One dead, two injured in Tennessee school shooting
These kinds of things are always sad. I hate seeing these stories. It reminds me of the world we live in and how much we all need a Savior. We all need to be loved. What a tragic story. Unfortunately, many of us have become numb to the stories like this. They fly by in the news, but they need to be personal. Each one of us knows someone we need to reach out to and love. Who could be the Kenneth Bartley in my life? I need to search for him. I need to do my part to prevent this from happening. The unfortunate thing is that the people who probably did love him are the one who were shot.
Today, I officially turned in the last of the work for my Theology of Jonathan Edwards class I was taking for my Master’s degree. They extended my deadline because Nathan came early, and I finally finished the extreme amount of work that I had with this class. I can honestly say it was the hardest class I’ve ever taken, especially with all of the other stuff that has been going on in my life lately. I’m so relieved to be done with it! We’re going to go out and celebrate tonight.
My Theology of Jonathan Edwards class is killing me! I have been spending the last week and a half working on it around 3 or 4 hours everyday. I have tons of reading to do, lots of classes to listen to, and a project to do also. I can’t wait to be finished with it.
Last night, around 5:20, pastor Josue called me to let me know that “Romancito”, a 15 year old boy and son of active new members of our church, had died of Leukemia. We went to his funeral service at 6 pm and 8 pm. There are a lot of things to comment on about this.
First of all, the number of young people that were at the services was amazing. I couldn’t help but think that this young man, through his death, was sharing the gospel with more people who needed to hear it than he had during his lifetime. I also couldn’t help but thinking that these young people were so desperate for Jesus last night. No event that we would have programmed could have brought the gospel to all of them, but the life of their friend did just that.
Secondly, Patti, his sister, is only 14 years old. How difficult it must be for her to go through this. She didn’t want to leave the casket. She stood up there with her brother the whole time during the 6 o’clock service. Please pray for her during this time.
Thirdly, Roman and Patti have recently accepted Christ and been baptized. God’s working in their lives allowed the funeral to be in a church where the Truth is preached, allowing many people to hear the gospel last night and in the days to come. We didn’t realize this was taking place in the “Master Plan” of God a while ago, but now I can see His fingerprints all over it. Roman was the one singing praises the most to God last night, with his trademark wide smile. What a testimony.
Lastly, it shows me that we as Christians are not guaranteed a posh lifestyle or a life free of suffering. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. God doen’t guarantee us that following Him will be easy. He does guarantee to be with us through our trials.
Please pray for Roman, his wife Patricia, and their daughter Patti during this time. Also pray for their many friends and relatives who will no doubt, in the next few weeks, be pondering their eternal destination and beliefs about Jesus.
Greg Pas: I just found out last night that a friend and fellow youth worker in Palm Harbor/Clearwater went to be with the Lord earlier this month. He was 39. It saddens me to lose a guy like Greg, and I am shocked by it. Please pray for his family and the students he impacted as they continue to deal with this unexpected tragedy.
What about a ton of bricks? I was this morning as I was sitting at the Atlanta Bread Company, where I spend my morning with God. I was reading in Oswald Chambers’ book My Utmost for His Highest. Here’s an excerpt from today’s reading. “Is there something in your life for which you need perseverance right now? Maintain your intimate relationship with Christ through perseverance of faith. Proclaim as Job did, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him’.” That spoke to me in such a way because of how we are currently waiting on God to say, “Go.” Chambers goes on to say that we ought to throw ourselves into wild faith in God. “The real meaning of eternal life is a life that can face anything it has to face without wavering. If we take this view, life will become one great romance – a glorious opportunity of seeing wonderful things all the time. God is disciplining us to get us to this central place of power.” God was reassuring for me that He wants more than ever an intimate relationship. He is more concerned about that than anything else. I am so glad that He hit me today with that. You can get this devotional here at Amazon, or you can read it online.
