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by Nathan Buck

Ok, its already all over the news. I am going to jump in, because we are seeing this week's Bible passage play out in real time.

Read Romans 10:16-21, then follow the trail Paul gives you by reading the scriptures he quotes in verses 19-21. Be sure to read their context - the verses before and after. (I strongly encourage you to read all the verses of Isaiah 65 not just the two Paul quotes here.)

These verses describe Israel's rebellion and their denial of God, even as God constantly reached out to them. He made sure they heard His promise of rescue and restoration from our sin. He extended grace for them to hear and believe that He sent Jesus as the fulfillment of that promise. And they remained obstinate, even aggressively rejecting and redefining their own teachings and beliefs to avoid admitting what God had done. And yet God held out, and still holds out, hope for those who will hear the Truth and believe.

Israel's rebellion was and is a human problem. Our own rebellion in America is identical. When those who break the law with judicial activism, support contempt orders and jailing of a clerk who is upholding what is still congressional and constitutional law, we really are on the verge of becoming a lawless nation, driven by desire, avarice, and ignorance.

Under what dually passed law should these licenses be issued? Great question, since there was no law passed by Congress whereby restraint or permission is supported. (The supreme court has no power to create law, even by re-interpretation.) And yet social media threads are filled with people arguing and justifying their opinions of what should happen to Kim Davis, and what "the law of the land" is.

Like it or not, Democrat Clerk Kim Davis is actually upholding the law and exposing the illegal judicial activism happening in our time. Ironically, those who seek to destroy her position by declaring her a criminal are actually revealing their own conviction to dismantle the Constitution and the laws that govern our country.

Think about it and look carefully at the facts. Due process of creating a law is being ignored. Amendments of the Constitution are being ignored and criminalized (free speech, religious freedom, etc). Vitriolic rhetoric has replaced reason, common sense, respect, and mutually beneficial discourse. If we are not a nation in rebellion against one another, I don't know what we are.

The saddest part is that we are not just in rebellion with one another. We are not just imploding morally and decaying into vicious opportunistic factions against each other. The path we are on (even for many Christians) is one of rebellion against God in order to define our lives the way we want to.

If you are still reading at this point, thank you. You are truly listening and not caught up in the reactive, vapid, cauldron of opinionating all over one another. So, please consider this from this week' passage. Romans 10 and Isaiah 65 are linked in how Paul is explaining God's perspective on Israel - and on us. As you read both passages together, you may be challenged. Even in the middle of outright rejection and attack, God does three things that followers of Christ need to firmly adjust our perspectives with.

First, God holds out His promise and stays present. He stays engaged in loving and speaking the Truth in love. (faithfulness)

Second, He allows the rebellious to experience the full consequences of their actions. (consistency/justice)

Third, He holds out hope and persistently searches for those few who may wake up and realize the Truth. (mercy/grace/hope)

In the middle of the turmoil of our culture, are you grounded in God's love and grace, so that you can have the same attitude as He does? Hold on. Hang in there. And follow His lead.

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