Giving Of Life In Love

Amid the death and carnage of our country’s worse mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada on the night of October 1, 2017, acts of true heroism abounded. Here are three of their stories: * A Mandalay Bay hotel employee took a bullet to his back as he bravely shielded his wife from the gunfire during the Vegas massacre. William King, 38, was shot when the gunman unleashed on the Route 91 Harvest festival where he had been with his 26-year-old wife Kimberly. The Las Vegas father had been protecting his wife when the bullet struck him, tore through his body and exited his chest. It missed his heart and lungs by centimeters. As the panic set in around them, King held his bullet wound with one hand and grabbed his wife with the other as he forced her to run from the gunfire. The couple had been right in the middle of the crowd when the gunman unleashed a barrage of bullets. * Sonny Melton, 29, was at the Route 91 Harvest festival with his wife, Heather Melton. Heather Melton said her husband saved her life while gunfire was hitting the crowd. “He saved my life. He grabbed me and started running when I felt him get shot in the back,” she said. “I want everyone to know what a kindhearted, loving man he was, but at this point, I can barely breathe.” Melton is from Big Sandy, Tennessee. He was a registered nurse who worked at the emergency room and ICU at Henry County Medical Center. He also assisted his wife in surgery. * Jack Beaton had travelled to the festival to celebrate his 23rd wedding anniversary. But the night turned to tragedy when the shooting started, with the much-loved dad reportedly jumping in front of his wife Laurie to save her from the hail of bullets. His son wrote a tribute on Twitter, saying his dad was a “true hero”. * The 58 lives taken that night came from all walks of life, every one of them loved, and every one of them will be missed by someone.

[John 15:9-14] One of the darkest chapters of the Civil War is “The Palmyra Massacre.” In 1862, the Confederate Army released 45 Confederate prisoners from a Union stronghold and arrested a Union sympathizer, Andrew Allsman. Union Provost Marshal William R. Strachan re-took the post and demanded that Allsman be returned or 10 Confederate POWs would be executed. (This would be considered a war crime today.) The Confederacy didn’t give in to the blackmail. Ten men were escorted from the prison and forced to sit upon their own coffins. A hundred spectators gathered to gawk at the gruesome scene. The officer in command now stepped forward, and gave the word of command. The firing squad did their work. One of the ten men originally on the list of prisoners to be executed received a last-minute acquittal. The reprieved man was William T. Humphrey. You see, another soldier came forward, explaining that he was unmarried and without a family. He asked permission to take the place of Humphrey, stating that perhaps it would be better for a single man to die than a man with a family. If you go to that soldier’s grave, you will find a tombstone with this inscription: “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Hiram Smith. The hero who sleeps beneath the sod here was shot in Palmyra, October 17, 1862 as a substitute for William T. Humphrey, my father.” Hiram Smith paid the ultimate price for another. Likewise, Jesus paid the ultimate price for you. And the cross is his monument. “...For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:42-45). Someone died that you might live. We have been redeemed (Titus 2:11-14) Amen!