Busted

I have been reading about the many states that are in the red on their budgets. The number is now at 46 states that are borrowing money every day just to keep doing what they do. There are only four states living within their means (Alaska, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Montana). Along with all this accumulating debt there is also an endless list of counties and cities that are wheezing  financially. The county in which I live was in debt over $140,000,000 last I heard. Besides all this there are scores of municipalities that have spent away the retirement funds for their employees. Hence, the monthly checks expected by the oldsters are coming into question. I know that none of what I have told you so far is new. The info is out there easily to be found. So what then is the point?

The point is that our sins are finding us out. Here we are in one of the most successful economies of the world. We have been blessed with every kind of abundance. Our farms were the envy of the world, we led the planet in technology, we built an industrial base never before equaled on earth, we have abundant resources in both fuels and minerals, the mountains are filled with millions of acres of hardwood trees (they surround me as far as the eye can see). We have deep water ports, thousands of miles of navigable rivers, a wide variety of climates, secure borders (OK – secure border), and, and, that is all I can think of right now. I do not want to make an exhaustive list. I do want to say that our problems are not outward, they are inward. Our struggles are caused by sin not by any stinginess on God’s part.

The nation is going bankrupt at a rate of about 4.5 billion dollars a day. That is a lot of dough but it only reflects the ingrained bankruptcy of our souls. This after all is where the problem began. It was subtle. We started worshiping other gods. Our faith shifted from believing and trusting the God of the Bible to trusting in gods made by our own hands. When we read about the saints in the Old Testament worshiping false gods we wondered at their ungrateful hearts. We thought them signally foolish to regard idols of silver and wood. But when we reflect in the mirror of our own behavior we see those idolaters, we see ourselves for what we are.

We have believed that our governments, our societies, can provide for us in the place of God Himself. He tells the church and families to take care of the widows and fatherless but we hire the civil government to replace those entities that God appointed. We expect our government god to educate us instead of having parents (Deut.6) do the job. We will not trust our God for income so we expect unemployment checks. We believe the civil government must provide for our every need in Christ Jesus. At every level of the system we have regulated and taxed ourselves to the edge of insanity in order to keep the real God and real faith at the length of a forty-foot pole. We want to sing churchy songs about Him and blabber endlessly about what He has done in our hearts. What we are unwilling to do is to live out that Biblical faith in the crucible of daily existence. With one hand we reach for Biblical life but with our white-knuckled fist we grip the benefits of the state.

Through the exercise of His immutable laws of economics, family structure, and civil restraints He is bringing our nation under the hand of His perfect discipline. God will not be mocked—even by nice evangelicals. Our problem is sin and disobedience. The answer is faith and obedience. That means we have to stop looking to the state for our daily bread. We are broke, busted, now would be a good time to start.

For Christian Culture,

Don Schanzenbach