Death…


It seems that we can’t get through a year without a shooting at a school or some other venue. Actually, it hasn’t been a year, it has been more like six or eight months. Regardless of the amount of time between them, it is a very sad day with another school shooting today. I can’t make any sense of any of these. There is no pattern or reason for any of this violence and killing. So, what can be done? Can anything be done to stop this before it gets worse?

I’m not sure what can be done if anything. On this point, the only useful help can come from God. He is the only person Who can comfort a grieving parent or spouse. As far as the motivation for these things which are happening with far too much frequency….we are living very close to the end times predicted in the Bible. Satan and his demons and principalities are causing all kinds of problems in the world today.

I know that many people don’t want to believe that Satan is real or that demonic influence has anything to do with all of humanity’s problems but he is real and they do have a very large influence over our world today. How is this possible? Because there are so many people in the world who do not have a relationship with Jesus, that is the main problem in our world today. I know, there are wars and economic problems in our world, but many of those were also caused by a suggestion or some other prodding from a principality of Satan’s forces.

Some of those suggestions may have happened many years ago but they are becoming reality today. Just like some of the unfortunate racial persecution and enslavement in America, this was caused because some people took some part of God’s Word and twisted it to match their own philosophy. I don’t mean to say that the Bible was the reason for slavery, but parts of it were taken out of context and used in ways which God did not intend, and this was done by men, possibly being influenced by a spirit or principality of Satan.

We cannot discount young people as not being a threat to everyone, but could this be caught earlier? I don’t know. If the shooter posted his ideas and his philosophy toward being a shooter and some of the teens who knew him said that he liked to hurt animals. If someone is that disturbed and a tip is received about them, then it should be followed up on. We cannot keep ignoring the signs or the posts that some of them put up on social media.

Prayer is what the families need in Florida right now, not to be used as leverage for gun control because gun control is not the answer. Screening those who are disturbed or who show disturbing tendencies should be done, but this likely won’t be done either. Please, pray for these families and for our country and seek out Jesus as your Savior because you really don’t know which day will be your last.

 

“Take the gospel to all people..”


This is part of the command which was given to the disciples by Jesus before His ascension to the Father. We, as Christians today, are also recipients of this command by extension because we are supposed to be His disciples today! Have we taken His gospel to all people? Not our version of it, but His gospel! That is another of my problems with some churches, in the past and in modern times. It seems that many of our “denominations” have taken their creed, their ideas, their doctrines too far and they give equal weight to their man-made rules and the Bible.

How can we, as created beings, give our laws and doctrines the same weight in spiritual places as God’s Word? Did any of you bring about a world today? Can you stop time and make the sun do your bidding? We are not gods! So why would laws made in a church conference meeting have the same weight in worship services as God’s Word? Mankind’s words should never be taken in any context as being equal to the Word of God! Yet, there are some congregations which do this on a regular basis.

I believe that we are going down a very dangerous path if we are doing this. The church today, regardless of the name or denomination, should be based upon the whole Word of God and nothing more. If you must have rules in your church that are different from the words found in the Bible, then they should be just rules for your church and nothing more.

God doesn’t share His throne with us, nor does He share it with a specific denomination which follows their man-made rules more than His commandments!

When men and women in a church think that their words are equal to the Word of God, there is a real problem. The church today HAS a real problem. We need to get back into God’s Word and stand on His Word because if we represent Him it is His Word that we are supposed to be holding up for the world to see, not our ideas and our “rules”. His Word has proven true time and time again in prophecy and in its wisdom and content. How many of our representatives in Washington or anywhere else can you say that about?

God’s Word is the Word of Truth and if we are not going to believe it and at least TRY to live by His Word, then we should stop claiming to be Christians or believers!

John 3:16,17 says:

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

If we are not teaching and preaching these verses from God’s Word and the other truths contained within it, then we shouldn’t be teachers nor preachers at all! When you hear a “sermon” which sounds like it came out of a “self-help” book rather than the Bible, you should RUN out of the building and leave that place! Even though much of the wisdom written in self-help books does sound like it has some basis in God’s Word, the sermon in a church should be from God’s Word, not from a man’s own wisdom.