Another School Shooting!

Another school shooting—this time in Arapahoe High School! Armed with a shotgun, an angry young man, a senior at the school, intended to shoot the teacher who had dismissed him from the debate team, but upon learning he was targeted, the teacher safely exited the building. In his rage, the shooter critically wounded a 15-year-old female student before taking his own life.

I have always had a high regard for Arapahoe High School. Our family’s first home in Colorado was only a few miles from Arapahoe High. My roommate at Moody Bible Institute spent his entire teaching career there. Also, our son-in-law Jim’s brother teaches and coaches at Arapahoe. Education is serious business there.

In an effort to protect faculty, staff, and students, Arapahoe went on lockdown, and so did many other schools. 

How can we prevent future school shootings? That’s a big question that defies simple answers. Nevertheless, it might help to restore the right to acknowledge and honor God in the classroom. Doesn’t it seem to you that school lockdowns have increased since God has been “locked out”?

It might also help if parents would train their children to reverence and obey God. A proper relationship with God fosters a respectful relationship with others. Yes, what the world needs now is love—love for God and love for others.

Take time to pray for the critically wounded 15-year-old Arapahoe student and for all the students, faculty, and staff.  Also, pray for our nation. We have hurts that only God can heal.

Imitate God!

If imitation is a form of flattery, are we Christians flattering the culture or the Creator? Ephesians 5:1 instructs us to “be imitators of God.” So let’s examine our lives to see whether our words and actions resemble God’s character and ways or the character and ways of an antichristian culture!

What drives our actions? Are we obsessed with wealth and possessions? Do we neglect what is eternal in a relentless pursuit of what will soon pass away? The culture tells us to put ourselves first and obtain what we “deserve.” God commands: “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard 0ne another as more important than himself” (Philippians 2:3).

What characterizes our vocabulary? Have crude, vulgar words seeped into what we say and write? If so, we have flattered the culture instead of God. Either by osmosis or deliberate choice some Christians have copied the language of their pagan contemporaries. If we want to flatter God, we will abhor ungodly words and, instead, pray as the psalmist did, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O LORD, my rock and my Redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

Let’s imitate God at home, in the workplace, in the neighborhood, and even in Facebook!