Wolves, Sheep and Sheepdogs

I know that I have mentioned and posted this before; however it is such an important mindset, issue of the heart to remember.  We live in a fallen world, evil abounds.  Whether you believe in him or not we have an enemy, if you don't believe in him then he has already won the battle, subterfuge is his best weapon along with complacency.  Dave Grossman has written a book called On Killing.  I have yet to read the book (although I plan on doing it soon); however I have read the article he wrote On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs.  This is an article that has shaped my mindset on evil, and I am not only talking about whether I will carry my pistol or not, more so it is being aware of the evil in this world.  Paul states it so eloquently in Ephesians 6:10-18.  I want to focus just on the first couple of verses.  Starting in verse 10 Paul states, "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."  Ultimately we are fighting an enemy of our hearts.  Just as we are under his attack, so are others.  John states in the Gospel of John the following, starting in John 3:16, and skipping ahead to verse 19.  "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." and then vs. 19, "And this the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil."  The two verses in between talk about how Christ came into the world to not condemn the world.  Please be sure to read it in context.  Notice how God redeems the world through His son, but because people love the darkness, they reject Him.  The enemy has enticed people in their hearts to love the darkness.  It is an age old problem.  No matter what we do while we are on this earth evil will exist.  God will set that wrong to right at the final judgment, until then we must do what Paul states in Ephesians.

With all that being said God gave us the ability to be prepared for that evil both in the spiritual, as outlined in Ephesians, and in the physical.  Nehemiah was tasked with rebuilding Jerusalem after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians because the nation of Israel had turned their hearts against God.  The first task that Nehemiah set out to do was to rebuild the wall that protected Jerusalem.  While he did this his enemies set out to stop the rebuilding, their hearts were set on lawlessness and evil.  So let's pick up the story in Nehemiah 4 (again please read in the entirety, I am going to focus on the highlights) where Nehemiah sets a watch day and night (vs9).  He positions men and their families near the unfinished portions of their walls with their swords, their spears, and their bows (vs13).  He then has half the people worked at construction and the other half  held the weapons (vs16).  Even those that worked, while they worked one hand built the wall and the other held a weapon (vs17).  Nehemiah armed the people, he prepared them for the wolves, they were sheepdogs, they were prepared for the evil.

Dave Grossman in the following article talks about the mindset of being prepared for evil, protecting those that we love and guarding against murder.  Please read the article and consider what you are and what you would like to be.  Here is the Article

Lastly, watch this 20 minute video (located here).   It is an interview with Dave Grossman and Tim Schmidt, President of the United States Concealed Carry Association.  Keep in mind this interview was done several months ago.  I am interested in any healthy discussion on the topic so please leave any comments below.

I will end this post with this thought:  We must be prepared for evil both spiritually and physically.  Our nation, which means the people of this nation, have wholly rejected God and His commandments.  God did not make us robots and will allow us to walk the path we have chosen (as a nation), he has given us over to our depraved minds (Romans 2:24).  There are consequences to every action.

Perspective

A couple of great articles with perspective on the mass murders.  This is such a terrible tragedy and  unfortunately is "nothing new under the sun" Ecclesiastes 1:9.  Take a look at this Wikipedia article on a very early mass murder in America dating back to the French/Indian War:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontiac%27s_Rebellion_school_massacre

Some additional reading.

Good article on the firearm issue:
Massad Ayoob
http://backwoodshome.com/blogs/MassadAyoob/2012/12/15/against-monsters/

Great article on the heart of the issue.  I highly recommend this one!
http://tybenbow.blogspot.com/2012/12/reflecting-on-american-tragedy.html



One last thing I will say.  I have observed a lot of discussion on Facebook between "friends" on the gun issue.  I would encourage everyone to have an actual conversation about the issue, debate vigorously but don't divide.