Thoughts on guns, gun control, and God

Another school shooting has happened, this one at a community college that left 9 dead and several injured. My heart breaks for the families who will never again see their loved ones again on this earth, and I wish we could find a way to stop this violence. Here are some thoughts I have about it, in no particular order:

  I am weary of Obama politicizing these shootings and immediately standing on the bodies of those killed to trumpet his desire for more gun laws. A real leader, a compassionate leader would call the nation to prayer, not use a tragedy to work on his dream - disarming Americans. One only has to look up what he wants done via gun control to see why he can't help but use these tragedies to his advantage. His gun views are so extreme, those views alone should have cost him the presidency.

  Guns are not the problem. Yeah, it is a broken record, but so is blaming guns, the NRA, Republicans, and Christians every time there is a shooting. Sinful people are the problem.

The Second Amendment was made to protect American citizens from the government... something to remember now that we have a president bound and determined to take away that right.

Down through history, one of the first things a dictator did was to disarm the citizens of the country. No, I am not saying Obama is a dictator, but he has the makings of one.... he has expressed that the Constitutions gets in the way of what he wants to do, and he has bypassed Congress to do what he wants and abused the separation of powers.

  Obama wants to disarm Americans while he is letting Iran have nukes.

All of these shootings happen in gun free zones. That is like an advertisement to killers where they can do the most damage and not have someone shooting back.

An oldie but true: If they outlaw guns, only the outlaws will have guns.

  I find it hypocritical of anyone who has armed security - whether it be the President of the US, congressmen, actors, sports figures, etc - to say that we average Americans need more gun control and do not need guns. If they are so pro-gun control, how about they stop being in movies with guns? How about they get rid of their armed security and live like we little people? If Obama hates guns so much, how about HE try living without guns surrounding him and see how that works out......

  Why when a minority is killed by guns, whether they be black, Muslim, or gay, Obama focuses on the victim, but when Christians have been killed by gun, his focus is entirely on guns and he ignores the victims being killed because of who they were?

  Why do the gun control fanatics not go after alcohol? I would bet the numbers of people hurt, abused, and killed because of alcohol are greater than the number of Americans hurt and killed by guns, yet no one is pushing for more laws to regulate alcohol.

Why does Obama ignore the constant black on black killing in his home town of Chicago.... a town that has strict gun laws and a high rate of murder?

Obama should be held accountable for the violence towards policemen and Christians. He has done a lot to stir up fear, distrust, and hatred of both.

If you take guns away, criminals will still find them, or just use other methods to kill people.

  Anyone capable of intelligent reasoning and thought should question what has changed? Even when I was a kid, there was not this much violence and shootings.... and gun laws were even less constrictive then. There was a time in America that if a young man was walking down the street with a gun on his shoulder, people assumed he was going hunting or was at the dump shooting rats. There was a day boys took guns to school with them. Guns haven't changed, so what has?

I'll answer that question:

1) TV. Television and movies have grown increasingly more violent. Violence is glorified and entertains. And ironically, the very same people acting out the violence with guns and other weapons are at the forefront of demanding more gun control.

2) Video games. Video games have become more and more violent as the years have gone by.

3) Drugs. A lot of these killers have been on some form of medication.

4) The breakdown of the family. Too many kids are growing up without a dad in the picture. In black communities where they claim there is the most violence and arrests, it is most predominant that men have gotten women pregnant, then walked away to never father the children they had a part in bringing into this world.... but it isn't just a black problem. All races here in the US are leaving fatherless children to grow up and find gangs or other undesirable people and things to hang out with and do.

5) We have lost respect for life. Abortion and getting used to it has cost us, and part of that cost is we don't value life like we used to.

6) A move away from God. I believe this is the biggest and most important change that has resulted in the violence and killing we see today.


Our country was founded on Christianity and biblical principles. Liberals have tried to rewrite history, but it is true. The Bible used to be taught in all schools in our country, not just Christian schools. Prayer was encouraged and done in all schools.

Then America kicked God out of the schools. They kicked Him out of the government, citing separation of church and state, ignoring the fact that that separation was to protect the church from the government, not the government from the church.

TV has become more and more anti-God and anti-Christian. The media and most politicians despise true Christianity and anyone who truly lives by the Bible.

We as a country have drifted far from God, and far from what this country was founded on. And we are reaping. Immorality is celebrated. What used to be done in private is paraded in the streets and defended by politicians and the media. God is mocked, Christians hated, and the country gets more and more violent. Godless politicians, actors, sports figures, and other anti-gun extremists will never get it..... more gun control is not the answer. Getting this country back to God is the answer.

When I graduated from Bible college, I had to pick a favorite verse from the Bible to have in the yearbook. I picked 11 Chronicles 7:14:
Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land. (NLT)

  THAT is the answer, not more gun control. Politics are not the answer, but imagine if the president of our country would do what this verse says and call the whole country to prayer and repentance. Sadly, we have the most anti-Christian president we have ever had, and he is more concerned with his agenda than in God or what is right and good.

  But those who serve God and are true Christians can do it. Even if the leader of our country is not calling for prayer, for repentance, for a turning back to God.....we can. If enough people who bear His name would follow this verse, who knows what might happen in our country?

Born to be servants, not gods

Back in 2013, I read the newest book by a favorite author of mine, Kyle Idleman. The book was titled "Gods At War". I thought it was a great book on the subject of idols in our life. Each chapter was on a different "god" that is often present in our lives. The final chapter was "the god of me." I can't remember much of what he wrote in that chapter or the others, but the idea of the god of me has been on my mind lately.

  We can have a lot of gods in our lives, but they all hinge on that one: the god of me. We have turned into such a me, me, me society. Everything is all about making me feel good, pleasing me, what makes me happy.

  Worship and church has ceased to be God-centered, but is instead about what makes us happy, how we feel. We approach worship and church attendance like going to Baskin Robbins Ice Cream.... we pick whatever flavor makes us happiest

 Our marriages are falling apart because two self-centered people marry and are more concerned about what makes the god of me happy, then truly loving their spouse unselfishly like God would have them do.

Pleasure makes the god of me happy, so we have affairs, look at porn, smoke, drink, spend our money the way we want to spend it. Whatever makes us happy is what matters.

We claim to love God and want to serve Him, but the god of me wants sexual pleasure, so we overlook verses in the Bible that say sex with another of the same gender is sinful and put our wants and needs before God.

We selfishly hoard our time to do what we want to do: TV, sports, books, shopping, playing video games, playing on our computers and smart phones, while ignoring a world going to hell around us. After all, the god of me needs "me time".

We try to be first in line, we try to find the closest parking place, we want served and waited on as fast as possible when shopping and eating out and get impatient if we have to wait a few extra minutes.

  I recently ordered a new game system from Amazon, and they waited a whole week to ship it. I was irritated, I was impatient. I found myself wishing I had just bought it at Walmart where I could have got it instantly, but Amazon had offered 6 month financing so I was kind of stuck buying it from them, but I wanted it NOW, not in a week and a few days.

  The god of me doesn't like to wait for anything. It wants fed now, it wants sex now.... not after marriage. The god of me is happiest in a fast food, drive through society as long as he doesn't have to wait in line at that drive through.

  It has become all about us. But that isn't the way of the Bible, and not what God wants. Jesus said the first shall be last and the last shall be first. He said if we want to be great in His Kingdom, we are to be servants.

  I am no wise man, and never claim to be one..... but I wonder if that is the problem in so many people's lives. I wonder if that is the reason for so many failed marriages, broken homes, addictions, foreclosures, bankruptcies, crime, spiritual problems,  and a host of other problems: We all have gotten so used to making ourselves happy that it influences everything in our lives from the way we worship to how we love and treat our spouses.
 
 If we had the heart of a servant, if we loved others as we love ourselves, if we put others first and crucified the god of me, what a difference it could make in  our lives. But the god of me isn't easily dethroned, and lives on in way too many hearts of even the most faithful of church attendees.

  God help me to stop bowing to the god of me, and to concentrate on what God wants for me in every area of my life. That is the way He said to do it, after all.

The Bible tells me so

 

 Anyone who has been around church at all has most likely sang it at some point: " Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.........Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so."

  But what if the Bible is wrong? What if it is a book of fairy tales put together by men and isn't the Word of God?

 I recently had someone insist that the Bible is a book of fairy tales, that it is full of errors and contradictions, and that man wrote it, so it is man's ideas. I have been thinking about this, and I respectfully disagree.

  When you grow up in the church as I did, it is easy to believe everything Mom and Dad, the preacher, and your Sunday School teacher say. You just take their word for it when they say something, and everything is just hunky dory.

  And then you become an adult. You get out on your own and encounter other ideas and philosophies. You can't ride the coat tails of Mom and Dad's religion anymore, but have to forge out your own belief system and your own relationship with God. You may encounter someone telling you the things about the Bible I have recently been told. You may encounter people telling you God isn't real, and more. And that is when the rubber meets the road. Do you truly believe what you have been taught for years? Is this God truly real to you, or will you be persuaded that He isn't real, and the Bible is just something man came up with?

  So here is what I believe about the Bible:

1) It is the inspired and inerrant Word of God.

2) Man did indeed write the Bible, but were inspired by God what to write.

3) The Bible, God's Word, is still applicable for today and whatever we face in life. It has the answers to whatever we need.

4) God is powerful enough and knows everything and is more than capable to see to it that His Word could survive thousands of years of translating, copying, and more and still say what He wants it to say and be what He wants it to be.

5) No matter how inconvenient the truths therein, they are still truth and the Word of God.

6) Yes, the Bible says in both the Old and new Testaments that homosexuality is a sin, and that anyone who engages in that sin will not go to Heaven.

7) And yes, abortion is murder and condemned as sin by the same Bible.

8) I believe the Bible should be read daily, but not as something to just check off a list, or as a way to gain favor with God, but instead as a way to grow in our relationship with God and to have Him speak.

9) I believe it is better to read one verse and get help and truth from it, then to read a chapter or two and walk away with nothing other than feeling we did our Christian duty for the day.

10) I believe all of mankind will be judged some day by how we lived in according to the words in the Bible.

God and parking places

God uses a wide variety of means and things to speak to us, and today He used a parking space. The lot at work that I park in has 2 rows of parking spaces facing each other. One row is against a hill and has another lot at the top of that hill, and the other row faces the road going through the hospital grounds. That is where I park, always backing in. This morning - and not for the first time -  I faced a small dilemma I have faced before. There were two vehicles parked in that row. The first space is extra wide - it is by the entrance and they had more space than needed for a parking place, and that person had parked far to the side away from the painted line toward the entrance, leaving a huge space between his vehicle and the parking space next to him. So the next car, instead of parking inside of the white lines, parked well over the line towards this vehicle. Then I come along and there is a huge space between the second car in and the third parking space that I am going to back into. Hence the dilemma:

Do I park over the line to my left so I am parked at the normal space between parked cars, or do I park in between the parking lines leaving a huge space between my car and the car beside me? If I park between the lines like you normally would, will that cause people to look at my car and wonder why I left such a large amount of space between my car and the car beside me? If I straddle the line as the car did to my left so I am parked at a normal distance from them, what will the car that parks on my right do? Will they also straddle the line? And the next car and the next until no one is parking in between the lines because of car #2?

  After a few seconds of pondering the options, I did as I have done the other mornings I was presented with this dilemma: I parked within the lines, which left a large amount of space between myself and the car on the left.

  And then God spoke to me. He does do that occasionally.

  Life can be difficult when you're serving God and going against the world. It can be like swimming upstream. I know what is right. I know what the Bible says, but so many around me are going the opposite way, even those who call themselves Christians are going with what the world, society, and culture says is OK, right or wrong, and normal. Sometimes a Christian can wonder if we truly have it right..... are we correct in living our lives by what the Bible says? Should we stand firm against the tide of even Christians who are going with what the world says is right?

  I am reading through a book called a 40 Days to Lasting Change, an AHA Challenge, based on a book by the same author, Kyle Idleman titled AHA: The God Moment That Changes Everything. In the chapter I read last night, he relayed a fictional story by H.G. Wells about a man who stumbled onto a village where all of the people were blind. He fell in love with a girl after living there for a while, but the villagers would not accept him as normal or OK unless he had an operation to remove his eyes, He agreed to do so, and took a walk to see the world around him one last time. As he walked, he realized how insane the idea was for him to be blinded, and fled the village. The author made the point that the story is like the world. The world is blind to what is truly right and wrong, blind to God and what He wants, and blind to the fact that they are marching in direct defiance to His plan and wishes....... and yet, they look at those who can see as freaks. They want us to blind like them, to not see right and wrong for what they are, and to be blind to God and His Word.

  And that is what God spoke to me early this morning as I backed into a parking place at work and parked inside the lines. That just because everyone else is trying to straddle the lines - changing what is right and wrong - does not mean I am wrong for not doing the same. It just means I need to keep doing what I know is right, keep living for God, keep standing against the things that are being thrown at us and the demands for us to go along with what the world wants.

  Many who profess to be Christians are straddling the lines instead of staying inside the lines. They are going along with the world instead of going with what God's Word says.

  But God help me to not care about man's opinions, to not worry what others will think when I remain determined to see, and not be blinded.

  If I had straddled the line this morning to be like the person beside me, it wouldn't have caused any damage to my soul or my influence....... but if I decide to straddle the lines of morality, of right and wrong, and let myself become blind to make the world happy.... then I will do damage to my soul, my relationship with God, and to my reputation.

 So with God's help, I will continue to stay inside the lines, and ask for His help to continue to see in this world full of so many blind people.

In the country of the blind, those who can see are mocked and looked on as being wrong and freaks. The blind want those who can see to be like them, to have no eyesight and also be blind.

I have a future and a hope, whether you do or not

  Every few months, some do-gooder person publishes an article on Bible verses that are used wrong. Heading up the list is usually Jeremiah 29:11. These people insist the verse was only meant for the Israelites and talk about context and reading the following verses, and stuff like that. And you know what? That irritates me. Am I allowed to be irritated? Well it does, whether I am allowed to or not.

  This is a verse that has given me hope and a much needed boost many times in my life. There were times I was so deep in depression and discouragement that I read this "out of context" verse every night for weeks.

 I tend to read a lot from the New Living Translation and the Holman Christian Standard Bible. They render the verse like this:

 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (NLT)

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (HCSB)

 OK, so does God not know the plans He has for ME?  Of course He knows the plans He has for me.

Are the plans He has for me not good? Are they for my disaster? Of course His plans are good for me and not for disaster. Bad things may happen to me, but as a Christian I believe He knows what is best and will work good out of bad.

Does God not want to give me a future and hope? Dumb question. Of course God wants to give me a future and hope.

  So then why is this verse a problem for so many people? Granted, some verses render the verse that God wants to prosper, but even then I don't take the Joel Osteen approach, but I tend to think of spiritually, not financial, but I rarely read a version that renders it prosper, so that isn't an issue for me.

  But then these people bring up context, and talk about the verses that follow this:
12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. 14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

  If we pray, He will listen. I don't think that applied to just Israel. It applies to all of us.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. Hmm, that sounds like it would apply to us today also.

Ah, verse 14 could be a problem. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes." Well, that part of the verse has actually given me hope also for reasons I won't go into here. And you could even spiritualize the last part of the verse,  "I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

  A person can easily get carried away going through the Bible discarding verses that they don't believe apply to us today, but were only speaking to a specific people of that time. People do it with the verse that says it is a shame for a man to have long hair. That is one argument the pro-gay theology people use.... male prostitution was a problem at the time the New Testament verses were written saying homosexuality is a sin. We scoff at those who say that, yet we should be careful to not do the same with other verses.

  The Bible says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. That includes Jeremiah 29:11.

  There are promises throughout the Bible, who though some may claim were aimed at a certain people, can be examined and still apply for us today because of God's character and His promise that He doesn't change. If He promised the Israelites that He had a plan for them, a future, and a hope.... then that same God can do the same for us today.

 If there are those who disagree, let  them disagree and leave me alone. The verse has given me and countless other Christians hope down through the ages. And we all need hope.

Random musings

1) There should be a law against making flog lights on cars so bright that they equal or surpass high beams

2) If Kim Davis belonged in jail for not upholding something that wasn't a law, doesn't Obama belong in jail for refusing to uphold immigration laws and the Defense of Marriage Act? After all, he vowed to uphold the laws and Constitution when he was sworn in.

3) And do the same people who say Kim Davis should just have resigned say Obama should resign if he doesn't want to enforce things that actually are laws?

4) After all of his pro-Muslim statements and actions and his anti-Christian statements and actions, how can anyone doubt Barack Obama is indeed a Muslim....especially after this horrible Iran deal?

5) Why do so many laws for car automobile drivers not apply to motorcyclists? And why is it our responsibility to watch out for them when they are the ones driving an unsafe vehicle? Shouldn't they bear most of the responsibility and drive safer?

6) Why do truckers insist on passing a vehicle that it takes them forever to get around, meanwhile they have several cars behind them waiting for them to get out of the way.

7) Isn't liberal logic an oxymoron?

8) How can anyone support Hillary Clinton after all of the scandals she has had and the obvious  corruptness that oozes out of her very pores?

9) Donald Trump is a bully, a jerk, egotistical, and has some of the same traits I dislike in Obama.......why would I want to vote for him?

10) Why do women need make up, redder lips, raccoon eyes, etc. to make them supposedly look better.... and men need nothing to make us look better.....though some men seem to be so ugly they cover their face up with a beard......

11) I'd like Fall a lot better if it wasn't for the fact it is followed by winter.

12) All lives matter. Why is that statement offensive?

13) I sincerely believe Obama as the first black president could have made this country better, united it, helped any racist divides that exist, and gone down as one of the greatest presidents ever..... but instead he has divided this country, focused on his agenda, helped stir up hatred towards police and white people, and sunk this country further in debt.

14) I wonder if the same churches that boycotted theaters for showing Brokeback Mountain also boycotted the ones showing 50 Shades of Grey.

15) It may sound crazy, but I believe Obama is a Muslim plant, and his actions and words over his presidency give that idea merit.

16) I feel Christians have for too long and too easily surrendered our religious freedoms to judges, the government, and atheists and we should have stood up against them.

17)It is beyond bizarre and idiotic that believing in the "right" to kill a baby in the womb is the litmus test for true femininity and women's rights in this country, and that liberal women won't even listen to a woman who is not for butchering babies in the womb.

18) I would rather go my whole life living as if there was a God and be wrong, than to live my life as if there was no God and be wrong.

19) If a Muslim wanted to infiltrate the country by becoming president and try to weaken America, help out our enemies, offend our allies, destroy our economy and freedoms, and make us more vulnerable to attacks by cutting our military, cutting our defense budget..... is there anything different such a person would do than Obama has done?

20) It is sad that people will believe in big foot, aliens, and believe that our country made a deal with aliens to get technology, yet not believe the Bible and that that they need to serve God.

21) To combat this insane wave of letting whichever gender people want to be using whichever bathroom they want to use, schools and businessmen need to put in several one person bathrooms.

22) If Hillary Clinton was a Republican, she'd have been in jail long ago.

23)  Most of the people who go to the emergency department are not there for an emergency.

24) I think they should drug test everyone who voices support for the legalization of marijuana.

25) The black lives matter movement was started as a result of a few black criminals getting killed while resisting arrest. Not a worthy cause, to say the least, and they have turned into just another hate group.

26) Barack Obama has blood on his hands of any policeman murdered after his anti-cop rants.

27) I firmly believe organic food isn't any better for you and is just a way to charge more money for items people will buy because of the organic label.

28) I feel like I go to church and plug in on Sundays, then go back to my world apart from the church during the week.

29) The same people freaking out because a Muslim kid got arrested for what looked like a bomb, has no problem with white American kids getting expelled for drawing a picture of a gun, chewing a pop tart in the shape of a gun, wearing an NRA shirt, or wearing a confederate flag shirt.

30) It is ironic that Hillary is suddenly on the offensive for battered and abused women when she helped cover up the sexual abuse of several women by her own husband.

31) If God was incensed at the Israelite for their child sacrifice, how must He feel about America's child sacrifice in the name of women's "rights"?

32) America is afraid of offending everyone but Christians, God, and straight white men.

33) The question was raised by someone if Christians should be the morality police for America. If we are not, the Muslims are going to dictate what is right and wrong for our country, and we will soon turn into the Muslim country Obama said we are.

34) If Donald Trump loves the Bible so much, why couldn't he name his favorite verse?

35) All politicians are Bible-believing and Bible-loving people of God and of the Word at campaign time.

36) Why don't more Christians listen to more Christian music than secular?

37) The pluses of my Malibu I got in February over my Sunfire I had: power windows, power locks, a key fob, lights that go on and off automatically, 2 power outlets that work instead of one that didn't, trunk release button, and power mirrors.

38) I am thankful for the close relationship I have with my nieces and nephews since I never had kids of my own.

39) It is even more cruel to pay a gay person on the back and tell them they are OK and can go to Heaven living the gay lifestyle, as it is to demean them..... not that either is acceptable.

40) Facebook has its issues, but I am thankful for it. I have made friends, found some community, and have been encouraged and helped by things people post.

41) Too many Christians - myself included - don't know the reality of truly denying ourselves and carrying a cross. We look at denial as a dirty word.

42) My prayer lately has been that God would help me be more thankful for salvation, grace, and what He has done in my life.

43) The same modern day Christians standing against Kim Davis would also most likely have joined in the stoning of Stephen.

44) They should drug test every person pushing for marijuana to be legalized.

45) Just because people are already doing something is not a good reason to legalize it.

46) To me as a Protestant, the pope is just another guy, and one that dressed funny at that.

47) I believe it is better to have at least a few different Bible versions to read from, instead of sticking with just one.

48) It is not judging to say something is wrong and sinful that the Bible says is sinful.

49) I sing in the car..... even when I am not playing music.

50) Am I the only one who thinks it a bit weird that heterosexual men will watch half naked men wrestling and boxing?

51) I really need to find a job where I don't have to wear ties.

This glorious thought

 

I have always found the story inspiring that is behind the writing of the hymn "It Is Well." For Horatrio Spafford to be able to write those words after all he had gone through, and to write those words right after his boat passed over the location his 4 daughters had drowned when their ship went down is amazing, and should give us pause when we get so easily discouraged by the trials and persecutions in our lives. It is a great hymn, but the third verse has been resonating in me lately:

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!


  For too many years, I couldn't grasp that. I felt there had to be more to it than just repenting and asking God to forgive me. I lived for years feeling there was something else I had to do to be truly forgiven. Part of it may have been my insecurities compounded by fire and brimstone preachers who seemed to delight in making you feel guilty no matter where you stood with God, and part of it may have been struggling with a sin that most Christians have been intent on making out to be the worst sin.

  Regardless of the why, I'd sing that verse over and over and didn't truly grasp it until recent years.
"My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to His cross and I bear it no more." To our mortal minds, it seems too easy. No matter what we have done, God will quickly and easily forgive it and hold it against us no more. Others may hold it against us, and we may suffer the consequences of our actions even after God has forgiven them, but they are gone forever from His sight and He will never again hold them against us. The devil will bring them up and try to make us feel we are still guilty and that we still haven't atoned for our sins, but to the One who truly matters, they are gone forever. Truly a glorious thought far beyond what we will comprehend here on earth.