Mixed with the almost unbearable grief is the growing outcry for some kind of change; some kind of control; just some way to stop it all. The pain is real, and so is the National Confusion about what to do. In this day of instant communication opinions flow like water, the media has a field day with our emotions, and the enemy of our very souls increases his purpose to rob, kill, and destroy.
Is there an answer? With so many tangled and intertwined issues of safety and rights, protections and freedoms, can anyone see through the fog of it all? Can a government really DO anything about it?
As if the horror of mass shootings isn’t enough for our National psyche, what about this “dirty dozen”?
- Marriage, marital issues, & problems
- Parenting
- Debt & financial problems
- Shootings, gun control, crime & the prison crisis
- Illnesses, medicine, diet & healthcare
- Relationships. Contracts. Lawsuits & justice
- Power, control, authoritarianism, government & leadership
- Immigration, State’s rights, & National boundaries/identity
- Women’s rights, minority rights, discrimination & personhood
- Sexuality, porn, gender confusion & personal identity
- Bullying, anger issues, power & submission
- Confidence issues, pride, & a surrendered faith
It’s a fair question to ask how I came up with this 12, and not some others, for surely I’ve missed some. I admit to trying to ‘simplify’ the entire question, because I am convinced we are caught in a ‘web of complexity’ when in fact ‘simple’ is the answer. This list did not come from the daily paper or the nightly news, but from the Church Directory!
A pastor is one who shepherds the sheep, to use a Biblical metaphor. This has many facets, but most would agree that it includes knowing the sheep, and protecting them, if possible, and leading them to the green pastures of good food. So when I let my eyes scan the Directory and think about what I “know” about those persons, well, the list forms.
I suppose our President feels this way at times. Our Congress, hopefully, is thinking about these things. Surely our Supreme Court must deal with this thought process to do its job.
So what’s gone wrong? With all these people in government, wanting to do what is best for their constituents, why are we in such a time of wretchedness, in the midst of the very abundance we all work for?
Is there answer, or are the problems just too big, too complex, and the Nation too fractured to deal with them?
I say it is simple. I say we can deal with them, effectively. I say the answer is the same it’s been for over 6500 years of recorded history. The purpose of history, after all, is to learn from the choices and decisions of those before us, and to not make the same mistakes. We have a book of history that reveals the record of man’s choices, and the results of those choices. It is clear. It is simple.
The Bible records in the Old Testament the choices that the people of God, the Hebrews, made over many years. It reveals the Blessings they enjoyed when they obeyed God, and it records the suffering they experienced when God allowed their enemies to put them into bondage.
Nothing could be more clear, more simple to comprehend. Follow God and be Blessed; reject God and be in bondage to another.
The New Testament reveals the Savior for ALL mankind, and offers this salvation to ALL, regardless of anything but the simple choice of obedience!
Why won’t America get it? Why won’t America wake up? Why are so many determined to keep the veil over their eyes and deny the answer right in front of them, the answer our Founders knew and tried to create a government to continue?
Why, indeed, would you WANT a separation between Church and State? Why, instead, wouldn’t you want an INFUSION of Church and State? Because you don’t want the State telling the Church what to do? It cannot. The State is a creation, and the creation cannot rule the Creator! Let the Creator have His way!
Look at the results. We’ve thrown God out of our government and then wonder why we have so many problems. I told you, the answer is really very simple. Return to the Lord Jesus Christ, call upon Him for His Leadership, surrender to Him, and expect the Blessings to return. Or not …
It is in fact simple – but not always easy. Following God isn’t for wimps – Hebrews 11:32-39. Welcoming God and His Word back into our public discussions, politician’s speeches, schools, and halls of government might just entail some uncomfortable change – uncomfortable for some, at any rate. We as a nation have deposed Jesus as our King, and as Judges says, in those days, there was no King in Isreal, and each man did what was right in his own eyes. Our ancestors, in many cases, came to this country to gain freedom of religion, to worship God as they saw fit, to escape temporal tyranny. They came across the ocean, braved privation and danger – and many Americans today are unwilling to get off their butts and go as far as the ballot box, or be seen as being out of step, old fashioned, or uncool. Often we fear to disagree with the “majority”, when in fact it is not a majority, but simply what those in control of the media wish us to think. Sometimes, more than we’d like to admit, the we have to agree with Walt Kelley in the old comic strip Pogo – we have seen the enemy, and he is us – Romans 7:15. Complacency, selfishness, the “Let George do it” mentality, and just plain laziness is sometimes the problem. Following God is the answer, but we often rationalize the question so we don’t have to look at the answer. The answer to public shootings is not gun control, though certainly responsible government should safeguard its citizens by keeping weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of the mentally ill, to the extent it is possible. The root of most marital problems, as you have said, is just selfishness – I want what I want my way, and when I want it – which by the way is a key to several others of your “dirty dozen”, along with protecting what’s mine. The answers lie in giving up what isn’t really ours anyway, in being godly parents, godly citizens, godly friends, who meditate on the principles and particulars of God’s word, AND put them into practice in daily life, no matter the cost. Fear has no place in the economy of God – only reverence and awe of Him. The heart wants to deceive us, to tell us that we are entitled, that we have a right, that we can both do as we please, and please God. Being a Christian, or a “Christ follower” as one other pastor put it, is a minute by minute decision to do what God wants us to do, to place complete faith in Him, and to give up defending ourselves or perceived rights. We need to realize, minute by minute, that Satan and this world have NO POWER over us, except what we ourselves give to him. We won’t always get it right, but we will always be forgiven, and loved. As the missionary Jim Elliot said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” (Through Gates of Splendor, Elizabeth Elliot) With Jesus, we can’t lose. We may not always get what we think we want, or what our lusts say we should have. For sure we won’t avoid problems – John 16:33. But we can and should rest confidently in our Father’s love. No matter which of the “dirty dozen” is troubling you today, try this: Take a quarter, or an orange. Go outside if its a sunny day (could be tough in Oregon!), or use a bright light in a room if there’s no sun. Hold that quarter or orange up at arm’s length between you and the sun. Now bring it closer and closer to your eye, until you can’t see the sun anymore. The sun is millions of times bigger than the quarter or the orange. But your vision of it is blocked, because you are so focused on the quarter or the orange. That quarter or orange is just like the problem from the dirty dozen that’s bothering you. If you focus on the problem, you can’t see God, or His solution, or even His love and comfort. Set the orange or quarter down on an object twenty feet away. What happens? It becomes insignificant compared to the sun. Lay your burden at the feet of Jesus – whether you put a stone at the cross, or confess it to a friend – James 5:16. Back away from it, knowing that God ALREADY has a solution, that His word ALREADY has things that you can do about it, even if that is just to wait patiently for the solution to appear.It becomes insigificant (though it still may not FEEL that way) compared to Jesus. Laying that burden at the feet of Jesus, and diligently seeking Him in prayer and in His word is a way of making yourself a living sacrifice. The problem of course, with living sacrifices is they tend to crawl off the altar. Keep putting it back. If God calls YOU to do something, then be strong and courageous, and do it. Look at Jesus, and the Word of God – not your problem. Assume that you SHOULD do something, and seek God’s will in His word and the counsel of the Godly. Watch expectantly for God to guide, or to act. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace. If we act in obedience, if we listen for His voice, there isn’t a one of the dirty dozen that can’t be defeated in our lives – and if in our lives, the ripple goes out into the pond of humanity, and you can’t see the end effects – but God knows them already. As Mark Hall from “Casting Crowns” says, “He’s already there.” Blessings from New York.