Law enforcement officials investigate a mass shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2017. NICK WAGNER / AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Yesterday afternoon after church in my quiet Ohio house, I saw some ugly news flash across my iPad that cut straight to my soul.
The news of a Texas church shooting, a mass one, with nearly every member of the small church killed or injured devastated me. A mass shooting in a tiny town in the one place that should be sacred, and the loss of life so great, with twenty-six dead aged five to seventy-two—my brain can hardly take stock of the devastation. One single family, headed by Joe and Claryce Holcombe, lost eight members including some of their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and unborn great-grandchild. That child’s mother Crystal Holcombe, and three of her other children were also killed. Her husband and two of her children survived.
The devastation, friends. This is a town of only about 700. Can you imagine the grief? You should be able to imagine and feel it, because, if you are a Christian, as I am, there were your brothers and sisters, too. Your family. My family.
People, I do not think it an accident that this vicious attack took place on the International Day of Prayer for the persecuted church. Whether the gunman knew what day it was or not, Satan knew. Spiritual warfare is real, and no matter the motive for the shooting, spiritual warfare just got REAL physical in a tiny white Baptist church full of unsuspecting worshippers on a regular Sunday morning. Shot where they stood, in God’s house. Where two or more had gathered in his name.
Make no mistake, the Texas church shooting at First Baptist Sutherland was persecution, here in America. And make no mistake, there will be more. The Bible has told us to expect it. The truth is, we’ve been battling evil in this world since Eve bit the forbidden fruit. And like her son Abel, the truth is, we will, until we reach heaven, experience the consequences of the acts of evil men and women.
