In the days following one of the most horrific school shootings in the history of this nation, many
tried to explain it as a part of God’s plan, from a religious point of view this is heartbreaking and confusing to the uninitiated. Then there are those who make statements, trying to be profound and to justify what happen as, “God know what he is doing”. It
seems that God cannot be God unless he is micromanaging every aspect of human endeavors,
even after he put the man in charge and man sided with the Devil. Some will step-up and I will use the word,
‘devalue’ the power of prayer by using such statements as, ‘prayer is the
answer. ‘ If prayer, as the way we use
it was the answer why are there so much pain in the world? As a student of the scripture I am appalled
at the use of the word prayer in times of adversities. Many times we pray for Heaven on Earth. We are even guilty of trying to hold God to
promises he made to the Children of Israel, Jesus did not promise to heal this
land of today, he has promised to destroy it and make all things new.
Now that I got your attention, let me
validate my position, I am a strong believer in the Word of God. I am not an atheist or anything of the
sort. My study of the God’s word began
with the questions, why did God create the Heaven and Earth and what was the
purpose of man. It ends with how does the
father plan to correct the mess that the Devil and man has made. The answer to
those questions and the events that transpired between those two events is
found in the Bible. As some would imply
those are profane questions and we have no need for the answer. To follow that line of thinking will lead us
down a path of a polluted Gospel.
If we expanded our knowledge of the
scripture through the reading of the Bible in search of answers, we would
understand what happen between Genesis 1: 1 and Geneses 1:2. With that understanding Genesis 1:26-28
become the natural progression of things.
Step outside of your denominational
quagmire, lay aside your preconceived ideas and read, Jeremiah 4:23-27; Isaiah 24:1; 45:18
clearly indicate that the earth had undergone a cataclysmic change as the
result of divine judgment. The face of the earth bears everywhere the marks of
such a catastrophe. There are not wanting imitations which connect it with a
previous testing and fall of angels. See Ezekiel 28:12-15; Isa 14:9-14 which
certainly go beyond the kings of Tyre and Babylon. We were created as foot soldiers to fight against
the Devil who had been cast upon the Earth. An interesting side note is, in man’s first encounter with the Devil, man lost
the battle. Lets explore two interesting points then we will get back on
topic. The Devil perverted the word of
God and caused Eve to believe the lie
that God was addressing the natural
essence of man. Man messed up the world
when he sided with the Devil and the man became destructive to God’s creation. Why
are we blaming it on God? The testimony
of Jesus in the Book of Revelation explains how all of this is going to end.
In the times of natural adversities we as a
people are inclined to pray. We prayed for God to protect the people during
the storms. #prayforoklahoma was widely used on Twitter and other social media.
Drugged music and movie stars took to
the world stage to send their prayer to Oklahoma. The Atheists and the
Agnostics asked where was God and demanded equal time on the world’s stage. As the death toll rose, the struggling soul in
search of its foundation of faith wondered why God didn’t answer the
prayers. The defenders of the faith sought
to place God at the scene and blame the carnage on him. The defiant Christian was quick to respond, “God
knows what he is doing,” as if that is a definitive answer. During the school shootings and the public
bombing the question was asked, “Why would a God of love allow this to happen.” Maybe the question should be, “Why didn’t God
just get rid of humanity and send the Devil and his Angles straight to Hell”. Maybe
the answer is clearer than we realize,
Before Jesus left this earth he said thing
was going to get worst. Paul preached
about the Devil be as a roaring Lion.
Jesus said I am going to send you a comforter, not a protector. In Revelation he said if you can endure I will
give you a crown of life. The Earth is cursed and it is decaying. Jesus said there would be great earthquakes
in divers places. Destruction would
prevail upon the land. We need to be preparing
for the return of the Lord.
God placed man in charge of the world, man
sided with the Devil giving the Devil access to the day to day operations of
life. The man with the help of the Devil
is destroying God’s creation. That old
Imp the Devil is in the World’s driver's seat.
Praying for our leaders is not going to help the situation. Look at what happen to the good old USA, once
known as a God fearing country. Our past
leaders set the stage and the present is preforming on it. Christianity is being devalued and the God of
our salvation is becoming a figment of a fertile imagination.
A
while back I was reading an article that opened my eyes to something that I
simply had not noticed before. Whenever Jesus was crucified on the cross, there
were two others beside Him. Now I know that most already knew that, but I never
thought of the significance of it until reading that article.
Before Jesus walked the Earth, the Bible
had many prophecies about His impending death and the plan of salvation that he
would usher in. In the Book of Isaiah,
it prophesied He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his
mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter Isaiah 53:7. Whenever it was
time, the prophecy was fulfilled on the hill called Golgotha (which is Greek.
The Latin word is Calvary which is what most people call it today). Jesus the ultimate sacrifice was not to grant
us special favors here on Earth, His sacrifice gave each person hope so that
they might be saved into his new Kingdom when the kingdoms of the world is
destroyed. His sacrifice was so that we
may be forgiven of our sins. His
sacrifice has nothing to do with worldly possessions. Now what is amazing is how God chose to
fulfill His plan of salvation. On the day that was about the One, the One day
was about us. To exemplify this fact, Jesus was not crucified on Calvary by
Himself. He was crucified alongside two sinners. The importance of this cannot
be stressed enough. They were a spiritual representation of humanity.
In life, we are faced with the ultimate
decision, one that determines our eternity. While we may all be sinners, we are
all still given the opportunity to choose to follow Jesus or to follow a
different path. Whenever Jesus was on the cross, He was between two men that
were given that same choice. One sinner chose to challenge Jesus, saying, “If thou
be Christ, save thyself and us,” Luke 23:39. Now don’t that sound like us? The other man, however, asked Jesus to,
“Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom,” Luke 23:42. Jesus responded, “Verily I say unto thee,
today shall thou be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:43
These two men, both on a cross praying to
Jesus, were more than just random men on the cross. They represented the choice
humanity faces. That day could have been all about Jesus and only Jesus by
having Him as the only one crucified on the cross. But that wasn’t the case.
God’s plan was more than that. We are all faced with a choice. By Jesus being
the ultimate sacrifice, we are all given the opportunity to be saved. It comes
down to a choice. I pray that we all make the right choice and choose to stand
with our Lord and Savior.
Another lesson to be learned from this
encounter is Jesus ignored the request or prayer of the first man.
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