In God I trust, I will not be afraid.

Psalms 56:4, ESV

 

When I was a kid, you could get a coke and a candy bar for about 15 cents. The same items would cost about $3.50 today. A gallon of gas was around 20 cents, today it is about $2.75. A 1,000 sq. ft. house would have cost around $8,500, while today it will set you back about $150,000. My point is that today things are about 20-25 times as much as they were when I was a kid. This is not right!

 

When my parents in law in 1979 built the home my wife and I now live in, it cost about $48,000. Today, the real estate taxes are about $4,000 with a homestead exemption, and about $4,800 without. That means that the state I live in expects us to pay them the same amount that the house originally cost every 10-12 years. And they do not own the house, we do. Furthermore, the house is 45 years older now than when it was built. Still, the state which did nothing to create this home believes that they are entitled to its original value every ten years. This is not right!

 

For the first 130 years of this nation, there was no such thing as an income tax, few places had sales tax, and real estate taxes were considered immoral and unconstitutional. Today the average American works about four to six months to pay off all of these taxes - about 1/3 to 1/2 of the year! Even Pharoah only took about 1/5 when the world sold their property and their very bodies to him during the great famine of Joseph's time. And he held the people as virtual slaves! Again, this is not right!

 

So, what is the point? People have always had to deal with taxes and higher prices, and they have always found a way to survive, haven't they? 

 

The answer to that is that they shouldn't have to pay more than their fair share. As prices went up, it began to take both spouses working full-time just to make ends meet. Because of this, families had to parcel out their children to other people to raise during working hours. And for single households, many individuals are finding that they have to work multiple jobs just to pay the bills. People's physical and mental health have taken serious declines, adding to their overall expenses as they struggle to pay higher and higher medical and insurance bills.

 

Add this to the serious decline in church attendance in recent years. God has been taken out of the public schools (some of His teachings are dangerous, you know) and the number of people who do not even believe in God, much less in Jesus, is growing exponentially. Without God, people have been making their own standards. In modern times, a man can be a woman if he wants, and a woman can be a "furry" if she feels like she is really a cat trapped in a human body. Speaking of the human body, many people do not realize that the tiny body that is forming in a woman's body during a pregnancy is even human - at least not until they say so.

 

What all of this has resulted in is a nation that is becoming more stressed and less secure as the days go by. So, what can we do? 

 

The solution is not easy, but it is possible. First, Americans need to turn back to God. They need to stop accepting the influence of sin in their lives and in the lives of their children. Then, we need to insist that our leaders do the same. A country whose leaders do not fear God will find that their leaders will lie, cheat and steal just to enrich their own lives - all at the expense of those they claim to serve. This personal enrichment of the ruling class and their cronies are large contributing factors to the high rates of inflation and taxation that we have been experiencing in recent years. The fact of the matter is that we have a "God problem" not a financial problem. 

 

The high rates of inflation, taxation, crime, mental disease, and every other negative problem we might have are but symptoms of a nation that has lost its moral bearings because they have abandoned the standards of God and have replaced them with the ever-changing standards of their own. The majority of society's problems could be cured if we would just return to God. I know that this sounds too simple, but the fact is that most real solutions are not all that complicated...

 

but they are hard!

 

And because they are hard, most people will not even try. And because they will not try, the challenges we face today that are a direct result of the sins we have committed yesterday will only get larger. And the larger they get, the more stressed we will become until we finally reach a breaking point. So, what can we do?

 

The first thing we must understand is that all of these problems did not happen overnight, and they cannot be solved overnight. However, as we have all found when we have a big mess to clean up, we will have to start cleaning up or the mess will just get bigger. So, start! Get your spiritual life right before God. If you have been sinning, then you need to repent. Insist that those who are in the circle of family and friends that are under your control do the same. Then, together, we can start replacing our godless leaders who refuse to repent and put into office those who will serve God. Do the same with your local schools and at your workplace. If you cannot change these places, leave and go to schools and places of employment that will respect God and His standards.

 

None of this will be easy, and all of it will take time. Pray for God's help and look to His Word for your direction. And start today, because if you do not it will only be harder tomorrow. Finally, stop fearing what others will think about you or what they might do to you when you do finally start to get your spiritual house in order and insist that they do the same. Once we stop fearing man and start trusting God, we will find that all things are possible. 

 

Or... we can continue doing what we have always done, and we will continue getting what we have always had. The choice really is yours, so go ahead, be bold, and choose!