Deuteronomy 31: 9 – 13
It wasn't all that long ago when the church was the center of town activity, when people were not offended to go to the 1'st church for a pot luck supper or even to have a meeting of the planning board while the town hall was being renovated. The separation of church and state was treated as the founding fathers intended where the government tried not to set up a state run church, and didn't interfere with the way the pastor ran his church.
God's name was proclaimed in the town square and nobody minded, in fact, it was encouraged as a way to teach us kids the respect that was due our Heavenly Father. We prayed in church, in school, before little league games, and if your religion demanded a different prayer than one to Jesus Christ, well that was okay too, we had ecumenical prayer by religious leaders of all beliefs in our area. Beliefs were respected not homogenized beyond recognition.
I may be dreaming of this paradise, but I do remember these thing from my youth, these things were real at one time. Life was far from perfect but things were pretty good. We knew who we were, and we were taught to take responsibility for our actions.
12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so that they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.
13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
God wants everybody to hear his word, to hear the law given to Moses, to learn to fear God for as long as we live.
There are people today that will claim that this is wrong and prejudiced, they will say that not all people believe the same and that some may be offended by hearing the name God, and that the government must remove all aspects of religion from the public square.
The word of God is considered offensive and thought of as hate speech by some because it gives us a sense of right and wrong and establishes a set of rules to follow.
Alright, I'm beginning to ramble, but I think I have put my ideas across.
The word of God can be offensive to some, but that doesn't mean that it is not necessary to hear it.
God claims that it must be read to all.
So, lets do just that, and then let others make their own choices of what to do with that knowledge.
It wasn't all that long ago when the church was the center of town activity, when people were not offended to go to the 1'st church for a pot luck supper or even to have a meeting of the planning board while the town hall was being renovated. The separation of church and state was treated as the founding fathers intended where the government tried not to set up a state run church, and didn't interfere with the way the pastor ran his church.
God's name was proclaimed in the town square and nobody minded, in fact, it was encouraged as a way to teach us kids the respect that was due our Heavenly Father. We prayed in church, in school, before little league games, and if your religion demanded a different prayer than one to Jesus Christ, well that was okay too, we had ecumenical prayer by religious leaders of all beliefs in our area. Beliefs were respected not homogenized beyond recognition.
I may be dreaming of this paradise, but I do remember these thing from my youth, these things were real at one time. Life was far from perfect but things were pretty good. We knew who we were, and we were taught to take responsibility for our actions.
12 Assemble the people—men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns—so that they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.
13 Their children, who do not know this law, must hear it and learn to fear the LORD your God as long as you live in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess."
God wants everybody to hear his word, to hear the law given to Moses, to learn to fear God for as long as we live.
There are people today that will claim that this is wrong and prejudiced, they will say that not all people believe the same and that some may be offended by hearing the name God, and that the government must remove all aspects of religion from the public square.
The word of God is considered offensive and thought of as hate speech by some because it gives us a sense of right and wrong and establishes a set of rules to follow.
Alright, I'm beginning to ramble, but I think I have put my ideas across.
The word of God can be offensive to some, but that doesn't mean that it is not necessary to hear it.
God claims that it must be read to all.
So, lets do just that, and then let others make their own choices of what to do with that knowledge.
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