Gabrielle Giffords and the Tuscon Massacre

The sound of gunfire had scarcely died down in Tuscon as bloggers around the nation began to blame the massacre on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party. Pima County, Arizona Sheriff Clarence Dupnik cited "vitriol" that has infected the political discourse as the reason for the shooting. Yes there is a lot of anger in this nation. But people have a right to be angry. But was this senseless killing a result of people being angry about the direction our country is heading? Or is it a deeper, darker issue that involves all of us that we're not willing to take a good hard look at?

Yes, there is vitriol out there. I see it on every side of the issue. There will always be those whose rhetoric is over the top. Sadly much of the news media will only cite vitriol they think they see on the conservative side of the coin. Sarah Palin was quickly said to have some responsibility for her "targeting" of Gabrelle Giffords shooting. But they failed to mention that Daily Kos had done the very same thing that Palin did, using the same bullseye graphic.

The enemy of our Creator is the enemy of HIS creation, and HIS creation includes you and me. Would that we all would wake up to this. In Satan's vile hatred he seeks to divide us along lines drawn by lies, fueled by our own flesh driven emotions. We are pawns in his hand to cause us to destroy each other and the earth that our Creator, Yahweh, has provided for us. This has been his modus operandi since the beginning of time. His deceptive question, "Did God really say?" is designed to cause us to question the origin of life and the purpose of our lives. Because we have accepted the lie we cannot see the beauty of God's creation and how HE designed it to work for our good. We feel we have to figure it out because, if God really exists, we surmise, HE doesn't really care, or HE just left us to ourselves after we were created. This is part of the lie.

The lie is defined simply as a replacement of the Truth we've been given by God in HIS Word. We have received the lie that says we can interpret it as we want to in order to fit our world view, and we all have a different world view. Each of us feels we have to find a way to protect the earth, bring peace to the peoples of the earth, and cause our society to "evolve" into something better than we have been. Left to ourselves we all have our own idea as to how that can happen. And then Satan is "johnny on the spot" to empower our highly charged emotional desires with wicked ideas that always question God's plan.

The Bible tells us that there is a way that seems right to man, but we are told that man's way ends in death. Satan knows this better than we do. His work is easy when we don't believe that God's Way is better than our way. We haven't believed that HIS Way, as the Creator of all that we see and who we are, is the only way.We don't really believe that all the ways of man end in the destruction of the world as we know it. It is coming, according to HIS Word. There will be a new heaven and a new earth in the future, according to the Book of Revelation, and only those who submit to God's way, believing what HE said, will be in HIS kingdom.

Look at all the groups with their ideologies who are in the news, and many, many more that we've never heard about.... yet! Green Peace, and the entire green movement with their militant approach to preserving the earth, and PETA with their violent actions to protect animals, each trying to accomplish in the flesh what God has given us Instruction in HIS Word to accomplish. The Tea Party wants to return us to the vision of the founding fathers and have done an admirable job in directing us to remember the constitution, but there is so much more to the solution than remembering the United States Constitution. We need to remember why we have the constitution.

I believe that we have been given the US Constitution by our Creator. No other nation has been given the freedom to choose to worship God as each person desires, without man made government mandates. Just as Israel was given the opportunity to be "one nation under God," so was the United States. But just as Israel threw off the standard of government, given by God, in favor or man's opinion and spin on it, so has the USA. As each of us regards rebellion against God in our heart, so we, as a nation will go further away from the Truth into the lie and our destruction is assured. Satan is happy! But it doesn't stop with the government.

The same problem exists in each of us who say that we follow the God of the Bible. By our actions we prove that we don't believe that HIS Way is the only way. We have denominations because we truly believe that the Scripture is open to personal interpretation. We have all, at some point or other, believed the lie from the garden. We are still listening to Satan's question, "Did God really say?" while answering as Eve did, with additions and subtractions to what God really said. This is why we have denominations and are not walking in fellowship together. HIS Word, in 1st John, tells us that we have fellowship when we walk in the light as HE is in the light. The light is the Truth of HIS Word. Those who believe the Truth are not in fellowship with those who believe the lie. I don't believe I have a corner on the Truth, but I believe the Truth. HE said it, it is written, so it is true whether I understand it and regardless if it fits my world view or not. Let God be true and every man a liar.

The problem is always man's doctrine that opposes God's Instruction. The Word of God versus the word of man. Until we each, individually, begin to submit to the Word of God, then we as a nation will drift further into following the convenient lies of men. And our fate as a nation will be sealed. But if we repent, God may relent. It begins individually, and then branches out to our families, and our churches. Then real revival can happen. Not false revival evidenced by nonsensical manifestations that are really demonically inspired, but revival evidenced by what HE calls revival. It is a repentance from man's word and a return to what the LORD has said in HIS Written Word. It will be evidenced by seeing HIS Word through HIS eyes and hearing HIS Voice, instead of men who have perverted HIS Word with additions and subtractions since the beginning of creation. We each have a choice to make.