When I once visited Las Vegas, I was stunned to hear the slogan,‘If Las Vegas is Sin City, then MGM Grand is the Capitol Building.’
This hotel we were visiting for for a family meal took pride in the sin of sexual immorality, drugs, alcohol, and of course, gambling.
Yet, this week, Las Vegas experienced the effects of another form of sin that showed itself in the largest mass gun killing in US history.
This was a sin in which the people of Las Vegas did not boast.
Rather, the horrific actions that saw 58 deaths and hundreds of injuries has led people to ask the question, “why?”
But no matter how many clues we get into the depraved mind of shooter Stephen Paddock, his actions will not make sense to us unless we understand the reality of sin and human nature.
The Bible tells us that our world is marred by sin.
We live in a ‘fallen’ world, which will always experience pain, suffering, and death.
This means that the sin of Vegas is tragic, yet expected, as we await the final return of Jesus when he will bring an end to the effects of sin.
In the meantime, this shocking display of sin should naturally lead us to stop and reflect upon the reality beyond our normal, everyday life.
Any one of us could have been in the crowd at the Vegas concert, and any one of us could have had our lives ended without any warning.
As we see this extreme display of the effects of sin, we must all make sure that we are ready to face the coming judgement that faces every human, and the one and only solution to that sin and judgement is through the death of Christ Jesus.
For, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans chapter 8 verse 8)
Jodie