Much has to be done about it

The whole world is appalled at the atrocity committed in Newtown CT on Friday, December the 14th, 2012. Twenty children, six and seven years old, along with six adults, who were their teachers and psychologist, were killed by a young man who used a repeating high-powered rifle to carry out his insane plan. He killed himself as well. Children and their teachers must be protected against mentally deranged persons who satisfy their aggressions by invading schools and murdering students and teachers. People in public places need protection too.

We hear there must be effective laws governing the licensing of firearms, and that massacres must cease. We are told it is a complicated issue to resolve. Definitely so, and it involves not only the control of who owns a gun, but the way in which the minds of people are conditioned into accepting that carrying a gun is simply a way of life. Many people carry a gun, believing it is for their protection. At the slightest provocation, it is used to settle an argument. In Louis L’amour’s Wild West books, arguments were often settled when one or both opponents lay dead in the blood-drenched dusty street. It was an absolute waste of human life. Neither one would ever enjoy another sunny day or benefit others by his God-given talents. Children murdered in their classrooms will never have the satisfaction of graduating from public or high schools, universities or technical schools, developing their musical or sports talents, or of becoming successful in society. Their parents can never enjoy seeing them get married and have their own children.

We’ve experienced other atrocities in schools and have seen similar instances in public places. Not just the guns have to be controlled, which includes their manufacture, importation, sales and the gun clubs to which enthusiastic members belong, but it is necessary to condition the way of thinking of Americans and Canadians, and in fact of all people in our world. At one time, violence was condemned on television. Now it is rampant.

Gunfire is seen in advertisements for the most recent movie releases. It is to be considered an acceptable way of living, or might I change that to say it is accepted as a way to die…in gun blasts and a hail of bullets. Those movies are not born out of intelligent creativity, but from the expectation of moviemakers to make millions by exploiting the public’s insatiable desire to see the most shocking episodes to which they can be exposed. This kind of creativity is not born from intelligence, but from evil thinking. For those who attend movies or enjoy movies at home, there have to programs that are enlightening, to provide ways to spend evenings that will allow times that are unpolluted by violence, enabling everyone to think about life and eternity!

In other ways, young minds are conditioned to accept violence as a way of life and our attention must be given to eliminate those methods. Electronic games, designed to kill one’s opponent, are intriguing to receptive minds. Monster killers and robotic persons with various weapons are the toys designed so children can maneuver them to kill their opponent in one slash. Mind-conditioning methods designed to imagine killing one’s opponent have to be replaced with programs that will challenge minds in constructive ways. Teaching handiwork, music and sports would be an excellent substitute.

Stimulation of a person’s imagination to think of things that are edifying is more honorable than the excitement generated by fighting, or by teaching that violence is acceptable as a way of life. Psychologists remind us that erratic thinking is addictive, and it creates the desire for more of the same, but of increasing violence. A similar example is the feeding of one’s mind on pornography, which leads to the need for satisfaction in reality.

The whole aspect of training healthy minds and controlling gun laws doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems. Everyone must resolve to develop a healthy mind and body, and appreciate all God has given us, and to help others who may not be as fortunate or who would appreciate a helping hand. All that would be better than to spend our time satisfying inappropriate desires and thinking how we should be protecting ourselves. We need to think positively, rather than negatively.

I too, in my piping career, have experienced playing for the funeral of a student who was shot in her classroom.  When my wife and I lived in Winnipeg, Canada, I was asked to pipe at such a memorial service.  A boy smuggled a long gun into the Technical School by hiding it in his pant leg. Innumerable families and friends of bereaved families suffer because society has not cracked down on the causes of atrocities. They will carry their sorrow for life.  We’ll be safer when people are conditioned to think differently about the causes of violence. The answer is not only to consider “guns and their control,” but it involves our complacency and how to rise above it.”

Please visit http://www.sandyhookpromise.org and make the Sandy Hook Promise today.  Promise to honor the 26 lives lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School.  Promise to do everything you can to encourage and support common sense solutions to make our communities safer from similar acts of violence.

Keith MacDonald, OD
The Church Piper

My faith in God

The Bible tells us that only a fool doesn’t believe in God and fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Scripture advises a person to look around and observe all of creation, for who could have created the world and all that is in it but God, and it is here for us to appreciate and study. If one cannot believe in the Creator, he or she has no excuse for not believing, because God’s existence is apparent from the design of all things in nature.

The subject can be approached from the miracle of reproduction, that is, from the fertilization of an egg cell, which is the union of sperm and egg cells to form the fertilized egg of an embryo destined to grow into an individual, whether an animal or person. All the necessary constituents are present in the embryonic cell that will determine its development “after its own kind.” It is remarkable that parental characteristics are apparent in the individual born from the organized growth of one cell into millions of others. At various stages of growth, anatomical features are formed. Remarkable similarities between offspring and parents result.

Attention can be drawn to the size of a fertilized egg cell, which is smaller than a period on this page. In the cell are all the necessary components that decide the characteristics of a mature person or animal. Chemical constituents are carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorous, chlorine, potassium, iron, fluorine and iodine in the correct amounts. In addition, enzymes work in conjunction with complicated molecules to carry out reactions impossible in chemical laboratories. Tremendous magnification by electron microscopes enables study that reveals chromosomes containing genes, the keys that carry identifying characteristics of offspring. The wonder of it all is that new life is given even before the birth of a person or animal. Birth is so wonderful that it can be attributed only to God. Our world too, must be appreciated as the work of the Creator.

Just as we have peered through electronic microscopes to learn about the intricacies of reproduction, outer space can also be studied for its great wonders using magnificent telescopes. There, the distances can be so great that they are measured in light years rather than miles. The location of earth in this great outer space is so perfect, making it neither too hot nor cold, that it is ideal for sustaining life. All that is needed has been provided, including air, water, food and shelter, as well as minerals, gas and oil. One can observe the planets and marvel at the originality of their Creator. There are interesting things to observe, such as the rings that encircle Saturn, with its nine moons, one of which travels in the opposite direction to the others. Neptune’s two moons travel in opposite directions while Jupiter, with its twelve moons has eight that travel in one direction and four that travel in the opposite direction. One can assume that our Great and Wonderful Creator has a sense of humor. Why not include such originality, while creating the world and all that is in it?

We continue to elaborate upon Creation because it implies the Creator. Much can be learned about God by studying our world and its contents. It is not logical to disbelieve in God. More likely it is a person’s choice not to believe, because acknowledgement would require reflection upon one’s life and whether or not it is lived in accordance with God’s acceptability. If wrong choices have been made, ones that are sinful, then one would suddenly understand that he or she is separated from God and requires some way to be redeemed. What would be required to make things right? Enough good acts; would that be enough? More than anything, a sinful person needs a Personal Saviour. God provided Jesus, both God and man, willing to take upon Himself the sins of mankind that cause separation, enabling a person to enjoy communion with God, as if binding chains had been removed.

A person can continue to profess disbelief in God by being unobservant of the wonders of nature or reluctant to read. One who doesn’t read is no better off than another who cannot read at all. Scientific books reveal the wonders of God, while the Bible tells the story of God’s love, in that it is personal. One needs to read the Bible to know the love of God assures us that His Spirit is like having a Friend on whom to rely. My faith rests on what the Bible has revealed. I know that ignorant men crucified Jesus, the Son of God, on a cruel cross. Nevertheless, within a few days, two of his friends encountered Him as they walked along a country road. They least expected meeting Jesus because they had witnessed his death on the cross. They were so astounded by His living presence that it was as if their hearts burned within them. He has the power over death just as He has over life, which we observed earlier. I can imagine being one of those two men, in the presence of God. They had forgotten that He had already demonstrated His power over death and life, by having resurrected Lazarus from the grave as well as having restored the Centurion’s daughter to life.

Personal friends of Jesus have written for us to read in the Scripture. A person needs to read about what they experienced. Having been to Israel, even to have crossed the Sea of Galilee in a boat, caused the feeling in me that I had been there when Jesus’ disciples cried out to Him in the midst of a storm, “Master, do you not care if we drown?” His reply was “Ye of little faith, what does it take for you to believe?” Then, He calmed the storm.” They asked one another, “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the waves obey Him?” The picture becomes even clearer to me when I play the hymn, “Master, the Tempest is Raging,” on the bagpipes. The song builds until it reaches its climax. Then one hears the Master calling, ”Peace, be still, peace, be still.”

I can tell you what Jesus means to me and who I know God to be, while you can determine for yourselves who God is. With some study and concentration, you will realize the great blessing to know God personally as you Friend, Jesus Christ.

Those who knew Jesus have written much about Him. His friend John wrote, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” John 21: 25