by Dan Jones
Evil exists.
It is not merely a concept. It is not merely the absence of good or the absence of God.
Evil is a decision –and it appears to be an increasingly common decision.
This past Sunday, 26 Christians were martyred while they were worshiping God in a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Another 20 were injured.
It’s hard to fathom the hatred required to carry out such an act. It’s hard to fathom that our society has reached this point.
It’s becoming more and more difficult to watch the wedge that divides us being driven deeper and deeper into our society while we fail to address the real problem.
And that very real problem is hate. The problem is that we do not see ourselves as one.
One nation. One people. One purpose. One goal.
One God.
We have long disagreed with each other. Sometimes, we have disagreed civilly, with mutual respect for our differences and the willingness to concede if the debate did not go our way.
On one notable occasion, that was not the case and we engaged in the wholesale slaughter of 620,000 people of our own nation. It was the most horrific and terrible period in our history.
I suspect, I feel in my heart that we never fully reconciled and healed from that war and I tremble with the fear that it looms again before us.
But it does not have to be so.
As it always is, the answer is love.
Only love can conquer hate. Only love can prevail over the evil at our doorstep. Only the love of God in the person of Jesus Christ can heal us. Any and all attempts to heal us and unite us by our own human wisdom or strength are destined to fail –as they always have.
Steve Ware and Allen Jones illustrated this wonderfully Monday morning on Kinship Christian Radio. Allen spoke of the sadness and reluctance he felt about coming on the air after an event such as this, and then he remembered that God had called him to speak life and hope and love over this.
And, as Allen and Steve prayed over the air for all the families affected by this, they did not neglect to even pray for the family of the man who did this.
That’s the difference.
Love wins.
Hatred and evil cannot and will not prevail as long as the Holy Spirit calls us to that kind of love.
In the end, there is no other viable option than to be decidedly Christian.
Today’s Praise
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 (NIV)