You are not a God who takes pleasure in evil with you. The wicked cannot dwell, the arrogant cannot stand in your presence. And you hate all who do wrong. But let all who take refuge in you be glad. Let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you. For surely, O Lord, you bless the righteous. You surround them with your favor as with a shield. Psalm five, four five and verses eleven and twelve we might be tempted to think that terrorism, violence and other bad things that happen every day are modern day problems. But the truth is that evil and evil deeds have been present since the serpent entered the Garden of Eden. The enemy of God is also the enemy of man. And when he showed up, he unleashed a flood of wickedness and chaos that ruined perfection and threatened the eternity of the human soul. The rise in violence, mass shootings and other crimes worldwide has us all on edge today. It seems we can't send our kids to school, go to a movie, shop at the mall, enjoy a local food festival, make a trip to Walmart, or even go to church without worrying about what could happen. We simply don't feel safe anywhere anymore. The same kinds of worries that we have today were present in the days of King David too. As we can see from psalm five. The magnitude and the scope of things may be different, but the worries people had then were as real for them as ours are for us these days. We blame guns, mental illness, the government and who knows what else for what we see happening around our country. But none of this is the real culprit. The real culprit is the rejection of God and rebellion against his word. It is a spiritual problem. And that is why all the laws we propose fail to stem the tide of evil. At best, we are merely putting a band aid on the problem. We cant solve spiritual problems with man made solutions. The Bible tells us that God does not take pleasure in evil, that he hates all who do wrong, and that he will one day eliminate sin and evil. I certainly wish he would hurry, and I'm sure you do too. But God knows what he is doing and knows when it is best to do so. Maybe we can't understand God's reason for waiting, but we can understand that his reasons, whatever they are, are always right and always good. In the meantime, let us commit ourselves to being the kind of people we ought to be in Christ, leading others to faith in him and asking God to spread his protection over us and our loved ones wherever we go.

This has been your thought for the day with Steve Burkham, pastor of Community Christian Church in Stockton, California. If you have questions or comments for Pastor Steve, please send them to dailythoughtspodcastmail.com dot. Have a great day and we hope youll join us tomorrow as Pastor Steve opens gods word to bring us another thought for the day.