It seems so strange for us in the West that people seek to murder the maximum number of total strangers (including innocent women and children) while blowing themselves up. Our western minds cannot grasp the total depravity of such actions. But we who grew up in a civilization grounded in the light of the Jewish and Christian scriptures perceive the world through different glasses. We have a sense of hope and we believe in the future. We love life and everything that it has to offer. We are optimistic of the future. Even those of us who were born into poor immigrant families hope to better ourselves and enjoy our time on this earth. We dream of marrying and having children, seeing them grow up to become doctors, lawyers and even politicians. These are the dreams of even the atheist and agnostic who are increasingly being churned up by our universities; institutions originally founded by pious men so that everyone could read the scriptures - now unfortunately, these are populated by atheist professors who think they are wise, but are fools. These are not my words, but those of the Creator of the Universe (Rom 1:22).

If a farmer plants seed corn he fully expects to reap corn! (Genesis 1:11,12)

What should a culture which plants seeds of violence, pornography, vulgarity, disrespect of authority, disdain for sacred traditions and institutions, intolerance and rejection of God and His word expect to reap?

We hear the cries “Black Lives Matter”, “White Lives Matter” and “Police Lives Matter”.  All Lives Matter! We have politicized every aspect of life so that we are either for this group or the other, on one side of the issue or the other – Gender, Race, Politics.  We are a house divided against itself.  Maybe there is a transcending cry that needs to be heard: “All Life is Sacred!!” From the womb to the tomb, Creator God has put his seal of love on all of us and breathed the breath of life in all of us.  Until we can create life we have no right to take life.  Let’s stop desecrating the sacred gift of life.  In John 10:10 Jesus said: “…I am come that they might have life…” and that matters.

Often, the Bible speaks of God’s “better way” referring primarily to salvation (Heb 8:6) and heaven (Heb 11:16), but also interpersonal relationships (Phil 1:23). Recently, current events in Baltimore, Maryland; Ferguson, Missouri and Charleston, South Carolina have given the country and the world contrasting reactions to killing and violence. Actions in Maryland and Missouri demonstrated a natural, human instinct for retribution – “an eye for an eye” riots, burnings, looting and striking out. Actions in South Carolina, on the other hand, demonstrated an “unnatural” response to violence – prayer and forgiveness.