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On April 20, 1999, Cassie Bernall walked into Columbine High School thinking it would be an ordinary day only to end up finding that it was anything but ordinary. On that very day, this 17 year old who had recently given her heart to the Lord roughly two years before, found herself faced with her greatest test ever. The two gunmen who went violently through this school in Littleton, Colorado confronted Cassie in the school's library and asked her a very simple question. Yet it was a question that no one who has ever heard of this tragedy will ever be able to forget. One of the gunmen asked her, "Do you believe in God", and to which Cassie replied "Yes." Then they shot her. |
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In Cassie standing for her faith, she has in essence shown us all what real Christianity is. Back when the church was still young and persecution was everywhere, many Christians died for merely believing in Christ. In a sense, maybe some of us today have thought of those early martyrs and figured that was then, and this is now... that things have changed. But in truth, things have not changed. The saints in countries such as China, for instance, are still being persecuted, jailed, and even killed. Here in America, we have long enjoyed the freedom to worship God but now that is changing. Prayer has been taken out of schools which could possibly explain the increase of violence in schools. Years ago, you could walk into one of these institutions and never see an officer. Now, it's too common of a sight. What we need to do as Christians is to be praying for revival, not so much for our churches to grow but for a spiritual revival of the very priciples and ideas that this nation was once founded upon. Only then will we see a change and perhaps tragedies such as this could then be avoided. But in addition to prayer, we as a body need to take a firmer stand in our belief of the very Saviour who shed his blood for us. To not worry about death when persecuted for Jesus conquered death, hell, and the grave already and He told us that "whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in Heaven." (Matthew 10:32,33 NKJV) Cassie could have denied her belief in God in order to save her life, her physical life that is, but in the end, she made the right choice. The choice I pray that each of us makes if ever faced with this test. |
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