I am going to tell you a story. It’s a story about government and how we need as small of government as possible. This is an election year, so I think this applies.

Quite a number of years ago there was this little island off the coast of a tiny village called Togiak. On this island were reindeer. Lot’s and lot’s of reindeer. When I say lot’s of reindeer, I mean these guys were quite prolific and seemed to be fat and happy, causing them to mate and make lot’s more little baby reindeer. The numbers were growing quickly. But it seemed like a nice arrangement, since the people of Togiak would hop over to the island and hunt some of the reindeer. Not all of them, since there were so many. Just a few. It kept the reindeer population at a nice number and kept the people of Togiak supplied with some reindeer meat for the winter. It was working out for everybody.

But along came the government. They said this wasn’t working out at all. They declared that the reindeer were starving! They can’t have this! There were too many reindeer. No, this wasn’t a good arrangement! The reindeer needed to go!

The people complained. They said the reindeer weren’t starving. Starving reindeer don’t mate and have more baby reindeer. Their numbers shrink if they are starving, not get bigger.

No. The government said. These reindeer must leave the island. It’s not good for anybody. The people of Togiak asked what they planned to do with the reindeer. We’ve really been enjoying hunting for them, what do you plan to do with them?

Oh, we’re from the government. We’ve got some good plans to take care of the reindeer. We’re going to fly in helicopters. We’re going to drop nets on those reindeer. Then we’re going to herd them into the helicopters and fly them away. It should cost only about a little over a million dollars.

The people of Togiak thought that was a little high priced, since they were keeping the reindeer populations at a good number by hunting them and everyone seemed happy. A million dollars seemed like a lot of money just to catch reindeer. They brought up the fact, again, that starving animals don’t mate and create more animals. They die off and their numbers go down.

Nope, these animals are starving said the government. We need to get these guys off the island. And that’s what they did. The government spent more than a million dollars to fly helicopters and drop nets to capture the reindeer. After they caught all the reindeer, they gave the people of Togiak a parting gift of three pair of male/female reindeer. They put them in cages outside of the city of Togiak. Maybe like some kind of mascot. When I went to Togiak, I saw the three cages containing the pairs of reindeer. I asked about them and someone told me they had got them as gifts, from the government.

The best part of that story, is that I went back to Togiak some months later and the reindeer cages were empty. I asked someone about it and they just shrugged their shoulders and said they didn’t know, but the reindeer just disappeared one day. He said it with a twinkle in his eye. You let three pairs of reindeer out of cages to wander off in the big, vast tundra in Alaska? Yep. because when you have reindeer who become fat and happy, they mate and make more little baby reindeer.

Government is not good. Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying: “The most terrifying thing in the world is someone showing up at your door and saying, ‘Hi, I’m from the government, I’m here to help.’ ”

Israel wanted a king really bad to be like all the other people around them. God knew it was a bad idea. He even told them so. No you don’t want a king. They will control you and make your sons fight and die for the king. Israel insisted they have one, so God allowed it, with plenty of warnings. And what do you know, most of those kings were pretty bad, just like God said they would be.

The only time government will be good, is when God rules the world. I long for the day. A perfect King, a perfect kingdom. Common sense will rule the day. I can’t wait. But until then, we do live in America, which for now, has the best government around the world. It’s really not great, but it will have to do until we have our perfect King come rule.

I’m talking government because we have a president to vote for this fall. I won’t tell you who to vote for. But I want you to think little government. We have the ability to take care of ourselves without the government telling us what to do. Small government=freedom. When you look at the two people running for office, ask yourself, who wants to control you and who wants to think you can probably take care of yourself. Big government looks like lot’s of government sponsored programs. Think about the reindeer. The government wasted over a million dollars to do something they really didn’t need to do. That’s big government. Little government would have left those reindeer alone. Figure out who would have left the reindeer alone.

The JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) just spend 1.1 billion dollars to send a probe up to Jupiter. Why did they send a probe to Jupiter? One of the main reasons is that they hope to find out where life comes from. They think the mystery will be solved, if they are able to see what is behind those clouds on Jupiter. Really? I could have saved them 1.1 billion dollars by answering the question. I know the answer. In fact, I would only charge them $1000. Just to make them feel like it’s worth the effort to ask me. I know where life came from and I didn’t have to spend 1.1 billion dollars to find out. In fact, I got my information free.

That information they are seeking is in the Bible.

Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Genesis 1:31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

Not only did it take 1.1 billion dollars to send this probe, it also took 26 men and women. Hard core scientists who know how to measure stuff. Who are super smart. Or, are they? In Proverbs 9:10 it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It’s not the end result, it’s just the beginning. They don’t even have that much.

To deny God and His existence is like a toddler when they cover their eyes and say, “Can’t see me.” We can all see them, but in their immature mind, if they can’t see us, we can’t see them. You can deny God all day and pretend He isn’t there, but that doesn’t erase God. It doesn’t make Him go away. He is still there. He is still all powerful. He is still all-knowing.

Our country is a mess. In case you aren’t sure what I mean, turn on the news. It feels like there are mass shootings almost daily. Murder and mayhem seem to be the order of the day. Why are we so bad off? Why are people going crazy and shooting others left and right? I think we’ve brought it all upon ourselves.

We kill over a million of our children every year. A million unborn babies are slaughtered at the hands of their own mothers. That wicked fact has not escaped God’s notice. He knows every single child that has died.

We kicked God out of our schools.

We refuse to obey His laws and guidelines for us.

We refuse to give Him the honor and glory that He deserves.

Jesus Christ died for the sins of ALL mankind. He rose from the dead. And He’s coming again. God has not disappeared from our lives. He is a gentleman. He won’t force Himself on us. We get to choose. We get to choose whether we believe in Him. We get to choose how we live our lives. We get to choose whatever we want to do. And for the most part, people have chosen to ignore God, ignore the Bible and do whatever they want to do.

I’m not sure how long God will allow us to self destruct. I’m not sure how long He will allow us to continue murdering our babies. God is patient, but for how long? How long before He says enough.

We who are believers need to pray for our country. Pray for God’s mercy upon us. We need to pray for a revival. Something is going to happen. Either the rapture will take place or our country is going to descend into complete chaos. Or both. We all need the Lord. He is our Savior. He is our hope. Please pray for our country.

Lord have mercy on us.

 

I just celebrated my 27th wedding anniversary. A friend from college congratulated me and told me that was a great accomplishment. She was one of the bridesmaids in my wedding. She told me that during a two week span, she was in three weddings, one of them, being mine. The other two never lasted and she just wanted to let me know how proud she was of us. I thought that was a sweet gesture on her part. I started thinking what it was that has linked us together for so long.

My husband is shorter than me. It didn’t bother me until an aunt of mine commented on my wedding that it wasn’t that noticeable that I was taller than him. I hadn’t realized people were talking.

In so many ways, we are the opposite of one another. He loves music. He’s way into all kinds of music. I could care less. He made fun of me, when he first met me, because the only group I really listened to in high school was ABBA. I was never going to live that one down. I played a lot of basketball growing up. Of all the sports in the world, he hates basketball. He’s a terrible test taker. He can’t take a test to save his life. I’m a really good test taker. Give me a test on anything and I could probably do fairly well on it. Not because I know everything, I just have an instinct for tests. (Now you can see how valid those are). He’s a night owl, I’m now a morning person (I’m a recovering night owl). His love language is physical touch. Mine is acts of service. My husband’s a peace maker. I hold grudges. So many opposites, so what makes this work? I think back to a dog we used to have.

We used to kind of have a black lab growing up. He wasn’t really our dog, he was our grandpa’s dog. But he pretty much lived at our house. He was an older dog, who adopted our family as his own. My grandpa lived across the street, yet “Pup” was always with us. I remember one time, we drove a snowmobile with a sleigh attached to the back, all the way to this frozen river to go ice fishing. Now it’s the middle of winter, with just snow and ice everywhere. It took us a long time to get there. After we were there for more than an hour, here comes Pup, his tongue hanging out, out of breath trotting up to our snowmobile. He had followed our scent and found us. He never wanted to be far from us. Every Sunday, we would come out from church and there would be Pup, laying by the truck, waiting for us. He was so old, he couldn’t jump into the back of the truck on his own. We had to push his rump to help him into the truck. It never stopped him from following us where ever we went. It got to be a joke around town to see my mom pushing Pup’s rump up into the truck because he had followed us as my mom ran errands around town. Pup was such a loyal dog. And that’s what I thought of, when I thought what works in our relationship and marriage. My husband and I are both extremely loyal people. We’re just like Pup. Both of us are.

I think loyalty is a rare commodity in the day and age in which we live. Most people are not loyal. However, we keep friends for a long time, unless you hurt us really bad. Even then, we may still be friendly to you. I can’t speak for the hubby, but I can speak for myself. I can’t imagine hurting him by being disloyal. It’s just not in my makeup to do that.

God says, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He apparently puts a high premium on loyalty. God’s loyal to us. And I think, as long as the hubby and I stay close to God, these two loyal people will stay loyal to one another.

So that’s the secret to our success in marriage. We are like Pup, two very loyal people. I guess it all boils down to the fact that we are like dogs. So if you want a long lasting marriage, be like Pup, be like a dog, stay loyal.