Friday, August 7, 2009

Just a minute...

My heart has no desire to stay, where doubts arise, and fears dismay…

How efficacious is God’s Word for today? Have the times changed so much over the centuries that we cannot still receive direction, and comfort from God’s Word?

Matthew 22:15-21, {Moffatt} Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him in talk. They sent him their disciples with the Herodians, who said, “Teacher, we know you are sincere and that you teach the Way of God honestly and fearlessly; you do not court human favour. Tell us then, what you think about this: is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus detected their malice. He said, “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the taxes.” So they brought him a shilling. Then Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?” “Caesar’s,” they said. Then he told them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God.”

The current talk around town has to do with not only the health care bill, it also has to do with taxation. The current administration is hell bent to take away wealth from people and give it to illegal aliens and people who refuse to work. I just heard about a law being worked on that would allow gummint to have access to our bank accounts…I assume that includes safe deposit boxes.

Yesterday, I spoke with a person who informed me they have money in a safe deposit box, and a small safe in their home. And my military mind went back to stories I recall about life in communist Russia. Not only was the gummint able to look into your bank accounts; they would periodically change the monetary medium, leaving people with money stashed away, without anything. Once the dollar bill you hold is no longer acceptable, you are out of luck. Yeah, the gummint would allow people to bring in their old money and trade it in for the new…Yes, another way of keeping track of how much money you have.

When the people allow the gummint to rule over them, they have to accept that whatever the gummint can control, they will.

And God’s Word reminds us, “Give to Caeser what is Caeser’s, and give to God what is God’s”.

This should give us cause to stop and cogitate on where our priorities are. As a Christian, my first priority is supposed to be God. The Psalmist said it succinctly, “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” The argument appears to be that Christians don’t want a democracy, they want a theocracy; and I have to look back at the people who laid down their lives, livelihood, and wealth to establish this country as a God-centered land. And as I look around, I see “Christians” who are more concerned about their money than what God wants them to do.

As a Marine, my loyalty, my priority is, God, country, and Corps. See???, that assumes me is at least fourth in line for priorities. And yet, we can get so caught up in making sure that I am taken care of first. Oh, right! “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” See, that moves me down the priority line also. What I am trying to say, is gummint can take everything away, but they cannot take away my belief in, my trust in, my hope in God Almighty.

We elected a person who ran on the platform of “hope and change”. Bottom line, and I think we Christians have misplaced this idea, is that only God can give hope. Only God can make the change in a life, that will bring hope. Only God is to be worshipped and depended upon.