Illegal immigration is a big
problem in America. Rather than obeying US immigration laws, people are trying
to force their way into the US by hook or by crook. Jesus warned us of a similar situation when people
think they can to get into heaven by means other than accepting Him as their
Lord and Savior. Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter
the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a
robber. The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his
sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen
to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10:1-3
NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Social order breaks down where the people involved do not hold to agreements, then the peace of just transacting is transformed into the conflicts of chaos. When people form a country they agree upon how things will be done and what things will not be done. When the enforcer of agreements begins accepting behavior contrary to the agreement, the agreement itself begins to diminish in two important ways: 1) its scope of coverage shrinks, and 2) the people’s respect for the agreement erodes.
-----Both of these effects lead to the erosion of social order. In the place in the heart from where scope of and respect for agreement were lost, there grows a new respect for whatever is the self’s pleasure and a new, self chosen code of behavior serving that pleasure. With social guidance regarding what is the new pleasure, out of the resulting social disorder social transformation occurs. Without it anarchy emerges.
-----Anyone scaling the wall into the kingdom might, other than not entering through the gate, be a morally fine and righteous person. Anyone entering the country illegally might otherwise be a morally fine and righteous person. But neither does the agreement about entering through the gate nor the agreement about entering the country belong to either the wall scaler or the illegal immigrant. It belongs to Him who made, walled, and gated the pasture and to everyone who desires to abide in the pasture and the agreement, like the country’s laws belong to its government and all of its people. It is not necessarily that the wall scaler or the illegal immigrant are thieves and liars entering the pasture and the country for the expressed purposes of steeling and lying. The thievery is that their chosen form of entry takes away a piece of social agreement without paying an agreed upon price for it. The lie is their proposition that the agreement will not be enforced, that is, there will be a shrinkage of government.
-----Proclaiming such shrinkage is a lie of the wall scaler because God is a consistent enforcer of His agreements. It is what social order requires. If God did not enforce His agreements, then He would be the liar and the thief crawling over the wall would at least be telling the truth. Illegal immigrants are thieves by taking away our agreement right out in the open. But they are not liars! They are telling the truth about the government’s shrinkage from not enforcing its agreement with its own people. Therefore, as we have seen in many ways before, it is our government that is the liar. Together the thieving illegal immigrant and our lying government are effecting social degradation.
-----Thank God Christ is the truth. Thank God He truly upholds the agreements of God’s social order (righteousness.) Thank God those who try crawling over His wall will be cast into outer darkness for being lying thieves. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder…Of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end…to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and for evermore.” (Is 9:6-7)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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