1 Thessalonians 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.
Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
Job 19:25 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. 26 “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God; 27 Whom I myself shall behold, And whom my eyes will see and not another. My heart faints within me!
1 Corinthians 15:19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.
In the last few weeks there have been a lot of protesting and a lot of policemen being killed and still others shot. We see people in deep grief and others in deep anger if not rejoicing. It is sad that people will not wait until all the facts are in and investigations are complete, but that is not the point of this post. It seems as if people want to make the deduction that because my relative, my friend, or my whatever has been shot that this person will go to heaven. On one side people seem to think that if a person dies in an unjust manner (whether real or perceived), that person is in heaven. On the other hand, many seem to think that if a policeman is shot then he will certainly go to his great reward. While this may seem calloused to many, the point is to point all to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
It seems as if the doctrine of salvation by death is rampant in our nation. It seems as if the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been hidden from the eyes of so many and this is seen by what people say and of their actions as well. Whether a person is a policeman, a criminal, a housewife, an athlete, or anything else there is only one way of salvation. A person does not enter the gates of heaven because of his or her job, but the only way is the narrow gate and that gate is Christ Himself. A man or woman may be deeply religious, but being deeply religious may mean nothing more than being a Pharisee of sorts. Christ is the only way of salvation. A man or woman may be a minister of some sort, but that is not a way of salvation either. A person must really and truly have Jesus Christ and not just be religious or a member of some form of clergy.
As the media reports about each person that has died, the most important parts are missed because they are not going to report about spiritual realities and of the eternal destiny of the person that has died. The media will report on how great an athlete was or on how wonderful an actor was, but they never report on the adulterous relationships and things like that. We want a nice and sanitized view of things. However, I am not sure Christians are given that luxury. We are to look at these events through spiritual lenses and we are to see the hand of the sovereign God of the universe in all of these events. God is sovereign over all of these events in that He either brings His child home or He brings a person into eternal torment. We must see these things or we don’t see reality at all.
We must pray and ask God for eyes to see the reality of what is going on. As a nation we are reaping the consequences of our sin, but for individuals things may be different. Each person that dies is not dying by some cosmic accident, but each person dies at the exact moment that God has chosen for that person to die and that person dies in accordance with His eternal plan and purpose. With each murder that is committed, the One that is truly sinned against is God as each person is made in His image. I have never heard one person in the media ever say anything like that. However, with each murder God is attacked. When policeman are murdered, the rule of God through law is attacked. When we see open season on policemen, what we are seeing is a nation being turned over to hard hearts against God.
We see private persons and the police alike crying out that we must stop the violence. Why should the violence stop? Well, so that people would not be hurt so much and so that we can live in peace. Yet, we teach our children that they have evolved in a purposeless universe and are headed toward eternal extinction. When the children are taught that, they have no real reason not to be violent. They will have a short life and when they die (they try to convince themselves) they will have no consequences. While it is true that those people are deceived and have deceived themselves, let us also know that as a nation we have set out the foundation for all of this violence because we have turned from God. To be rude and blunt about it, yet quite biblical, when we hear people say we should pray, let us not deceive ourselves in this matter too. Why would God hear our prayers? We have turned from Him, we have rejected Him, and we have demonstrated hate toward Him. The professing churches need to repent as they are far from God as well. We need to return to God and yet we cannot in our own strength. We are in His hands to do with as He pleases.
God Loves... Himself 
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