Remove another white stone from the board...

The forces of evil have taken the life of another soldier; he is martyred in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why did the gunman storm into the First Baptist Church in Maryville, Illinois? Did he hate Christians so much that he felt the need to kill the senior pastor Fred Winters, and wounding 5 others in his rampage?

Christians still die for their testimony. The killings didn't end with Rome. Consider James 4:4...

"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

If friendship with the world is enmity with God, the opposite is likewise true. Friendship with God is enmity with the world. Jesus bore this out in his persecution, arrest, torture, and crucifixion. Before he died for our sins he told his disciples...

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also."

--John 15:20-23

If they hate Jesus, and by extension hate God, they hate his followers too. They hate the Jews, they hate the Christians. They hate truth, they hate the Light... because their deeds are evil [John 3:19].

But hold fast. Stand your ground. That's all God is asking. He has given each of us a patch of earth to defend (wherever his will directs us IS that patch of ground). The war is won but the battles still rage. Satan has lost, and in these last moments his desperation is reflected in the hearts and minds of his children.

Our brother is now home. Perhaps he is witnessing preparations for our Lord's return; for surely that day is soon.

The Lord comfort his servant's family, and bring them through the days ahead stronger in faith, more cognizant of HIS grace, and more committed to His service.

Amen.