An Outrage!
This is a rewrite of a 2016 devotional in an attempt to address the situation we find ourselves in today.
The mouth of the righteous is a well of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins. – Proverbs 10:11-12 NKJV.
Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…. – Galatians 5:19-21a NKJV.
Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. – James 3:13-18 NKJV.
What has happened and is happening in Afghanistan is an outrage! It is awful, horrible, a travesty! It was so preventable! The U.S. Embassy was evacuated leaving all of the records for the Taliban. This could not have been an accident giving the Taliban the records they need to target all who have helped America in the past. Leaving Bagram airbase to the Taliban prior to all Americans and Afghans who have been helping us being taken to safety could not have been an accident. All American troops leaving Afghanistan with all of the weapons left behind could not have been an accident. It had to all have been a very evil plan which benefits our enemies: the Taliban, ISIS, China and Russia. It is an outrage! But all of us Americans bear some responsibility.
What is the problem that has created such a racial divide, hate and violence in the United States? What is the problem that now appears to have given us a plague of bad leaders? Leaders who appear to be acting in concert with our enemies. John Adams, the second president of the United, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence long ago identified the problem we now see in the United States. Adams said this: “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Franklin Graham in his essay “America the Beautiful?” in a 2016 issue of Decision Magazine writes, “Wherever Christianity flourishes, freedom flowers. Wherever it is marginalized, tyranny, despotism, and eventually anarchy will inevitably follow.”
The solution to the hatred, the racial divide, and the violence is obvious. The solution to this plague of bad leaders is obvious. The people who make up these United States of America must turn to God; we desperately need a spiritual awakening to sweep across America. No presidential change, no amount of new laws, no amount of great speeches will change the hearts of Americans. Only God is able to change and renew the hearts, lives, and attitudes by writing His law upon our hearts.
The Bible tells what we must do in multiple places similar to Galatians 5:16 which says, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” It will take all of us, turning from the godless evil that threatens our freedom, and turning to a real walk with God to bring to an end the outrages we now see destroying our nation and really the world. Let it begin with me; let it begin with you, as we seek to daily obey the law of our God which He has written upon our hearts.
(It is an outrage what has happened and is happening in Afghanistan!)