TODAY’S PROPHETIC WORD
God’s ministering angels surround and protect you. You can have peace in the midst of chaos because God is with you.
MIRACLES AT THE WEDGWOOD SHOOTING
Sept. 15, 1999 was a typical Wednesday. As our little church was gearing up for mid-week service, one of our members ran in and told me there had been a shooting at Wedgwood Baptist in neighboring Fort Worth.
I immediately knew what church it was. Reports were foggy. At that point, all anyone knew was a gunman had walked into the church and started shooting. It was feared some were dead.
After our service, I ran to the TV. The local news was on all night as updates came in. There were people dead, most of them kids. Others were fighting for their lives in the hospital. It was a terrible time for some wonderful Christian people.
It wasn’t a regular church service. It was a room full of teenagers gathered for a rally. The band “40 Days” was playing. I believe this was a prophetic message of the period of trial and testing the people present would go through. Anyway, the kids were all having fun when Larry Gene Ashbrook, a 47-year-old jobless man known for violent rages and conspiracy writings, busted into the room yelling and cursing Jesus.
He pointed his pistol at the bewildered teenagers and began pulling the trigger. In a 10-minute rampage, he killed seven people and wounded seven more before putting a bullet in his own brain.
Maybe you heard about this tragedy as it was reported around the world, nonstop for days. If you did, it’s time you heard the other side of the story – the miracles of that bloody night.
Before Larry Ashbrook walked into the youth room, he shot out some of the windows beside the children’s playground. That playground should have been filled with little ones, but every single children’s class was running late and didn’t make it outside. Miraculous!
Members of the band said Ashbrook unloaded on them. While he hit a lot of their equipment, none of the musicians were hit.
In the midst of the shooting, Ashbrook threw a homemade pipe bomb into the middle of the kids. Miraculously, the bottom of the bomb fell off and it didn’t detonate.
As the killer shouted obscenities and used kids for target practice, Mary Beth Talley, 17, saw a mentally disabled teen in the shooters sights. She threw herself on top of the handicapped girl, taking a bullet in the back. Miraculously, Mary Beth had scoliosis. The curvature of her spine redirected the bullet so it missed her vital organs.
In the melee, a boy with a troubled past who had recently been saved, sat straight up in the line of fire. With his head bowed, he prayed, “Lord, let this end!” Many hands tried to pull him under a pew, but the Spirit of the Lord moved him.
Jeremiah Neitz jumped to his feet and confronted Ashbrook not with his strong, muscular body, but with the love of God. “Sir, what you need is Jesus Christ. You can shoot me if you want, but I know where I’m going. I’m going to Heaven. What about you, sir?”
As mad as those words made Ashbrook, the love of God in Jeremiah’s voice shut the gunman down. He answered the question by sitting in a pew and sending himself to hell.
When the rubber hit the road. Jeremiah stood with Jesus and called out evil with love. He didn’t plan what to say. God provided the words.
…do not be anxious beforehand about what you are to say, but say whatever is given to you in that hour; for it is not you who speaks, but it is the Holy Spirit.
– Mark 13:11-12
Though he fired 100 bullets into a crowd of 400, only 14 were hit. Ashbrook still had 60 bullets left. Miraculous. And so is the testimony of those who lived and died that night in Fort Worth.
“I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.”
– Romans 1:8
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY TO REMEMBER THOSE WHO HAVE DIED FOR THEIR FAITH. LIKE THEM, KNOW THAT JESUS WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.
From my book: MIRACLES WITH A MESSAGE
