I stumbled upon my old stamp collection which was in my art bin. This stamp was in an envelope along with the rest and it reeks of old oil pastels. I had completely forgotten about it. The message is a great reminder of this country’s humble, yet great beginnings. It is so easy to adopt mottos and make resolutions but things and a whole lot of other factors get in the way to hamper our resolve. This is sad, but the saddest thing is when ideologies and preconceived notions are adopted and codified without the truth.
“ Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain.”
Psalm 127:1
Seattle and Portland, two cities with a homeless epidemic (most are homeless because of drug abuse and addiction) happen to be run by officials who go by a relative standard of morality, where chaos is the new order (a hyperbole, but not too far-fetched) – this being that their municipalities do not enforce the just penalty for those who commit crimes. They have repeat offenders released back to the streets like nothing happened and their elected officials think they are doing the right thing. Some police officers have quit because they’re told their job is to “not do their job.” If their elected officials think lawlessness is not punishable, full blown anarchy is just around the corner.
Even so, God has not abandoned this place. God is in every single spirit-filled believer. While some consider the light of Christianity to be “dying,” that’s only an outward appearance and for a time, it may even appear to be true, but what IS written in God’s Word is weighty. Victory will be the outcome for those who endure in the faith. Endure. This word says a lot. Endurance tells us that there’s no bypassing rough times, only that we go through it and not be defeated.
The Word of God encourages us to make Him as our anchor especially during hard times (Matthew 7:24-25) and even more so at this time when people in this Christian nation are choosing to abandon their faith in God for utopic ideologies that disregard truth.
“Blessed is that man who makes the LORD his trust, And does not respect the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.”
Psalm 40:4