Shade Tree Wisdom 4/7/09

The President and Mrs. Obama are being well received in this visit to England and western Europe. That is probably a good thing for future dealings the United States is bound to have with these countries.

Meanwhile, we have this terrible shootings in Birmingham, and the reporter tells us this is about the 40th such random shooting since Columbine, and wonder at whom to point the finger.

Then, in nearly the next report, we are told the Court in the “Very heartland” has made same sex marriage legal, and this is reported as a triumph.

In the beginning God “Made the male and female and said, ‘be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and tend it'”. But the judges on the Iowa Supreme Court are saying, “We are the gods here, we make laws to suit our taste, our desires, our wants”.

After the Hurricane that devastated New Orleans the daughter of Billy Graham was being interviewed on TV and was asked, “How can God allow such a thing?”. She paused reflectively, then said, “We have outlawed prayer from our schools and public affairs, we have removed the Ten Commandments from our courtrooms, we have made it illegal to position crèches on our lawns. How can we place blame on God, since we are saying that we don’t want or need Him”(The substance of her answer).

We forget that there are always consequences, and when we take God away, we turn man loose to follow his own inclination. Remember that God declared, “The imagination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth”. Gen. 8,21.

Ah, we are good at pointing fingers. After Columbine Mr. Scott, whose daughter, Rachel Ray, was one of the victims, wrote a poem that concluded:

“You seek your answers everywhere,

You ask the question ”why?”

You regulate restrictive laws,

Through legislative creed,,

And yet you fail to understand,

That God is what we need.”

GOD, give us men! A time like this demands
Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands;
Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy;
Men who possess opinions and a will;
Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
Men who can stand before a demagogue
And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking!
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
In public duty, and in private thinking;
For while the rabble, with their thumb-worn creeds,
Their large professions and their little deeds,
Mingle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps,
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps.

Josiah Gilbert Holland

GPD 4/7/09