Another Tale of the Unexplained

Isaiah 41:10 gives us a great reminder that God is with us, and as we walk by faith in Him, we can experience freedom from fear:
10Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.'

Fear is a paralyzing force - fear, anxiety, and worry that infiltrate our minds can keep us from recognizing or relying on the activity of God.   The Bible tells us over and over again to "fear not" but it is such a natural tendency to think the worse, to worry about those scores of things that will never come to pass.   We have access to divine protection, and it's helpful to think about, acknowledge, and give God the praise for those times in which we have seen Him work, and that can bring peace to our souls.  The enemy will bring fear into our minds, and if it is allowed to fester unchecked, we become vulnerable to walking with a distorted point of view, which can keep us from experiencing what God has in store.

The promise of divine protection is very real and available to all believers, according to Psalm 91.   Here are a few verses from that Psalm which can encourage us to trust in the Lord as our refuge:
1 He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust."
5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,6Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness, Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday.
11For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways.12In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Here's one of those inexplicable occurrences with seemingly no natural explanation.   According to ChristianNews.net, it took place at a McDonald's restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. According to reports, 24-year-old Jestin Joseph entered the fast food restaurant on Tuesday and asked for a cup. Moments later, he pulled out a handgun and demanded both staff and patrons to hand over their possessions. Approximately 15 people, including children, were in the building.

Joseph attempted to fire his gun, but nothing happened.

After several tries, he stepped outside to fire the weapon. It worked.

The gunman walked back into the building and pulled the trigger, but the gun would not fire. He then stepped outside a second time to try to find out what was wrong with the handgun, but it worked perfectly fine.

The incident was captured on video, including shots of Joseph pulling the trigger to no avail.

“I’ve never seen a video like this before,” Fort Worth detective Joe Loughman told reporters. “My gut feeling is the city of Fort Worth and the Fort Worth police department avoided a major tragedy on Tuesday night.”

In an interview with NBC News affiliate KXAS this week, Joseph told reporters that he began hearing voices on Sunday, and continues to hear them.   He recounted, “I walked into McDonald’s, asked for water, went to the machine and, as soon as I did, dude said something to me...That’s when I pulled the gun, and I lost it.”

However, Joseph’s mother, who is concealing her identity for protective purposes, told the Star-Telegram this week that she believes her prayers for her son that night thwarted a massacre.

“Last night, I told God to keep Jestin, and that’s what I do believe happened,” she told the publication. “I did not know he even had a gun.”

She believes that her son had a mental breakdown, and states that her husband had also struggled with mental uses.

“I would have never in a million years thought he would have gone to that point,” she explained. “I know that same spirit that grabbed ahold of his dad and took his dad mentally, grabbed Jestin.”

Davidge Armstrong, who tussled with Joseph that night, told CNN that he could hear the gun clicking, but it would not fire.  He asserted that, “[It was] God...That’s all it was. That’s all it could have been.”

So, if you were to ask someone to explain how this man walked into a restaurant, attempted to fire a gun and it did not fire - twice - with the lives of over a dozen people on the line - what sort of responses would you get?   I am completely convinced that we have divine intervention at work here, and the mother of the alleged shooter acknowledged that prayer was a key.   

I believe that God's protection is available to us, and when we see it manifested, that we do give credit to the Lord - it strengthens our faith and becomes a powerful witness - maybe you have had an occasion where disaster was averted in your own life, a situation of timing when you miss an accident by a matter of seconds or minutes.   Or maybe your life was saved or you were prevented from harm - give God the glory that He has sustained your days - and you may have experienced an angel or two or more being involved, too.

There's another, dark supernatural aspect, too - Here is another person who is intent on doing harm who claims to have heard "voices" - sound familiar?   That's the contention of the Navy Yard shooter, too.   The mom of the Fort Worth shooter, Jestin, said that there was a spirit that grabbed him, like a spirit had grabbed his father.   I do believe that the enemy, who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, sends his minions to delude and deceive - and he will distort our minds.  The mind is the battlefield, and that is why we have to be sensitive to the operation of Satan in and around us.

As Rick Warren has stated, it's important that the church is sensitive to people in our midst who are having mental illness issues.  Baptist Press reports on a survey by LifeWay Research that found a third of Americans -- and nearly half of evangelical, fundamentalist or born again Christians -- believe prayer and Bible study alone can overcome serious mental illness.

The survey also found most Americans (68 percent) would feel welcome in church if they were mentally ill.

Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, said Christians care about those affected by mental illness.

He's glad churches are seen as a welcome place for those with depression, bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. But he worries some Christians see mental illness as a character flaw rather than a medical condition.

Christians will go to the doctor if they break their leg, Stetzer said. But some may try to pray away serious mental illness. "They forget that the key part of mental illness is the word 'illness,'" he said. "In a typical evangelical church, half the people believe mental illness can be solved by prayer and Bible study alone." 

We have powerful resources in Christ, but if someone does not properly know how to use them and apply them, then those tools can be less than effective.  And, we have to be sensitive to those in the church whom we identify as having some mental issues, so that we can assist them in getting the fullness of help they need.