Avarice
Another shooting. This time it was a fire captain in Long Beach who was killed while another firefighter was wounded. Unlike shootings that make national news, this was an elderly man who appears to have set the blaze to lure in the fire department – and kill them.
Reporters asked the same question over and over. “Why?”
Why did Eve eat the apple?
Why did Hitler eradicate the Jews?
Why did a 77 year-old resident of a retirement home set the place ablaze, emplace secondary explosive devices, and murder the captain of the responding fire company?
Avarice – greed – publicity – covetousness – selfishness – sin
Call it what you will, but the unhealthy desire for attention, or money, or publicity, or anything that brings ill-gotten gains to a man, be it for money or fame, is sin. And sin is killing us all. It is killing us one by one in our lives spent out of God’s will. It is killing us two at a time at the hands of a mad old man with no fear of death. It is killing us by the dozens at the hands of overmedicated and under-parented adolescents who take guns to schools. It is killing us by the thousands as we work 20-hour days and ignore our families’ and our bodies’ complaints. And it is killing us by the millions as we eat more than we need, sit and watch garbage on television, and die early of diabetes and heart disease and alcoholism and drug addiction.
Genius!
That’s right, I said sin is genius. The architect of our destruction is a genius, a liar and thief, a former angel with the cunning and intelligence and power that origin brings.
But he is not God.
Exodus 20:17 tells us not to covet and 1 Timothy 6:10 reminds us that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. Timothy’s second book says, “For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
That sounds like a pretty good cross section of most of America today. This nation under God has become a godless nation.
But as with all things we face, there is hope. Hope in Christ Jesus. Colossians 3 reminds us that Christ is risen, and with him we are new. “Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…” (v. 1 – 3, Berean)
“And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” (Revelation 20:10, NIV)
Don’t fall for the act, no matter how ingenious the delivery. Satan loses, God wins, and the only place to be when that happens is covered in the blood of Jesus. Sorry the truth is inconvenient. It’s still the truth.
(Note: I’d like to hear from you. Are my posts making any difference? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Is there something you would like me to write about? As I’ve said, I’m not educated in theology, but I will read and pray about anything you ask. It will be up to you to seek God’s face and decide if I’m right, but remember, just because you disagree doesn’t mean I’m wrong – and just because you agree doesn’t mean I’m right. Send me your comments or questions at maklagesl3@hotmail.com, or just comment on this post in the space below. And remember, where hate divides, God provides!)