Reports of the horrific attack in Norway shook me up more than usual.  Maybe it is because who would ever imagine that country ever being regarded by any terrorist as one for a strike?  Some of it is due to the innocent children who were slaughtered while at a camp.  Violence of such brutality cannot come from a stable mind.  We are still unraveling all of the issues related to this event.  The gunman was taken into custody and now wants to share his views in a public forum.  I would guess most of us thought of it as another attack by fanatical people connected to Islam or those who pervert its teachings.  Turns out that this man claims a far different religious background.  He claims to be a "fundamentalist right-wing Christian."  Wow.

No one would take me as a person who drives his views into public spotlight.  My politics are private even though they are important to me.  Some people may even think of me as moderate in some areas since my sermons are not always against something or someone.  I take the gospel seriously.  My theology always tries to anchor itself in the truth of scripture.  There are those who may not get my view of the end times simply because it does not come in a box or with charts.  My approach is that Jesus came to save us from sin which most times includes saving us from our own issues.  Every true need in humanity finds an answer in the gospel.  My reading of the early church is they are marked not by what they are against but what they are for.  I believe the Bible from cover to cover but do not feel the need for violence in life.  We would many times do well to examine where our heart is much less deciding if our heads are in the right place.  All of this is to say that what this man is saying is as far from authentic faith as I am from Brad Pitt. 

We who are believers often allow our passions to sway our actions.  You can read back through history to see where far too many cruelties were performed in the name of God.  I could go further but there is little reason for that.  So let me just add that it is not just the infamous events that trouble me but also those that seem to fly under the radar.  Anger, criticism, wrath and the like are mentioned over and over as sins of our human nature.  They are sins not because they are big and bad but because they are outside of God's will.  Churches may not deal with physical violence regularly but we do face the spiritual or emotional attacks on a far too regular basis.  I suppose my next statement should be to say this must stop.  That is pretty much an obvious conclusion.  But it is also true that daily acts of selfishness seem to prevail more than we would want.  We will live with lesser brutalities as long as we are human.

The anger or outrageousness of the attack in Norway is born of the same sinful disposition we see everyday.  Pointing fingers achieves no success in stemming the tide of ugliness.  We allow it to flavor too much of our attitudes and actions even if we never take another person's life.  Gunmen such as this one will spend most if not all of their life in prison.  This is only right.  What we fail to see is the prison we create for our own life when we yield to those primal urges.  Only we hold the key to our release.  God gives it to us in the act of forgiveness.  May we use it well so we do not fail to honor the name of our Lord.

Bro. Trey