Most of you of Iowans have probably heard about the court decision that was made last Friday. Many are proud. Many are surprised. A select few are bothered.
The pages of our Saturday newspaper was and continues to be smattered with headlines: Court Overturns Gay Marriage Ban, Hundreds Celebrate Decision, Clergy Have Mixed Feelings Over Ruling, Law Professor Calls Unanimity Significant. Its not hard to conclude where this paper stands.
But what about the rest of us? Its hard to hear you amidst the roaring majority.
United States of America, looks like another silent night
I could make this into an argument about what is right and what is wrong. I could write about the decline of family values in America and the inarguable ties to the degradation of the marriage covenant. Or how about our so-called "rights" and who gets the say in which ones we get to enjoy.
But its not about rights. Its about truth. And its hard to find it when we are constantly bombarded with ideals that are contrary to the Word of God.
As we're sung to sleep by philosophies, that save the trees and kill the children
Times like these make you think about what you really believe. Who will you ultimately answer to? This world? Does your life lie within two bookends, from one year to another?
Or is there more?
And while we're lying in the dark, there's a shout heard 'cross the eastern sky
Where does your eternity lie? In your own ability to do the best you can? Or does it lie in the power of an event that changed the lives of all who believe, saving a lost and dying world from the wages of their sin?
In the Old Testament, the Israelites sinned by rejecting the Lord's provision. He had provided them "bread from heaven," but they rejected it time and time again by complaining and grumbling about their seemingly hopeless condition: "There is no bread! There is no water!..."
So he sent venomous snakes amongst them...
For the Bridegroom has returned, and has carried His bride away in the night
Finally they confessed their sins and asked Moses to pray for the Lord to take the snakes away. But he didn't take the snakes away. Instead, he had Moses make a snake and put it up on a pole, so that, "anyone who is bitten can look at it and live."
"Look." That's all they had to do to be healed. "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life." (John 3:14-15).
America, what will we miss while we are sleeping
In John 6:35 Jesus declares, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe."
Come. Look. Believe. Its that simple.
Will Jesus come again and leave us slumbering where we lay
Have you heard and not believed? Are you trying to find sustenance elsewhere? Are you depending on something other than Jesus Christ, the true and only "bread of life" to sustain you?
Are you more concerned with your "rights" than your eternity?
America, will we go down in history as a nation with no room for its King
The Bible says that one day we will all stand before the Lord.
Will we be sleeping?
Those who believe and have accepted Christ's atoning sacrifice, the blood he shed on the cross, will have their answer: Christ died for my sins. He bore the punishment so I wouldn't have to.
What will be yours?
Will we be sleeping?
...And the door was shut. Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
Matthew 25:10-12
