You think I've lost my mind - 'how could these three things have anything to do with the other?' you say. Let me show you.
Our newly elected Governor said he would not raise taxes on Alabamians. Yet, he is trying to get the heaviest tax bill passed that we've ever seen. And, you know the consequences of taxes - it burdens the small people and the tax money never reaches the supposed intended.
Then, there is war. There's not just the war in Iraq or other countries, or the war on terrorism. We have war in our own streets - with shooting going on all the time. You look at someone wrong, get too close on the highway, say the wrong thing - blast with a gun! Nobody is safe anymore anywhere! Travel on our ships and planes isn't safe - terrorism.
Then there is the Ten Commandments. Our state is undergoing a transformation - not by the people, but by judges. One is not ashamed to stand up and be counted as one of God's on. He chose to put a monument with the 10 commandments, along with other historical writings, in the rotunda of the Judicial building in our capital city. But, another judge decided this wasn't right, and gave him a deadline on which the monument had to be removed. The first judge refused, someone else filed an ethics case against him, and the second judge had him suspended from his job.
What does all this mean? While the government steals our hard-earned money under the disguise of taxes, and terrorism/war steals our feeling of safety, GOD is being removed from every facet of our life. First, it was prayer in schools (what is happening in our schools?) that had to go because of ONE woman. Then, it was the removal of 'under God' from the Pledge of Allegiance by ONE man. And, now, it's the removal of the Ten Commandments from the Judicial Building by ONE judge. What is going to be the next attack?
I know that the Ten Commandments can't be removed from our hearts. But, if we aren't allowed to have His Word displayed publicly, His Word kept out of our school and it's functions, it won't be long until we aren't allowed to speak about GOD or anything referring to God and His Word in public. You think it couldn't happen? Did you ever think that prayer would be removed from the schools so easily? Neither did I - I grew up in the era of prayer and Bible reading in schools, and thought my kids would also. But, they didn't.
As a pastor's wife and friend of mine recently said, "It's only going to get worse.. I read The Book and it
says so.." And, I agree.
2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Psalms 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.
Master's Table-Devotionals
