| With
the shootings in Littleton, Colorado on April 20, 1999 Colorado has entered
the growing number of states where young people are killing other young
people. Immediately the media circus began with a national media feeding
frenzy trying to get the saddest, goriest stories out of the grieving parents
and shocked community. One news interviewer who questioned the Littleton
fire chief, asked if the paramedics who went to help three students on
the ground while there was still an exchange of gunfire between the police
and the gunmen in the school were "at risk". What a stupid question! Two
different news channels have dubbed the shootings "Terror in the Rockies"
and "Massacre..." accomplishing only the sensationalizing of another tragedy.
When will they ever get the message that when they do this all they accomplish
is adding to the problem?
All
of the newspeople are again asking the often repeated questions "Why did
this happen?" and "How could this happen again?" The gun control advocates
are already raising their voices and using this incident as another reason
guns should be banned. It never ceases to amaze me that they seem to think
the guns jumped up and did the shooting all by themselves!
And
of course our president also has to be among the first to lend his voice
to the cacophony to show how sympathetic he is. Immediately he says parents
need to teach their children the difference between right and wrong. I
feel like screaming when I hear the hypocrisy come from that man. After
all he put our country through this last year I'm surprised he isn't ashamed
to say something like that! The example he has been to this nation's youth
is abysmal!
We
live in a nation where we demand total personal freedom without any responsibility.
We think we can say and do anything we want to without any consequences.
My thoughts here are specifically with the movie and music industry. Television
shows, movies, cartoons, and music CD's and music videos are filled with
graphic sexuality, nudity, profanity, violence, disrespect for any and
all authority figures - especially parents. But the argument is
made by Hollywood and the music industry that there is no evidence that
these contribute to the problems with young people in society. The incredible
irony is that these same people will charge billions of dollars to advertisers
to convince young people to buy their products. And the advertisers are
willing pay the money. If television, movies, and music have no direct
influence on young people why are these advertisers willing to pay such
enormous amounts of money on advertising on these mediums?
The
film and music producers are doing just what I said before. They want the
freedom to produce whatever they want to with no restrictions and without
being willing to exercise the corresponding responsibility to our nation's
youth and what their productions are doing to them.
We
are living in a day, and becoming a people, God warned us about in
 Isaiah
5:20
"Woe
to those who callevil good and good evil,who put darkness for light and
light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
Good
is
regarded as evil and evil is regarded as good. The shows that used
to be popular years ago such as Father Knows Best, Leave It To Beaver,
and the like are now the object of scorn and ridicule as not being "true
to life." But isn't it interesting that back then the worst problems teachers
had to deal with in schools were chewing gum in class, and smoking cigarettes
in the bathrooms. Today's films and music reflect "true life" as their
producers claim and the problems we face in our schools include dead students
and teachers. When will we get the message? Freedom without responsibility
is not freedom at all, but merely a license for evil.
People
are searching for answers! But they are searching for them in all the wrong
places. The Bible, God's revelation to humanity is the source of the answers
mankind needs to deal with our problems. Unfortunately, we don't want to
take the medicine that will cure our ills. Please understand, I am not
advocating the Bible as a means of gaining intellectual answers here. Theologians,
scholars, and Christians of all ages have debated and argued the "meaning"
of many parts of the Bible. What I am advocating is that people read the
Bible and put into practice what it says. Even among Evangelical Bible-believing
Christians there is too often an intellectual agreement with the Bible's
teaching, but a refusal to actually DO what it commands.
It
isn't enough to want to read and obey the parts of the Bible that talk
about "love" and "being kind" and "forgiveness." There has to be an acknowledgment
of and an obedience to the part that talks about putting God FIRST in our
lives. When the Bible gives instructions about our lifestyles, those instructions
are not optional! When it forbids lying, it means in all forms. When it
talks about not committing sexual immorality it means just that. We can't
pick and choose the parts of the Bible we like and ignore the parts we
don't like.
The
Bible tells us we are sinners and as such we do sinful things. The extent
to which we commit sinful behaviors and the extent of our ability to do
depraved and vicious things became abundantly clear again in Littleton,
Colorado. It is only as we turn from our sinful ways, acknowledge our lives
are out of control, and turn to Jesus Christ for help that we will ever
find the solutions to our depraved natures. It is onlyJesus
Christ that can deliver us from our rage and inability to cope with life
and make us Godly, loving people.
The
events at Columbine High School are not the only examples of man's inhumanity
to man. It can be seen all over the world! It can be seen in the drive
by shootings on Los Angeles freeways. It can be seen in gang fights in
the nner cities. It can be seen in mothers who strap their children in
car seats and push the car into a river. It can be seen in the bombing
of the federal building in Oklahoma City. It can be seen in Melosavich's
ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia. It can be seen in the use of machetes to
cut off the hands and feet of villagers by rival waring tribes in Africa.
And it can be seen in the bombing of airliners and airports by terrorists.
The list could go on and on.
Our
sinfulness and depravity may come out in different ways in different countries,
but it is still there. Human depravity is not gender, race, or age specific.
The answer, though many don't want to hear it, can be found in only one
place - Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can free us from this horrible
insanity! Without Him we are doomed to repeat these actions and continue
asking the question - WHY?
The
Bible says in,
Revelation
21:6-8
"He
said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and
the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the
spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and
I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving,
the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic
arts, the idolaters and all liars-- their place will be in the fiery lake
of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
There
are a considerable number of people who would attempt to argue that God
is loving and forgiving and all a person has to do is say "Oh, I'm sorry."
and everything is all right. I do believe God is loving and forgiving,
but I also believe that He demands repentance. Repentance is a turning
away from sinful behavior and a determining with God's help to not repeat
it. It is NOT simply an apology because one was caught and
wants to avoid punishment.
Many
people in our nation are in desperate need of a true repentance from their
sin and a turning to the God who loves them and who sent His Son - Jesus
Christ to die for them. When we choose to believe that Jesus Christ, God's
Son, came in the flesh and died in our place, then came back to life and
went back to heaven, and is alive today, we can be set free from our confusion
and sinful lifestyles. Jesus is alive today; and He is willing to forgive
anyone who will "repent" or turn from their sinful lifestyle and begin
living for Him.
But
it isn't just saying a prayer. It is entering an ongoing personal relationship
with Jesus Christ, God's Son, the Messiah. It isn't a one time experience,
but an ongoing, daily relationship. |
