In God We Trust

It seems to me that our country is trying to remove "In God We Trust" from our money and some patriotic songs. To me more threatening is the fact that we may not trust in God regardless of what our money may say.

Don't get me wrong I like the "In God We Trust" on our money and I like saying we are "one nation under God." Our country should reflect an overriding principle in which our country was founded on. That our people and our government recognize the God of heaven and are proud to display that fact at every opportunity is a very good thing.

The real problem is not if we take the phrases off of our money or remove them from some songs - would that really change America - but the change might reflect an truth about America that many of us don't want to acknowledge - America does not trust in God.

Even though we are not Israel of old, I believe that any nation that turns its back on God will follow the path of Israel - national troubles, decline in spirituality and in time honored values - just to mention a few. We must remember the words of God to Solomon:

"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."*

May America seek God!

*The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) (2 Ch 7:14). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

Sid

Bite The Bullet

I’ve been made aware of a story that came out of the Civil War. We all have heard the story of “biting the bullet.” Do you know where that phrase came from? I always thought that it came for the Old West where someone was shot and they gave him a bullet to bite on while they removed the bullet.
In fact, during the Civil War the Union would provide their soldiers ammunition in little paper sacks. To open the sack you had to hold your mussel on one hand and the paper sack in the other and tear the sack open with your teeth. Pour in the powder, put in the bullet, put in paper for the wadding and then you could shoot. So to be a soldier you had to have two opposing teeth to bite the bullet.
Abraham Lincoln issued in March 3, 1863 the Enrollment Act of Conscription. An Ohio politician went to his desk one day and found a draft notice there. He didn’t want to go to war. He knew what the rules were and that weekend he went home and knocked out all of his front teeth so he could not bite the bullet. He probably was not amused to come back to work on Monday and find out that the letter was a fake orchestrated by his co-workers.
There is a moral to that story – to try to escape conflict is more costly that to engage in it. So many of us try to stay out of the conflict. But in reality we must be soldiers and engage the enemy. How are you doing at your post?

Sid

Who's Your Mother

Steve Flaig, of Grand Rapids , Michigan , had always known he was adopted. On his 18th birthday, he decided that he wanted to try to find out the identity of his birth mother. His adoptive parents, Pat and Lois Flaig, supported him in his decision.

Flaig asked D.A. Blodgett for Children, the agency that arranged his adoption, for his background information. He received the information a couple of months later, and it included his birth mother’s name.

Flaig’s birth mother, Christine Tallady, who was single and very young when Flaig was born, left the adoption record open, thinking her son might want to contact her someday....She was right!

When Flaig received his mother’s name, he began searching the Internet for her address to no avail. But last October, after searching for four years with no results, he realized that he had been spelling his mother’s surname incorrectly as “Talladay.” When he typed “Tallady” into a search engine on his computer, he came up with an address less than a mile from the Lowe’s store where he worked.

Excited about his possible find, he mentioned it to his boss at Lowe’s. In amazement, his boss said, “You mean Chris Tallady, who works here?” Flaig was stunned.
For the next several weeks, he said, “I would walk by her, look at her from a distance, not knowing how to approach her.” Should he just walk up to her and say, “Hi, I’m Steve, your son.” What if she rejected him?

Finally, on Friday, December 14, 2007, Tallady and Flaig, who had known each other casually as co-workers for several months, met for the first time as mother and son. It was a tearful and joyful reunion. *

The Bible gives us the story of how we are adopted by God. We are brought into the family of God. But this story of Steve Flaig speaks of reunion. God is our Father whether we accept that fact or not. Our sins have separated us from this holy family. When we come to God through the blood of His Son, then we are reunited with this Father. What a glorious day it will be to be reunited with the Father in heaven for eternity. May our daily lives be focused on seeking the Father.

* Story received from David Sargent (preacher, relative in Mobile, AL) Information gleaned from “Man's journey to find birth mom ends — at work.” By Pat Shellenbarger of Newhouse News Service in The Seattle Times -- http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004081699_found19.html

Sid