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Celebrate a Veteran this week!

On October 8th, 1918, an Army corporal from the mountains of Tennessee did an amazing thing while fighting in World War I.  Alvin York, a shy young man, who didn’t even want to go to war, performed so well in the line of duty he would later be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.  York, who had been converted to Christ after being known as a “hell-raiser”, struggled with going to war because Jesus had taught that we should be peacemakers.  However, he finally reasoned from the Bible that, as he would say,

“If a man can make peace by fighting, then he is a peacemaker.”

His patrol was moving behind German lines who were ‘dug in’ within deep trenches.  The Germans discovered York and his troop, and opened fire.  The American patrol was pinned down and York would later report that the bushes all around him were shot to pieces, yet he was miraculously spared.  At great risk to his life he worked his way around the hillside where he could see the Germans entrenched above his men.  With his Tennessee sharp-shooting skills he began to pick off the German soldiers one at a time, until he had single-handedly killed twenty-five of them; and silenced thirty-five machine guns!  He then surprised a major in the German army and forced him to surrender his entire force of 132 men!

Celebrate a Veteran this week!  They, along with Sergeant York, have preserved our liberty!

We’re in another fight right now for the liberty of this nation:  It’s not on a battleground with guns and planes and tanks.  It’s an internal battle being fought with socialists who want to establish a dictatorial government; the kind of government that gradually takes away your liberty by putting you under more and more government regulation (like having to wear masks in public), and then finally takes away your right to vote; and liberty is then gone!

There are two major difficulties within this battle.  One is continuing the battle to keep socialists out of education and civil government.  The other battle is inside us.  For Jesus told us we must love these enemies who would love to enslave us, or even kill the more influential among us.  Jesus told us, and then at the cross, demonstrated what this kind of love is like.  He stated in Matthew 5:44,

“But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

And yet, Jesus later took time to plat a whip, and beat men he called hypocrites as he drove them out of the temple.  How do we reconcile these two things?  Jesus was teaching us and demonstrating for us how you can “love those” who do injustices, while at the same time standing for justice by stopping their injustice.  The love of Christ inside us can stand for the right and, at the same time, love those who are wronging us and our nation.  We can know we’re doing this when we want justice worked on them so they can have the opportunity to repent, while keeping them from destroying the liberty that would allow their children and ours to hear the Gospel of Christ:  And thus, have the opportunity to repent and surrender these “God-created” lives back to Him Who rightfully owns them!

As we wait for God to restore the integrity of our elections, either by the courts or by His own miracle, let’s resolve that, by His life in us, we’ll love our enemies while standing against their wickedness!

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.