Understanding

            The time has come to share another blog post, though I will not be sharing the one I had been working on. There will be a time for that one, but I have to speak as the Spirit of God directs me, that awesome, indwelling third member of the Trinity.

            I admit though, that what I say here has been discussed by smarter and more eloquent people, who had better views to share. The reason I say what I'm going to say here is simply because I am one who talks, and people expect me to talk about these things.

            A very wise person said that there is nothing new under the sun, so please don't expect anything new.

            Indeed, it's this very subject that I'm here to talk about.

            Evil will always be with us, until Christ returns and the new heavens and earth are ushered in.

            The other night, Thursday, the 20th of July, many people, who like me enjoy the magic of story and 


picture known as the medium of film, gathered around the world for the premiere of The Dark Knight Rises. A film about a hero who has lost almost everything for the city he loves, but hasn't given it all yet, and is preparing to.

            It's a fantastic message, really, one that I love. The idea of Christ the thief, stealing His bride away from the world, protecting her, dying for her.

            But Satan perverts everything that God creates.

            Christ dies for His church, His bride.

            Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy.

            In a theater in Aurora, Colorado, as everyone reading this probably already knows, a man was planning an act of terror. A murderous rampage. A perversion of everything that is the image of Christ.

            James Holmes, a 24-year-old neurology student working on his PhD, armed himself with an AR-15 assault rifle (The civilian equivalent of the military's M-4), a shotgun, and two Glocks. With over a thousand rounds of ammunition, as well as tear gas canisters, he launched a one-man war.  

            And now 12 are dead and 60 are wounded, with at least 11 in critical condition.

            This unfolded only a dozen miles from where one of the deadliest school shootings in our nation's history happened, at Columbine High School, in Little Rock, Colorado.

            This is a stark reminder that, James Holmes is not a monster.

            At least not more or less than any other human.

            Mentally ill? Almost certainly. Indeed, intelligence and mental illness are not contradictory at all, and many times run together. High intelligence, like that of a neurology student, can compensate for someone who is very sick in his mind, allowing him to seem normal while he plans a rampage like this one.

            Or the Norway shootings.

            Or the Virginia Tech shootings.

            Or the Columbine ones.

            Though we don't all end up going out and shooting up a movie theater, we all have darkness in our hearts, and are utterly controlled by it before being pursued and won by Christ.

            In the film, The Village, director/writer M. Night Shyamalan tells us a tale of a group of people who sought to escape the evil of the world by isolating themselves from it.

            But the found out in the film's second act that evil is in the heart, and cannot, under any circumstances, be changed from the inside out. That it is wicked from birth, and cannot be tamed by men.

            
            Better school counseling, more in depth church discipleship programs, more enthusiastic youth teachers, gun laws, security guards, and even rednecks in the front rows theaters toting Uzis to blow shooters away with won't solve the problem.

            We Conservatives want guns to protect us. Liberals want laws to protect them. Neither can protect themselves or anyone else from the heart.

            Only Christ can do that.

             Christ is the solution, always.

            Why do we forget that?

            Why do we try to win souls through manipulative church services?

            Why do we live like this is all we have to live for?

            Why do we put ourselves first, always?


            Why do we do everything else that we do that is such solid proof we are not fully relying on Him?

            Why can we not grasp the beauty, the magnificence of Christ, and how Christ is the solution to every problem?

            Paul says that if Christ isn't alive, then everything we do and stand for is meaningless. But that assumes we're standing on Him as our rock.

            Yet how quick we are to blame Him, in tragedy like this. One of the survivors of the shooting said on his blog that "God is always good. Man is not. Don’t get the two confused."

            We were the ones who chose this lot, in the Garden, when we defied God. When we became slaves to sin.

            But!

            This dark story, like that of The Dark Knight, helps the light shine out ever brighter. The final chapter is more magnificent after the struggle.

            God didn't leave us there. He loves His bride too much.

            He died for her, substituted Himself for her.

            Crushed His own son. Bore the wrath of His father.

            And rose victorious.

            He has already won. The battle is over. And someday, someday we will have that Revelation 21 finish... ... ...no, not finish... beginning. Someday he'll wipe the tears from our eyes, and a new story will start, one of living in the presence of God, having Him walk among us again, justified by the imputed righteousness of Christ, with every right to stand before God, rights paid for the blood of the Lamb.

            Until then...

            ...God weeps with those who mourn. He understands. It's even okay to be angry at Him at times, because, He understands.

            Read the Psalms... David was... God's homeboy. He loved him in a special way, and I think part of it was because he was so honest.

            God really is there, and understands. 


            Even when we do not. 


           ~ Eli