Sunday, June 21, 2015

The South Carolina shooting


Ephesians 1:3-10 “keeping Score”

Vince Lombardi said “if winning is not important then why do they keep score?” one of the important things to do in learning or teaching how to pray is to keep score. God has blessed us with many answers to our prayers and with many blessings as our passage reminds us. James 1:17 reminds us that all good things are a gift from God.

Yet we are not quick to give God the credit He is due. If we keep score on our prayer life we find that God does answer prayer, prayer is important and prayer changes things.

While I was going to expand that idea for us something else came up.

The South Carolina shooting has been heavy on my heart and mind. It is only the latest of many mass shooting and violent killings in our country. How do we make sense of these events and our countries falling away from God? As I prayed about these things my spirit settled on Matthew 24:9-14. Jesus was asked by the disciples when the end would come. Jesus gives His answer in Matthew 24:9-14.

Jesus’ chilling response sounds like the reading of our daily news. We need to understand that Jesus told us these kind things would happen. Nations will rise and nations will fall, lawlessness will be increased, and the love of many grow cold. This is all part of the judgement of the world and the precursor to Jesus’ return.

Can God use these horrible events to do good things? Yes.  January 8th 1956 Jim Elliot was murdered along with 4 others while on the mission field in Ecuador. God used this tragedy to spark a revival in missions. Hundreds of new missionaries joined the effort to reach the lost people of the world. The tribe of people who killed Jim Elliot where won to Christ by his widow and three children who went to live with the tribe. The man who murdered Jim that day also came to trust Jesus as savior.

Could God use the South Carolina shooting and other killings in our country in the same way? Yes. If we grasp that these things show us the desperate condition of our society, and we choose to respond.

April 15th 1912 the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank, the real tragedy of that day was not a sinking ship, it was the half empty life boat that did not go back to rescue those left in the water. They feared they would be swamped by people so they stayed away. Fear of the violence of our decaying world and nation could lead us to pull away and hide. We could choose to play it safe like so many of the Titanic’s life boats.

Jim Elliot knew about the violent nature of the tribe he was going to as a missionary. When asked about why he would risk his life to reach these people for Christ? He said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”

Read Ephesians 1:3-10

We have been blessed with forgiveness and grace in the midst of Gods plan for the fullness of time. We have been blessed to be in the only life boat in the tribulation that is the end of time. Jesus is the only cure for the lawlessness and hopelessness of the world. God has made these things know to us that we might save as many as we can from the now cold and frigid waters of life.

We know where this world is headed and we know the ship is going down. We have the only life boat available in a sea of drowning and freezing people, our task is to save as many as we can.

Read Matthew 24:9-14

We know where this world is headed and we know the ship is going down. We have the only life boat available in a sea of drowning and freezing people, our task is to save as many as we can.

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