Deadly Church shootings

Deadly Church shootings - Bill Wilson -

www.dailyjot.com

 

Our hearts are saddened today, and our prayers are with those brothers and sisters in the Lord at First Baptist Church in Southern Springs, TX where a gunman killed at least 26 people and wounded another 30. Details are still emerging, but the shooter, 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley, was an atheist who thought Christians "were stupid." Reports also say that he was dishonorably discharged from the Air Force because of assault and domestic violence. Kelley was shot by a man from another church, who grabbed his gun and rushed to assistance when his daughter called him about the attack. Kelley took a hostage and was pursued in a high-speed chase before he bled out and ran his vehicle off the road.

 

Former Focus on the Family employee Carl Chinn operates a website that tracks violent church deaths. Just since Saturday, October 28th, there have been four shootings at places of worship from Kentucky to California. On the 28th, two men were shot when they got out of their car in a Temple parking lot. In Alabama on Halloween, a man was charged with attempted murder after ramming his car into others and shooting at them. On Sunday, in addition to the Texas shooting, a woman was shot and another wounded in California in a parking lot after mass. President Donald Trump immediately offered his condolences Sunday. Democrat politicians just as quickly politicized the shootings by calling for gun control.

 

The problem in America, however, is not a gun problem. Those who were Sunday killed were Christians. Since the immediate past "president" took office in 2009, deadly church violence increased 281% over the previous decade, Chinn reports that from 1999 to 2008 there were 199 violent church deaths in the US, but from 2009 to present there have been 560. Chinn says that by the end of August, there had been more violent deaths in churches than all of last year. This recent shooting guarantees it. It is indicative of the hostile environment that has been created in America against Jews and Christians. Liberal politicians and the news media routinely have demonized Christians. Crazy and hateful people are acting out these condemnations.

 

Blaming guns for the deaths at houses of worship is certainly politicization, especially when you see who is getting killed and who is doing the killing. Nazis, leftists, atheists, and Islamists have been doing the killing. Christians generally are the ones getting killed. The atmosphere has been established where places of worship, and Jews and Christians in particular, have become targets of a dark and evil element in our society. Jesus said in Matthew 24:9 that "ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake." Sadly, in America this hate appears stronger than it ever has been. Jesus said in John 15:20, "The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you." This is the condition of the world. Let us respond by standing against injustice and overcoming evil with good. 

 

 

Is Prayer Useless If It Can't Protect Christians at Church? Greg Laurie, Ronnie Floyd Respond - By Stoyan Zaimov - https://www.christianpost.com/news/is-prayer-useless-if-it-cant-protect-christians-church-greg-laurie-ronnie-floyd-respond-205726/

 

Is prayer useless if it can't protect Christians at church?

 

Prominent pastors are responding to that claim which was spurred by a debate on social media after the mass shooting at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday.

 

"Granted, it's hard to understand why God would allow a tragedy like this to happen, especially in a church. Our hearts break for the families and friends of those who were murdered in this wicked and cold-blooded attack," Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside and Irvine, California, said in a written statement to The Christian Post on Monday.

 

"However, the Bible does not promise anyone a pain-free life. In fact, Jesus Himself said, 'In this world you will have tribulation' (John 16:33). Here is what I do know: these people that were gathered for worship at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, believed in and loved Jesus Christ," Laurie added.

 

The megachurch pastor assured that the victims are now in God's presence, "where there is 'fullness of joy' and 'pleasures forevermore' (Psalm 16:11). All of their questions are answered; our questions will have to wait."

 

A debate online on the effectiveness of prayer was partly inspired from the Twitter comments of former "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Stand By Me" actor Wil Wheaton, who lashed out at House Speaker Paul Ryan for sending his prayers over the tragedy, which left 26 worshipers dead.

 

"The murdered victims were in a church. If prayers did anything, they'd still be alive, you worthless sack of [expletive]," Wheaton tweeted on Monday.

 

He later apologized and said that he wasn't trying to offend people of faith, but was speaking out against lack of legislative action.

 

"I'm not talking about religion or faith at all. I am talking about the speaker of the house who does nothing to address gun violence," he wrote in one follow-up tweet.

 

"Hey, real and actual people of faith: I hear you. I apologize for insulting you, in my rage at Paul Ryan's refusal to address gun violence," he added.

 

Wheaton's tweet prompted others to debate whether prayer works at all, however.

 

Pastor Ronnie Floyd, president of National Day of Prayer and senior pastor at Cross Church in Northwest Arkansas, told CP in response to the question: "In this fallen world when the spirit of evil is raging, all things that happen are not good. Yet, our faith and hope remains in God alone. When we pray we are depending on God for strength; when we do not pray, we choose to depend upon ourselves which always lead to unbelief."

 

In a previous statement in the aftermath of the attack, Floyd said: "When attacks of hate and terror happen in our places of worship, they shake us to the core. We must beg God for His mighty hand of protection on our nation and the world. May God be with the victims of this shooting. Only God is our refuge in these times of trouble."

 

Laurie suggested that people also need to consider how they think about matters of Heaven.

 

"We talk about the afterlife, but perhaps we ought to call the life we are living right now 'the before-life.' This life, compared to the afterlife, is very short. What we do with Jesus determines where we will spend this afterlife," the Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor said.

 

"These folks, worshiping at church last Sunday, are safely in the loving arms of Jesus Christ right now," he added.

 

Others, such as Pastor Jack Graham of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, pointed to Christ's Words in their response to the worst mass shooting at a church in U.S. history.

 

"In this time of heartbreak and tragedy, we remember Jesus' Words: 'In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.' We take comfort in knowing that whatever evil may come Jesus is with us," Graham said.

 

Author and evangelist Anne Graham Lotz spoke of the timeless truths that Jesus taught in John 11 after the death of Lazarus.

 

Lotz pointed to questions that Jesus Himself faced about the usefulness of prayer if it can't prevent death, where he stated that "one who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die."

 

Lotz reflected: "Life is about more than temporary safety, health, happiness, prosperity. It's about a relationship with Him that transcends those things. He never, ever has promised to protect us from suffering, pain, and death."

 

She added: "But He has promised to be with us and bring us through ... when we place our faith in Him."

Daily Jot: Failed bureaucracy and mass shootings - Bill Wilson - www.dailyjot.com   National Public Radio (NPR) has revealed that Texas church killer Devin Patrick Kelley was prohibited by law to legally possess a firearm, but his background check was incomplete when he bought the weapon he used to kill 26 people in Sutherland Springs, TX.  Retired Col. Don Christensen, the Air Force's chief prosecutor at the time Kelley was court-martialed, told NPR that Kelley "fractured his baby stepson's skull." Kelley was sentenced to 12 months for assaulting his wife and "intentionally inflicting grievous bodily harm" on the child. But the Air Force did not enter the Kelley's info into the National Criminal Information Center database. Thus, a mass-murderer slipped through the government bureaucracy.   There are two points here that deserve attention: 1) Kelley was convicted of a crime of domestic assault punishable for up to five years confinement; and 2) The majority of mass shootings are linked to perpetrators of domestic violence. Federal law prohibits firearm possession of anyone convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, and for anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence under a no-exception provision for military or law enforcement. The omission of this conviction in the federal database allowed Kelley to slip through the system and purchase the very gun that he used to massacre 26 men, women, and children.   Additionally, Kelley's arrest, domestic violence conviction and bad conduct discharge should have raised red flags to authorities. An analysis of FBI data by Everytown for Gun Safety indicates that the majority of mass shootings are related to domestic violence. The organization reports that from 2009-2016 there have been 156 mass shootings in the US resulting in 848 fatalities and 339 wounded. Some 54% of those shootings were connected to domestic violence; over a third involved a shooter who was prohibited by law from possessing firearms, and 42% of the shooters exhibited warning signs before acting-threats, substance abuse, acts of violence, violations of protective orders, etc.   The leftists are screaming for disarming citizens to stop gun violence, but the very system they rely upon (criminal background checks and mental health detection) doesn't work-people slip through the bureaucracy and/or find guns to use anyway. Bureaucracy cannot protect the innocent from those with no regard for law or life. Before he was betrayed in the garden, Jesus instructed his disciples in Luke 22:36: "and he that has no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Self-defense, preservation of life, and the protection of the innocent from the lawless are foundational to civil society. Good people who legally own and carry guns often save lives when bureaucracy and leftist utopian concepts fail.

A time to mourn with Sutherland Springs - Michael Brown -  http://www.wnd.com/2017/11/a-time-to-mourn-with-sutherland-springs/#DRyGWezWCtPWdoJA.99

 

Michael Brown to readers: 'Turn off the news and cry out to the Lord' after mass killing

 

Ecclesiastes wrote that there is "a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Now is a time to mourn, a time to weep. Now is a time to grieve with those who grieve and hurt with those who hurt. And now is a time to turn to the Lord and ask Him to have mercy on our nation and heal our land.

 

Who can imagine the pain of the people of the Sutherland Springs, Texas, a town of just a few hundred?

 

Already 26 are confirmed dead, ranging in age from 18 months to 77 years, all them shot while worshiping in their local Baptist Church. One of them was the pastor's 14-year-old daughter.

 

Twenty more are reported wounded, meaning that most of those in the service were shot. Can we even begin to wrap our minds around this?

 

Every family in this town has been affected. Dreams have been destroyed. Plans for a bright future have been demolished. What a massive, unspeakable tragedy.

 

You wake up on a Sunday morning on a beautiful fall morning, you head over to the church building to sing to the Lord and pray and hear a message. And you never make it home. Or your spouse or child or grandparent never makes it home. Or you're airlifted from the service in critical condition, your whole life turned upside down.

 

Can we let this sink in until our hearts are breaking? Can we let this sink in until we share some of the burden with our brothers and sisters in Texas?

 

At times like this, we are consumed with questions, wanting to know why and how.

 

What we do know about the murderer? What motivated him? Why did he launch his attack on a Sunday morning? What could have been done to prevent this? Why does God allow such things to happen?

 

Those are all valid questions, and there will be plenty of time to seek valid answers. But now is a time to mourn and pray. Can we at least take a few minutes to stop what we're doing, turn off the news, and cry out to the Lord?

 

At times like this, it's all too easy to politicize the pain, to argue for stricter gun control or to argue for better church security or to blame one political party or another.

 

All this has already been done today, setting the Internet on fire with tweets and counter-tweets, none of which I will link here, since that will only distract us or annoy us or inflame us.

 

Perhaps there's something more constructive we can do right now. Perhaps praying and grieving is more appropriate. Perhaps asking the Lord to help those who are suffering would be a better use of our time, at least for a few minutes.

 

I understand that both advocates of gun control and advocates of more gun security care about the loss of life and want to prevent it. We are united in the desire to see the carnage stop. But again, there's a time for political debate and there's a time to cease from political debate, at least for a few hours or a day. Now is one of those times where political debate can wait.

 

There is a community traumatized.

 

There are bloody bodies lying on the floor of a little church building, which is now an active crime scene.

 

There are children fighting for their lives in neighboring hospitals.

 

There are parents and families in shock.

 

The least we could do is feel some of their pain and ask God for comfort and intervention.

 

And let's not get into online battles with the mockers who say there's no need to pray, since God didn't stop this from happening in the first place. Don't let them dishonor the name of the Lord we love, the same Lord these victims and their families loved, the same Lord who is at work even now in the midst of the agony, the same Lord who has welcomed 26 of His children into His heavenly presence.

 

This is now the second mass shooting in five weeks and the second church shooting in six weeks. (The Las Vegas massacre took place Oct. 1. The church shooting in Tennessee took place Sept. 24.) And it's the second mass murder of the week, with the car attack in Manhattan taking place just six days ago. And all this comes on the heels of dozens dying in forest fires and millions being affected by hurricanes. Is this not enough to drive us to our knees?

 

America is hurting right now, and in many ways, we are a very sick nation. Only God can heal our land.

 

Turning to Him with all our hearts and souls in repentance and prayer is our only hope - and the only hope of the people of Sutherland Springs.

 

Let's join them in their grief, as we appeal to our Father for mercy. There's nothing more important we can do.

 

 

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