A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (March 15, 2016)
Woe (judgment is coming) to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! (Isaiah 5:20, Amplified Bible)
From 1989-1999 we lived in Jacksonville FL. Our youngest son Chip attended University Christian High School and played on their varsity basketball team. He never got into any trouble and was always a peacemaker. He was even voted as King for his senior year Homecoming. But there was a bully in his school that picked on Chip for a couple of years, which I was not even aware of until “the incident” happened.
Chip was sitting in class one day and this bully was sitting behind him and kept thumping the back of Chip’s head. Chip asked him to stop several times but he never would. Chip finally had enough of it and stood up and decked the guy right there in the classroom. Of course, Chip was the one that got into trouble.
My point in telling you this story is to show you how bullies can be incorrectly identified. The reaction from Chip was only after months of bullying and repeated tries to verbally get the bullying to stop. Chip was not the real bully even though it could appear that way without knowing all the background. This is where I think we are as a country.
Good people are just fed up with being bullied. You can only keep quite for so long. They are tired of wrong being called right. They are tired of the political correctness that is eroding the very foundation that this country was built on. They are tired of political elites thinking that they know better what is best for this country than the voters. They are tired of all the lies and word gymnastics by the elected officials and the media. It is no surprise to me that a lot of good people feel the same way Chip did. Chip felt he just could not take it any more so he stood up and hit the bully in the mouth.
I have never encouraged violence of any sort but sometimes you just have to stand up. Jesus had to stand up to the money changers! He was not turning the other cheek with these guys. What if we had not stood up to the British? What if we had not stood up to Hitler? What if we don’t stand up to the nuclear despots of the future?
You know what is so amazing about Chip’s story? That bully did not mess with Chip anymore. In fact, they became friends. Think about this. Who are the real bullies in our present world? Is it the ones calling wrong right or the ones that are standing up to the continuous thumping. At some point you have to stand for something or you will lose everything.
We encourage you to pray for our nation and stand up, not with violence but with your vote. Your right to vote is a replacement for violence so be sure to exercise that right with a vote for your favorite candidate.
When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength. Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.” (John 2:14-16, The Message Bible)
