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Shoot him again Matt!  Matt Dillion on TV’s Gunsmoke.  Sometimes I even jump-up, clap my hands and holler, “Shoot him again!” 

Matt usually shoots them twice anyway.  But I’m joyful when the bad guy is killed.  

Then I almost always recall God’s admonishment in Romans 12:19 — “Vengeance is Mine, Saith the Lord, I shall repay.”  

Then I tell myself, “This is only an act; both the good men and bad men probably sit down together and have a cup of coffee when the scene is over.”  What we see on tv does affect our feelings and emotions.  Sometimes I even have tears when the hero rides away on his horse and leaves the beautiful girl behind; and I like to think of myself to be a sensible man. “That this is a movie, not always the real world.  The hero doesn’t always ride away and leave the pretty girl behind — cryin’ in the rain.”

I’m told during the Great Depression of the 1930’s if people could rake-up a few cents, they would go see a movie, just for an hour or so they could get away from the real world and its troubles outside.  Now, movies cost more than a few cents.

An uncle once told me he had to borrow 3 cents to mail a letter.  Now to mail a letter it costs over ten-times as much.  

I suspect that sometimes it’s hard to leave vengeance behind and let the Lord handle it.  I had a boss once that threatened to kick me out of my job.  He was a first class jerk and a mean man.  I must admit I wasn’t sorry when he lost his job and was fired, I felt no sorrow for him. 

All I did to make him mad was, I had money coming to me and I asked why he didn’t pay me.  This angered him.  Far as I know now he doesn’t have a job of any kind.  I have to struggle with my own soul, not to harbor vengeful thoughts about him.

The Bible tells us, “the Lord is long-suffering, He wishes that none should perish, and that He (the Lord) is slow to anger.” 

But, in 1953, Russian Prime Minister, Joseph Stalin, who had killed thousands of his own people, was suddenly his with a stroke and died — graveyard dead.  I may be wrong, but in my finite mind.  I believe the Lord zapped him.  The same goes for Adolf Hitler, he took cyanide and shot himself.

Kindest regards…