Church is a dangerous place to be

It seems to be becoming a common place tragedy in America today. You can read about it here - a gunman goes beserk and goes into a church shooting.

One person was killed and several wounded when a man armed with a shotgun opened fire in a church in Knoxville, Tennessee, US television reported on Sunday.

How do we respond to such news? Well, what we looked at on Sunday can help us to make sense of this senseless event.

At PBCam we looked at Revelation 13. There we saw Satan's twin strategies of conquer and deception against God's people. The first beast was active in this tragedy - trying to intimidate Christians by force.

Then at PBCpm we learned a different lesson from 2 Samuel 1. The right response to sin is this world is grief. This is a terrible thing and, as we pray for those effected, we cry out to the Lord in anguish.

But both passages push us still further forward. To Jesus. He has fatally wounded the beast, he has decisively defeated Satan. Jesus is THE Messiah, THE Lord's anointed, the one who gives us hope for the future. For his kingdom we pray and we serve. Longing for the day when there will be ... "no more death or mourning or crying or pain."