A prayer for The Lord to crush the oppressers of His people ...

2 Kings 19:14 Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD and spread it before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said: "O LORD, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
16 Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.
17 Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands
18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed.
19 So now, O LORD our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O LORD, are God alone."

Good government by the angry

Today's angry stewards of American government - especially those in Washington - seem willing to break our country apart, or to let it come apart by neglect, if they cannot get their own way. For many politicians, expressing blame and anger seems as far as they will go toward fixing things. 

Moving forward in small steps by compromise seems out of the question. A winning party takes everything it can grasp and will not collaborate with the others.

Or, a party will not try to conquer a hill if they cannot be assured of immediate victory in the whole political war. So events take a twisted course.

Whether the issues are war and peace, or immigration, or even government budgets, the national government offers American voters high-handed decrees, partisan battling, and half measures in place of real constitutional government. The smell of anger is everywhere.

Angry partisans should answer two questions before acting on that anger in an issue of government: "Do we have good reason to be angry over this issue?" And, "Are we dealing with our anger in a way that is likely to produce concrete benefits for the country?" 

If our elected representatives and leaders are not willing to be guided by honest answers to these questions, we must replace them at the next election - and at every election.

Let's move our gaze beyond our personal interests and onto the well being of our country!

o The Lord said, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” Jonah 4:4

o Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger ... Ephesians 4:26

Are we really salt?

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet." Matthew 5:13, ESV

Most people of Jesus' time probably thought of salt in terms of its preservative characteristic. As people have studied salt over the years we have learned it is both a preservative and much more.

Royal Society of Chemistry, London, says:

"Why do we need salt? It is the sodium (ions) present in salt that the body requires in order to perform a variety of essential functions. Salt helps maintain the fluid in our blood cells and is used to transmit information in our nerves and muscles. It is also used in the uptake of certain nutrients from our small intestines. The body cannot make salt and so we are reliant on food to ensure that we get the required intake." http://www.rsc.org/get-involved/hot-topics/Salt/do-we-need-salt.asp

If the the world needs feeding with spiritual salt the same way that the human body needs physical salt, what answer comes back when we Christians ask ourselves:

"How does my life, how does the church's life measure up to the Lord's description of us as salt?"

Christ will bury wickedness

He hated wickedness, so much that He bled to wound it to the heart; He died that it might die; He was buried that He might bury it in His tomb; and He rose that He might for ever trample it beneath His feet. Christ is in the Gospel, and that Gospel is opposed to wickedness in every shape.
(Psalm 45:7, Thou hatest wickedness., Spurgeon's Morning & Evening, Morning, May 29)

How should the world behave?

 A thought struck me while reading my morning devotion. As we Christians see the world depart swiftly from what the Bible teaches to be good, are we more concerned that the world is not as nice as we would have it, or that the world seldom glorifies God?

That Sabbath Morning

It was Sabbath morning. The young man woke up and rolled over to look at his older brother who was sitting up, already awake. “I feel bad, said the young man, I feel bad about what we did yesterday.”

“What do you mean?” said the brother.

“I mean following that crowd and shouting ‘crucify him’ at that man. I was mad when he claimed to be Messiah and wasn’t. I wanted to show how I felt. But the Roman soldiers beat him bloody and then made him carry that cross. He was a stumbling mess! Today I'm not angry anymore; I feel like I did something very wrong. The man probably was just crazy, and I should not have shouted for the Romans to kill him.”

“Well,” said the older  brother with a laugh, “he said he would rise again in three days. If he does that, you can go ask him to forgive you.”

“If he does what he said, I will,” replied the young man. “I surely will ask him to forgive me.”

Retirement/Disability Pay Cuts: Personal Costs to Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen & Marines

A veteran's etter to the Editors, the weekend Wall Street Journal, December 21, 2013

The new budget deal doesn't contain "a little" military-pension reform. It will have a devastating effect on the personal finances of active-duty and retiring service members. The proposed 1% annual reduction to uniformed service retired pay Cost of Living Adjustment will reduce their retired pay by 20% at age 62.

While portrayed as a minor change, a 20% reduction in retired pay and survivor-benefit values is a massive cut in military career benefits, a de facto tax and egregious breach of faith to those currently serving, retirees and their families. A sergeant first class or chief petty officer with 20 years service who retired in 2013 would realize an $82,982.20 penalty, 19.3% of his pension by age 62.

Furthermore, the proposal in the budget agreement actually eliminates the appropriate review process, failing to consider long-term readiness and retention outcomes.

Currently serving members look at how they, their families, retirees and survivors are being treated when making career decisions. If Congress arbitrarily cuts the retirement benefit for those who have served their country for over 20 years, there could be a lasting adverse impact on uniformed service career retention, and ultimately, national security.

Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr. (USN, Ret.)

President

Military Officers Association of America