Another Senseless Shooting! Where Is The Hope?

Another evil, senseless shooting.  More people slaughtered by the heartless act of one demonically-inspired person.  More families grieving the loss of a loved one.  An empty place at the holiday table this year.  The holiday season now tainted for the rest of their lives.

Not to mention the Las Vegas slaughter and the terrorist attack where the man drove the van into a crowd of people.

Church isn’t a safe place.  A country music concert isn’t a safe place.  Standing in a crowd of people on a sidewalk isn’t a safe place.

Sometimes, it feels like it’s just a matter of time before we’re next.  Like we have to watch over our shoulders wherever we go.  Like evil is all around us.

Where can we go for help?  What’s the answer for evil?

I’ll tell you who doesn’t have the answer for evil, who can’t truly help us:  Other people.  The government.  Ourselves.  Buddha.  Krishna.  Allah.  A Hindu “holy cow.”  New Age witches.  Etc.

None of these has the answer.  None of these is the answer.

The only real answer we have for evil – the only real help, the only real chance for change and hope and a future – is Jesus Christ.

And I say this unapologetically!  I say it not caring a smidge if it offends someone.  (What real hope and help do you have to offer?)  The truth will always offend those who don’t want to hear it.  That’s the nature of Truth. 

But it’s also the nature of Truth to bring answers.  Hope.  Healing.  Salvation.  A secure future.

And I’m not talking truth with a small “t.”  I’m talking Truth with a capital “T.” 

THE TRUTH! 

Those people who want to believe in relative truth have an unstable foundation.  Will “relative truth” bring you the kind of answers and help and hope you need in times like these?  What if these violent men believed they were doing good, that they were helping “clean” the human race or reduce the population or dishing out justice or whatever.  If you believe someone else’s truth is as right and good as anyone else’s, then what can you really say about what these shooters did?  Or about what anyone else does?  You have no right to scold or condemn or have an opinion about anyone else’s behavior if you believe that all truth is relative.  That there is no “black or white,” no real “right or wrong.” 

Because if there is no "right" ... then there is no "wrong."

You can keep your unclear, shifting, wishy-washy “relative truth.”  I’ll keep my Jesus!    

Jesus Christ … He is the only real hope and help we have.  The only true answer that can save us and give us a future and a framework for understanding and dealing with evil. 

Jesus Christ!  The man who is also God who came to earth in a fragile human body so that He could die a death He didn’t deserve to pay our penalty for sin.  The God who took upon Himself our punishment so that we could live, so that we could have hope and a future.

He is the answer to evil.  By His death, evil’s hold on us was broken.  We don’t have to live under sin’s control anymore.  We don’t have to pay for our sins.  We don’t have to remain separated from Him.  We don’t have to grieve the way a world without Him grieves.  Because we know that He is Lord over all.  That He will come back again to make all things right.  That someday death and evil and pain will be destroyed eternally, for those who choose Him as Lord and Savior.  For those who accept the sacrifice He made on the cross on our behalf.

And for those who don’t – for those who choose to pay it themselves – they’ll get what they want.  They will pay the penalty for sin themselves with eternal separation from God, from all things good and right and holy.  Spiritual death.  Hell.

I know that’s not good news, especially in a post meant to bring encouragement.  But the good news is that it doesn’t have to end that way.  Jesus’ sacrificial death paid for all sins of all men.  The offer of eternal life is available to all people, to any who would reach out and accept it.

Jesus brings us hope and help and a future that we can’t find in any other source.  Not in another god, not in other men, not in ourselves.

If there’s anything this summer of violence has taught us, it’s that now is the time to make our decision.  Because we don’t know when or where evil will strike again.  We don’t know when our days are up.  We don’t know if and when the chance to find salvation and eternal life will be cut short for us by some random act of violence or a tragic accident. 

And because we all need a secure foundation on which to stand when our world gets rocked by evil, by tragedy.  We need to know that evil doesn't have the last word.  That evil doesn't win. 

Now is the time!  Where is your hope?  Is it in mankind?  In other fallen human beings?  In the government?  Is it in some other god who didn’t sacrifice his life for us out of love, who doesn’t offer real help, real hope, real answers, forgiveness, a secure future?

Where is your hope?

I know where mine is.  I have found hope, healing, salvation, eternal life in Jesus Christ.  And therefore, though I may grieve for the violence and the accidents and the uncertainty of life, I rejoice in the truth that my security is in Him, that this unstable earth isn’t my Home, that my life won’t end when my body dies, that I am not walking through this life cosmically-alone, that He is walking with me, and that in the end, I will find true joy and peace and eternal life in heaven, for all of eternity. 

I know that this life isn’t all there is.  That the best is yet to come.  That someday, Jesus will come back and make everything right again and dish out justice and heal all hurts and wipe away all tears.

I know where I’m going in the end.  Do you?   

When it comes to putting your faith in Jesus, you’ve got nothing to lose.  Only everything to gain!