WHY????????????????

The questions linger even after a week..... Why did this happen? How could someone do this? Where was GOD when this happened? and the questions go on and on and on....

Sometimes there are no answers to hard questions....

We may never know a real reason why Cho did what he did... And if we did know would we be "satisfied' with the reason why?

The how could someone do this? Well one reason to how is that we as a society have removed ourselves so far from morals and moral conscience that we are losing our ability to distinguish between right and wrong... we as a society value our possessions more than we do human life. We have no moral compass because we are not taught at home or at school to have one! That is why Cho can pull weapons on his fellow students and kill 32 of them...

We might not can answer all of the whys and hows of hard times but one thing we can answer is where is God?

He is here.... HE IS ALWAYS HERE!

We ask the questions; the hard questions when tragedy strikes our lives and others lives

And we look to faith and religion to answer these questions... Paul asked two basic questions that apply in hard times lets look at those two questions:

1) IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?

2)CAN ANYTHING SEPERATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST?

IF GOD IS FOR US WHO CAN BE AGAINST US?

If God is for us who can be against us; the question is not simply who can be against us because if it were we could all make a list a long list of who can be against us right: disease, corruption, exhaustion, calamities, war, exams, MCATS, SATS, ACTS.. and the list can go on and on and on... But that is not the question. The question is IF GOD IS FOR US, who can be against us? Indulge me for a second... four words in this verse deserve your attention. Read slowly the phrase "God is for us." Please pause for a minute before you continue. Read it again, aloud... GOD IS FOR US! Repeat the phrase four times, this time, emphasizing each word...

GOD is for us

God IS for us

God is FOR us

God is for US

God is for you. Your parents may have forgotten you, your teachers may have neglected you, your siblings may be ashamed of you.... BUT within reach of your prayers is the Maker of the oceans... GOD!!!! And

God IS for YOU! Not maybe not has been not was not would be but GOD IS! He is for you! Today at this hour; at this minute. As you read this blog. No need to wait in line or come back tomorrow. He is with you. He could not be closer than he is at this second. His loyalty won't increase if you are better nor lessen if you are worse. He is for you! Turn to the sidelines that is God cheering your run, look past the finish line that is God applauding your steps.... Too tired to continue? He will carry you! Too discouraged to fight? He is picking you up! God is for you!

God is with you knowing that, who is against you? Can death harm you now? Can disease rob your life? Can your purpose be taken or your value diminished? NO! Though hell itself may set itself against you, no one can defeat you... You are protected ..... GOD IS WITH YOU.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all --- how will he not also, along with him, graciously, give us all things? Romans 8:32

But still we worry... We worry about terrorists, we worry about MCATS, SATS, ACTS, we worry about education, recreation, constipation... We worry that we won't have enough money, and when we have money we worry that we won't manage it well. We worry taht the world will end before the parking meter expires. We worry what the dog thinks if he sees us step out of the shower. We worry that someday we'll learn that fat free yogurt was fattening! HONESTLY! Did God save you so you could WORRY? Would he teach you to walk just to watch you fall? Would he be nailed to the cross for your sins and then disregard your prayers? COME ON! Is scripture teasing us when it says "He has put his angels in charge of you to watch over you wherever you go" I don't think so either!

CAN ANYTHING SEPERATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST?

There it is ... this is the question... Here is what we want to know... We want to know how long God's love will endure. Does God really love us forever? We want to know (deep within) how does God feel about me when I'm a jerk? Not when I'm peppy and positive and ready to tackle world hunger. Not then. I know how he feels about me then. Even I like me then! I want to know how he feels about me when I snap at everything that moves, when my thoughts are gutter level, when my tongue is sharp and hurtful... How does he feel about me then?

And when bad things happen ---- does God care then? Does he love me in the midst of fear? Is he with me when danger lurks? Will God stop loving me?

That's the question! That's the concern... oh you don't say it ; you may not even know it , but I can see it on your faces... I can hear it in your words... Did I cross the line this week? Did I drift too far? Wait too long? Slip too much? Was I too uncertain? Too fearful? Too angry at the pain in this world? That is what we want to know. CAN ANYTHING SEPERATE US FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST? God answered our question before we asked it. So we'd see the answer, he lit the sky with a star. So we'd hear it, he filled the night sky with a choir; and so we'd believe it, he did what no man had ever dreamed... He became human and lived among us! Untethered by time he sees us all. From the campuses of Virginia Tech to the battlefields of Iraq. From the Vikings to the Astronauts, from the cave dwellers to the kings, the hut builders to the rock stackers, he sees us all... Vagabonds and ragamuffins all! He saw us before we were born! And he loves what he sees! Flooded with emotion and overcome by pride the Starmaker turns to us, one by one and says "You are my child. I love you dearly! I'm aware that someday you'll turn from me and walk away. But I want you to know .... I've already provided you a way back!" CAN ANYTHING MAKE ME STOP LOVING YOU! God asks? "Watch me speak your language, sleep on your earth, and feel your hurts. " "You wonder how long my love will last? Find you answer on a splintered cross on a craggy hill. That's me you see up there, your Maker ....YOUR GOD. Nail stabbed and bleeding. Covered in spit and sin soaked. That's your sin I'm feeling. That's your death I'm dying. That's your resurrection I'm living. THAT'S HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU!"

"Can anything come between you and me?" ask the firstborn Son. Hear the answer and stake your future on the words of Paul:

"I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor ruling spirits, nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us, nothing below us, nor anything else in the whole world will EVER be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! Romans 8:38

From Max Lucado

And we can also answer the question of how do we move on and how do we survive such immense tragedy:

The question is ---- What hope do we have of surviving a stormy night? My question --- Where is God when the world is stormy? Doubtstorms turbulent days when the enemy is too big, the task too great, the future to bleak, and the answers too few. Every so often a storm will come and I'll look up into the blackening sky and say "God, a little light please!" The light came from the disciples. A figure came to them walking on the water. It wasn't what they expected. Perhaps they were looking for angels to descend or heaven to open. Maybe they were listening for a divine proclamation to still the storm. We don't know what they were looking for but one thing is for sure they weren't looking for Jesus to come walking on the water ... and since Jesus came in a way they didn't expect they almost missed seeing the answer to their prayers. And unless we look and listen closely we risk making the same mistake. God's lights in our dark nights are as numerous as the stars if we only would look for them. "When Jesus comes," the disciples in the boat may have thought, "he will split the sky. The sea will be calm. The clouds will disperse." "When Jesus comes," we doubters think, "all pain will flee. Life will be tranquil. No questions will remain." And because we look for the bonfire, we miss the candle. Because we listen for the shout, we miss the whisper. But it is in burnished candles that God comes and through whispered promises he speaks. "When you doubt, look around, I am closer than you think!"

By Max Lucado!

I hope that these two devotationals will help you in some small way deal with the tragedy at VTech! I pray that we all will find a way to move past the horror and the immense grief of the last week... and that we find grace, peace and comfort from the only source ... God our father!

Let us now close with a word of prayer:

Loving God

Your call to love our enemies

challenges us

Sometimes we fail

Teach us to love in ways

that transforms hate!

Amen