Daily Devotional for Friday April 4, 2008
Why Would a Group of Schoolchildren have Handcuffs, Duct Tape, Steak Knife to Attack Their Teacher
(Matthew 24:4; 2 Timothy 3:1-9; 2 Peter 3:3-10 )
Why would a group of 6-9 third graders, boys and girls between the ages of 8 and 10, have handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons, a crystal paperweight, and a broken steak knife? To attack their teacher! What did this teacher do to invoke the wrath of these children? She scolded one of the girls for standing on a chair. School officials and police in Waycross, Georgia, which is located just north of Jacksonville, Florida, were tipped off Friday to this plot by the children to attack their teacher. All of the students involved have been suspended, with two girls, ten and nine-years-old, along with an eight-year-old boy, facing multiple juvenile charges of conspiracy, possession, aggravated assault, all in the third grade.
Waycross Police Chief Tanner says the students apparently planned to knock the teacher unconscious with a crystal paperweight, bind her with the handcuffs and tape, and then stab her with the knife. He went on to add that the third-graders assigned themselves different tasks including covering-up the windows so people couldn't look in down to cleaning up afterwards.
Of course so many questions remain unanswered at this point. Were these children seriously going to follow through with their plan and actually carry out this assault on their teacher that could easily have killed her? Who are these kids? The teacher who was their target and school officials described the children as "good kids," and not known as trouble makers. What types of home environments do these kids come from? More critical is what was the thought process that went into this whole scheme? Who initiated the plot? Why did the other children choose to go along with such a brutal plan? It will be interesting in the coming days and weeks as these details emerge.
I am dealing with this sad story today because it is simply another classic example of what I have been talking about these last 9 years, and sounding the trump of warning about frequently over the last few years. This nation is in spiritual freefall. We are in a spiritual abyss. This story of 3rd graders plotting to brutally attack and most likely kill their teacher is a clear symptom of a society that is out of control. Kids see acts of violence as a form of expression. No longer do the vast majority of people have any sort of moral or ethical compass to guide their lives. Right and wrong are now determined by each individual.
I have had the sad experience of seeing our society and culture literally disintegrating over my 5 decades of life. This is NOT the same world, the same culture, I was born into and grew up in as a child. We legally slaughter 4,000 innocent babies EVERY 24 HOURS and nobody says a word. The sin of homosexuality is now accepted as a mainstream lifestyle. Sex is no longer viewed as a gif from God for a man and woman in the bonds of marriage, but a sport to be played by anyone, of any age, at any time, with anyone, in any way. The proliferation of porn and gambling have destroyed any stigma they used to carry and have helped to further erode the moral and ethical choices people make.
The daily avenue of escape most people choose are drugs and alcohol, which further deadens a person's ability to make wise choices. Living together outside of marriage is considered perfectly acceptable and God's holy institution of marriage has been turned into little more than a legal date by most. Most children no longer grow up in a loving, nurturing home with their mother and father, but in every kind of unstable and unhealthy situation you can imagine. THE BETTER PERCENTAGE OF TWO FULL GENERATIONS HAVE NEVER EVEN BEEN TO CHURCH AND HAVE NO FAITH OR CONNECTION TO GOD!
So why are we really shocked when a bunch of third graders decide they want to attack their teacher? If you haven't read the Bible and the various passages that describe the signs of the last days, we are living in them right now. Time is very short and Jesus is coming soon. These children in Georgia are just further evidence of that. Look at the recent news regarding kids. Gangs of teen girls brutalizing people and involved in serious crimes like robbery, stealing cars, dealing drugs, and even murder. An 8-year-old who raped an elderly woman. 12-year-old girls who were suspended for having a contest on the school bus to see how many boys they could give oral sex to on the way to school. Those are just a few, there are many more.
The legitimate question is where are children of this age learning this type of behavior. First, at home. So many are growing up in Godless, faithless, broken and blended homes where the only modeling they see by adults is negative. Second, is the media and technology kids are exposed to and have today. Please don't for a second underestimate the power of television, movies, music, advertising, video games, and the internet has on shaping the thoughts, ideals, and values of kids today. With very little positive influence at home, without any spiritual influence in their lives, the minds of our kids today are being shaped by our Godless culture that promotes every kind of sin and debauchery you can imagine. Understanding this, why are we shocked when we see the type of behavior we see from children today?
Let me give you my personal thoughts on these kids in Waycross. When all the details come out you will find that they are most likely from middle to above middle income homes. 80% of the kids will be living in homes that do NOT include their biological mom and dad. Most likely 80% don't go to church, though with the state of our churches today I wouldn't be shocked if many did attend. FOX recently had a reality program involving young children of this age who were left on their own with no adult supervision to create and live in their own town, and they did it. Crime shows like CSI are blueprints for how to organize and commit crimes.
You will find the child who was the mastermind of this scheme was influenced heavily by television, and the others were willing followers. Most all of the kids play video games, which if nothing else, desensitizes them to violence and cheapens the value of life. If you put all those factors together with children who have no sense of right and wrong, and this story is not as unbelievable as it may seem at first blush. These children are simply a byproduct of a culture and society that is in spiritual freefall and deteriorating right before our very eyes.
I love you and care about you so much. If stories like this don't wake people up to the state of our culture and the times we are living in, I don't know what will. I already know many will simply chalk this up as an "isolated incident." I wish it was. Seeing over 40,000 emails daily, we sadly are dealing with sad stories like this that never make the headlines. I see the results of this deteriorating culture every day in the destroyed lives of people. I remind you often of satan's goals, to kill, steal, and destroy. He is having his way at this time in human history as he virtually goes unchecked about his business of stealing people's souls, destroying their lives, and killing them.
This is a war for the souls of men, and sadly, satan is fighting virtually unopposed in the culture. If the church would get as zealous about saving souls as they are about building projects, if ministries would leave the comfort, safety, and profitability of the Christian media and move their message to the secular media, if publishers would write books and magazines geared to and marketed to the lost world as opposed to other Christians, we could see some dramatic changes in our culture overnight. But sadly, most are more worried about the temporal pleasures of this world and money more than souls. So they keep on fleecing the choir to preach to the choir, while the lost and hurting masses are left to the wolves like Oprah and the lies of satan who is serious about taking them to hell.
Pray today for these children. They are young, it is not too late for them. They need the Lord. Pray for their parents. They need Divine guidance to deal with their children and provide an environment that teaches the type of scheme they were involved in is not something a person should ever consider. Pray for this teacher, as God has protected her from what would have been a horrible experience. Pray for the legal and school authorities as they are led to properly punish these children for their actions.
In closing, I pray for you today. WAKE UP! This is not some isolated incident, but this IS the world we live in today. This IS what our culture has become. The only hope we have, the only answer there is, is for this nation to turn back to God and Biblical values. Nothing short of a true and sweeping spiritual revival is going to turn our nation and culture back to the foundation of faith it was originally based on. Unless that happens, we will be seeing these types of stories more often, and even more shocking examples of a culture that is spiraling out of control.