As our president rightly pointed out, we are being becoming desensitized to this crisis in our country. But what is the real problem? Is it just too easy to get guns in our America? Probably! But remember, we are not talking about gun accidents, we are talking about violent people searching for ways to kill others.
I would guess that these people would have found ways to hurt others no matter what the gun control situation was, but maybe not quite as easily.
In some ways, violence is part of humanity’s struggle with sin. Remember when Cain killed Able, the crime rate on the earth was 25%.
America has known violence since its inception. We were established through the conflict with the native Americans and the massacres that ensued.
Then it was the War of Independence, the Civil War, and 2 world wars. Furthermore, for 3 decades, the mafia ruled our streets with violence, then the Hells Angels joined them, and now it’s the radical Muslims.
When Paul said, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” he was writing from a dungeon underneath the ground. He wasn’t denying that we have problems with people bent on evil. He was simply saying that these evil souls have partnered with principalities that are dedicated to killing, stealing, and destroying others.
They are puppets, carrying out the dirty work of a foe so evil that he defies description!
Jesus said, “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.” Matthew 15:19.
Ultimately, these violent people have a heart problem.
The apostle James put it like this, “If you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.”James 3:14-16
When we let jealousy in our hearts like Cain, we have begun the process of partnership with evil, which left unchecked, ends in murder.
Jealousy and envy are open doors to every kind of wicked spirit. These spirits partner with bitterness and unforgiveness, rotting the very foundation of goodness from within our souls.
Soon hatred so deep that it blinds us to the very nature of God within grips our hearts. Then a passionate rage seeps into the depths of our souls until it ravages our minds and destroys our conscience.
Now we are puppets under the hypothetical power of satan; zombies who mindlessly carry out his destructive plots against humanity, who are made in the image of God Himself.
BUT this entire cycle of evil is destroyed through the simple key of forgiveness. It was purchased through a violent act of grace on the Cross, and it’s a free gift to anyone who asks Jesus for it.
If you, or someone you know, is stuck in hatred, there is an antidote for this disease; it is Jesus.
He came into my life in 1973 and delivered me from the spirit of murder, so I know this cycle first-hand. He will do the same for you if you let Him.
Today could be the first day of the rest of your life. May God bless everyone who reads this blog.
