Orlando

 Anytime a tragedy strikes humanity, there are always diverse voices that claim to know the reason why. Such has been the case since creation of time.

Adam blamed his wife, Eve, for the tragedy of disobedience that led to their eviction from Eden, the Garden of God. Eve blamed the serpent for beguiling her with smooth talk. (Quite a weapon, yes? Who said, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?”)

There are some people who declare that the 49 killed and the 53 injured inside a gay bar, in Orlando, Florida, was the consequence of their own sin of homosexual behavior. In essence they seem to be saying those people deserved to die. But I ask you, if that is true, how many of us would be alive today for sins we have committed in our lifetime? We all deserve to die for our sins, but Jesus paid the debt we owed God when He died for us, and arose from the dead. No, I don’t believe it was God’s judgment on those people. I believe God wept when they were murdered. The cry in my heart is, “Where are those souls now?” He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)

I think it’s despicable that some try to raise funds and make political hay from this and other violent tragedies. They fall back on their erroneous worn-out rhetoric, saying if guns were outlawed in the United States, the killing would stop.

Really? I beg to differ.

Criminals and terrorists will always be able to find weapons on the black market. Are we to ban the making of all guns, swords, knives (kitchen knives too), and sling shots? Consider: countless tools, including rocks, pillows, baseball bats, bricks, poison, glass, and so forth, ad nauseam, can be weapons of murder—including the human hand.

I contend with every fiber of my being that the root of the issue is not the weapon: it is the condition of sin in the human heart.

God said, “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” (Matthew 15:19) And again, “For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.” (Mark 7:21-23)

No, my friends, it’s not a gun control issue. It is a heart control issue. And no one can change the heart but Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Jeremiah 17:9 states, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”

What happened in Orlando was not the judgment of God. It was the evil of men’s hearts doing the will of their master, Satan, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus came that we may have abundant life! (John 10:10)

I think of Jesus’ words to His disciples when the Samaritans wouldn’t welcome them on their way to Jerusalem. “And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, ‘Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?’ But He turned and rebuked them, and said, ‘You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.’” (Luke 9:54-56)

“. . .Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:4)

I rejoiced when I heard how Chick-fil-A showed Christ’s love by opening their restaurant that Sunday (they are never open on Sundays) and distributed free sandwiches and iced tea to those standing in line for hours to donate blood for the wounded, and also to the hundreds of law enforcement officials who were at the scene of the murders. http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/158700906-story That’s something Jesus would do—not call down fire on the gay night club, Pulse.    

Copyright © 2016 Elaine Beachy