Common Sense

Back in 1775, Thomas Paine wrote a 47-page pamphlet called Common Sense. Apparently, our forefathers had some of that back then. These days common sense seems harder to come by than baby formula and cheap gas.

According to Wikipedia (so you know it's true), "Paine connected independence with common dissenting Protestant beliefs as a means to present a distinctly American political identity and structured Common Sense as if it were a sermon. Historian Gordon S. Wood described Common Sense as "the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire revolutionary era."

We could use some "common sense" in both our government and our personal thinking.

I look out at the woods that my wife and I live in. A gentle breeze blows in through the open windows, birds are singing and a doe and her fawn walk through the yard. None are in a particular rush.

Contrast that setting with a big, bustling city or a political assembly of differing viewpoints. Totally opposite.

Something has changed in our society. Our world is different now than it once was. I believe that the distance we have placed between ourselves and God in our daily lives is the cause. We are without excuse, as Paul says in his letter to the church in Rome.

"Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen." - Romans 1:20-25

Only God can save us from this mess we have placed ourselves in. Only God.

The Bible says that Jesus will return and remove His church, then there will be seven years of tribulation (much worse that anything we have ever experienced). After that, God will create a NEW heaven and a NEW earth. In short, things are not going to be getting better for the earth and those who do not believe in Jesus.

We need to quit looking at the world and trying to figure out ways to save it. Instead, we need to look at ourselves and figure out ways to save US!

There IS only one way to be saved. Jesus. Common sense tells us that we should seek to find that way . . . before it's too late.