Today's Devotional
January 2, 2009
Subject: Nobody's Right If Everybody Is Wrong
Psalm 40:10 - "I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation."
It's interesting to see our country flail about as we try to decide what to do about bailouts, inflation, joblessness, ethical and moral decay, greed, lust and the list goes on and on. While at the same time we're trying to make decisions on those things, we've got an organization called The Freedom From Religion foundation and they are very upset because we're invoking God in our inauguration. The President of this organization was on the radio the other day stating that we are a secular country and there should be no mention of God in governmental or public affairs.
Then there's that oft-stated, always-misused phrase used by so many in this country, "separation of church and state," to ensure that anything that speaks of spiritual matters is not allowed to be aired in any forum. There are our schools, where we teach students that it is important to get the best grades possible because good grades means more money and better lifestyle and we neglect to teach as enthusiastically ethics and morality. The students understand what we're saying in their contemporary language and it jives with the message they get from famous rapper 50-cent, "get rich or die trying." Books and TV ads and infomercials abound with ideas about how to get rich. It's all simply SICKENING!!!
I make a statement to my high school students when I introduce them to my JROTC program. I tell them, "other teachers will teach you that "A's" are important. Here in ROTC, we teach you why getting an "A" the right way is more important."
I really just don't know any other way to put this. All of our problems in this country and the world are due only to the fact that we have forsaken righteousness. If we decide that we want to take the issue of right and wrong out of everything that happens in our society, then we'll end up with pretty much what we've got. Bank executives who were giving loans to people who couldn't afford them can be excused in this world. Congressmen, businessmen and even preachers living openly gay or promiscuous lifestyles are okay because if you declare "righteousness," that would be judging and we don't do that any more in this country.
Our problems are not economic and they are not intellectual. We don't need more money or more brains. We need people like you and me declaring righteousness, as the Psalms writer said, not "hiding it in our heart," but instead, declaring it, teaching it and the hardest part, living it.
Today, let us, as believers, be the voices in this world that God made us to be. Let us be the voices proclaiming in this lost and confused world, His righteousness and truth. Then He will surely heal our land.
Carlen
