11 “Blessed
are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against
you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for
great is your reward in heaven,
for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 “You are the salt of the earth;
but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for
nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
This week we have
an opportunity to stand for righteousness.
The May 8th elections are significant as we have the opportunity to vote
for the marriage amendment which defines marriage as an union between one man
and one women. It is important to
remember that our motivation for standing up should be love. First of all our love for God motivates us to
submit our lives to Him and His principals knowing that He is good, all
knowing, and the Creator of all things.
Since we trust Him and His word we need to follow His word as it speaks
to marriage or to any other issue.
Second we should stand up for marriage because we love
others. We know that marriage between
one man and one women is a good thing and when it is set inside of God's
parameters it is a blessing for all. Any
deviation from it is harmful and can be very painful. Since we love others we want to be very clear
that it is for their benefit that we need to clarify the definition of
marriage. Therefore, anyone who votes for the marriage amendment
because of hatred for another individual caught up in an sinful lifestyle is
committing a sin themselves. It is our
love for others, even our enemies that drive us to stand for righteous even in
the midst of persecution.
And we have experienced some light persecution because of
our support of the marriage amendment.
We are labeled as bigots and haters, but we know the truth and we love
those who throw around those labels. Our
prayer should be that the marriage
amendment will pass, and if it does not pass we may feel defeated. But let us remember that our Lord cannot be
voted out of office, His word will never change, and He is still on the
throne. We do not understand His ways,
and He allows awful things to happen for several reasons. One of those reasons may be to allow those
who are rebelling against his commands to have their own way, and to show them
they are foolish to think they know better than our Good and Powerful
Creator.
