Lord, our hearts are broken for everything that is happening in our country and our world. Today our minds are in shock and our hearts are shattered for the evil that occurred in Las Vegas last night. There are just no words to express the heartache for the people and families impacted by this horrific tragedy.
Please heal those in the hospital and provide strength and wisdom to the medical staff in all the local hospitals especially when weariness begins to set in. Give unexplainable peace and comfort to those parents and families and friends who are grieving a loss that should never have happened.
Make Your Holy Presence known and deeply felt by those who feel abandoned and those who are beyond brokenhearted. Draw people to You who need a Savior now more than ever.
Use us all throughout this country as the hands and feet of Jesus in whatever ways you orchestrate in these coming weeks and months, regardless of where we live. Compel everyone’s hearts to pray for those who are hurting and to stay focused on what really matters.
Protect us from evil as a nation and as individuals. We know and believe You are still on the throne and that You are sovereign, but we ache over the evil in the world. The unfairness of tragedy and the people who are so lost and filled with evil that they can commit such heinous crimes is impossible for our human minds to process and understand.
Help us see You at work in this tragedy somehow. Bring our nation together and help us to be united and not divided, especially in the aftermath of this tragedy.
God please bless America. Amen.
Psalm 34:18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
We are so sadden by the massive tragedy in Las Vegas. KOB TV in Albuquerque is reporting that a secretary at Miyamura High School has confirmed to KOB that school staff member Lisa Romero is among those killed in the Las Vegas shooting. The secretary told KOB that grief counselors were at the school. KOB TV REPORT
RONDA CHURCHILL, ASSOCIATED PRESSMelissah Burke and her husband Stephen, of Seattle, walk along the Las…
3 MINUTES AGO
A gunman on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel-casino rained heavy fire down on a crowd of over 22,000 at an outdoor country music festival, turning the expanse into a killing ground from which there was little escape. At least 58 people died.
A gunman opened fire last night at a music concert in Las Vegas. More than fifty people were killed and more than two hundred were injured. This is the worst mass shooting in US history.Here’s what we know so far.
The Route 91 Harvest country music festival was taking place across the road from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, near McCarran International Airport on the south side of the Las Vegas Strip. The gunman opened fire from a perch high up in the Mandalay Bay casino.
Police are now confirming that the main suspect is dead. Stephen Paddock, age sixty-four, was a resident of Mesquite, Nevada. He was apprehended on the thirty-second floor of Mandalay Bay, where he died. Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo does not believe there are any more shooters.
Authorities just announced that they have located Marilou Danley, a woman who was traveling with Paddock before the shooting. The victims have not yet been identified. They include two police officers who were on duty and were shot. One is in critical condition. According to the sheriff, other officers who were off duty were shot and killed at the concert.
Our first question is whether this was an act of terrorism. Sheriff Lombardo told reporters that he did not believe it was. He added that “because it’s an ongoing investigation, we don’t know what his belief system was at this time,” but the suspect has no known terrorist connections.
Not much else is known about Stephen Paddock at this hour. He was a white male and was not a military veteran. He had no criminal convictions in Nevada or run-ins with Mesquite police. He lived in a retirement community and apparently acted alone. Marilou Danley lived with him.
I am writing this Daily Article with a grieving heart, just as I am sure you are reading it in stunned disbelief and sadness as well. I hate that we live in a world where a single person can inflict such horrific pain. I hate that our world is so unpredictable that what happened last night in Las Vegas could happen anywhere at any time. I hate this feeling of impotence, this sense that we can do nothing to prevent such atrocities from continuing. I know you feel the same way.
But I also know that our Father is grieving with us.
The Creator of the universe is a Father who loves his children so much that his Son died for us (Romans 5:8). He feels all that we feel, including our pain and grief (John 11:35). “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18).
He wants us to “weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), but he also wants us to do all we can to heal our broken world. If we give up, the criminals win. If we give up, Satan wins. He was “a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44) who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” but Jesus “came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
John Wesley: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” Never give up. The more our world despairs, the more it needs the hope of Jesus.
One last word: When the shooting occurred, Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman tweeted, “Pray for Las Vegas.” Please do so, right now.
Jim Denison, Ph.D., speaks and writes on cultural and contemporary issues. He produces a daily column which is distributed to more than 113,000 subscribers in 203 countries. He also writes for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Post, Common Call, and other publications.
