Waiting

If we close our eyes we can picture them, sitting in class. A teacher is teaching. Students are listening . . . most of them anyway. In many ways it is a normal day - kids waiting patiently for the bell. But then there's a loud BANG and then another and another. What is happening?

Monday was just like every other day at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison,  WI. And now two kids are dead. Their teacher too. And five others are critically injured.

Meanwhile, parents were hearing the news of a shooting at their kid's school. That is a phone call no parent ever wants to get. For a parent, waiting and wondering, hoping and praying, must but the longest, most agonizing, wait they have ever had.

And it's interesting how we initially assume that the shooter was "a troubled teenage boy." Nope. A 15-year old girl. And a 2-year old girl called 9-1-1!

People are also quick to blame guns for this. While true - "If there were no guns this never would have happened." - it's not really the gun's fault. It's ours.

Do you remember the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013? Three people died, hundreds were injured, 17 lost limbs. No guns were used. Just a couple of homemade pressure cooker bombs.

The problem is us.

So, how do we fix the problem? The parents at ALCS were taking a good step, enrolling their kids in a Christian school. But that act didn't grant immunity from their struggles and pain on Monday.

One day, hopefully soon, Jesus will return and take us home. He has promised to give us all new hearts. That's something EVERYONE needs. Not just gun owners.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." - Ezekiel 36:26

The Madison police chief said, "Every child, every person in that building, is a victim and will be a victim forever."

That's not true. It's true for THIS life, but not the next. Not FOREVER.

Prayers go out to the families who lost loved ones. Such a tragic loss of life. The only consolation in this whole nightmare is that the teacher and kids were most likely Christians and are with Jesus right now.

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." - 2 Corinthians 5:8

For those of us who remain on this earth, waiting for Jesus, we need to make sure our kids know Him. To make sure that He is Lord of all in all our families. That is the only way to keep Satan from eternally killing their souls and no amount of waiting will EVER bring them back.

Madison Shooting - Newsmax

Inventors of Evil

Answers are hard to come by when we try to understand why there is so much violence in our world. "Why?" has got to be the most asked question ever. Why? There IS an answer.

I heard a prominent pastor once say, "When the pews get a little too full I like to pull out one of my 'Wrath of God' sermons." First off, can a church ever be "too full"? But secondly, what is a "Wrath of God" sermon. Open your Bibles to Romans 1 and hold on to your butts.

"18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." - Romans 1:18-32

There is a lot of present-day society represented in this passage of scripture from The Book of Romans. In light of the recent shootings in Texas and Ohio we seem to definitely be a world filling with "inventors of evil." And Paul was preaching to The Church in Rome itself 2000 years ago!

Imagine what the world will look like when Jesus returns and raptures His church out of here. It's not going to be pretty for those who have been left behind. Our future is a personal choice made by each one of us. The choice we make will have eternal consequences. The only question that remains is, "Are we ready?"

Left Behind Trailer

Questions of Evil

The question has to be asked. "Where was God in Las Vegas last weekend?" Or "If God is such a loving God, why did He allow this to happen?" Logical questions I guess. The answer is simple. Two little words.

Before I tell you what those two little words are,
let me tell you something that's been bugging me.
 There are different ways that people respond to tragic events such as the one that just happened in Las Vegas. For example, in the world of Facebook and Twitter people express their sadness or opinions about the situation in words. We read those words and know how someone feels. But what good does that do?

My least favorite phrase that gets uttered during times of loss is, “Our thoughts are with you.” Really? Our “thoughts”, if not turned into prayers, are meaningless. Here ends my commentary on “thoughts”. Let’s get back to the question about why evil exists in the world.

I promised you the answer in just two simple words. Here they are.

FREE WILL.

God created us with free will. In others words, we choose to do things. We CHOOSE to get up in the morning and go to work. On the way there we CHOOSE to obey traffic signs and NOT to obey speed limit signs. Adolf Hitler chose to order the killing of millions of Jews. The shooter in Las Vegas CHOSE to fire his weapon into a crowd. WHY? Only God knows why we make some of the decisions we do. however, it is WE who choose to do the evil.

²⁸ Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. ²⁹ They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; ³¹ they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. ³² Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." - Romans 1:28-32

And where is God during all of this? He is right there amongst the hurting and the dead. He is welcoming some of His sons and daughters home. He is providing comfort to those who lost loved ones. He is there with His children. He positioned people at the event - a group of fire fighters who helped set up emergency triage, a band member who helped lead others to safety. He was there.

“But pity the man who falls and has no one to pick him up” - Ecclesiastes 4:10

 

God cries with those who mourn. Jesus cried over one man's death (Lazarus). But God has the power to raise the dead. So our prayers for the families of the fallen go up to the only One who can truly save - our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May He have mercy on us for the choices we make, and forgive us when we do what is not right in HIS eyes.

Evil and Suffering - RZIM
Who Is Responsible For Evil? - Ravi Zacharias

There Comes A Time

It's been difficult, watching all of the news stories about murdered police officers lately. These guys risk their lives defending us for very little pay, putting themselves in danger each and every day. One must ask, "When is enough, enough? When will somebody do something?"

There are so many issues facing us today that beg the question, "Where is the tipping point between inaction and action?" That time, that tipping point, I think, is coming soon.

There comes a time when enough is enough and we decide to take action. When ISIS began chopping off the heads of Christians and destroying religious artifacts and sacred sites, a time came when people started speaking up and started taking action. You name the topic, each person has that point in their own hearts when it's time to stop all the complaining and actually stand up and do something. In our relationships, politics, even in our faith lives. There comes a time when we all must make that choice - to act or to stay motionless. Either way we are making a choice.

I don't know if you noticed what I am about to tell you. It's about the Sunday morning news coverage of the Baton Rouge police shootings. I thought it was pretty amazing. I was watching the hypnotic flashing lights from all of the police cars when suddenly a black and red vehicle appeared on the scene. "Billy Graham" it said on its side. Are you kidding me? How out of place did that look! But then I thought . . . it was perfect.

The answer to everyone's questions about good vs. evil appeared right on the television screen and none of the news reporters mentioned a stinking thing about it.

The people in the Billy Graham truck knew exactly what needed to be done. And they were doing it! They were taking action. There came a time for the Billy Graham Evangelical Association to take action and they did. They prayed.

If you read your Bible you can find numerous stories where God's patience ran out. Sodom and Gomorrah comes to mind, Jonah, the Israelites, There comes a time when God takes action against those opposing His will. That time is quickly approaching for this entire world, in my opinion.

My dear brothers and sisters, the time has come, if you haven't been doing so already, to pray. We need to be praying our butts of for this nation, its leaders, its police force, soldiers and sailors. Watching all of these events happening in such rapid succession tells me the time is drawing close for the return of Jesus. And when He comes back, the kid gloves are off and the wrath of God will be at hand.

"23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.

27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived." - Genesis 19:23-29

There comes a time to take action. Lot took action and escaped with his life. This is a time for us to step up our evangelistic efforts in addition to our prayers. We need to tell the people in our lives that Jesus is the only hope. Why? Because . .  He is. The time has come . . . today.

Time Has Come Today - The Chambers Brothers