Tuesday, August 18, 2025

Coffee Night last Friday.    Friday night was a coffee, music, fellowship, game, etc... night at Turtle Doves here in Gretna.   Really quite a good night.  The place was packed!*   Be looking for an event there each month through the remainder of '25...   (hint-hint, mark your calendar now for Friday, night, September 12th 6-10pm...  you can come and go anytime that night).   Our young adults are much spearheading this.   I probably need to get the keys ready.**


* _{There is still room for you!}
** _{From the 8/17 message.}

Fall programming.  Plan now to join us starting 9/3 on Wednesday nights.  A meal at 6 followed by activities for all ages. We finish up around 8:15pm.  

Send one of the pastors a note if you might be able to help on Wednesday nights - we need a few folks!  

The shooting.  There was a time when we could mention "the shooting" and the other person would know exactly what we were talking about...  an event involving a gun shooting somewhere in the US.  

Nowadays, I mention "the shooting" and I have to clarify which shooting.  Perhaps, today, I'm talking about the Austin shooting at a Target store last Monday, the Brooklyn club shooting early Sunday morning, or the Utah officer shooting overnight.  Hint:  There are more from last week.   So many shootings.  

In Genesis 3, we find the first murder, followed by murder at the beginning of Genesis 4 and murder again at the end of Genesis 4. Now, I know what you are thinking.  If I ask, "When was the first murder?" the Sunday school answer is "Genesis 4 when Cain killed his brother Abel."   Yet, Satan was the first "murderer" (John 8:44).  When he asked Eve, "Did God...?" (Gen. 3:1), Satan knew that God had threatened death if they ate.  He was counting on it!  He lied to assure them, "you will not surely die" (v. 4).  Really no different than if I handed someone a gun, knowing it was loaded, and said, "It's not loaded - you will not surely die if you pull the trigger."   He was a murderer not because he literally killed Adam and Eve with his own hands but because he brought about our spiritual and physical death through deception.  

At the beginning of Genesis 4, we see a transition to mankind murdering mankind.  By the end of the chapter, we see another transition, the murder is celebrated!   The murderer, Lamech, writes a song about it (vv. 23-24).    

Why all of the shootings nowadays?   Because we live after Genesis 3!   And, the further we get away and neglect the reality of Genesis 3 and the meaning to us, the more shootings will increase.   No amount of gun laws will stop murder!   Think of Washington, D.C.: strict gun laws and the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country in 2024.

Satan "was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44).   As he was attempting murder, mankind sinned. Fallen mankind then became a "murderer from the beginning" of the fall.   Again, why all of the shootings?  Our enemy, sin.  Our enemy Satan.  Our enemy the world.   Why the increase in shootings?   Because we are failing as a country to teach who our enemies are.  Thus, our finger points to the weapon, not to the sin of the gunman, the schemes of Satan, or the sway of the world.  We are claiming to be wise and becoming fools!  (Rom. 1:22)

As our culture tramples more boldly over the foundations of Genesis, we draw ever nearer to the day of judgment—the flood of fire and the return of Christ. So when the next shooting takes place (and tragically, without surprising any of us, that may be today or tomorrow), let that event move us not to numbness but to lament over sin, to urge others to flee to Christ in repentance, and to pray—praying for the wounded, for grieving families, for the gunman and his household, and above all, for the light of Jesus to pierce the darkness.

And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.- Matt. 24:12-14.