Friday, October 2, 2015

OREGON SCHOOL SHOOTING REVEALS AMERICA'S DEEPEST NEED

Umpqua Community College alumnus Donice Smith (L) is embraced after she said one of her former teachers was shot dead, near the site of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, October 1, 2015. STEVE DIPAOLA/REUTERS

I don't usually write a blog post, but yesterday's news is quite troubling for our nation, and I just can't keep quiet.  Look at all the pain, broken hearts, death, and destruction.  It all started long before that young hate-filled young man got a gun and went to the school.  But, like a volcanic eruption, everything poured out yesterday.  The details only show us the problem - if we'll look at it honestly.
Our president and many liberals are quick to declare an answer to these things - gun control.  Conservatives respond saying that's not the answer.  While it isn't the answer, the real answer is something that neither side is saying.  There IS an answer!  And this particular shooting reveals it as the news of what happened comes out.
Before I get to that answer, let me explain what happened (as I understand it).  The gunman came in and asked "Christians" to stand.  Those who did were killed!  That should tell us quite a bit.  There are a lot of people saying that this guy had a heart consumed with hate!  And that hate was and is directed toward Christians!  Yesterday's events reveal the hate in our hearts toward Christ and His followers.
That hate is EVIL.  Evil is the antithesis to Christianity.  What we need in this country is to return to Christianity.  We need to stop being atheistic, and start acknowledging the God of the Universe.  We need to stop being secular, and start being truthful.  We need to stop being arrogantly anti-Christian, and start examining the Bible for its truth again.  We need to stop avoiding prayer, and start spending time praying.  We need God in our hearts, not evil!  We need a love that runs deeper than anything WE can conjure on our own.  We need grace, not guns.  

Sin is destructive

I'm all for self-defense and the 2nd Amendment.  But if we, as a society, would embrace Christian values more and secular values less, there would be fewer people running around angry, hate-filled, and hurting.  Sin is destructive.  Sin filled the gunman's heart.  Sin fills the hearts of all who deny God, Jesus Christ, and the Bible.  Sin makes fools of man.  "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' "  (Psalm 14:1).  But the Bible also says that secularism (trusting in our OWN hearts) is sin (Proverbs 28:26).  The Bible teaches us to trust in God - that means to follow Him, seek Him, obey Him, and want what He wants for us.  We can't do this on our own - life, that is.  We can't turn our country back to the "good ole USA" on our own.  We need God's grace and help.  How can that happen if we won't even acknowledge that He is the answer or that HE even exists?

Our nation is plagued by selfishness  

That is sin as well.  We want sex when, where, and however we want it, and no one better say anything to the contrary.  We want infanticide to be a right.  We want to kill our cops, embrace our enemies, and treat our defenders as national enemy #1 when they leave the military.  We are a long way from being "one nation under God."  

Main Stream Media Hates Christians

Hating Christians is NOT being reported by the Main Stream Media.  They want guns gone, but they don't want knees bent, hearts changed, or God honored here in our nation.  They, and their elitist crowd of intellectual, power-broker cohorts, want a country where Christianity is destroyed.  They want all mention of God removed from the public eye.  They want kids taught in schools of secular thought.  They want parents removed from the process so these kids aren't "infected" with Christian truth.  Then we are flabbergasted that such children could possibly not know right from wrong and do such violent things.  Gun control isn't the answer - these kids can make bombs (just ask the teachers and administrators in Texas who thought that's what a kid had done!).
We NEED Christ
When our nation returns to Christ, we will find far fewer of these and similar crimes across our land.  Christ died to clean our hearts of sin.  When we share that truth with others, their hearts can be cleaned of the sin they hold. The ability to deal with sin will be renewed when that happens, because with the return to Christ, we'll understand what sin does to a person, and we'll work to stop it in them before it grows so great they explode in a wave of violence, death, and destruction such as happened yesterday.  Loving one another will be the norm, not defensiveness and hatred.  Hope and trust are found in the Lord, not in politics.  Where the Lord is, peace is.  Not in secularism and selfish humanism.  
The answer is something for all of us - individually - to consider.  "Will I follow the God of the Bible and trust His Son, Jesus Christ, to lead MY life?"  When enough of us say "YES" to that question, and begin to do it, the tide will turn in our nation.  Everything will change for the better.  Everything!  God will once again bless the USA!  He promises to do so in the Bible!
And that's the answer, As I See It.
I welcome your respectful comments.  Please share this and pass it on!

No comments: