[Darris McNeely] Yesterday we made a comment on BT Daily regarding the shootings in Colorado, in Aurora, Colorado last week where 12 people were killed and 58 people were injured in the shootings in the theater. A lot of lessons to learn, a lot more facts will continue to be coming forward as we learn more about the shooter, the victims, the families, the stories of what took place in that awful night in that movie theater. We thought today would be good if we went into a scripture from an example in the gospels where Christ addressed two atrocities, two unfortunate incidents in His day and time in 1st Century Judea and what was brought to Him and His comment upon these two incidents as a lesson for us to learn as we sort through all of this here in our time today.

[Steve Myers] And in a way there's some connections between the tragedies that Christ describes here and what's gone on in Colorado, what's gone on in Norway and other tragedies around the world. And you can find those over in Luke chapter 13, right at the very beginning of Luke 13 Christ describes the first tragedy. He says, "There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans," and it says, "Whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices." So here were people sacrificing that Pilate did not accept what they were doing and they were killed. And Jesus answered and said to them in verse 2, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things?" So in a way Christ was saying be careful on your perspective on these things. You better think a little bit more deeply than just looking on the surface. And so He concludes that little section talking about that tragedy by saying, "I tell you, no." So they're no worse winners. He says, "Unless you repent you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:1-3) So Christ takes that situation, He identifies the tragedy and instead of just looking at that situation and trying to make a wrong judgment on it, Christ turns it around and points back to the individual and says look at yourself. You know this issue that occurred, that tragedy, that atrocity should help us to identify things in our self. And that's an important issue. In fact He goes to another example following that and makes a very similar point, doesn't He?

[Darris McNeely] Yes, what's interesting - that group of people in Galilee, they were sincere people coming to worship and they got caught up in a mass massacre perpetrated by the government in that case. Jesus referred to a second incident that His listeners knew well had taken place and verse 4 where He said, as He referred to 18 people, "On whom the tower of Siloam fell and killed them." So there was another incident where by time and chance 18 people were killed when a tower fell - an uncontrollable act, maybe an act of nature, or some other cause. And 18 people died because they were in the wrong place when an accident like this happened. And He said, "Do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem?" (Luke 13:4-5). So, again He raised the normal question that sometimes people jump to whenever there's a problem like this that, well, they must've done something wrong.

[Steve Myers] Yeah, they must've deserved it.

[Darris McNeely] They must've.

[Steve Myers] It must've been their fault.

[Darris McNeely] Yeah.

[Steve Myers] And they're finally getting their comeuppance or something like that.

[Darris McNeely] And He said, no, don't approach it that way. He said, "Unless I tell you, unless you repent you will all likewise perish." So He looked at His audience and He said, we're all going to - you're going to die, not necessarily in the same manner, but death will come to us all and learn from this. Change your life. Be chastened by it. Examine yourself and your relationship to God in essence is what He's saying by repenting and making a change and a turn around, realizing life can be very short. Things can happen to anyone at any time. Love your wife. Love your kids. Do well. Do good. Certainly love God. Repent. Live a godly life because this life is very temporary and bad things can happen to good people.

[Steve Myers] And now's the time to do it when we see these kinds of things come up. Now's the time. Don't put it off. If you don't have a relationship with God, now's the time to develop that relationship with God. Now's the time to go to Him in prayer. Now's the time to understand His way. Now's the time to repent and change our way of thinking and do the things that really are the right things to do, the spiritual things to do - the things that ultimately draw us closer to God.

[Darris McNeely] This most recent shooting in Colorado was unfortunate, others have happened before, and quite frankly there will be other tragedies yet to unfold in the future somewhere, sometime in this present, evil world. I think what really comes down to each one of us is that we certainly pray, "Thy Kingdom come," and we put our mind and our focus upon the Kingdom of God. And it begins with this very simple step of repentance that Jesus put His followers to and He puts us to today.

[Steve Myers] So let's pray for the victims' families. Let's pray for those that are affected by this and let's make this situation help us to do something different, to make a change in our life and draw closer to God.

[Darris McNeely] That's BT Daily. Join us next time.