Today is Thursday, November 1st, 2012; Karen's Korner #2434

Taken from a newsletter I received recently:
 
"You spurn all who go astray from your statutes,
for their cunning is in vain."
~ Psalm 119:18 (ESV)
By Dan Puumala
 
"When we reject God's law, we 'go astray'. We invent, devise or make up 'cunning' in our own laws, seeking to do what we consider fair and just. All of us desire justice, though many cannot admit that God's laws are altogether just, right and good. So what happens when man's law are followed rather than God's?
 
"If a nation is not guided by God, the people will lose self-control, but the nation that obeys God's law will be happy."
Proverbs 29:18 ESV.
 
"As this is an election year and in light of our American history and our being a nation of Christians, I think these thoughts are timely. I was taught in school that 'the American experiment' was an ambitious attempt to determine whether self-government could work. In the history of the world it had never happened, although the idea of democracy dates back to ancient Greece. The peoples of the world were always ruled by kings and despots. Up until July 4, 1776, there had bee no long-term successful rule by the people themselves, i.e. self-government.
 
"The warning here in Proverbs 29 instructs that self-rule (self-control in the ESV) will go away when the basis for it is not founded on what God says (His Law). In other words, when God's law is cast aside, others' rules proliferate (someone will take control in a power void!) and self-control is lost. Are we not, in the first quarter of the 21st Century, seeing a proliferation of laws in this country? No matter how many laws we create, they're useless, as the Psalmist points out. Once we have rejected God's laws, we WILL lose self-control, which is to say, our self-government. The American experiment will die, again proving the fallible and rebellious narcissism of sinful man. I am not attempting here an endorsement of a political ideology, but rather to restore honor to God's law in the hearts of our people. If we honor the Word of God......if we listen and obey...we will possess self-control...as individuals and as a nation!
 
*****

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