Aurora, Colorado

I grew up in Aurora, Colorado, about a mile and a half from the now infamous Century 16 Theater.  I remember the Aurora Mall, home to the theater, the area where I usually parked, the door where I usually entered, the stores where I usually shopped.  My hometown, Aurora, Colorado, once an obscure suburb of the city of Denver, now stands in the national news as the place of the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.  When I first heard the news and saw video footage, I was stunned.  How could this horrible shooting have taken place in my city, a city ranked among the ten safest cities just two years ago?

Living now hundreds of miles away from Aurora, people question me.  “Aren’t you glad your husband saved you from that horrible place?”  “What is wrong with the people from Colorado?”  “There should be gun controls!”  My first instinct is to defend Aurora and its people.  My thoughts stray to other recent shootings.  I contemplate the shooter’s original home.  I wonder who is really responsible for this abhorrent act.  And then I am reminded that this world is filled with evil.  Men have turned their hearts and minds away from the Creator of the universe and as a result creation has been subjected to ruin, futility and corruption.

But we are not without hope.  Jesus told His disciples, “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace.  In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  The evil and tribulation of this world cause us to look eagerly for the hope of His return, for redemption, for our adoption as sons.  That will be a glorious day!

And while we wait for that day, we have the hope and knowledge that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.”  These are hard words, especially for someone who lost a loved one in the shooting and yet they are true words, words in which we can place our hope.  We can also trust that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”

The stories of those in the theater that early morning of July 20 trickle out.  They renew our faith and hope.  Four men were killed as they shielded their girlfriends.  A thirteen year-old girl tried to resuscitate a six year-old victim.  A young woman stayed with her friend, applying pressure to a gunshot wound in her friend’s neck.  When the shooting stopped, she carried her friend to an ambulance across the parking lot.  Another young woman, hit four times, once in the head, was saved and protected from brain damage by an unknown birth defect.  A tiny vein of fluid extended through her skull and miraculously the bullet traveled through that vein.  Her mother stated, “I believe she was not only protected by God, but that she was actually prepared for it.”    

More stories of heroism will emerge in the coming days.  And let us not forget the police officers who responded quickly and decisively.  Hope remains.  God’s love abides.  As one victim writes, “God is always good.  Man is not.  Don’t get the two confused.  We will continue to praise and worship our mighty God, anticipating that He will bring beauty from ashes, as only He can do.”

Faulty Foundations

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul;

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple;

The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;

The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever;

The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,

Yea, than much fine gold;

Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb,

Moreover by them Your servant is warned,

And in keeping them there is great reward.

-Psalm 19:7-11

Recently I discussed the subject of grace with a “liberal christian.”  His understanding of the grace of God contrasted my own throughout our discourse.  We lacked common ground.  Our definitions differed and our foundations conflicted.  Our discussion left me with a question.  Can one fully understand God’s amazing grace outside the bounds of God’s Word?   God’s grace is first defined in God’s Word.  Can it then be defined differently outside the confines of the Bible?  In other words, if something is first introduced in one place with one foundation, can someone change that definition into something completely different based on the foundation of man’s limited understanding?

This changing of definitions is happening with more concepts than God’s grace alone.  Many Biblical truths have been given explanations that fall outside the descriptions given in God’s Word.  Changing a definition makes it easier to shape concepts into what we want them to be rather than what they are as revealed by Scripture.  However, we cannot base God’s truths on our own understanding because these truths did not originate with us.  They originated with God.  Therefore He has the privilege of defining them.

I am reminded of a point made by Ravi Zacharias.  When King Josiah ordered that repairs to the temple begin, the priests found something that had been lost, the Book of Law.  Imagine, the Book of Law was lost in the very place that it was to be kept, read and remembered.  Is this happening in our churches today?  Have we “lost” God’s Word in an attempt to make His truths more palatable to our tastes?  In an effort to change beliefs into our image of what is right, we place ourselves on a faulty foundation of miry clay from which we must be rescued.

When King Josiah heard the Words of the Law read, he tore his clothes; “for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”  This is our standard.  We must “find” God’s Word again.  We must read it with renewed interest and grieve for our failure to follow it completely.  We must cry out to God for a correct understanding of the truths He has given us in His Word.  Only then can He set our feet upon a rock and establish our steps in the right direction.  Only then can we truly rejoice and be glad.