[Darris McNeely] America woke up this morning with some tragic news of some overnight shootings in Dallas, Texas. Five police officers have been killed; several others wounded. Three snipers from perches high above the city streets of downtown Dallas opened fire during some demonstrations that were taking place on Thursday evening. And now as a result of this, the city’s in mourning, people are shocked. The protests were taking place because of shootings that had occurred in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Minneapolis, Minnesota earlier this week of black men by police officers. And too much of this has been taking place and has been racking America’s streets for now more than two years. But what happened in Dallas was tragic, and the city is in mourning.

As I was looking at the account and reading about it in one of the news accounts this morning, I was struck by – I knew the names of the streets they were talking about, because I have, through the years, been a couple of times to Dallas, downtown, to the scene of John F. Kennedy’s assassination on November 22, 1963, and the motorcade that wove its way through the city, and the street names that have just become a part of the culture around that event in America, and that’s where these shootings took place – just a few blocks from that assassination of President Kennedy, when these shootings took place last night.

So people are shocked, they’re outraged, and that city once again has come into the headlines because of a tragedy that took place down there. So thinking about this, it has been a summer of discontent. We had the Orlando shootings at the nightclub a few weeks ago. We have had other tragedies like this and unfortunately it’s too predictable but we will likely see more, whether from terrorist attacks or domestic violence that wells up because of the injustices that people are seeing, that are both real and perceived. What took place in Dallas last night was unnecessary, tragic, and sad.

There’s a scripture in 2 Timothy chapter 3 that begins to describe in verses one forward the events of this time and the world at this time. “In the last days,” the apostle Paul says, “perilous times will come.” And we are living in some very perilous times right now. As Paul describes in this passage a condition of society that we can overlay to America right now, two thoguhts came out here. In verse 3, it says that people are brutal, will be brutal, and without self-control (2 Timothy 3:2-3). What is happening right now with these shootings and these types of situations like Dallas last night are brutality and a lack of self-control that is taking place as people seek vengeance because they see no justice. And again, we can go back, at least in my mind, because in our Beyond Today Live appearances that we are currently doing in many cities across the United States, “America: The Time is Now”, we’re talking about the condition of our country, America, right now, and its impact on us and what it should be drawing us to, in terms of our understanding of God, His purpose and His plan, and the realization that God is involved in this country and in this world and in its events.

What happened in Dallas last night brings us back to the reality that this is a time to sorrow. This is not a time for further reactionary anger. This is a time, certainly, to pray more fervently, “God, Thy kingdom come.” Join us in doing so.

That’s BT Daily. Join us next time.