Hello , 

Please read the following illustration from Stephen Nordbye of Charlton, MA:

A lot of folks were outraged by Rolling Stone magazine's cover photo of the surviving Boston bomber, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. "They're glorifying him" was one of the most common complaints. But Boston Globe columnist Jesse Singal argues that there might be another reason why the photo disturbs us-Tsarnaev looks too normal; he looks too much like one of our own. And in many ways, Tsarnaev was a normal, well-adjusted teenager until his brother apparently influenced him to maim and kill innocent people. Singal writes: "But we don't want Tsarnaev to be normal. 

We want him to either be a pawn of abject evil, or to embody abject evil himself. If he were a psychopath, or if he had been seduced by a sprawling international conspiracy, we'd be able to guide ourselves through the bombing's painful aftermath with a neat, clean story line: us versus them, good versus evil." 

When Auschwitz survivor Yeheil Dinur came face to face with Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, he collapsed in the courtroom. Later, Dinur explained, "I was afraid about myself I saw that I am capable to do this. I am exactly like he. Eichmann is in all of us."*

As I read the preceding illustration, I was struck with the thought, "If not for the grace of God, this world would be in even more turmoil than it already is."  Instead of asking God, "How, could You allow this to happen?" perhaps a more appropriate question could be: "Lord, how could You be so good to us?"  We have the power of choice (God has given us that,) but with God's Spirit at work in the hearts of men and women everywhere, it is better than it COULD be if that Spirit was not present.

Lord, fill me with Your Holy Spirit today.  Help me to be all that You desire for my life, and give me the grace to fulfill Your calling in my life.  In Jesus name, amen!

Have a great day and God bless!

Pastor Mike / The Open Word