Of Logs and Of Splinters

I recently took to the interwebsies to write my government and let them know what I thought about the mayhem these days and what they should do about it. I said more or less the following, which you are welcome to copy and paste so that you may likewise express yourself if you so desire.

Hello Congressman. I am writing today with two primary concerns. Firstly, I would like to know why Hydroxychloroquine, a drug that has been in common use for years, is not readily available to the American public and the doctors that care for them. If it is not effective, that is no reason for it to be restricted. The worst it can do is nothing. Please work to end the censorship of advocates of Hydroxychloroquine (and anything else that doesn’t line up with the mainstream narrative). Secondly, I am frankly fed up with the high-pressure propaganda regarding face masks. The scientific verdict is certainly not clear on the efficacy of masks, and even if it were this is an issue that should be left to the responsibility of individuals. The societal pressure towards masking is becoming suffocating, and is severely disproportionate to science related to the actual issue at hand. We are creating a culture where someone can be shouted at in the supermarket for not wearing a mask. This is not an OK “new normal.” It’s time to #unmaskAZ. Please stand up against the encroachments of an overreaching government. This Arizonan will stand with you. God gives the government one job- to punish evil and praise good (Romans 13). Making healthcare decisions for the American people is far outside of that jurisdiction. As a civil official, you have a duty to submit to King Jesus and use the authority He has given you to protect the rights of the innocent (Isaiah 1). Please do your part to make Orwell fiction again. Respectfully, A Concerned Arizonan

It is incredibly easy to contact your elected officials these days. And as I went through this process, I was convicted. Here I am taking the time- not much time at all, really- to voice my concerns about issues that are in my face. Or rather on my face. Or, at least, the government wants them to be. But I digress.

Why have I not been vocalizing with faithful ferocity over much greater travesties of justice for years? Innocent babies are slaughtered in my country every single day, and how many letters have I sent to my government officials about that? Sexual perversion is exalted at every turn in the public sphere- what have I done about that? Americans everywhere are being robbed blind by currency manipulation and tyrannical taxation, and do I do more than talk?

Isaiah 1:17 tells us to “seek justice, reprove the ruthless; defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” I think abortion doctors qualify as ruthless; murder victims in the womb count as orphans in need of defense; a Christian baker losing their shirt for standing on their convictions is being treated unjustly; how many widows suffer under the burdens of inflation and taxation?

Which brings me to my title. It is good and right for us to object to the latest manifestations of tyranny. Write your congressman. Call Walmart and tell them that you don’t like having to dress up like Bane to pick up your Wheaties.

But it is also necessary for us to repent of our complicity in getting to where we have gotten. This isn’t an argument for an overactive guilt complex; those of us who are in Christ are forgiven, and there is no condemnation for us. (Rom. 8:1) We can always say “I could have done more,” but we are called only to do what God has laid before us day by day.

However, we are called to repent of our sins as God reveals them to us. Judgment starts in the house of God (1 Peter 4:17); Jesus calls us to take the log out of our own eye first (Matt. 7); when Isaiah came before the Holy One he cried out “woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips…” Before he got to talking about the sins of the people, his sighting of God in His holiness convicted him of his own sin.

So I repent. I repent before God of being complacent about the American holocaust, and our other comfy cultural sins; of not soaking the floor of my prayer closet with sweat and tears as my heart breaks over the sins of my people; of not making use of the means that are in His gracious Providence so readily available to me to contact those who are in authority; of taking the representative nature of our government for granted and being far less shrewd than the children of the world in my squeaky-wheelness.

We should, of course, regularly be repenting of our own personal and daily sins as well. But let’s face it. The only reason baby-murder is still a popular thing in this land- the only reason gay mirage is legal and those unborn Americans who manage to dodge the knife are already drowning in debt- it starts with us. We should have been shouting “thus saith the Lord!” a long time ago.

Rise up, O Church of God!

“Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die,’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. But if you on your part warn a wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your life.” Ezekiel 33:7-9, NASB

#COVID #Masks