Tuesday; May 26
Last Sunday morning, I was talking about an Old Testament hero by the name of Shamgar. If you aren’t familiar with his story, it goes like this: “After him came Shamgar the son of Anath, who struck down six hundred Philistines with an oxgoad; and he also saved Israel.” (Judges 3:31). I was trying to make the point that in the hands of a man of faith even a rudimentary weapon like an oxgoad is good enough. I think to emphasize my point, I said something like, “You don’t have to have an automatic weapon in our arsenal to be an effective Christian.” … and then, I stopped. Because of the times in which we live, I felt compelled to make sure people understood that I was speaking figuratively. In years past, I wouldn’t have given it a second thought because I knew that people wouldn’t take me literally, but in way too many instances, people have resorted to violence to make their point.
I am almost embarrassed to say that there is something wrong with our “united” states of America – especially when it comes to conflicting ideology. I am not talking about philosophies about how to live, I mean the realities of how we live. With all the assassination attempts, lawsuits, protests and general mayhem we are struggling to demonstrate a sense of coexistence. Folks, we are better than this! We have a spiritual and moral obligation to live in harmony with one another!
I don’t know that we can make a significant change in our behavior in a matter of months or even years, but if each one of us is willing to live by the Golden Rule … treat others the same way you want them to treat you (Luke 6:31) … we can make this a better – and a safer – place in which to live.
Think About It!