Thursday, December 4, 2014

The Elephant in the Room in Ferguson's Troubles

From http://el-paso.ucg.org/  or call 1-888-886-8632. Please follow this site here.


The Elephant in the Room in Ferguson's Troubles



Printer-friendly version
As I watched and read the news, it struck me that a lot of our national arguments are based on two little words: "my rights." Various articles were titled like this: "How to Flex Your Rights During a Police Encounter," "Your Civil Rights," "Gay Rights," "Abortion Rights," "Right to Life," and even "What You Need to Know About Your Rights at the Airport." And here's one that I thought was somewhat humorous: "You're Smoking Pot and My Rights."
All of this came to mind as I was watching the news of the Ferguson rioting. While people were demanding their rights, some even burning down buildings and looting, the leaders held their meetings. The leaders gathered together to try and come up with solutions. One solution that came out of the meetings was to spend more money by ordering body cameras for the police. Will this solve the problem? Unfortunately the answer is ultimately no. When we try to solve big problems like this through human efforts, we're totally ignoring the “elephant in the room!” The leaders of Ferguson, Missouri, are simply ignoring what started this whole mess in Ferguson.
So what is the "elephant in the room" that the leaders of Ferguson, the United States, and the world refuse to look at? The heart! The heart is sick and must be changed. No matter how many body cams we buy, no matter how much training is offered to police forces, it will not solve the problem. No matter how much protesting people do for their rights, as long as we ignore the elephant in the room, the condition of our hearts, humanity's problems will never be solved!
So how do you heal or fix the heart? It's through repentance and placing God's laws in our hearts. These laws are found in Exodus 20. Instead of trusting in human efforts like body cams, why not teach people the basic principles that God laid out in the Ten Commandments? These Ten Commandments are laws that God placed in motion that are designed to show us how to love one another. Can you imagine how different our world would be if the law of the land was governed by the Ten Commandments? There would be no need for body cameras for police, no need for rioting and no need for demanding our rights!
The Bible tells us that this is Satan's world (2 Corinthians:4:4). In this current age, things will only progressively get worse and worse as people throw out God's laws that would make them happy. Instead, they prefer to demand their rights while ignoring the rights of others.
Jesus Christ admonishes us: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another" (John:13:34-35, New International Version). One defition of love is in the keeping of the Ten Commandments (1 John:5:3). The apostle Paul wrote about how powerful that love is: "Love beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things" (1 Corinthians:13:7, King James Version).
The real elephant in the room that is being ignored is mankind's efforts to fix their problems without first fixing their hearts. The heart can only be fixed through repentance; turning our hearts to God, and abiding by His Ten Commandments. When this is done, there will be no more demanding "my rights!" We will ask, "How can I serve and help you?" That beautiful world is coming, so don't lose hope as you see these horrible things unfold before your eyes. Things will get better!

No comments:

Post a Comment