Zephaniah 3:1-2 What sorrow awaits rebellious, polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime! No one can tell it anything; it refuses all correction. It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God.
My Thoughts
When we let evil in we live with the consequences. When we move outside the protection of God we live with the consequences. People often say, "I can do what I want, it doesn't effect anybody but me!" But it does it effects the people around us... our sins touch the lives of others.
I am reminded of a story in the Old Testament (Joshua 7) about Achan. God told the army not to take plunder from the city they destroyed. But Achan didn't do what God ask... it was effecting everybody. When Achan confessed he and his whole family, wife, children and even his livestock were destroyed. They were all destroyed because of the sin of Achan. When the people got rid of the sin of Achan everything was good again.
We have become so politically correct not wanting to step on people's toes, their feelings. But we do this at the cost of letting sin run rampant. That sin effects even the people who are doing their best to do good. We have gone from being a nations that puts God into everything and hides sin... to a nation that flaunts sin and denies God. That is not a good thing. It moves us our from under the protections of God and puts us right in the path of the consequences of sin.
People say we are living in the end times... My grandmother thought that during the Great Depression too. It wasn't yet the end times then. It may not yet be the end times now. During the Great Depression people turned back to God, God was sometimes all they had. Turning back to God changed things... our nation began to grow again, to prosper. It wasn't because the depression was over.. it was because God was in the picture again... God was first and His blessings poured down on our nation once more.
We have the power to change things... not because we are powerful...but because God is all-powerful. What we have to do is love God, do what God expects of us and love others. We have to be honest, upstanding people that always choose to do what God would have us do. If we do that then God will take care of the rest.
