We live in a very superficial, throwaway, fast paced, fast food, microwave society. We live as though there is no tomorrow giving no thought to an eternity that awaits us and then what? Advertising has really influenced us as a nation. More importance is placed on the outward appearance than on the inward man.
“But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
I Peter 3:4
“For all our days are passed away in Thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” Psalms 90: 9-10
Each day I look around me and see children taken to daycare centers. Lots of them. During those times I think within myself about this nation and where it is headed. We have sold our souls for a mess of pottage. We listened to Hollywood’s version of life and not God’s view of how we are to conduct our lives. We have profaned God’s Word. We throw away friends, spouses, abort babies simply because they have become inconvenient and no longer serve our purposes. Just like that….. and keep right on down the rocky road of sin doing the same thing year after year. I sometimes wonder during those times just when will it end. Will we ever go back to God’s Word as a nation and seek His counsel in all that we do? After all, His Word is/should be our Guide. We are reading the Mind of God when we read His Word and the only way that we are going to know how to become a child of God, His pattern for worship, how to raise our families, how to conduct business, how to treat others is through that Word and that Word alone.
“O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
Jeremiah 10:23
We read in Genesis the account of Esau selling out (sold his birthright) for a mess of pottage. A birthright that was his, for he was the first born. He saw no profit in that birthright. Ultimately our Lord would come through the holder of the birthright and bless the nations of the earth. He sold out to a very short view. He failed to see the sacredness of that birthright.
“And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint: therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way: thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Genesis 25:29-34
America as a whole has done the same. Sold her virtue for those things which are of no profit to us as a nation.
Character, integrity, truth, honesty, virtue, righteousness. These are the values that support, uphold a nation, state, community, businesses, homes, and they are only found in His Word, and we can only attain those values by reading His Word and painting brushstrokes on our souls each day with those traits. We cannot walk it back and get them instantly, for these truths and integrity is a moment by moment, day by day, hour by hour, year by year living of those values. My prayer for our homes is to return back to Him, for as the home goes, so goes the nation.
“The spectacle of advertising creates images of false beauty so suave and so impossible to attain that you will hurt inside and never even know where the hurt comes from, and in all pictures now, the famous people have already begun to look lost and lonely.”
Eileen Light