Download In the World for January 6 here.
A LESSON FROM A SHOOTING
Brendan Kelly is a 22-year-old Marine from Thousand Oaks, California. This week he flies to Afghanistan for his first tour of duty. He was at the concert in Las Vegas in 2017 when a gunman massacred 59 people. He was also at the bar in Thousand Oaks on November 7 when another gunman killed 12 people. Two of the dead were among Kelly’s closest friends. To memorialize them, he had their names tattooed on his back. He also wears a tattoo with the words spoken by a friend as they left Vegas: “In this game of life, no one makes it out alive.”
APPLYING THE LESSON
Standing on the threshold of the new year, it’s good to be reminded of the fact that none of us will “make it out alive.” That is today’s biblical reminder. Obedience to God should be first on our daily agenda. Love for others and faithfulness to scriptural teaching should be the defining characteristics of our lives. The importance of heeding this lesson is increased by the wickedness about us in the world, including society’s increasing disdain for truth.
- Is the tattoo on Brendan Kelly’s back simply fatalism, or is there a spiritual truth contained in it? Explain.
- Does prayer guarantee that we will be spared from the works of evil people? Why or why not?
- How does “walking in the truth” look in your daily life? How do you test ideas to see if they are deceptive?
—Charles R. Boatman
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