Yesterday, for the second time since school started, a Mississippi university was on lockdown because of a reported shooter on campus. Unlike what happened at Mississippi State, yesterday’s events ended in tragedy.
And, we all looked around and wondered, “What’s happened to the world?”
My heart goes out to the students and faculty and staff at Delta State and to their families, who were frozen in fear as news reports came in of a shooting on campus.
I can’t imagine the feelings and thoughts that must have raced through their hearts and minds, but I know people who can.
Because I know people who’ve watched similar events unfold, people who’ve waited to hear from friends and loved ones.
And, I’m reminded of something….
The world has not changed at all. It’s just hit a bit closer to home this week.
You see, we are living in a world that has been the same for thousands of years. Oh, I agree that every day the news seems worse and worse, but let’s face one thing:
Since sin entered the world, there has been no limit to the evil deeds men (and women) have managed to do.
Adam and Eve ate forbidden fruit. Their son killed his brother.
It didn’t take long for things to get bad.
Noah lived in a time so full of evil that God destroyed everything and everyone who lived, saving just one family and enough animals to start over again.
Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed and Lot’s wife with them.
The Israelites, God’s chosen people, worshipped idols and sacrificed children.
The Romans watched people eaten alive, burned alive and forced to fight to the death….for fun.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
The Rwandans killed each other.
The list goes on and on.
And, it will….till the end comes.
But, friends, the end WILL come.
God will not let evil run rampant forever.
He will not let the devil win.
In fact, God’s already defeated him.
It probably didn’t feel like defeat as Satan watched the Son of God die a cruel death, but as the sun rose on Sunday morning and the Son had risen, death knew it was defeated.
God was victorious, and through Christ, so are we.
It might not seem that way today. It might seem even worse tomorrow.
But feelings don’t change facts.
God is sovereign.
He is good.
And, he is coming again.
Awesome. God is in control.