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.

God’s Word For Today

Dear children, let us not love in word only and with the lips, but in deed and truth. In this way we shall come to know that we are loyal to the truth, and shall reassure our hearts in His presence in whatever matters our hearts condemn us ~~ because God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. [1 John 3: 18-20, Weymouth]

Unable to agree among themselves, they as last left him, but not before Paul had spoken a parting word to them, saying, “Right well did the Holy Spirit say to your fathers through the Prophet Isaiah: ‘Go to this people and tell them, you will hear and hear, and by no means understand; and will look and look, and by no means see. For this people’s mind has grown callous, their hearing has become dull, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their minds, and turn back, that I might cure them’ (Isaiah 6:9, 10). [Acts 28:25-27, Weymouth]

Sunny South Dakota

I have spent lots of time in the sunny south. South Denver, South Vietnam, Mississippi, southern California; and now South Dakota.

As I look out the patio window, I can see the leftovers of our snow storm on Monday. And the weather report looks like more snow on Easter Sunday. I can't help but wonder if this is truly an after effect of glow bull warming. "Spring is sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where the birdies is..." I see some of the trees have already started budding. I thought it was not nice to fool mother nature.

My thoughts switch to the passage found in the gospel of Matthew chapter 5: "For [God] makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (NKJV). In my military mind, I believe it is impossible for us to be able to affect the weather... we are created beings, and in my lifetime, I have not seen a creation affect the creator or the created. I am sure it can be said, well, we did create axes and saws, and they can have a profound effect on us... well, sure, but not by themselves.

In spite of our obsession with extraterrestrial life and mutated animals; I have yet to see any machine, of its own accord, get up and attack someone. I know the news people like to herald their articles with words like, "SUV attacks crowd on busy street" or "SUV drives into neighborhood swimming pool" or "handgun kills youth at russian roulette party".

Sixteen years in the Marine Corps, and I never once saw any type of firearm, get up and shoot somebody, without another person aiming and firing. Eight years of owning an SUV, and not once has my SUV ever pulled out of where I parked it; nor has it gone somewhere, while I am driving it, other than where I steered it.

So, where is this thought going?

We control the things we have created; they can do nothing without our involvement. In the same way, we have been created, and we can do nothing without the involvement of the Creator. We can try to do good things for others, but if God is not involved in what we do, and our reason(s) for doing them, quite often they can become problems rather than benefits.

As I sit here and look at the leftover snow, and contemplate the probable additonal snow coming this weekend, I am grateful that God knows where I am, and in spite of the nasty weather, He keeps my heart warm. And I know that He is willing to do that with anyone who desires to trust Him.