A number of Christian authors have offered prayers and commentary in the aftermath of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, behind only the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that left 32 people dead.

Author Clive Calver, senior pastor of Walnut Hill Community Church, a network of five charismatic churches in western Connecticut, lives in Newtown, Conn., where a masked gunman killed more than 26 people—including 20 children—Dec. 14 at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

"We prayed for the families of those who perished—including two mothers who attend our weekday women's ministry and lost children," said Calver, who wrote Alive in the Spirit (Charisma House) and Dying to Live (Authentic Media). "We prayed for those who were in that school and saw horrible things; we prayed for the greater Newtown community.

"Our prayer is that this evil, this unspeakable horror, would be the turning point for what God is doing in New England," he added. "We've spent the last nearly eight years here, breaking up the land and laying seed for a harvest—or revival in New England. Maybe, just maybe, this is the wake-up call. Maybe, just maybe, this is when the church springs into action, being the hands and feet of Jesus and shining His light in this darkness."

Greg Laurie, pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, Calif., and author of Lost Boy (Regal Books), wrote a blog in which he called the shooting the "worst imaginable scenario."

"I know from personal experience that the pain of losing a child is a fate worse than death for a parent," said Laurie, whose 33-year-old son, Christopher, was killed in a car crash in 2008. "At times like this we must reflect on the essential message of Christmas which is Immanuel has come. Immanuel means God is with us. I know God is there ready to bring His comfort to those grieving right now in Connecticut."

Max Lucado, whose latest book is Grace (Thomas Nelson), offered a Christmas prayer tied to the tragedy.

"These killings, Lord. These children, Lord. Innocence violated. Raw evil demonstrated," Lucado said in his prayer on the website of Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, where he serves as minister of preaching. "Oh, Lord Jesus, you entered the dark world of your day. Won't you enter ours? We are weary of bloodshed. We, like the wise men, are looking for a star. We, like the shepherds, are kneeling at a manger. This Christmas, we ask you, heal us, help us, be born anew in us."

Ray Comfort, producer of the online movie Genius, which has gone viral since it was released Dec. 7, believes he knows why people are willing to take innocent life.

"Genius points to what every murderer has in common, something the 'experts' either don't recognize or avoid talking about. But it's there," said Comfort, whose movie was produced as a companion to his latest book, The Beatles, God, and the Bible (WND Books).

In the movie, which is about John Lennon and why he was killed, 15 youths were asked if they would murder for money and said yes because they didn't value a person's life, Comfort said.

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