The Morning After

From My Perspective - - -

The time of Celebration finally comes to an end – the last balloon has floated down; the last bit of confetti is brushed from ones clothing; the Band packs its instruments to leave – the festivities are over! But then – The Morning After comes – along with the weariness of celebration; the hangovers and headaches; a reality that you’re in a strange room with unknown people; gazing and wonderment are also realities - - Then what? As in most “Morning After” experiences – time will tell us the “then what” in terms of what took place amid the celebration and euphoria.

When one is elected who responds to a challenge regarding “redistribution of wealth” with a scoffing and a scathing comment that the opponent believes “selfishness is a virtue” – that is a morning after reality. When Wal-Mart is unionized and “low prices” are just a part of a fading memory – that is a morning after reality. When the coal industry that accounts for 40% of our energy is taxed into oblivion and the “we will shut them down” and “put them out of business” – that is a morning after reality! When all taxes increase to cover the cost of checks for $1,000.00 being sent to the more than 40% who pay no taxes – that is a morning after reality. When Military Spending is reduced by 25% and troops are no longer supplied with armaments and supplies as they risk their lives for liberty and freedom – that is a morning after reality. When the swelling rhetoric and the manifold promises become just emptiness and more “government-speak” – that is a morning after reality.

The Minor Prophets addressed all kinds of situations. They had heard the swelling rhetoric and many promises (along with threats) from the leaders of their day. They had seen the emptiness of the promises and the harshness of political power. They addressed the people who were striving to survive the oppression, occupation of hostile forces, the loss of everything they prized and cherished. Micah was one of God’s spokesmen who prophesied throughout the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, roughly 777–717 BC. His message was clear in Micah 2:1-4, “Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning's light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud a man of his home, a fellowman of his inheritance. Therefore, the Lord says: I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity. In that day men will ridicule you; they will taunt you with this mournful song: We are utterly ruined; my people's possession is divided up. He takes it from me! He assigns our fields to traitors." Our “Morning After” will soon reveal the extent to which there will be reality in place of revelry, and consequence in place of celebration. What can one do on “The Morning After” as the reality of it all unfolds?

Consider these things with me - and remember that the Eternal God is Always Sovereign; He is Always in Control; He Always Accomplishes His Perfect Will. When a nation has chosen to Abort its babies; remove Prayer and Bible Reading from the Public Education system; legalize same gender unions and marriages; allow for Evolution to be taught and disallow Creation from being mentioned; to redefine our Foundations that we are a “Christian” nation so that now it embraces – Jews, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, etc. – can the Eternal God be pleased? Will He condone what He condemns? Will He bless what He rejects and will judge? In the midst of the transition through which this nation has already begun to pass, we must remember that God is in control of judgment for the consequences of ones actions and choices. In Romans 9:15 through 18 (Exodus 33), the Lord speaks to Moses: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh (Exodus 9:16): I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” Do not lose your hope and confidence – we are still in the hand of our God Who is Always in Control and will do all His Holy Will.