THE COLORADO TRAGEDY

THE COLORADO TRAGEDY

Recently I have been studying Matthew and writing a journal as I proceed. Today, December 10th, 2007 I was reading 10.21-25. Coincidentally (perhaps not), the news today is about the shooting in the Colorado yesterday. Several Godly people were killed at a Youth With A Mission training center in Arvada and at New Life Church in Colorado Springs who had done no wrong to the gunman or anyone else.
Here’s what Jesus said, “ You will be hated by everyone because of My name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Mt 10. 22). A law enforcement official said that Matthew Murray hated Christians. He didn’t say why but perhaps the days to come will unfold some insight into this question. No matter how hard we try, we cannot make people love God or us. There will always be people who hate God because of their sin and the great separation they feel from Him. If the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, then the antithesis of this must be that those who feel the greatest separation from Him must have the deepest hurts. Matthew Murray was obviously a young man who hurt deeply because he hated God and His followers so much that he wanted to kill as many believers as he could.
Even though he grew up in a Christian home, was at one time a part of a youth missions group, and had a brother attending a Christian university, the love of God was not in control of his life. Maybe something will surface to give us some insight into what happened that triggered these tragic events
Jesus understood that these kinds of things would happen and gave us fair warning when he made these statements. He didn’t explain why or give us a defense plan to keep them from happening. He simply said they would happen. But why must innocent people be hurt? I don’t propose to have all of the answers and perhaps even the answer I have isn’t correct but here’s what I see. When people have sin in their lives and either don’t want to or can’t give up their sin, they feel guilty and sometimes hate God because they feel God is at fault. After all, if there were no sin, they wouldn’t have any guilt and could feel good about everything they do. Therefore it is a lot easier to hate God than to surrender to Him. God, in their opinion, is wrong to have commandments, the breach of which makes them feel guilty.
There are people like Matthew Murray who would assassinate God if they could get to Him. The next best thing for them is to kill some of His followers. A lot of the church’s opposition today would not go so far as to kill but they do want to wound or harm believers. That’s why so many want to eliminate God from everything possible. No more manger scenes in public places, a cross in a church that was to be used for a high school graduation was considered to be so offensive to one parent that he sued to try to get it remover or covered for the ceremony, “happy holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”, and on and on the list goes.
God’s laws and their lifestyle are in conflict so they hate Christians. It may not be popular to hate God or they may be afraid of Him, so they just hate His followers instead. This shouldn’t be surprising given Jesus’ words that the world will hate us because of Him. James 1.2 says, “Count it all joy when you meet various trials”. Christian joy is not found in the avoidance of all danger and conflict. It is found only in obedience to Him.
If we suffer because we are obedient to Him, He will reward us by laying aside treasures in heaven. If we avoid suffering and in doing so become disobedient, we will have to answer to that. God will also have appropriate retribution to those who harm His followers. We don’t need to try to take care of them. God can do a much better job.
have deep feelings for this church who suffered the loss of their founding pastor last year due to moral problems. Now they are having to suffer this senseless tragedy. This is a time to stand up straight and show the world what we are made of. We need to pray for all of the families of victims. Probably the ones who are hurting the most are the family of Matthew Murray who not only lost a son and brother but must feel great remorse for what Matthew did.
The lessons for us to learn are many. Some of them are (1) Show deep compassion and love to everyone not matter how they treat us. (2) Accept the fact that some people will hate us no matter what we do. Don’t take it personal but do be obedient to God and Christlike toward them. (3) Keep on keeping on no matter what. Don’t let anything keep you from being obedient to God.