Protection and Responsibility

Funny, some men won’t carry umbrellas – “it’s not manly”. (I can’t help but question, and it’s manly to get wet??) Little girls love to play with them. Some are as pretty as they are practical. Shading us from the sun, or protecting us from a downpour of rain – they serve their purpose, only when we carry them with us. How many times have I groaned because I’ve left mine in the car?

It’s not practical to carry my large, purple umbrella around with me everywhere. There are clearly days when it just isn’t going to rain.

But there is an umbrella of protection we can’t afford to put down and leave behind.

When hell rains down a flood of catastrophes down upon us as individuals or as a nation or even as the human race, where’s our umbrella of protection?

Those catastrophes are sins and their consequences; murders, hate, prejudices, deceptions, witchcraft, radical Islam (or other radical belief systems) deviant sexuality, choices with no acknowledged consequences.

We can choose to lay down our umbrella. We can be seduced to put it down, or bribed, or deceived by empty promises to cast aside the faith required to do things God’s way. But we are the ones that lay it down when we choose to do things our own way; we are ultimately the ones responsible.

This umbrella is made of faith in God and His holy Word, prayer and relationship with the One Who created us.

The other day I heard someone say, “Who’s talking about the problem? The problem is a lack of godliness.”

God instructs us to “Be holy, as I am holy.” (See Leviticus 11:44 & 45, 19:2 and 1 Peter 1:16 at the bottom of this post.)

Throughout the Bible we are warned repeatedly about sin and its consequences, yet today, even Christians choose to ignore what God has said, leaving us wide open for the onslaught of evils that permeate our society today.

Can I say it enough? We need to be in God’s Word, reading it, learning it, depending on it, and obeying it – or suffer the consequences.

Leviticus 11:44 For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: (KJV)

Leviticus 11:45 For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. (KJV)

1 Peter 1:16 Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy. (KJV)