On The Edge

 

 

                                                                  - Photo by Jeff Petersen

I'm a little on edge. 

Maybe it's the most recent government bailouts, or the casual way we add trillions to our national debt, or the entitlement mindset of children. Maybe it's our passive acquiescence to the loss of freedom or our abdication of personal responsibility.

Hey, maybe I'm just turning into a crotchety old man.

But I think we've got some things upside down and backwards.

Seems to me most people perpetually struggle with the same basic problem.

Everyone is trying to figure out how to get someone else to pay for what they want.

It's starting to bug me.

Luke 6:38  -  If you give to others, you will be given a full amount in return. It will be packed down, shaken together, and spilling over into your lap.

Comments

[Ron S]

Thanks for posting that. I was starting to worry that it was just me that felt that way. ;-)

[Thomas Faulstich]

Pastor,
You have a right to feel edgy these days. As long as the Federal Reserve has control of the money, this nation will be in danger. Those that control the money make the rules. My advice is to pray and to prep. We must put Christ first, and praise him both in the good times and in the bad.

[Mark McClean]

"Maybe it's our passive acquiescence to the loss of freedom or our abdication of personal responsibility."

I'm not sure if the majority of Americans who enjoy in the abundant freedoms the United States provides for their daily existence fully appreciate this sentence.

If 9/11 were multiplied by 100 and a mushroom cloud rose high into the sky above a major American city maybe then we would appreciate our freedoms. Because they would be gone. In their place would be "security measures" enacted for the good of socity to "protect and defend" our material way of life.

The masses will embrace security for themselves and their families before they embrace freedom and the struggles it demands to stay alive within this fallen world.

History proves over and over that freedom's greatest threat comes not from enemies abroad but from within it's own shores.

When the majority of Americans are willing to take a "hand out" instead of a "hand up" passive acquiescence rules and we are slouching towards Gomorrah.

I recently read the following which gave me pause;

"About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier: 'A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.'

'A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.'

'The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
3. From courage to liberty;
4. From liberty to abundance;
5. From abundance to complacency;
6. From complacency to apathy;
7. From apathy to dependence;
8. From dependence back into bondage'

This same article had the opinion the United States is currently at number 7. I agree.

Many big-name Christians today believe those of us who choose to weigh our decisions by looking a few moves ahead at the possible consequences our governmental good-intentions might portend for the furture are "fear mongers".

To them I quote Jesus from Luke 12: 54 - 56

He also said to the crowds, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, 'A shower is coming.' And so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, 'There will be scorching heat,' and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

Jesus clearly expects us to read the signs of the times. The trick is obey Him both in the reading and in our response to what we discern.

I pray for your daily Pastor that positioned as you are, in the midst of the storm, you will stay true to the specific calling on your life and run hard through the finish line into the arms of the one who calls you.

[Mark McClean]

Who knows what made me do more "Googling" on the quote mentioned in my post above but I did and sure enough I discovered there is a discrepancy as to the accuracy of the date and author/s. The link below does a good job of analyzing it's historical origins and author's authenticity.

http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html

Sorry about that, however I still believe in the essence of point being made.

[Dianne Ranes]

It majorly bugs me also and I'm glad to find out I'm not the only one.