IT’S THE QUESTION OF THE WEEK.
It comes from Tony Nave, on my Facebook page. Tony gets a free book for his curiosity.
With the way the world is today with the shootings in the schools and the laws about guns and the economy letting people down. What [Bible] passages could help us….cope with these worldly problems?
Our drive to justice – and more than that, to revenge – comes natural to us.
We don’t have to rent a Buick to take us there.
We are already there.
We’d like a bucket of blood, please. And a pound of flesh. Thank you very much.
Our troubles come when there is no justice.
Or when there is justice, but when the revenge it brings doesn’t fill the emptiness in our soul.
Terrorist attacks like the Boston Marathon bombing gut our spirit.
Ditto the mass murder with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Ditto a Congress that seems bought and paid for by lobbyists in bribes that trump overwhelming public will. So it would seem, given the recent polling that showed 9 out of 10 Americans wanted our representatives to pass the most recently proposed gun control legislation, requiring more extensive background checks.
I don’t think we need to go to the Bible to figure out the solution for Congress.
In our country, all we have to do is go to the voting booth.
It’s probably a good idea, also, to let our representatives know when we think they made an intelligent decision and when they seemed to lack the intelligence of a donut hole. (Just don’t phrase it that way. It trips their “off” switch.)
But how do we deal with the injustice that will persist as long as sinful human beings walk on this planet shooting their guns and collecting their bribes?
Let me pull a couple of Bible verses from the “What the Bible Says About…” section in Bible Snapshots.
Revenge
- “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, ‘I will take revenge; I will pay them back,’ says the LORD” (Romans 12:19).
Forgiveness
- “Forgive anyone who does you wrong, just as Christ has forgiven you” (Colossians 3:13, CEV).
When it comes to forgiveness, I think it’s important for us to remember one promise that God makes to everyone – even to the worst among us:
“No matter how deep the stain of your sins, I can take it out and make you as clean as freshly fallen snow. Even if you are stained as red as crimson, I can make you white as wool!” (Isaiah 1:18 TLB).
That’s a verse we love to apply to ourselves.
Perhaps we should work a little harder at applying it to others as well.
I wonder, too, if we should put a little more energy into understanding why people do what they do.
A lot of insane crimes are caused by people who are mentally ill – and untreated because they can’t afford the treatment.
As a nation, we’ll provide them roads to drive on so they can get to where they need to go to kill someone. But we won’t provide them with the healthcare they need to fix their brain so they’ll get the signal to consider a detour.
As for terrorists, I have limited insights. As far as I know, I’ve not met any. From what I’ve seen in documentaries and read about them in books and news reports, many of them seem brainwashed by religious leaders who are misinterpreting their Scriptures. Others are driven by different demons: poverty, intolerance, and desperation, to name a few.
Stopping a terrorist with a drone attack is one approach.
Stopping them with education is another.
I wonder which approach Jesus would prefer.
In answer to Tony’s question about how to cope with mass murders and the inhumanity of it all, I think it’s within our nature to try to fix the problem.
What’s beyond our nature – supernatural – is to trust God for what we are unable to fix.
Maybe that trust in God begins with a prayer:
“Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us” (Matthew 6:12).
On a lighter note
Over the weekend I played around with videotaping Buddy the Dog.
Here’s the thing about Buddy. Whenever I run a picture of him on my professional Facebook page, it draws two or three times the number of viewers than any of my blog posts or my other comments.
Some of my readers suggested I figure out a way to get Buddy to promote my books.
Here’s a YouTube link. It’s my 2-minute attempt.
I wish I could believe that social and mental health programs would put an end to terrorism and violence, Steve.
Unfortunately, there is also true evil in this world — and will be until Christ comes back.
The only way to deal with it is to thank God that evil and violent acts in this world are still way outnumbered by acts of goodness and love.
Great Blog today and well written…and on that lighter note Pastor Bob and I stopped by McDonald’s on our way home from Bible Study…he gives his dog, Nicolas, a McDouble and he waits patiently for it – BUddy just needs something better to eat Lol.