Boom!

The thing about bombs is they do not think about who their intended victims are. They just explode. Boom! It doesn't matter to them who is standing next to them when they go off. It could be an old man like me or a six month old baby like my grandson. They have one purpose and that is to explode.

Same thing with guns. The whole purpose of guns is to shoot at stuff, The guns themselves don't care what they shoot at. They're inanimate. They just go Bang! The problem with guns, and with bombs, is when their owners, their creators, decide to do bad things.

Guns and bombs CAN be used for good too. Guns and bombs can be used to defend our country. Most of our soldiers carry them both into battle. Guns are used for hunting - for putting food on the table. They can be used for sport or in defending our homes.

Bombs can also be used for good. They can loosen solid rock so we can build roadways and buildings. Explosives were used to help excavate a hole for the building next door to where I work. The problem is not the guns or the explosives. The problem is . . . us. Or, more precisely, sin.

Most of us would probably be considered good, law-abiding citizens. We get up in the morning, we go to work or school, we come home at night, kiss our spouses, hugs our 2.3 kids, and we go to sleep. The problem with "us" comes when evil creeps into our hearts, when we do what is evil.

So, how do we fix that? What can we do to become "less evil?" Hmm. Hey . . . NOW we are beginning to get somewhere. That is THEE question. What can we do to get rid of the evil in the world? The evil in our very hearts? It's very easy. Jesus told us in Mark 12:31. "Love your neighbor as yourself."

These guys who set off the bombs in Boston. There are many people who would like to see them dead. One of the bombers has already died in a shootout with police. The other is in protective custody in a hospital where he is recovering from the gunshot wounds that WE inflicted upon him . . . using the guns our government wants to ban. We as a people have no idea how to fix things in this world.

I'd like for you to read something. It is a solution for eliminating all of the violence in the world. It is a solution that does not eliminate guns or bombs, because this solution eliminates the need for us to be concerned about them. This solution would be massive in scale, capable of being delivered to the entire planet. And there it little or no cost involved. Sounds like a win-win situation, right? Here it is, in just four short paragraphs . . .

"7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister." - 1 John 4:7-21

The answer, my friends,  . . . is Jesus. He is the answer to all of the bombings and the shootings. He is the answer to all of the evil that exists in our world today. Jesus is the answer to those who are starving and those who are dying of cancer. Jesus is the answer to a Muslim extremist lying in a hospital bed being hated by millions.

Jesus commanded us, he didn't ASK us, he COMMANDED us 2000 years ago to "make disciples of all nations" and we STILL have not done what He told us to do. Do you think, maybe, just maybe, we should start making an effort? As a nation? As a planet?

Our president told us that "we are no longer a Christian nation" (watch video). Perhaps it is time that we became one, once again.

If you do not know Jesus, as your personal Lord and Savior, please trust Him with your life today. The last thing you want to hear is . . . Boom! . . . and have that be the end of things. My brothers and sisters, there IS no "end" with Jesus Christ.

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." - Revelation 21:4