On this memorial day,
We honor the men and women who have unselfishly given their lives for the freedoms that we cherish here in the United States of America. And it is the solemn responsibility that each and everyone of us have to insure that the lives of the people who protect our great nation have not done so in vain. We have voted men and women into office to lead us down the path of freedom and preserve the constitutional rights of all Americans.

In conflicts throughout history, men and women have lost their lives over political beliefs, some right and some wrong, yet still our service people have unselfishly given their lives despite those beliefs.

We as recipients of this great and gracious gift should uphold the individual lives of these great Americans and know when it is time to stand for their lives and not allow them to be so needlessly wasted. Our selfless servicemen have been fighting a battle against terrorism in a country that regards our government as the terrorist. And if we only take the moment given us to peer behind the curtain we would see that our American men and women are being placed in harms way not for the fight against terrorist, but for political gain of a person trained and raised in nothing more than the Chicago way of politics.
One only has to look at the government official of Illinois, who are currently in prison, to understand that this standing president is keeping our military engaged in conflict only to protect the unemployment numbers before an upcoming election. If our military personnel were to come back home they would flood our economy with an enormous amount of individuals searching for a job that is not there. So today, as we celebrate the lives of our service personnel and thank them for a job well done it is our responsibility to take an account of our stance and ask ourselves one question. Is the lives of our precious men and women worth another day of protected political unemployment numbers? Or will we heed once more to the cry of the salesman pleading,"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."

We walk by faith not by sight

 


1Sa 6:19
And He struck the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of Jehovah. He even struck seventy among the people, including fifty chief men. And the people lamented because Jehovah had struck the people with a great slaughter.


Years ago, Hollywood produced a movie called the Wizard of Oz. In the movie, a dog named Toto pulled back the curtain of the great and powerful Oz to expose a salesman from Kansas. A simple and ordinary person just like Dorothy.

Since that time, it appears our society has focused on being Toto and revealing the voice behind the curtain. Politicians it seems, are relentless in appearing godly in character while exposing the devilish side of their opponent. Television news journalist likewise project this better than thou persona on t.v. during their interviews and hope that by their baited questions they may hook their prized fish of controversy. We have reality t.v. that places you the viewer in the judgement seat of approval or dis-approval by normally some kind of voting or other type of communication. All the while we continue the downward spiral of this society while peering down our noses at others and making ourselves jubilant in the fact that at least we are not like that person. It is all well and good until someone pulls back our curtain and we scream,"What you lookin at Willis?"

The unfortunate thing is as time goes by we devalue people and even their worth of contribution to society. We write books even about patriarchs of old with one objective in mind; To bring the patriarch to a position equal to ourselves or with great jubilation if they land lower than us. Thomas Jefferson was just one example. We all heard of the accusation yet never heard of the retraction. Why do we do this? Could it be an attempt by evil men to control society? Or is it simply a way that we can excuse ourselves from contributing to the greater good of society? Are we asking that age old question once again? Am I my brothers keeper? Is there a lesson from the past we can learn from? I believe so.



The men of Beth-Shemesh couldn't help themselves they had to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and see what was inside. By peering inside they found their own destruction. Unbelief and faith cannot coexists on the same plain. It is like trying to make light and dark inhabit the same space it won't happen. What does this have to do with what we were speaking about? Honor. Pure and simple honor. Not to many years ago we had a society that was based on the honor system. There were some things that you just didn't say. There were things that you just didn't do. There were some questions that you just didn't ask. I remember as a child, overhearing a man ask my grandfather, "So, Lemmie just how many cows do you have on your land?" My grandfather replied,"Well, why don't you just ask me how much money I have in the bank?" You see that was just plain rude! Well, it's like someone trying to pull back your curtain to see what was going on in your house. Hm mm.