Nothing catches our LORD by surprise because He has ordained all that is to come to pass for His own glory. The mature believer rejoices in this, knowing that God truly is God. All things are under His control, from our lives that are filled with regular trials, to the kings who rule over us, to the shootings and death of believers that fill the news. The mature believer understands this and knows that our lives on this side of glory are not our endgame. Glory with our Savior is the endgame and before those nine faced their deaths on Thursday, they may have not realized that.

Floating around Facebook is the meme of a cartoon in which one child is asking: “How come God didn’t stop the shooting?” The other child replies: “He can’t, He is no longer allowed in schools.”

The cartoon has made two assumptions that far too many people make in such situations. The first is the assumption that God owes us peace and tranquility in this life. He does not and has never promised such. Jesus came to suffer on behalf of His people and made it ever-so clear that if the world hated Him, as it does, it will hate us as well. That is abundantly clear by this most recent shooting in Oregon. More on this is a moment.

The second assumption from the cartoon is that somehow God can be kept out of our schools. Our Supreme Court may have the power and authority to rule in our land in the most ridiculous ways, but all of our judges across the land will have to answer to the Ultimate Judge come that day when Christ returns. God does what God wants to. We are His creation to do with as He sees fit and we need to quit playing Satan’s tune that we are somehow captain’s of our own souls.

The courts cannot keep God out of the schools and they did not keep Him out last week when the reprobate walked into that community college and started gunning down God’s children. If those nine Christians stood up, knowing that the shooter was targeting Christians, you can count on the fact that God’s Spirit was there with them, giving them the strength to stand and confess Christ before men. From the world’s vantage point, they were alone. But God never leaves His true children alone and the only way they could have stood up and made their confessions that led to death, was by the power of God’s Spirit; they were more with Him in that moment of seeming terror than at any other moment in their short lives.

That moment led to an eternity of peace and safety that God has promised us. True Christians have the joy of knowing that these sufferings we face in this life are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us (Romans 8:18). This is the Christian’s eternal hope.

The world will ask why these nine did not just stay down and say nothing at all. It is because the world does not understand the hope we have.

Read More