Hey, friends!
Hey, creeps!
Hey, predators!
Hey, to anyone who casually assumes these preacher’s daughters will cower and pray – they sold a purse and bought a sword (Luke 22:38).
God bless America.
God bless the 2nd Amendment.
#notavictim
-
Please consider purchasing my new book for you and/or your church :-) Worth Reading :-)
Click to Order
Sermon Audio
No, I can't talk without using my hands.
The Recovering Legalist 
Well, Here in Canada, we look down on guns. They kill. And the nature of Christ leads us against hate or revenge. Most people playing cops and robbers with predators get shot with their own gun or stabbed. Rarely is it good thing to walk alone when someone is knowingly stalking you.
The other problem with guns is that children can use them for self harm and accidentally harm themselves fatally. I would have two half brothers today if it wasn’t for my dads gun. He went to France in the war and left his hand gun in a box in behind things in his closet up out of the way, but his two young sons found it. And one of them loaded it, not thinking the other would do what happened. The one shot himself dead. After a few days of remorse, the son that loaded the gun in the first place got it again, and shot himself dead.
Gangs and thugs are destroying the safe streets of the country. More guns will not help. Not that they don’t have a place. There is just no clear solution with a gun unless a typical stand off takes place. Good luck in that being the situation unless you are police officer running after criminal.
In such cases more important than shooting a gun is the ability to take cover. Any Trained Police officer will first protect their safety by staying out of the line of fire. The whole thing is big mess and not a teaching moment.
You know, first let me say that I respect your opinion and your right to think that way. Also, I do not want to belittle your argument, for I can tell it is offered with pain at the heart of it. I’m sorry to hear of your loss. That was certainly tragic.
Now, because I don’t want to cause any undue pain, I will avoid attaching a link to the video of a mall shooting in which 5 people were mercilessly shot to death by a young man with a .22 rifle (not an AR-15 or the like). But in the surveillance video you can witness with your own eyes how three women were murdered at point-blank range while they huddled and tried to hide. One more gun WOULD have helped if it had been in the hands of one of those women when the shooter came around the counter.
As to trained police officers, I know and work with them. Yes, they try to stay out of the line of fire, but that is not their first trained response – it is to run toward the sound of gunfire in order to neutralize it.
The best way to be safe around a firearm is to understand it and to train with it. The best way to survive an attack by someone who wants to hurt or kill you is to not be there, but sometimes there’s nowhere to run. It is in those times when a gun in the hands of one who knows how to use it can tip the odds of survival in the direction of the innocent.
Ironically, in all my 50+ years of life I’ve never lived in a home without multiple guns. But even though I’ve never been shot by a pistol or rifle, I HAVE been cut and accidentally stabbed by knives. Just saying.
You’re a good Dad, Anthony.
The type of violence you are talking about is very rare. Generally most violence is more community based between friends and school mates, rape and beatings and such things. But Terrorism which really what mall shooting is, would if acted upon would cause the arming of everyone and the deaths of many more people.
The issue of someone winning over you and trying to stop that is part of what it is to be free, but it goes against the model Christ set for us, why not rather be wronged, or considering others better than oneself or taking up ones cross or suffering for christ.
I am not saying that a person with a gun in a mall shouldn’t be shot down. I wouldn’t think twice, but it would only be for the publics protection. I would never carry a gun or knife unless I was a mall cop.
I know the math works differently and of course gun in that situation or a grenade for that matter would end the threat. But that is really to far down the road. There is a lack of duty by society to have public places open without at least a minimal amount of protection. A person with a pool must spend thousands of dollars to put up fence, just in case that by chance some young person fell in and drown.
The Law of God frowned on people leaving Pit open for Cow to fall into. This Idea of doing what is right really is something the gov’t and business should be looking after. The Idea that a 1000 children can go to school with no protection is nonsense, but a Judge has a dozen police from the door to the court up to their chambers and metal detectors and panic buttons. Yet, who cares about the little guy.
And the same goes for Churches. How much do people really care. No plans, no security, not care for the elderly, the poor, no wheel chair ramps, Nothing. No evangelism, just a preacher yelling up at the front for 20 minutes and some songs praying on the instincts of people to seek God built in by God. But do the board do anything. Not until they are shot themselves. They generally do not care that the place is a place of worship either, they sooner back stab than forgive. Its no wonder the youth are shooting up malls.
—
Years back travelling to deliver computers In Ohio, (I am from Canada. and a Nazarene.) I pulled over to call the boss. It was when cell phones just came out. They had a big shoe box and a plug in to the lighter and the phone was attached.
I pulled it out, to call, and some kids playing in the parking lot thought it was cool, and was asking about it. Of course I saw it as a opportunity to share my faith. Turns out they had been kicked out of church for playing in the coat racks. And what church? a Nazarene Church. When I heard that, it upset me, and I told them to go back and talk to the Minister, and tell them that a Man from Canada who was a Nazarene said they could go see the minister and sort it out, because God had a tenderness toward youth.
—
We cant shoot down our mistakes or skip everything and just buy guns. The problem of the good Samaritan story got reduced to someone helping someone stuck on the road with no gas in the car and the message is now moot. You know when its moot when underpasses have spikes under them to stop the homeless from sleeping there. And things of that nature. And imagine if Jesus moved just a little more to the side, rather than come to the cross, he would have just did another Noah and the boat story. Moses knew that. There is no one worthy of saving. But in all of it, the bent of pain toward people must be agony enough to help them. Or they might just in their lost souls pick up a gun and start shooting.
As you are well aware, this subject is far more nuanced than political sides want to admit. Even though I have no problem with allowing law-abiding citizens to be armed, I do understand the heart behind your comments and concerns. I feel we both want the same thing, but have different perspectives on certain paths toward that direction. I especially feel your pain with regard to the situations in local churches. I’m thankful the one I now pastor is not that way.
As to the bag phone… been there done that, too 🙂 My First was a Motorola from Bell South. 25 cents a minute!!
Those were the days. I said what? What? What did you say? could you repeat that more times than carter has pills. From then till now I have continued the call to reconcile people to God and to each other. And the divine appointments fly even a level back in the process such that it makes people not even christian get befuddled over the will of God working when He has a worker stepping out. God has literally had to put things on hold because we haven’t yet shown up to the plans he has for us. He is already there. We can literally do the work of God running and never catch up to him, who has already laid the ground work. I think Paul got it, and others who said, this day we will do this or that if the lord wills, literally knowing God has an agenda we join with, and he will take us as far as we are willing to go and as far as our character will let us. I think people fear the prayer. What do you want me to do lord. what are next steps. They avoid the bible to avoid any direction of thought. Oh, this might get serious. God is looking for some serious people who will get serious. To Love, to forgive others, to share with others, to invite others. All come with price. And so people don’t go deeper. As these walls go down, people get saved, marriages get back together, people spend the time to be crossing guards, or to host Alpha groups or a list of other things from working the BBQ at church to visiting the elderly.
Even Back then I remember taking a drug addict on a ride to dry him out through the states for group helping addicts. I didn’t even have to go out of my way or off schedule to reach out to the lost.
Society has gone to the dogs, and its showing. The Church on the other hand can be an example of a different kind of person. And even where we disagree we can agree that we are far to precious to each other to break the bond of Christ and the unity that he prayed for and was desperate for.