*From 2017 archive as lead in to upcoming post*

“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” Matthew 24:12 

As all know, on November 5, the state of Texas suffered the worst mass shooting in the state’s history. When a gunman who had a history of violence, having been charged with assaulting his wife and stepson, and discharged from the military for “bad conduct”, according to news reports, actually having fractured the stepson skull, had ESCAPED from a mental health facility in 2012, been cited for animal abuse in 2014, managing to not only to avoid jail time, but allowed to harass his mother in law through text messages and show up unwanted at church gatherings.

You really have to wonder WHO was supposed to be “watching” this guy?

According to news stories from CNN, NBC, and FOX, the story played out like this, the gunman whose prime target was his former in-laws, stormed the First Baptist Church, in Sutherland Springs, Texas on that fateful morning, and left in is wake twenty-six people dead ranging in age from eighteen months to seventy-seven years, and also taking the life of an unborn baby by shooting the mother.

Three generations of one family died, a couple who for the first time were visiting the church, and the pastor’s own adopted daughter. Reports also that a five year old child had been shot five times.

Twenty-six dead and twenty more injured. How could anyone ever recover from the horror of that? The arguments have resurfaced again about gun control and YET it was another man with a gun that led to putting  a final stop to this nightmare.

There are always going to be weapons, criminals and the dangerously insane will ALWAYS find something that can be used as a weapon, and that is virtually anything, because it is not the object it is the intent to destroy and no one can stop that intent.

I have yet to understand that if the politicians who keep screaming “gun-control” REALLY believe their own rhetoric, shouldn’t they be the FIRST to dismiss their OWN ARMED SECURITY? Seriously, if you want to preach it to everyone else, maybe try living it yourself!

But evidently only “special” people should be allowed weapons and protection and the rest of us… well.. I probably am beginning to advocate “armed” deacons, and I really questioned if weapons in church would be appropriate by any standard.. BUT Nehemiah was forced to work with one hand while rebuilding because he had to stay armed with a sword in the other, so I don’t know and I am not a pastor so it is not my job to know.

That is another very scary aspect to all of this, the gunman had been to church and made others feel uncomfortable, the article did not go into specific, but the question was posed as to how exactly do you ask someone to leave or not attend a church? And better yet how would you determine who and when this would apply? So many questions but one absolute.. we are starting to see attacks on our churches just as our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world are persecuted for their beliefs.

Different way of doing but still the same demonic agenda, make people too afraid to worship and too worried about who might come through the door to be fully involved in the work of God.

Just as Jesus said, and you have to think about when he said this, almost two thousand years ago. There have always been evil people, God destroyed the earth with the flood BECAUSE of violence.

Violence breeds and sin breeds and when you have a society that allows ANYTHING and has a whatever rocks your world mentality about every morale issue in the book.

There is no more restraint, no one needs me to tell them just how bad the world is and all the tortures, rapes, murders, and human trafficking, not to mention cruelty to the animals that God gave us dominion over and that dominion does require caring for them. There is group after group dedicated to issue upon issue TRYING to save just a few because the level of iniquity, lawlessness, and sin has reached proportions that would make Noah’s day and Sodom cringe.

Being exposed to this, living in this and being constantly bombarded with the news of this DESTROYS that love, it destroys the “faith” in our fellow humans and just as rescue workers and military personnel run risks of “gallows’ humor” and PTSD BECAUSE of the horrors of WHAT they see, we too can become NUMB.

It is NOT that we want to be but just as Jesus said, IT IS THE SIN that deadens the love. I have often pondered Daniel, and as a young Christian, I was completely overwhelmed by a feeling of sorrow when reading certain of his words, words such as:

Daniel 8:26,27: “And the vision of the evening and the morning which was told is true: wherefore shut thou up  (seal) the vision, for it shall be for many days (the future). And I Daniel fainted, and WAS SICK CERTAIN DAY…..” and as he often fasted, prayed, and sat in sack cloth (mourning and repentance) and after another vision of the future:

Daniel 10:2,3: “In those days, I Daniel WAS mourning three full weeks. I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh (meat) nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till the three weeks were fulfilled.”

This is the vision in which Daniel had sought the answer to and when the answer came, he had been told that the devil had withstood that answer for three weeks and the forces of hell had to be fought through before that answer could even arrive.  Think now how sedate we have become in our battles?

But back to my point, this is the verse that cut through to my soul, this was when Daniel SAW the Lord who had brought his answer. 

Daniel 10:7,8: “And I Daniel ALONE saw the vision; for the men that were with me saw NOT the vision, but a great quaking (fear) fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.

Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained NO strength in me: for my comeliness(vigor) was turned in me into corruption (frailty), and I RETAINED NO STRENGTH.

The presence of the Lord overwhelmed him but Daniel also SAW the future. He SAW what would come, he SAW the horrors, the abuse, the nudity, the depravity, he SAW the paganism, he SAW the outright worship of satan.

He SAW even worse.. he SAW mass media, not fathomed in his time, promoting the hatred of God, he SAW God’s name and the Name of His son blasphemed and ridiculed.

He SAW those paraded in mocking crucifixions and laughing and spewing hate into their own damnation. He SAW babies murdered inside the womb of their mother’s because they were not convenient.

He SAW these tiny bodies dismembered and sold to the highest bidder. He SAW children bloody, beaten, starved, abandoned, and sold to the highest bidder.

He SAW those so enslaved to drugs, and alcohol that they barely function much less worry about their souls.

Daniel SAW and it was not seeing the final destruction sin would bring upon man that brought him to a state of overwhelming sorrow…Daniel SAW what we would become.

We are beginning to see it to, there are things now I would have never dreamt WOULD ever come to pass as I began my walk with the Lord, and I know many of you feel the same way.

But the secret is that love, love has to go on. But God help us for what we have already saw and what yet remains to be seen.

And there IS no understanding of the things and how our brothers and sisters will ever go on and recover from these horrors, but LOVE untimely wins and LOVE truly conquers all.

Please don’t let the hate and anger of this world ever take that, remember the words of Jesus as we all await the final vindication and justice and redemption, the day we WILL be delivered from the evils of this world, wait and wait patiently for Him. 

Luke 21:19: “In your patience possess ye your souls.” 

Just keep holding on and holding on to each other! God Bless you, until next time…

Φλογιζω Σαλπιζω NBJ 2017 Original post: 11/09/2017 Revisited 06/20/2022 as lead to new post.