February 27th, 2018

Peace to you from our Lord Jesus Christ.  We certainly need His peace in this troubled world of ours.  I know I had planned on sharing a few more thoughts on MISSIONS, but it seems there’s always something that comes up to postpone it for another week.  The tragedy in Florida deserves comment.
The death of anyone is a loss to all, but when it comes to children, especially to so many, that loss is compounded.  In the aftermath, and by aftermath I mean that they were still taking the injured to the hospital, the gallery of talking heads began shouting out their respective messages.  Demands for gun control, gun registration, gun confiscation, gun legislation and more came from every quarter.  Cries for cooperation between governmental agencies national, state and local on the need for stricter background checks with stronger enhancements and severe improvements accompanied by shared reporting of criminal data were also heard.  There were even calls that when people see questionable activities and actions, they should report it to authorities in schools, at work places, and to responsible law enforcement personal.  An interesting and useful thought, if it were not for a culture of political correctness and personal rights where the lawbreaker seems to possess more rights than the law-abiding.  Concerns about the condition of mental illness and health in this nation and the connection to over medicated anti-depression drugs were voiced.  Others made their points of appeal too and likely share in the over all guilt of blame to varying degrees: violence on TV, in the movies, music and video games. the breakdown of the nuclear family all made honorable mention in a desire to prevent such an act from occurring again.
What I am about to say will likely be taken wrong.  It may sound simplistic.  First, while we might, should and can do things that could, possibly slow the number of such terrible events down, it will never eliminate them.  We live in a sinful world.  We ourselves are sinners.  We are by nature sinful and unclean.  This is not God’s fault.  It is ours.  We prefer doing things our way instead of God’s and the result is the world we have created.
Second, we seem desperate to eliminate, eradicate, annihilate, and wipe clean the presence of God from every aspect of our lives and culture.  I believe that in the absence of God to guide morality, wisdom and attitudes, a vacuum is created.  Into that void flows Satan and the power of evil.  Yes, he does exist and is living in a  community near you and me and all of us.  When, as Christians, we turn aside from doing what we know is right because of fear we give evil free rein.  We need more God in our lives, not less.
I suppose all I done is add my voice of what’s wrong to an already loud cacophony of noise declaring the    problem without any solutions.  However, I think more time with God is also a solution.  It sure has to be a better place to begin than some of the suggestions I’ve heard in the past week.  In the meantime I continue to pray for the families who have suffered loss, for those who need healing of all kinds, and for the willingness for us to surrender to God’s will for our lives and stop demanding He do things our way.  Our record isn’t anything to brag about.
May God bless and keep you safe.
Pastor Lee
 
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