This morning dawned gray – as if the skies here are filled
with the sorrow overflowing from Connecticut.
O! God, O! God is
all I can say when I think of families waking up to the second morning after
their nightmare began. I pray He
holds them tight on this morning, and the one following, and the next one, and
the next one – for their pain will never go away.
From what we heard yesterday, from those whose jobs are to
rush into situations from which we would flee, we know what they saw was horrifying,
more from what they did not say, then what they did. English has no words that can describe what happened – the
word that still comes forth is evil.
And the measured description of its power in that elementary school that Friday
morning pulls us under as waves of mourning crash over us.
One reporter, Geraldo, chose his words deliberately and
described what he had learned about the slaughter as a “mini- Holocaust,” another
marker in human history for which we have few words.
Gov. Mike Huckabee said aloud what worries many Americans – Where
Was God?
Gov. Huckabee’s faith informs him, and a pastor who spoke
with him, Max Lucado, that God permits man to choose – even evil – that is the
bitter fruit of Adam’s taking that that was forbidden and eating. The Bible
teaches our choices may harm not only ourselves, but others.
Why did God let this happen?
I don’t know the answer.
In China, on the same day a man burst into a class of little
children. (23
Injured in Knife Attack) Mercifully, none died.
Why did God let this happen?
I don’t know the answer.
I know what the Bible teaches – that God permits us to
choose how we will live, even as He gave His Son to die for all the
consequences of my choices. The
choice of whom or what to serve is daily before me; God is pleading: Choose
life! (Deuteronomy
30:19)
Pastor Lucado concluded his conversation with Gov. Huckabee
with an appeal to anyone who approve, or would choose a course of action like
the one the shooter chose, don't.
Ask for help.
My hope is that those who ask will find help in Christ and
that the Christian community will love and support them and their families.
Pastor John Dickinson observes that the power of evangelism
is declining in America – not a reality to be lamented, if we would expand our
reach the world for Christ:
.
. . I believe the cultural backlash against evangelical Christianity has less
to do with our views — many observant Muslims and Jews, for example, also view
homosexual sex as wrong, while Catholics have been at the vanguard of the
movement to protect the lives of the unborn — and more to do with our posture.
The Scripture calls us “aliens and exiles” (1 Peter 2:11), but American
evangelicals have not acted with the humility and homesickness of aliens . . .
.
. . Simple faith in Christ’s sacrifice will march on, unchallenged by empires
and eras. As the English writer G. K. Chesterton put it, “Christianity has died
many times and risen again; for it had a God who knew the way out of the
grave.” (NYT:
Decline of Evangelism)
God we need that way out!
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