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Khamis, 17 Januari 2013

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From Newtown to LBCSD&#39;s Children&#39;s Ministry: Lessons of Hope <b>...</b>

Posted: 17 Jan 2013 01:00 AM PST

by Abram Kim

The start of a new year pro­vides oppor­tu­ni­ties to reflect on the pre­vi­ous year. Of all the events of 2012, from my per­spec­tive, the single-most tragic event of the year came near the end of the year, on December 14 when 20 chil­dren and six adults were trag­i­cally killed and two more wounded at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Very few peo­ple knew of this small town before December 14, 2012, but now all of America and the world are famil­iar with the town. School shoot­ings are always tragic, but the fact that this was an ele­men­tary school and that so many chil­dren lost their lives mag­ni­fies this tragedy.

I would have imag­ined that dur­ing the ensu­ing week­end, most of the churches across America held ser­vices and vig­ils to pray for the vic­tims and their fam­i­lies at Newtown. LBCSD was no dif­fer­ent. The day after the Newtown tragedy was LBCSD's annual Christmas Concert, and the mes­sage from Elder Mike Chon related to the tragic events in Newtown and the hope we have in Christ. The next day, our church gath­ered that Sunday morn­ing and Pastor Patrick Cho addressed the tragedy again, remind­ing us of the brevity of life and the hope that can only come from Christ. The news of Newtown was obvi­ously on the hearts and minds of the lead­ers at LBCSD and it needed to be addressed to give our church proper bib­li­cal per­spec­tive. Pastor Patrick shared with LBCSD five rea­sons that Christians should speak up in the midst of tragedy like the one in Newtown. I wanted to use his out­line to con­sider how par­ents and children's min­istry lead­ers can teach chil­dren to under­stand tragedies like Newtown.

1. Newtown reminds us that the real prob­lem is our rad­i­cal depravity.

What hap­pened at Newtown is sad and very tragic. That goes with­out say­ing. But con­sider the grav­ity of the tragedy. Imagine in a moment's notice the ter­ror of that vio­lence and rage from a com­plete stranger. Imagine not being able to play with your best friends because they are no longer with you. We need to explain the mag­ni­tude of this tragedy because it brings us closer to under­stand­ing the grav­ity of our sin­ful­ness to the per­fectly holy God.

Most of us may not expe­ri­ence in our per­sonal lives or first-hand such wicked­ness. But regard­less of what sec­u­lar soci­ety may preach about man's inher­ent good, the poten­tial for this kind of wicked­ness, includ­ing its mag­ni­tude, resides in us all. It isn't even that we are mostly good peo­ple that have sinned some and need a Savior to clean up the lit­tle mess in our lives, as some Christians may preach. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). It is only by God's grace that tragedies like Newtown don't occur more often. Newtown pro­vided a sober look into the all-encompassing prob­lem in this world and in man, our rad­i­cal and wicked depravity.

2. Newtown reminds us that the gospel is the only solu­tion to the real problem.

The immense grav­ity of wicked­ness can only be can­celled by an immense amount of right­eous­ness. Of course none of us have any right­eous­ness of our own to begin with. So who can save us? Of course, Christ alone! When we reflect on the depths of our own sins, we turn to the gospel of Jesus Christ and revel in the glo­ri­ous depths of His grace. The great­est prob­lem in this world we can empha­size to our young ones is sin, and the only solu­tion is Jesus Christ. He is the only way, truth, and life (John 14:6).

3. Newtown reminds us that life is short and our oppor­tu­ni­ties are limited.

With all the advances in med­i­cine today, the sim­ple fact remains that no one can be cer­tain of their last day on earth (even in some cases of attempted sui­cide). My mom would say that we may all have an order com­ing into the world, but there is no order leav­ing this world. Accidental deaths hap­pen all the time. Homicides seem more tragic because they have the appear­ance of being pre­ventable. But the fact remains that death is not far for any of us.

Consider the mil­lions of babies in the womb that never get to hear the gospel because they are aborted before full term. As infants and tod­dlers, chil­dren may not fully grasp the con­cepts of holi­ness and sin, but we ought to teach them dili­gently. We believe God bestows spe­cial grace to those souls before the age of account­abil­ity. But no one can be cer­tain what that age might be, and it might be dif­fer­ent for every child. Every oppor­tu­nity ought to be taken advan­tage of to teach the whole coun­sel of God's Word, the char­ac­ter of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday School hour and LKC evening must count. Every lit­tle moment in the home and dis­ci­pline oppor­tu­nity must count. We must dili­gently be ready to teach and dis­ci­ple and coun­sel and love and point toward our Maker, Savior, and Lord. So teach us to num­ber our days, that we gain a heart of wis­dom (Psalm 90:12).

4. Newtown reminds us to look to God because He is in control.

God is not the source of evil (James 1:13), but God is still in con­trol over all the evil that hap­pens in the world, and in the mys­tery of prov­i­dence brings it all together for His glory (Genesis 50:20, Romans 8:28). We must be reminded that God is in con­trol, even over the small and big evils in this world. When the world around you comes crum­bling down, or your under­stand­ing of the world is shaken at its core, it is nat­ural to seek some­one or some­thing to con­fide in. And we must teach our young ones that God is the most depend­able one we can turn to, for He is always faith­ful. God was and is fully in con­trol, and will con­tinue to always be fully in con­trol through­out all time. Tragedies in life ought to prompt us to repent of our sins and turn to the God who is in con­trol (Luke 13:1-5).

5. Newtown reminds us that God is judge, and He will avenge.

Some may feel that Lanza's sui­cide some­how cheated our soci­ety from exact­ing jus­tice on him for his wicked deeds, and cheated the fam­i­lies involved from expe­ri­enc­ing jus­tice in this world. Yet no human court could come up with the penalty due such evil. Vengeance is the Lord's (Romans 12:19). God is the per­fect Judge and Executioner. Evil will be dealt with justly, for God is the Great Judge. No one can hide, no one can escape.

For those who are in Christ, Jesus bore the great wrath of God that we deserved upon Himself on the cross. The pun­ish­ment was immense because our sins were immense. It required an infi­nite sac­ri­fice to atone for our infi­nite sin­ful­ness. When will the time be when God con­sum­mates the world and brings final judg­ment to those that are still in their sins? God isn't slow to ful­fill His promise of jus­tice, but rather is patient so that more will be saved in Christ (2 Peter 3:1-10). And may God be gra­cious to grant us the oppor­tu­ni­ties to share the gospel with those around us, espe­cially our chil­dren, that they may be saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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