Saturday night\early Sunday morning a Muslim man who has an ISIS profile shot up a gay nightclub in Orlando Florida killing 50 and injuring at least 53 others before police stormed the building and took out the shooter. Even well after these facts were brought to light twitter and other social media outlets were full of people blaming their favorite villains: “toxic” masculinity, homophobia, religiosity, politics, the gun culture and more. The truth is this was Islam in action. This man (and possibly others) saw a soft target in a “gun free zone” and took advantage. What can Jesus-followers do?

First, be courageous in your faith. This shooting is but one reason why people need Jesus. For decades politicians and the media have tried to lump Islam, Judaism and Christianity together claiming they all serve the same God. Nothing could be more false, as we’ve demonstrated in our series on Islam last year. Jews and Christians serve Elohim, not Allah. As such we do not entertain or use the “convert or die” methodology of Islam.

Second, take joy in the fact the God we serve loves everyone and wants all to come to repentance and into a right relationship with himself. Some may point to the Crusades or abortion clinic shooters and bombers in an attempt to draw a moral equivalence between Christians and Muslims. There is an important difference here, Christians vocally condemn such violent acts and regularly preach against them, whereas the Muslim community is silent when acts of terror are committed and regularly preach the morality of killing Allah’s enemies.

Third, do what you can for the victims. If you live in the Orlando area Think-Biblically.com encourages you to donate blood. If you don’t live near enough consider donating to a charity to assist the victims and their families. The victims may or may not have been fellow believer’s, but giving out of what God has provided for others – regardless of their beliefs – is recognized as a pure act by our savior. Remember the story of the good Samaritan?

Fourth, pray for the survivors and the victim’s families. This should go without saying, but our savior taught us to pray in such circumstances, even if the victims are enemies of the Cross (Matthew 5.44). We are all sinners in need of God’s grace. Pray specifically for the hurt, anger and pain of loss and that comes from being a victim and that God would reveal himself and his love in very ways that will be easily recognized. There is much more than physical healing that will need to take place for the victims, their families and even the community.

By taking every opportunity to show your outrage for this act of violence motivated by hatred and Islamic teachings, and showing your willingness to assist the victims we reveal the truth about God and his character by reminding others that this is not about “toxic masculinity” or gun control or any other peripheral issue but rather about a culture of hate and violence we can bridge such conversations into a clear testimony about the goodness of the One we serve. What this event proves is that we all need Jesus.