"SATAN IS ALSO A FISHER OF MEN."

Kids have shorter attention spans in church the younger they are. In this church you can see the youngest kids ducking out of the pews, fidgeting, but some older ones are listening, because the service is not pretentious, it's not over their heads. The Pastor Frank Pomeroy makes sense. He uses ordinary language, and a nice story about his fishing trip, with a video of the dolphins there to illustrate his point. 

His child Annabelle is since dead.  

The music is relatable, accessible, likeable guitars, you can sing along. There is lots of music. There is no hate speech. 

First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas

There are a wide range of ages there, in the little church, including alot of children. Some are likely now dead. Reportedly the youngest dead is 5. A two year old is injured and a pregnant woman is killed.

Even deaf people are included in the video as there is a lady doing sign interpreting. 

First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas

First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas

First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas

As the stated intention is to evangelise, as the congregation are invited to do by the pastor, I hope it's ok to put up these screenshots from their video. The words on the overhead screen seem comforting.

The pastor invites everyone to a church party at the swimming pool and to bring outsiders , so that they can see how normal the church people are. It is only August of this year, the last Summer some of the congregation will ever see in this world. This Sunday that church is yet another target of the church mass shootings in America. First Baptist Church, Sutherland Springs, Texas, USA.

Well it might be the first baptist church, but it isn't  the biggest. It is little, and humble, and ordinary, at least to look at. So is the congregation. Ordinary people just like us. By now, some of them know something we don't know, the afterlife.

As an overseas person, I've got the impression that Texans are proud of their right to carry guns. A civilian outside the church chases the gunman, firing. 

Guns do not help the people in the church, they presumably don't take guns to church. They are armed with faith, community, care for one another.

Should they have taken guns to church and fired back? No. 

"An act of evil" - President Trump.

"This evil act" - Governor Abbott

So I was thinking about the evil that can make people do such things, whether through agents like oerweening anger, mental illness like PTSD, brainwashing, peer pressure, physical changes in the brain through injury such as drugs and alcohol abuse, collisions, etc. 

As I often do I decided to do my research and was led to this clip, taken in the targeted church below, just a few months ago. There's a whole series online taken there this year, as if someone was prescient. It's over an hour, is nice to watch, though eerie, but for anyone with low download limit,I've included a partial transcript of the pastor's sermon.  Anyway, I think the pastor has some reasons nailed as to how we can all be tempted to do evil. 

Partial transcript of the above sermon on temptation :

"Satan is also a fisher of men". "I can guarantee that everyone in this room has been bombarded with some kind of lure. " " Jesus is the only one who has never been caught."

"Satan is an incredibly good fisherman." " Satan is persistent." "Dolphins never take the bait. Why? Because they are too smart to take the bait. They are too smart to get hooked."

" It comes down to you and I not taking the bait."

He goes on to say that Satan tempts us more often at certain times. First, just after we have experienced some spiritual high. 

Second, we can be tempted when we are really physically tired or sick, hungry, or in pain. 

He also said that Satan likes to hit us when we are alone "without godly brothers or sisters to lift us up. "

 "A big old lure on a Satan filled line." 

Photo from Pexels.

"When you get alone that's when Satan tends to surround you."

"The more we cut off our communication to God the brighter the lures that Satan drops in front of us."

"Satan gets us to sin against God....he wants us to sin against God so we will feel unworthy to reach others....he says look what I've done he bit the lure". 

"Satan gets us to doubt God sometimes... Satan knows where and when to catch us, we need to say how can I resist (the lures)." 

He recommends reading the "word of God" (while waving a Bible) that that will give help from the Holy Spirit during temptations. "When you are in the midst of temptation Satan is going to throw a lure out there and say 'just do it'....how are you doing with the temptations that Satan is throwing in your life?"

" If you don't love Jesus Christ as your Lord and saviour God's knocking at your heart.... I believe Satan is out there fishing every day and he's taught his minions how to fish as well. "

Photo from Pexels.

Sermon by Pastor Frank Pomeroy. 

Parishioner then prays:

" Father, Thankyou for all the great gifts you have given this church. "

The congregation files from the church, taking their time, people hugging ,talking and shaking hands, a baby shifted from hip to hip, children excited, while the band plays on and sings.

The last line of my handwritten transcript says - (Me crying). 

Lord, let me never cease to be shocked by evil like mass killings and please don't let people like the survivors lose their faith because of it. Please help the injured, the families, and the souls of the departed.

Tell me what you think about these mass shootings in the comments below. If you know credits for the hymns on the overhead screen , please post them. 

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