Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. - 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV)
On a day when most of us were preparing to do something special for that one who captured our hearts, a deranged young man with heart closed and mind unhinged went on a deadly rampage at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Over the last week we've heard the anguish as well as the punditry claiming that the NRA, or Donald Trump or even the FBI was to blame for what happened, plus many more such claims. And, as is usual, we heard many say that it was a gun which killed those students and faculty, sounding as if a gun could walk into a school on its own and commit a massacre. Yet the one thing that the media didn't want to focus on was that the act required the work of a person, nineteen year old Nikolas Cruz, a highly troubled person who with his own free will made the decision to take a weapon in his hands, travel to the school and enter it with a plan to kill as many people as he could. And even though this has happened repeatedly, we seem helpless at providing the necessary safety precautions in public buildings which are wide open to such action.
The scripture verse from 1 Peter makes it very clear how a mind can get so warped and filled with hate that it can do such a thing. The evil one, Satan, is alive and well in spirit throughout the earth and he is available because we are given choices to make with our free will. We can choose goodness and light, or we can allow ourselves to become infected with hate and evil. Otherwise we would be mere automatons put on earth just going through the motions of life that would have no meaning and really no purpose. But since God gave us life with his desire for us to try our best to be like Him, much of our society today with its "we know best attitude" seems to largely scoff at His importance and we turn away.
Other persons who had interaction with Nikolas Cruz could have taken actions which could have changed his ways. What if his parents had raised him in faith, learning about the importance of God as Father, Son and Spirit? What if when he first began to have trouble a teacher at school had taken a special interest? Or what if the police, when his name kept surfacing, had intervened more directly adn done more to oversee what was going on and where it would lead? But, then again, sometimes someone is just a "bad seed," hellbent on living his life in pursuit of his own evil pleasure. We just don't know but we all should know one important thing. When a person has reached the age of consent and decides for whatever reason to commit evil such as mass murder, he will find a way to do it. If not a gun, then maybe a knife or even a vehicle could be his weapon of choice. No one else can open the heart of a human being who has allowed it to grow cold.
Each of us has the Holy Spirit within us, even someone like Nikolas Cruz. But we have to be able to realize that life if we are living it in such a fashion is not working and will not end well. So we have to ask the Holy Spirit within us to open our heart and let the love and grace of the Lord enter. In a complex world like we have today, we can never go it alone in living as we should. Poor mortal man never has been able to do that. But with the help of our Creator, who knows all, sees all and has the power to change us, if we sincerely ask for help he will provide it. And in so doing he will set us on a course for real living not a life of mortal torment inside that a young man like Nikolas Cruz must be living.
Instead of looking for more laws and controls to solve our problems, how about take the time to ask God for help. He will settle your fears, lead you in the right direction and guide your decisions, decisions that will be productive and helpful, not ones that cause pain and suffering. He is a miracle worker and it's just too bad so many of us look to the wrong place for answers. After all, government is a product of man which means it is far from being perfect since it is operated by other mere mortals with our weaknesses, lifestyle sin and imperfections. God is perfect and He wants to help us improve ourselves to live in his image, not in the image of lesser standards.
Dear Lord, We thank you for free will and we ask that you help us use it for your purpose and to pursue goodness and light instead of darkness and death. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life and help us to always follow in your direction. In Jesus' name, Amen.
On a day when most of us were preparing to do something special for that one who captured our hearts, a deranged young man with heart closed and mind unhinged went on a deadly rampage at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Over the last week we've heard the anguish as well as the punditry claiming that the NRA, or Donald Trump or even the FBI was to blame for what happened, plus many more such claims. And, as is usual, we heard many say that it was a gun which killed those students and faculty, sounding as if a gun could walk into a school on its own and commit a massacre. Yet the one thing that the media didn't want to focus on was that the act required the work of a person, nineteen year old Nikolas Cruz, a highly troubled person who with his own free will made the decision to take a weapon in his hands, travel to the school and enter it with a plan to kill as many people as he could. And even though this has happened repeatedly, we seem helpless at providing the necessary safety precautions in public buildings which are wide open to such action.
The scripture verse from 1 Peter makes it very clear how a mind can get so warped and filled with hate that it can do such a thing. The evil one, Satan, is alive and well in spirit throughout the earth and he is available because we are given choices to make with our free will. We can choose goodness and light, or we can allow ourselves to become infected with hate and evil. Otherwise we would be mere automatons put on earth just going through the motions of life that would have no meaning and really no purpose. But since God gave us life with his desire for us to try our best to be like Him, much of our society today with its "we know best attitude" seems to largely scoff at His importance and we turn away.
Other persons who had interaction with Nikolas Cruz could have taken actions which could have changed his ways. What if his parents had raised him in faith, learning about the importance of God as Father, Son and Spirit? What if when he first began to have trouble a teacher at school had taken a special interest? Or what if the police, when his name kept surfacing, had intervened more directly adn done more to oversee what was going on and where it would lead? But, then again, sometimes someone is just a "bad seed," hellbent on living his life in pursuit of his own evil pleasure. We just don't know but we all should know one important thing. When a person has reached the age of consent and decides for whatever reason to commit evil such as mass murder, he will find a way to do it. If not a gun, then maybe a knife or even a vehicle could be his weapon of choice. No one else can open the heart of a human being who has allowed it to grow cold.
Each of us has the Holy Spirit within us, even someone like Nikolas Cruz. But we have to be able to realize that life if we are living it in such a fashion is not working and will not end well. So we have to ask the Holy Spirit within us to open our heart and let the love and grace of the Lord enter. In a complex world like we have today, we can never go it alone in living as we should. Poor mortal man never has been able to do that. But with the help of our Creator, who knows all, sees all and has the power to change us, if we sincerely ask for help he will provide it. And in so doing he will set us on a course for real living not a life of mortal torment inside that a young man like Nikolas Cruz must be living.
Instead of looking for more laws and controls to solve our problems, how about take the time to ask God for help. He will settle your fears, lead you in the right direction and guide your decisions, decisions that will be productive and helpful, not ones that cause pain and suffering. He is a miracle worker and it's just too bad so many of us look to the wrong place for answers. After all, government is a product of man which means it is far from being perfect since it is operated by other mere mortals with our weaknesses, lifestyle sin and imperfections. God is perfect and He wants to help us improve ourselves to live in his image, not in the image of lesser standards.
Dear Lord, We thank you for free will and we ask that you help us use it for your purpose and to pursue goodness and light instead of darkness and death. You are the Way, the Truth and the Life and help us to always follow in your direction. In Jesus' name, Amen.
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