Three items I have read really caught my attention in the aftermath of the Boston terrorist attacks.
I. Social Media. This was a horrible story. Modern social media makes it very easy to spread false, damaging, and/or malicious “information” very, very quickly. We can safely assume the following verse also means “slow to tweet, share, etc.”
Christians need to really be careful with social media. We need to love the truth, and loving the truth doesn’t just mean we don’t intentionally lie. It means we intentionally try to make sure we don’t accidentally spread someone else’s lies, too. You do NOT want to repeat a lie which increases the sorrow of someone who is already in great distress.
James 1:19
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
II. Death Penalty. It is easy for academics and politicians to lecture people about compassion and try to claim moral superiority. But when you get close to the victims, and the devastation and grief that great evil can bring, you start to understand why God said the ultimate human penalty is necessary.
Compassion needs to start with the victims. Judicial “compassion” is gratifying to judges and lawmakers, but it is compassion at the expense of others (the victims). That is no compassion at all, it is merely injustice.
If more politicians and judges would actually spend time with the families and friends of murder victims, and see the immense suffering it brings, perhaps we wouldn’t see killers back on the streets in little more than a decade. But most murder victims are from poor and powerless families….
Genesis 9:6
Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
III. Peace. Sometimes, even when there is a fire-fight going on outside, God gives unexpected peace. “It felt like God was wrapping his arms around us, covering us. That peace was otherworldly.”
Flashback. I know what he means. I felt no fear when assaulted some years back, though one man held me down and bashed my head into the street while another kicked me in the back. The peace God gave can only be described thus:
Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
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Mind Renewers 
Thank you, Brother Jon, for these expressions of God’s gracious wisdom and wise grace, to which I would add only the further development of the apostle’s thought in Philippians 4, on adding the wondrous promise (v.9) “…and the God of peace shall be with you.“
(…to which I can personally attest, having undergone a similar experience.)
Hi Jon, I read your blog most days (through a link on a friend’s blog) and generally approve of what you have to say.
Regarding your support for the death penalty, and “killers back on the streets in little more than a decade”, I rejoice that the only convicted killer I know personally was saved at the start of his prison sentence, and after “a little more than a decade” was released to begin a life of Christian ministry leading to being a most excellent (biblical) preacher. I am so glad he was not judicially executed!
Hello, Friend-of-a-friend! A brother or sister of my brother or sister is my brother or sister! 🙂
Our gracious God uses broken people in a broken system. Praise the Lord! I don’t know what would have happened in the life of the brother you mention if the government had operated by Biblical principles.
Some things I do know. God commanded the death penalty in the Old Testament. That is reinforced in Romans 13. So the death penalty is clearly Biblical.
I know God’s work (in society and in individuals such as this brother) would not be hindered if a government worked by Biblical principles. He would have been saved, and God would have accomplished all His work, every good thing that has been accomplished through this brother’s ministry would have happened somehow. God is never thwarted, and certainly not by people (or governments) following principles He established in His Word.
I think I’ll do a dedicated post on this, on Biblical instructions and safeguards. The death penalty would scare me, because I wouldn’t trust the UK government to apply the Biblical safeguards. But in principle, it is the right thing to do. So please hang with me a few days (busy times for me right now) and I’ll try to do a post on that within a week or so. I probably shouldn’t have been posting on the death penalty without providing sound Biblical basis for it. That’s not fair to my readers.