“Seek Yahweh while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to Yahweh, and He will have compassion on him. Turn to our Elohim, for He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 55: 6-7
_____________
#####
Guns are Not the Problem in the United States
Guns are not the problem in the United States that has led to so many mass shootings. If guns were the problem, we would have experienced an epidemic of senseless mass shootings long ago.
Something has changed in our country. It involves all of us. It has to do with the way we live our lives and how we are raising our children. As a nation, we have been becoming progressively more evil for decades. At this point, things are so bad in our nation that we rejoice over evil and try to stigmatize and marginalize anyone who dares to call evil what it is.
It’s time for right minded people to stop going along to get along. Our silence has been interpreted as acceptance by evil people living among us. We have a fight on our hands. To win it, we must change our ways.
As a nation, we have done everything we can think of to remove Yahweh from every aspect of our public life. In our courts and public schools, for example, Yahweh has been all but erased. In the halls of Congress, Yahweh is given lip service and little else. People who revere Yahweh have been systematically sidelined, ridiculed, and silenced. That can’t be allowed to continue.
There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that the changes that are taking place in the public square have infiltrated our homes and influenced us in ways that would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago. If we continue on our current trajectory, our country will be unrecognizable. It certainly won’t be the country that many of us have fought and died to protect.
No enemy did this to us. Ours is a self-inflicted wound, and we are just beginning to reap what we have sown. If we are serious about solving our mass shooting problem, we will invite Yahweh back into our public life and into our homes. If we don’t invite Him back, our problem will get much worse.
Guns are inanimate objects. They are neither good nor evil. Guns become evil in the hands of evil people. Gun restrictions can’t solve that problem. In fact, gun restrictions make our problem worse, because they make it more difficult for decent, law-abiding citizens to defend themselves if they are attacked by evil people living among us. Even if we completely outlawed gun ownership by private citizens, our problem would still remain. Yahweh is our only hope.
The prophet Isaiah addressed problems in Judah that pushed Yahweh to the point that He called in the Babylonians to destroy Judea and take the Jews captive. What we have done is much worse than the things they did. Below is the warning from Yahweh that Isaiah delivered to the people of Judah. They ignored His warning and suffered the consequences.
Woe to those who attach house to house and join field to field, until there is no more room, and you alone are a landowner in the midst of the land! In my ears Yahweh Sabaoth has sworn, “Many houses shall certainly become desolate, even great and fine ones, without occupants. For ten acres of vineyard will yield only one bath of wine, and a homer of seed will yield only an ephah of grain.
Woe to those who rise early in the morning so that they may pursue intoxicating drink, who stay up late in the evening so that wine may inflame them! Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine; but they do not pay attention to the deeds of Yahweh, nor do they consider the work of His hands.
Therefore, My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; and their nobles are famished, and their multitude is parched with thirst. Therefore, Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth beyond measure; and Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her noise of revelry, and the jubilant within her, descend into it.
So, the common people will be humbled and the person of importance brought low. The eyes of the haughty also will be brought low. But Yahweh Sabaoth will be exalted in judgment, and the holy Elohim will show Himself holy in righteousness. Then the lambs will graze as in their pasture, and strangers will eat in the ruins of the wealthy.
Woe to those who drag wrongdoing with the cords of deceit, and sin as if with cart ropes; who say, “Let Him hurry, let Him do His work quickly, so that we may see it; and let the plan of the Holy One of Israel approach and come to pass, so that we may know it!”
Woe 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!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing intoxicating drink, who declare the wicked innocent for a bribe, and take away the rights of the ones who are in the right! (Isaiah 5: 8-23)
If Isaiah were alive today prophesying, Yahweh would include these things on His list:
- Woe to those who brutally murder their unborn children so that their mothers won’t be burdened with them.
- Woe to those who call sodomy and other perversions normal and acceptable behavior.
- Woe to those who are so blind that they refuse to recognize the difference between men and women.
Our contemporary list of woes is too long to include all of them here. Let it suffice to say that as a nation we have abandoned Yahweh. If we don’t change our ways and do right, eventually we will experience Yahweh’s wrath. As things stand now, He is allowing us to suffer the consequences of our disobedience, but He has not intervened directly to inflict pain and suffering on us. I hope that day never comes, because I know what Yahweh is capable of doing. He has done it before, and He will do it again.
As Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” We have no one to blame but ourselves. We have lots of weapons besides guns that we can use to kill ourselves, and many of those weapons are far more dangerous than guns. Refusing to change our ways is like sending Yahweh an engraved invitation to punish us. That’s an invitation He will accept eventually if we don’t change our ways.
#####
_____________
#####
#####
_____________
#####
“I am the good shepherd. I know My sheep and My sheep know Me — just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father — and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason My Father loves Me is that I lay down My life — only to take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from My Father.”
John 10: 14-18
