-up feelings in the language which follows. ‘Even though there was a feeling of murmuring and complaining, he sought RELIEF in stating his real difficulties before God, and in seeking from Him direction and support.’” – ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 14 vols., 1832; edited

II. TEACHING

THIS JUST IN. “The US Senate has approved more than $70bn (£52bn) in funding for President Donald Trump’s immigration agencies. The package would fund bodies including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol for the remaining three years of the Trump administration. It now heads to the House of Representatives for a vote, and then if approved will go to Trump to sign.” – MAIA DAVIES, “US Senate Approves $70bn for Trump Immigration Agencies,” BBC, June 5, 2026; edited

There are at least TWO THINGS that grip me and all of my faculties, pushing my self-control to its utter outer limits: ‘Harm to little children; and harm to animals.’ Selah.

Beloved, I can hardly bear to watch or read graphic reports these days, most especially, of the devastating brutality to children (and their mothers) in two of Trump’s Concentration Camps: Dilley in Texas, and Delaney in New Jersey.

DETENTION CENTER ABUSES. Here is a brief Bullet Point Review from several sources, including a United States Senator’s Report (John Osoff, Georgia Democrat), a Congressional delegation summary (Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. and Rep. Analilia Mejia; House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Sen. Andy Kim, Rep. Rob Menendez, and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, (ALL DEMOCRATS!), plus an AI Overview as of June 4, 2026.

• OPEN. Numerous credible reports, investigations, and lawsuits detail the severe abuse, medical neglect, and inhumane conditions for children and families at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas and the Delaney Hall Detention Facility in New Jersey.

• ABUSES & CONDITIONS. Joint Reports from Human Rights First and legal advocates detail inadequate or contaminated water, moldy food, and severe medical neglect. Detainees have outlined horrific conditions, including foul-tasting water, inedible or frozen food, and physical abuse by guards.

• PSYCHOLOGICAL & PHYSICAL HARM. Advocates and the American Academy of Pediatrics have condemned the detention of children. Detainees have reported verbal abuse, intimidation by guards, and the confiscation of children’s letters and drawings. Additionally, court monitors have noted that hundreds of children have been held beyond the 20-day limit mandated by the Flores Settlement.

• OFFICIAL ACTION. The escalating conditions—including detainee labor and hunger strikes over alleged chemical gas exposure and beatings—have prompted strong condemnation from (Democrat) lawmakers. The State of New Jersey and the City of Newark filed lawsuits against the GEO Group to demand transparency and force health inspections at the facility.

• CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS. Senator Jon Ossoff’s ongoing investigation into U.S. immigration detention identified over 1,000 credible reports of human rights abuses, including numerous cases of physical abuse, denial of food and water, and severe medical neglect targeting children and pregnant individuals. A report by the House Oversight Committee highlighted instances where Immigration Agents inflicted physical harm on children and acted with reckless disregard for their medical conditions during enforcement operations.

• SEXUAL ABUSE. Thousands of migrants and detainees in U.S. immigration and federal facilities have reported sexual abuse. Advocacy networks and data analyses reveal that hundreds of sexual assault complaints go unaddressed or are routinely ignored by the Immigration Officials. Investigations and legal briefs have documented instances of women miscarrying in custody, being shackled during medical emergencies, and being separated from their infants or deported while nursing. Systemic reports and investigations document widespread sexual assault, rape, and subsequent pregnancies within U.S. immigration and detention centers. These documented cases highlight severe vulnerabilities, inadequate access to medical and reproductive care, and failures in accountability across the detention system. DK: There are a growing number of yet unverified reports stating concern for where the newborns are taken (or disposed of!).

WHERE IS THE CHURCH! This is almost singularly why I toss and turn, at times, late into the night, beloved. ‘WHAT,’ in God’s massive economy can explain 150,000 White Evangelical Churches and their Pastors remaining callously Indifferent to all this unspeakable brutality toward “the least of these”?

That is the subject of our next section.

III. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

“Keep yourself far from a false matter; do not kill the innocent and righteous. For I will not justify the wicked. And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.

Also, YOU SHALL NOT OPPRESS A STRANGER [‘ger’ (גֵרִ֥ים),’foreigner, alien, or guest’] for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” – EXODUS 23:7-9, NKJV

THE SIN OF NEUTRALITY. Though I could have relied on another summary report, this time I wanted some more teeth in it. Thus, early champion of resistance and gentle lion, DR. RUSSELL MOORE, does just that for us. In a thoughtful piece adapted from his Newsletter, he takes the Church to the woodshed with a ‘Controlled Fire’ that I wish sometimes I could exhibit more often.

Title of the essay: “Why Christians Ignore What the Bible Says About Immigrants” (Jan. 7, 2026; edited). What follows are his MAIN IDEAS from that commentary.

• OPEN. “‘Nothing can provoke anger quicker than Mercy, when it’s directed to the wrong kind of people. Marking the Church’s Year of Jubilee [in honor of the 800^th year since the death of St. Francis of Assisi], Pope Leo XIV invoked Biblical language calling for kindness to migrants as human beings made in the image of God. There’s nothing the least bit controversial about this. It’s what the Bible says, what Christians have always believed, what official Catholic teaching makes explicit.’ The Pope did not call for countries to stop enforcing their borders, nor did he give any specific policy proposals for how a nation should best balance security and mercy. ‘He simply called on Christians to refuse harshness or mistreatment of vulnerable people.’”

• HOSTILITY. “‘Some people didn’t like this.’ The blowback the Pope received was not from fellow bishops or clergy or, as far as I know, from any large numbers of churchgoing Roman Catholics. Instead, Political Activists and Social Media conflict entrepreneurs blasted him; not so much for what he said as for the fact that he spoke to the issue at all. Difficulty speaking to immigration is not a specifically Catholic problem—’In fact, it may be more of a problem for other Christian Groups’ [such as White Evangelicals!].”

• EXAMPLE. “One Pastor said to me, ‘Most of my people want to know how best to pray for and to serve their neighbors here, but if I answer their questions from the pulpit, a small minority [sic] of the congregation is going to say that I’m supporting illegals.’ One Preacher, an immigration hawk who supports mass deportation, said he has the same problem when he tells people the Church’s job is to minister to everybody, regardless of where they’re from or what they’ve done. Yet another Minister confessed, ‘I don’t even know what my views on immigration or ICE are; I’m not trying to weigh in on that. I just want to remind people to love their neighbors, full stop. That’s Jesus. How is that controversial?’” [JESUS: “If you [really] love Me, you will keep (OBEY) My commands.” – JOHN 14:14, AMPC].

• TRUTH. “‘Well, it turns out Jesus IS very controversial—and always has been!’ As a matter of fact, when it comes to the Language of Jubilee, Jesus kept preaching until He reached the point where His hearers were outraged, for all the same reasons we see today. In His hometown synagogue, Jesus turned to the Scroll of Isaiah and read a passage that echoes directly the language of Jubilee from the Torah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’ And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ (LUKE 4:18–21, ESV).” Selah.

• BOLDNESS. But Jesus kept talking and implied this Mercy of God applied even to people they didn’t like. He referenced from the Bible that the great Prophet Elijah was sent to care not for one of his own people but for a Canaanite widow outside the borders of Israel. Jesus then pointed out, even more harshly, that Elisha bypassed countless Israelites with leprosy to heal a foreigner—not just a foreigner but a ‘Syrian,’ and not just a Syrian but a Syrian ‘soldier.’ Again, Jesus did not even apply these Scriptural Principles at this point. He simply pointed out what THE BIBLE had said. But ‘When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath’ (v. 28).

• COURAGE!. “What’s dangerous about this is not where it’s complicated (‘What Counsel do I give someone who is illegally here but in danger back home and has nowhere else to go?’). What’s dangerous is where it’s very, very clear—because it asks us whether our deepest loyalties are still capable of being interrupted by the Word of God. ‘THE QUESTION is not whether the Bible is clear enough but whether we are still capable of being CHANGED by it.’ That was controversial in Nazareth then. It’s controversial in Nairobi or Naples or Nashville now.”

IV. LAST THOUGHTS: CARRYING THE FIRE

THE LITMUS TEST. ‘To the extent that a believing Christian biblically, actively and consistently separates from and resists the forces of Donald Trump’s MAGA Christian Nationalism Movement in its various manifestations, that person is demonstrating Love for Christ, Neighbor, and Truth. Conversely, to the extent that a believing Christian unbiblically chooses to consistently form an alliance with, support, or ignore Trump’s Movement, that person is demonstrating resistance to or even hatred of Christ, Neighbor and Truth.

I write this after TEN YEARS of intense theological research related to the words, actions, and person of DONALD JOHN TRUMP, who I consider to be none less than the Biblical Antichrist (cf. Daniel 7:24-27; Matthew 24:24; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 John 2:18-22; Revelation 13:1-10).

FOUR REASONS. More succinctly, nearly all of the Biblical Canon and Christian Gospel’s severe counsel to avoid Trump at all costs is reducible to Four Principles we simply cannot ignore. Adapted again from an accurate and dispassionate AI Overview (ret. May 5, 2025; edited).

• OPEN. Christians who oppose Donald Trump argue that his rhetoric, policies, and personal conduct fundamentally contradict Core Biblical Teachings. Opposition centers on several key moral and theological concerns.

1. ETHICAL CONDUCT AND CHARACTER.  Many believers argue that Trump’s public behavior—including his treatment of women, promotion of division, and use of aggressive rhetoric—stands in direct opposition to Biblical Virtues like Humility, Kindness, and Self-Control.

• AUTHORITARIAN THREATS. A Coalition of [Non-Evangelical] Leaders and Christian Groups have warned against Trump’s movement toward Authoritarian Rule. ‘His threats to deploy the military against political opponents and demonization of vulnerable groups are seen by many believers as a danger to Democracy and Human Dignity.’

• CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM. Critics argue that aligning the Christian Faith with a specific political figure or nation, such as selling the “Trump Bible” or portraying himself as a Christ-like figure, borders on Blasphemy and distorts the true nature of the Gospel (and its witness to the nation and world).

• IMMIGRATION AND THE MARGINALIZED. ‘Policies resulting in the Separation of families and the Demonization, Abuse and Grave Harm to immigrants, including their deaths, are frequently condemned by Christian Advocacy Groups as a violation of the Biblical Mandate to Care for the Stranger, the Poor, and for the Oppressed.’

DK NOTE. Beloved, these are Uncontestable Theological Reasons that inarguably prohibit any true follower of Christ who claims to ‘Carry God’s Fire’ to support Donald Trump in any conceivable way, directly or indirectly. Were I an attorney speaking on behalf of these arguments, I would define the overwhelming evidence as amounting to a ‘Prima Facie’ case.

• DEFINITION. “‘Prima facie’ is Latin for ‘At first sight,’ or ‘On the face of it.’ Prima facie is used in court to indicate that there is sufficient or adequate evidence to support a claim. More simply put, a prima facie case means that the claim being presented to a court has [nearly unquestionable] merit, when taken at face value. 

• VERDICT. “‘A verdict’ is the formal decision or judgment rendered by a court at the conclusion of a trial or legal proceeding. It represents the culmination of the entire legal process. Verdicts are reached by a judge or a jury, depending on the type of trial and jurisdiction. In a Criminal Trial, the verdict may include findings such as guilty or not guilty, reflecting whether the defendant’s guilt has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt.” 

THREE LAST WORDS. Now if all that were not enough of what I hope is responsible Theological Supposition, many of you will recall that I just completed a 3,000-mile limited Circuit Ride to House Bless a new build by some dear friends in Northwest Washington State.

Just before, during, and toward the end of that journey, I ‘heard’ THREE WORDS that I believe is from the ‘Voice that’s not a voice’ (1 Kings 19:12). I do not offer them as the definitive Word of God of course, but as possible Descriptors of the Times that can help us prepare for what is likely in front of us increasingly.

Each was in response to a QUESTION I addressed to the Lord. This following my late Commentary in December 2025 in which I ‘heard’ this: “2026: Year of the Beast.”

1. “MAMMON.” Rendered in the Greek as, ‘Mamónas’ [μαμωνᾶς]: “Avarice for wealth, earnings, gain, or possessions.” NOTE: Denotes material wealth in such a way that it is treated as a ‘PERSONAL POWER’ competing with Devotion to God. ‘The term appears in the Teaching of Jesus alone and is always set in ANTITHESIS to the true Sovereignty of the Lord.’”
2. “SMASH.” Rendered in the Hebrew as, ‘Machats’ [מָחַץ]: “To crush or violently plunge; to subdue or destroy; pierce through or smite; to strike or wound.” NOTE: “‘מָחַץ portrays decisive, often violent, breaking or shattering.’ In Scripture the verb is applied to bones, heads, nations, weapons, and wicked men, but always with the deeper intent of displaying the LORD’s incomparable power to save, judge, and reign.”
3. “COMPLETION.” Rendered in the Greek as, ‘Teleiósis’ [τελείωσις]: “The act of finishing, of expiation, perfection; absolution, fulfillment, ‘Concummation’ [as with Prophecy].” NOTE: “The word denotes the arrival at a ‘Designed Goal’—an End-State that fully matches God’s Intention. It captures the MOMENT when a Purpose, Promise, or Process reaches its ‘God-Ordained Completion.’ Throughout Scripture this idea is never abstract progress for its own sake; it is always ‘COMPLETION in the sphere of God’s Covenantal Plan.’”

CODA. Where I would normally deep-dive into the implications of each of these ‘Prophetic Words’ to the American Church, this time I choose to simply leave it there, in God’s refined air, for you all to ponder. And if He should show you something that seems legitimate and responsible to the Scriptures, bring it into The Conversation.

Clearly, however, ‘Something’s Coming,’ beloved. So may our Sovereign speak to us Confirmation, Warning, or in Correction. ‘As it be found pleasing to the One Who Knows All.’

MEDIA

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/nhM79lLSrIc